This will be a great year for drag racing.

I get another year to follow Las Vegas resident Rod Fuller while he drives a Top Fuel dragster.

And it will be fun to watch how nervous John Force can get while watching one of his babies compete against him in Funny Car.

Fuller is part of a drag-racing family that includes brother Tony, who is always a threat to win in semiprofessional NHRA categories.

The Force family now has three professional drivers, including Robert Hight, who is married to Force's oldest daughter, Adria.

Little drama remained Tuesday when Force introduced daughter Ashley, 24, as the first woman in six years to compete in a Nitro Funny Car and one of only 10 ever to do it.

After she proved she could handle one of the 330-mph monsters in April during testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it was clear she would join her dad, brother-in-law and Eric Medlen to form the biggest team in one professional drag-racing category.

Fuller, on the other hand, was left to sweat out whether he'd return to drive a Top Fuel dragster for the David Powers Motorsports team. Finally this week, the team said "Hot Rod" will compete all year in the NHRA.

The anxiety lacking in the Force camp about Ashley's future was overflowing among Fuller's fans.

Fuller was left to dangle in the wind despite placing fifth in the standings last year by winning two of the 23 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series titles.

Fuller's future with Powers was in jeopardy when he hired Whit Bazemore to drive a Top Fuel car a few months after the driver was released from Don Schumacher Racing late last season. The major sponsor that backed Bazemore's car with Schumacher went to Powers. That sponsorship for Bazemore, a veteran Funny Car driver with 20 NHRA titles, put him in the catbird seat and left Fuller in the litter box.

All seems good now for Fuller, who almost lost a ride because of a limited sponsorship revenue stream -- not because of a lack of skill.

Now he's as happy as a kid at the fair with an unending supply of cotton candy.

Funding and owner support are two aspects of racing that Ashley Force isn't lacking. She's proven she can drive.

She's made about 100 passes down a track in a funny car and expects to spend time testing over the next three weeks racing with a car in the lane next to hers. She also hopes to log some time racing at night.

No one could suggest that without her dad's success she'd be racing professionally now. But John Force has made it clear that he's not the only one responsible for his daughter's opportunity.

First, he credits her mom, Laurie, and adds Shirley Muldowney to the list for not just opening the door for women in drag racing but smashing it off its hinges.

"It's been open thanks to Shirley Muldowney," John Force said. "Like Ashley said, Shirley took the lumps for all the girls, putting up with the (grief) that men gave 'em, that they don't belong here.

"To me she's the king, and always will be. She's Babe Ruth to me. Ashley feels the same."

Only Force could call a woman a "king," and I'm sure he knows the Babe was a man.

The most exciting race this year regardless of series will be if -- or when -- father and daughter meet in an elimination round.

"The fans, they'll love it," Ashley said.

It will be one of the few times in John Force's career that the old man won't be the crowd favorite.

The Powers teams won't be ready for this weekend's Nitro Blast-off test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which runs today through Sunday but might return to the track in two weeks for the final test session before the season opens Feb. 8 in Pomona, Calif.

But Force's four Funny Car teams will be at the speedway getting an early jump.

Fuller said he'll be there, too, but as an observer.

Let's fire 'em up.

Jeff Wolf's motor sports column is published Friday. He can be reached at 383-0247 or jwolf@reviewjournal.com.