Fan’s Perspective: Wrapping Up the 2011 NHRA Season

Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, California. While the Pro Stock title was wrapped up at the previous race, Pro Stock Motorcycle, Top Fuel and Funny Car came down to the wire, with multiple drivers going into the weekend in contention for the Top Fuel and Funny Car titles. Here's how the chips fellat the end of the day.

Pro Stock - Jason Line . Line won the Pro Stock title in the second-last race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 30 th . Driving the Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GXP, Line won four events during the "regular season" and two more during the Countdown to the Championship.

Pro Stock Motorcycle - Eddie Krawiec . The 2008 Pro Stock Motorcycle champ made his NHRA debut in 2004. In 2011, Krawiec won two "regular season" races and two Countdown races on his way to his second PSM title. He drives the Screamin' Eagle/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson and has PSM veteran Matt Hines (PSM champ - 1997 to 1999) as his crew chief.

Top Fuel - Del Worsham . Worsham spent 20 years in Funny Cars, moving up to Top Fuel at Al-Anabi Racing at the first race of 2011 and was a winner from the get-go, taking three of the season's first five events; he won six races in the "regular season" and two more in the Countdown.

Funny Car - Matt Hagan . Hagan entered the 2010 Funny Car finale with the points lead, only to watch that lead evaporate to John Force. The Don Schumacher Racing pilot never won a race during the regular season, but won the first and final races of the Countdown; he went into the Auto Club NHRA Finals as one of six drivers with a chance at the title and wrapped it up in the semi-finals by defeating Cruz Pedregon.

Season's most impressive performance - Worshammade the switch from Funny Car to Top Fuel look easy. His eight wins included the GatorNationals in Gainesville, the Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, and the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona.

Top rookies - both Vincent Nobile in Pro Stock and Hector Arana Jr. in Pro Stock Motorcycle had three wins in their rookie years, Nobile scoring his first at the Spring Nationals in Houston and Arana Jr. waiting until the prestigious MAC Tools US Nationals at Indianapolis.

Paula is a long-time auto racing fan who also covers the NHRA on examiner.com.

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Paula Thompson is a member of the Yahoo! Contributor Network.