John Force cemented his position as the most prolific Funny Car driver in NHRA history, becoming the first to reach 1,000 round wins with a first-round victory over Ron Capps in the O’Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals in Madison, Ill.
Sunday wasn’t a complete success for the veteran, however. Force was beaten in the next round by teammate Robert Hight. Not much of a way to finish off your 59th birthday.
“You can’t win without a good crew, sponsors … and crew chiefs like Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly,” Force said. “Five hundred races (a milestone he achieved last week in Atlanta) just means you showed up a lot. But winning 1,000 rounds, that means that at a point in time, we were pretty good.”
Force has won 125 titles overall.
Elyrian Dave Connolly didn’t hit a milestone, but he had a much better day than Force.
In only his second event back since missing the first five races of the season, Connolly made it to the championship round in Pro Stock before falling to Kurt Johnson.
Behind the wheel of the Charter Communications Cobalt,  Connolly showed why he won eight times last year, including this race.
He defeated Ron Krisher, Allen Johnson and Greg Anderson to reach his 30th career title round, but a clutch problem at the starting line against Kurt Johnson foiled his chances of winning his 18th race.
Connolly called it an “interesting weekend; and it was fun,” he said, “but, basically, it was a test session for us each round. We were putting a new clutch in the car every round. It was the weirdest day I’ve ever seen in Pro Stock, that’s for sure.”
The fifth-year pro took full blame for the slow start, although not one of his teammates agreed.
“I screwed it up. I just let the car go through the (starting) beams and as soon as I went to stop it, the tree was on and I was just dead late. We could’ve run with Kurt . . . it was a win we should’ve had.”
Connolly has 130 points and sits in 18th place.
In other action Sunday, Tim Wilkerson earned his second  Funny Car victory of the season and seventh of his career.  
Rod Fuller drove his Top Fuel dragster to a 4.525 time at 328.70 mph and beat Tony Schumacher’s 4.583 at 325.45.
Teen wins ARCA debut
Teenager Joey Logano won in his ARCA RE/MAX Series debut, leading 257 of 312 laps and easily holding off NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader in the Carolina 500, the return to racing at Rockingham (N.C) Speedway.
The 17-year-old Logano, driving the No. 25 Venturini Motorsports-prepared Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet, started from the pole and beat Schrader by 4.164 seconds in the 312-mile race.
The 1.107-mile track in the sand hills of North Carolina was a fixture on NASCAR’s top stock car circuit for many years, but closed after its final race in February 2004 when Speedway Motorsports Inc. bought the track and moved its Cup race to Texas Motor Speedway. The track has since been used only for testing, special events and filming movies and commercials.
Indy rookies practice
No matter their experience at other tracks, all drivers who race in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time are considered rookies.
So drivers such as Oriol Servia, Justin Wilson and Will Power were required to take part in the annual Rookie Orientation Program that began Sunday. Servia made 125 starts in the former Champ Car series and once tried to qualify at Indy, while Wilson had four wins among his 54 Champ Car starts. Power was the Champ Car rookie of the year in 2006 and won that series’ final race last week at Long Beach, Calif.
Ten of the 12 rookies completed all four phases of their test, led by Power with a top lap at 220.604 mph, E.J. Viso at 220.445 and Servia, Power’s teammate at KV Racing, at 220.102. The only veteran on the track was Max Papis, who hasn’t driven an Indy car in two years and was required to take a refresher test.
“It was a good day,” said Power, a 27-year-old Australian who also had two Champ Car wins last year. “We crept up to it; we had a pretty solid car. I was happy to get flat all the way around.”
The large rookie class could provide more than a third of the starting lineup May 25, and maybe even the first rookie winner since Helio Castroneves in 2001.
“There’s a couple of rookies with a lot of experience, so it’s  definitely a possibility — for me,” Power said.
Enrique Bernoldi, who finished the first three phases of the rookie test, and Mario Moraes, who made his first track appearance in the final minutes and did not get up to speed, were the only ones who did not complete all four phases of the test. They’ll have another chance today, before full practice begins for rookies and veterans Tuesday.
Another rookie is Graham Rahal, the 19-year-old son of car owner and former Indy winner Bobby Rahal. The younger Rahal drove in 14 Champ Car races last season and won his IRL debut this year.

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