TAKE FIVE: SUMMITRACING.COM NHRA NATIONALS

Friday, April 13, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Who: SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals

When: Today through Sunday

Where: The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Tickets: $11-$65; 644-4444, www.lvms.com

Info: www.nhra.com

John Force Racing will make an emotional return to the track this afternoon when professional qualifying begins for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

For the first time since losing popular teammate Eric Medlen three weeks ago after a testing accident in Gainesville, Fla., team drivers John Force, Robert Hight and Ashley Force will roll their Ford Mustang Funny Cars to the starting line and - they hope - begin the healing process.

"We will come out of this, I promise you," Force said this week. "I need to get to a racetrack. I need to get out here with these people and do what I do. That's the only way I'm going to get well."

To honor their fallen teammate, Force brought Medlen's team to Las Vegas, including Medlen's crew chief and father, John Medlen, although Force said he has no plans to race the car.

1. What's at stake

More than $1.8 million in prize money and points toward the 2007 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series world championships will be at stake for competitors in three professional categories: Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock.

Sportsman competitors in six categories will earn points leading to the 2007 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series world championships.

2. Local flavor

Las Vegas residents Rod Fuller (the Top Fuel points leader after four races) and Jon Capps (making his Funny Car debut) will have extra incentive this weekend as they compete before their hometown crowd.

"At the first of the year, if you asked me what would be a dream come true to me, it'd be this," Fuller said. "To come here, to our hometown race, and to be No. 1 is just a dream come true."

3. Viva Las Vegas

Drag-racing legend Kenny Bernstein, who has competed in 430 NHRA national-event races in a career that began in 1970, said he and fellow competitors always look forward to the two stops in Las Vegas on the 23-race NHRA schedule.

"To me, this is the best facility in the country for our sport," he said. "We love this place, we love the facility - it's what we call the Taj Mahal of drag racing."

4. Monster mash

Bernstein has one of the best records of any driver at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with three wins and a pair of poles in six starts - but all in the Top Fuel category.

Bernstein, 62, came out of a three-year retirement this year and is driving the Monster Energy/Lucas Oil Funny Car. Bernstein earned four of his six NHRA world championships driving a Funny Car in the 1980s.

5. Did you know?

Each one of the eight cylinders of a Top Fuel dragster or Funny Car produces more horsepower than an entire NASCAR engine.