I’ve been a fan of the Countdown since the day it was announced. It’s officially known as the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship. 
It’s a playoff-style format in which contestants in each of the professional categories compete for the championship on the basis of points earned during 17 regular-season events plus six Countdown events. 
The final fields are now set for the inaugural Countdown to One, a two-race playoff that begins in Las Vegas later this month and ends with the NHRA Finals in Pomona. 
Most likely the winners in Top Fuel and Funny Car will be determined at the final round of the year at NHRA Finals in Pomona. I hope it’s my Advance Auto Parts Funny Car in the winner’s circle in Pomona, and I’d like to see my brother, Tony Pedregon, and his Q Horsepower team win the NHRA championship.
The competition is as fierce as I’ve ever seen it on the NHRA circuit, and it has only intensified with the new playoff format.
Our team hovered around eighth to 10th in the standings most of the year. As we rolled through summer, we started to fall back and I decided it was time for change, so I hired Rahn Tobler as my crew chief. 
Like all forms of racing, the crew chief plays a vital role in the car’s success. We have finally found that in Rahn, a veteran and nitro crew chief from the Top Fuel dragster ranks, most recently from Doug Kalitta’s Top Fuel team. 
There are crew chiefs that are good at making a car run fast, but they falter in the consistency department. Then you have the crew chief that has a strategy of setting up the car to make steady, consistent runs; of playing the odds — that’s Rahn. It took him a few races, but we now have one of the most consistent cars at the track. Rahn keeps us cool under fire, and that is hard to do.
When I’m not drag racing, you’ll find me at a dirt track somewhere across the country as the proud owner of several Toyota-powered midgets.
The big news for dirt-track fans is that I’ll be making my fourth-consecutive trip to the Chili Bowl Midget National in Tulsa, Okla., on Jan. 8-12. Our driver lineup this year is an awesome three-car team of Sammy Swindell, Josh Wise and me. 
We’ll all be driving Toyota powered/Spike chassis midgets. With Josh and Sammy on board, we should have a great one-two punch. I ran at Ventura Raceway recently to get some seat time, so I can hold up my end of the deal.
I’ve had the pleasure of having some of the best drivers in the country drive for my team. They include Bud Kaeding, Daron Clayton, Kody Swanson and Jerry Coons, Jr.
USAC National Midget Series point-leader Coons and young gun Darren Hagen will compete in my midgets at the USAC midget race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring Oct. 27, the same weekend as the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals. 
It promises to be a great race for the fans that enjoy NHRA drag racing and the USAC midgets.