It's a class that has become so competitive that one-thousandth of a second can determine whether you qualify to race, and win or lose. NHRA's Pro Stock category has taken the term "tight competition" to new levels of excitement and the fact that eight drivers have won the first eight races of the 2002 NHRA season tells you how unpredictable Pro Stock has become.

Former NBA player Tom Hammonds knows all too well how ruthless it is to race his Pro Stock Cavalier against some of the most skilled and experienced drivers in the sport. There are 12 championships represented by Warren Johnson (six), Darrell Alderman (three), Jim Yates (two) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. (one), while other Pro Stock standouts such as Bruce Allen, Mike Edwards, Kurt Johnson, Mark Pawuk and Larry Morgan have been at this pursuit for many more years than the likable Florida resident who went full-time as a drag racer to begin the season.

But suddenly, Hammonds has gone into a slide.

He began the year by qualifying No. 4 in Pomona, Calif., and advancing to the semifinals. In the next four races he qualified top-half and bounced between fifth and sixth in the points and didn't suffer a DNQ or a first-round loss until the year's fifth race in Houston.

Now, for the last three races, Hammonds and veteran crew chief Donnie Gardner have fallen into a string of three DNQs and have slipped to 12th in the points. Why?

"It's definitely not a power problem," he said shortly before qualifying began Friday for the O'Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan. "Our engines from Ron Krisher's shop are definitely not the problem. The car just doesn't handle in the middle of the track and that's what we need to fix."

After his third consecutive DNQ in Englishtown, N.J., last weekend, Hammonds and his team conducted some testing and discovered a problem in the chassis setup that was making the car difficult to keep straight.

"I think we're closing in on the problem and we'll have our setup where it should be," Hammonds said. "It's frustrating especially after the good start to the season we had and we can't afford to fall any further behind."

On Friday, with only one qualifying session conducted due to rain in Kansas, Hammonds had to shut off during his only qualifying pass of the day and will head into Saturday's action outside of the field. His 7.34/147 left him 23rd on the sheet, far short of the 6.94/199 bump spot held by Coughlin.

It has been a remarkable turnaround for Hammonds, who still believes he will win a race before season's end, and his impressive talents as a driver are almost unanimously recognized. But for the former Minnesota Timberwolf to validate his abilities and live up to his preseason expectations, he'll need to start scoring round wins on a consistent basis.

And nobody knows that better than he does.

In other Pro Stock news, Brad Jeter, who had planned two weeks ago to sign on as driver/crew chief for a new Pro Stock team based in Chicago, has reversed field and has now announced he will be reuniting with his former team owner, Steve Schmidt, and will be in action at the next event in Joliet, Ill.

Jeter will be driving a second team car, joining Mark Osborne, who has been at the wheel of Schmidt's 2002 Pontiac Grand Am since the Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.