With the 2009 IHRA Nitro Jam season down to a single, highly critical event, professional teams are gearing up for the winner-take-all World Finals at North Carolina’s Rockingham Dragway.

The battles in Top Fuel and Pro Modified are all but wrapped up, with rookie Del Cox Jr. and defending class champ Kenny Lang respectively looking to walk away with championship gold. Cox has a 74-point lead over 2007 champion Bruce Litton, while Lang has held off Ed Hoover all season, and goes into Rockingham 132 points to the good.

From the very start of the 2009 season everyone knew that the IHRA Pro Modified championship was going to come down to Kenny Lang and Ed Hoover.

While many tried to keep up with the pair of veteran drivers over the course of the season, no one could match the raw power and speed that Lang and Hoover produced on race day. While everyone else was trying for low 6s, Hoover and Lang were consistently firing off runs in the 5s.

Thanks to that effort it didn’t take long for Hoover and Lang to separate themselves from the pack.

Five times the pair met in the finals of an IHRA national event this season and twice more they met on Sunday equaling an incredible seven matchups in nine races.