NHRA moves into Bruton Smith’s refurbished Bristol Dragway following a 1998 takeover from the IHRA and then a $15M facelift. The wait was worth it as fans and sponsors are treated to premium facility which easily rivals Route 66 Raceway. West side stands offer an unreal viewpoint for spectators. Track surface is laser smooth.

While facility itself get rave reviews, racer entry list at Inaugural NHRA go is rather bland. Only 6 cars show for FMFC category, Pro Stock Bike has only ten riders and only 12 machines show for Pro Stock Truck. But in reality those classes are only a side thought to "No Bull" feature -- for the first time in history head to head competition between Funny Car and Top Fuel racers. Nitro field is a 24 car show with 8 FC and 8 TF seeded racers based on most recent NHRA wins. 4 remaining slots in each class are filled by open qualifying -- Vandergriff and Schumacher get in in Top Fuel and Tommy Johnson Jr. and Scotty Cannon qualify in FC.

Specially designed elimination ladder reinserts quickest losing TF and FC from 2nd round into the third round. That assures side by side competition throughout. Doug Kalitta and Tommy Johnson Jr. lose but advance.

Rather appropriately, John Force continues his legendary decade as he wins the Inaugural No Bull Showdown. Driving special edition Superman Racing/Castrol GTX Mustang, he beats Bob Vandergriff in tire smoke filled final round. Force peddles his way to a $200,000 payday. Force beats TF racers Christen Powell, Jim Head, Doug Kalitta and Cory McClenathan enroute to final.

For the record in the 25 head to head elimination pairings Top Fuel racers won 14 rounds and Funny Cars 11. Handicap was .037 secs headstart for FC racers. Red light starts -- which many Top Fuel racers feared could be rampant -- totalled four.

Force is not only one who debuts new paint. Joe Amato also runs Superman Racing colors on his Tenneco-sponsored TF car. FC driver Jerry Toliver shows with his newest body -- wild looking Pontiac Firebird which is sponsored by WWF star "The Undertaker" .

Cruz Pedregon shows in Funny Car driving an independent associate sponsored car that is tuned by Ron Swearingen. Pedregon clicks off a 5.02 secs in qualifying and advances past round one when he beats Doug Herbert. The oldest of the three Pedregon brothers has not raced since E-town.