It takes someone special to win drag racing's biggest event

DELAWARE, Ohio -- The upcoming 54th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals present a very special opportunity for a select field of JEGS ProMod Challenge competitors. The event, the longest running and most prestigious in all drag racing, can make a racer's season, or career for that matter, and the list of former champions reads like a Who's Who of straight-line drivers.

Former world champions like "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Joe Amato, Tony Schumacher, Gary Beck, Don "the Snake" Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein, John Force, Bob Glidden, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Warren Johnson, and Lee Shepherd, just to name a few, have all claimed glory at Indy.

In seven years of JEGS ProMod Challenge competition at "the Big Go," the series has crowned seven different winners, including four JEGS ProMod champions and three racers that made Indy their lone victory in the series.

This year's race, the next for the JEGS series and the seventh of 10 on this year's schedule, takes place Aug. 27-Sept. 1 at the historic facility on the west side of town.

Looking back, Ronnie Hood was the first Pro Modified winner at Indy in the inaugural year of 2001. That year, the fledgling five-race series ended its season on Labor Day with "Tricky Rickie" Smith its first champion.

Smith will be back in 2008 to try for his second Indy victory, as he won the race outright in 2003, two years after Hood turned the trick. Danny Rowe, a runner-up to Hood that first time out, is back again in 2008 searching for his first Indy win, as is Von Smith, who was second to Rickie Smith (no relation) in '03.

Shannon "Iceman" Jenkins lived the dream in 2002, winning both Indy and the JEG's title after claiming six races on the schedule that year in his nitrous-powered '68 Camaro. He'll be back in the seat this time through looking for some more magic on Crawfordsville Road.

Jim Halsey was a bit of a surprise on the podium in 2004, making his only JEGS ProMod Challenge event victory the biggest one of all. In a classic battle of the top two hot rods in the eight-car field, No. 2 qualifier Halsey erased No. 1 qualifier Harold Martin with a 6.27 at 223 mph.

The next two years, it took a champion to get the job done as Jay Payne and Josh Hernandez each claimed the top prize. First, Payne beat Hernandez in a close one, 6.10 to 6.12. A year later, Hernandez took out Ray Commisso with a 6.04 to Commisso's 6.10.

Last season, Cinderella danced again when relative newcomer Harold Laird punched through a tough 16-car field and beat Hernandez in the money round for his sole victory on the books. Naturally, Laird lists the win as the biggest moment of his professional driving career.

There only certainty as Indy comes into view once again is that one of 24 lucky racers will be holding the trophy Monday night. Who that might be is anybody's guess.