Force Hood has one win this season and is third in points. Driving the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang for the team owned by her father, 14-time titlist John Force, she has advanced to six final rounds. She earned her fifth No. 1 qualifying spot of the season last weekend at Maple Grove Raceway despite a major engine explosion that meant Force had to race a backup Mustang. Last year, Ashley became the first female driver to win an NHRA Funny Car event, when she defeated her father at Atlanta Dragway. She was NHRA's top rookie in 2007.

John Force was the Newsmaker guest on the debut episode of The Race Reporters last June.

Host Michael Knight will be joined for the journalists' roundtable by Holly Cain, of AOL Sports; Jeff Wolf, of the Las Vegas Review-Journal; and Bobby Bennett, editor of CompetitionPlus.com.

The Race Reporters can be heard "live," downloaded into an iPod, or accessed for listening on a delayed basis by clicking on the show icon at http://www.PowerUpChannel.com. Listeners can bookmark the show and sign-up to receive a free "E card" with news on upcoming guests, at the show's page, http://www.modavox.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1549. The show also will re-air several times later in the week (check PowerUp's daily programming listing.)

Knight, a 40-year motorsports industry insider and award-winning publicist and journalist, recently received his 30th journalism prize, an International Automotive Media Award gold medal for a feature on Dale Earnhardt Jr. The one-hour show's format is a "good, hard, honest, Constitutionally-protected conversation on the issues of the day." Previous Newsmaker guests have included Richard Petty, Dario Franchitti, Tony Schumacher, Adrian Fernandez, Graham Rahal, Ron Capps, Scott Atherton and Chris Economaki.

PowerUpChannel.com was launched in June by VoiceAmerica.com, the country's leading producer and distributor of Internet radio programming.

Courtesy of Elon Werner