SPORTS

Kenny Bernstein knows there's still time left in the NHRA season to get his Budweiser King to the top of the Winston Top Fuel standings.

The 54-year-old veteran also knows, however, that with only five events remaining, he better make his move right now.

"You're going to cut the contenders down, just by the fact that you run out of races," said Bernstein, who will begin qualifying today in the Advance Auto Parts Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka. "We've got to do something this weekend and the next (event).

"In my opinion, in the next five races, we've got to get to the finals in at least three of them. And we can't have any more first- round losses or we won't have a chance at it. I put ourselves in that category of being in a position where we have to make something happen now in order to do it."

Bernstein is tied with Doug Kalitta for fifth position in the standings, 94 points behind points leader Tony Schumacher.

"We stayed around that second position the whole year, than we had two messups, one at Brainerd (Minn.) and one at Indy (Indianapolis) that really hurt us, and now we're going to pay for it."

A win or two down the final stretch of the season would definitely be a big boost for Bernstein, who is still looking for his first victory of the season.

"We're due," he said. "We've averaged four wins a year in my whole career, so you think sooner or later the law of averages are going to give you a break.

"We have not, honest to goodness, had a break at all in a long, long time, and you've got to have those in order to get there sometimes."

Heartland Park has been good to Bernstein in the past, including three straight appearances in the finals, although he is still looking for his first victory in Topeka.

"One side of me is excited because we've been in the finals the last three years and we've done well here," Bernstein said. "That also scares me because you say 'how many more finals can you go to in a row?'

"We'll just deal the best we can with the conditions that we have to deal with and we'll run the Bud King as hard as we can and try to make it work."

- JOHNSON ADJUSTS TO NEW DIVISION --- One of the questions Tommy Johnson Jr. hears these days is which is his favorite car to drive, a Top Fuel or Funny Car?

The 31-year-old Ottumwa, Iowa native competed in a Top Fuel car for years before switching over to a Funny Car midway through the current season to drive for former NFL coach Joe Gibbs.

"I like things about them both," said Johnson, who notched his first Funny Car victory two weeks ago in Reading, Pa. "I really don't know which one is my favorite; whichever one they let me drive is my favorite.

"The dragster is an awesome ride, the pure speed of it," Johnson said. "But the Funny Car, if you like driving a car, you really have to drive a Funny Car. You're steering it from the time you hit it until the time you let off."

- ORMSBY JR. AT HPT --- Gary Ormsby Jr., son of the late Top Fuel great, is competing this week in the Federal-Mogul dragster division, qualifying 10th in his first run Thursday.

Gary Ormsby set national NHRA records at Heartland Park in 1990 before losing a battle with cancer in August of 1991.

The main entrance to Heartland Park is named Gary Ormsby Drive.

- FORMER CHAMP BACK --- Pat Austin, who doubled up to win the Top Fuel and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes at Heartland Park in 1991, is competing in the Federal-Mogul Funny Car division this week.

Austin is the defending champ in the Federal-Mogul Funny Car class (formerly Top Alcohol) and also won that division in '96, '92, '90 and '89.

Austin qualified No. 4 in his first round of qualifying Thursday.

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