NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Driver Kurt Busch will buckle up and go drag racing at 41st annual Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals this weekend. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Among the professional drivers competing this weekend, Dixon (Top Fuel), Bob Tasca III (Funny Car), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are defending event winners. The Gatornationals is the third event of a 23-race schedule.

Cory McClenathan, who scored his career 32nd victory at the Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway, is leading Top Fuel in his FRAM Dragster. And 14-time Funny Car champion John Force leads that class after winning the season-opening Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., and a runnerup finish at Firebird in his Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang.

Busch got the idea of competing in an NHRA event after participating in the opening night of racing mogul O. Bruton Smith’s state-of-the-sport zMAX Dragway in September 2008. As it turned out, one of the rare off-weekends in the NASCAR schedule coincides with this weekend’s Gatornationals.

“Gainesville is one of the marquee events on the NHRA calendar and it’s a privilege to compete against the best Sportsman racers out there,” said Busch, who is looking forward to the challenges of an environment where he is once again a rookie. “Sportsman racing is no different than any other type of racing _ you need seat time. I spent over 30 hours at Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School (in Sophia, N.C.), and have had two tests in my own Challenger. But that’s nowhere compared to the seat time many of these guys have in their own cars. We’re going to go out there and do our best competing against these talented Sportsman racers.”

Lucas Oil Series qualifying begins at 7:30 a.m. (ET) on Thursday. Eliminations begin at 7:30 a.m. on Friday.

The Gatornationals has seen some of the most important performance barriers in the history of NHRA broken, including Kenny Bernstein’s legendary first 300 mph pass in Top Fuel in 1992.

Meanwhile, eight Pro Stock racers will simultaneously continue the rain-delayed eliminations from the NHRA Arizona Nationals during Gators qualifying. Four quarterfinal pairings will be featured during Friday’s second Pro Stock session. Two semifinal pairings will be contested during Saturday’s first Pro Stock session, and the final round will be held during the final Pro Stock session, also on Saturday.

Highlighting those pairings is a quarterfinal meeting between defending world champ Mike Edwards, winner of the season-opening Winternationals, and three-time world champ Greg Anderson. Friday’s other pairings are Allen Johnson vs. Jason Line, Ron Krisher vs. Greg Stanfield and Rodger Brogdon vs. Bob Yonke.

Saturday’s semifinals will match the Edwards-Anderson winner vs. the Johnson-Line winner and the Krisher-Stanfield winner vs. the Brogdon-Yonke winner. Times posted for these rescheduled elimination runs also will count toward qualifying for the Gatornationals.

The Gatornationals also will showcase the season-debut of the Pro Stock Motorcycle category. Defending world and event champion Arana will attempt to continue his recent success on his Lucas Oil Buell. Arana’s competition will include past PSM champions Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines of the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rod team and Matt Smith, who returns on his own bike, the Al-Anabi Racing Buell.

Others to watch in the two-wheel category include Doug Horne, last year’s rookie phenom; GEICO Powersports Suzuki rider Karen Stoffer; Team Scream’s Craig Treble; two-time U.S. Nationals winner Steve Johnson; Coffman Tank Trucks Buell rider Angie Smith and David Hope, riding the Mohegan Sun Racing Buell.

ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise two hours of qualifying highlights at 2 a.m. (ET) on Sunday. That show also will re-air later the same day at 10 a.m. (ET). ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise NHRA Race Day, a 30-minute pre-race show, at noon (ET) on Sunday. ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise three hours of eliminations coverage beginning at 6 p.m. (ET) on Sunday.

Gatornationals tickets can be purchased by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com or calling 800-884-NHRA (6472).

John Sturbin covered college sports, baseball as well as the NHL and Dallas Cowboys while working at the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. He was their fulltime motorsports beat writer from 1995 to 2008.

John can be reached at jsturbin@racintoday.com