for more, let's go to dave rieff. >> two championships, one with john force racing, one for himself,e begins his quest for a third championship as point leader in what figures to be a tense and temperamental countdown to the championship in funny car. here's gary gerould. >> 14 time champion john force, emotions ran white hot. now he says he's still mad at tony pedregon because tony left the team after the 2003 season. but the irony remains as we go into the countdown to the championship here in charlotte, john force has four cars running for the championship and they're all chasing tony pedregon. check in now with john. >> cruz pedregon is reigning champion but did not make into the countdown for the championship. however, he can play the role of the spoiler and possibly help his brother, tony, win a third funny car title. >> and this was the moment that started it all. robert hight needed to win in round to get into the countdown to the championship. you look at it. judges for yourself. what did john force do? the pedregons took offense. >> there wasn't a person in the whole pit ar

cruz pedregon your number one qualifier went down the track once with 4:08 elapsed time. >> dave rieffght in island with bob tass kashgs what happened on that wild run? >> the car was on a good run and didn't know what happened but it's starteds on lating and got real sideways, i was worried about john as the wheel turned, it cut brake line and took the rim off the hub. and allowed the rear end to really bounce around and at that point, i had hope it would stop and not hit the wall, hopefully we can save the chassis. >> how are you? i'm okay. little sore but we'll be all right. nifty piece of driving as the rim comes off the hub. wow. so here is ashley, she is in the countdown to the championship, as is del worsham. del trying to get into the top half of the field. ashley's out of it, del worsham will take her down through. wore sham runs 4.173. john force looks around trying to figure what went wrong with ashley force's run. neither one of them will change position. ashley force hood stays six the. del worsham, ninth. >> went up there and spun the tires. had a very good run early but

alongside mike dunn i'm dave rieff. how are you doing, north carolina?ng just fine. gary will be with us in a minute. we'll start by talking about the great state-of-the-art facility. this he gets me thinks, playoffs are coming. >> i'm absolutely excited coming off the indy battle between tone dwri and john force. that created a lot of excitement. everybody was sent back to the corners, but now it's time to come backswinging to get the full throttle championship by the end of the year. >> speaking of coming out swinging, did everyone see the drama in indy? john force and tony pedregon over the alleged throwing a race. john force was plenty animated. tony pedregon was animated as well. that will kick off our lucas oil rapid fire segment. the key is we're talking about the countdown to the championship and moving forward. >> how have tony pedregon, john force, and cruz pedregon moved forward? >> they're all kind of sticking to their guns. they've toned down the rhetoric a little bit, but the bottom line is that passion we saw at the u.s. nationals will car