To help salute the milestone 50th Anniversary Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona Feb. 11-14, NHRA fans had the opportunity to vote for their favorite Winternationals moment of the last 49 years in a special monthlong poll on NHRA.com.

With the unveiling Feb. 1 of Nos. 6-10, the top five moments are shown on these pages, and their order will be announced during race week, culminating with the unveiling of the top moment during Sunday's pre-race festivities at the 50th annual event. Moments 11 through 25 were revealed in reverse order on NHRA.com in January.

Garlits Goes Big (1963)

The return of the use of nitromethane in Top Eliminator was only part of the big news at the third Winternationals. NHRA had lifted its seven-year nitromethane ban for the event (though NHRA returned to a gasoline-only format at the 1963 Nationals, it was nitromethane forever from 1964 on), but the event also is where "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, arguably the greatest drag racer of all time even at that early point in the sport's history, won his first of 35 NHRA national event titles.

With a wing mounted over the engine, the first on a Top Fuel dragster, Garlits' Swamp Rat V entry attracted considerable attention. Garlits had predicted, and proved correct, that the wing, whose design was taken from a Piper Cub airplane, would increase traction for his lightweight but high-powered dragster, but it initially was rejected in tech inspection.

Recalled Garlits, "They called [NHRA's] Jack Hart over, and he said, 'Garlits, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen, but it doesn't look like it's going to be dangerous. We'll just let you run it, and everyone can have a nice laugh.' "

Garlits countered, again presciently, "Jack, when the smoke clears, every dragster in competition will have a wing on it someday. Trust me."

Garlits worked his way through the field and defeated fellow Florida campaigner Art Malone in the final with an 8.26, 186.32 and set low e.t. at 8.11.

"The track was a little slick, and Malone and I started marching through the field. Malone is a little heavier, which helped with traction on the rear wheels. We were even at the eighth-mile, and the pressure from the wing started kicking in and helped me pull away. It was my biggest win at that time. With [NHRA founder] Wally [Parks] still at Hot Rod, whoever won a major NHRA national event automatically got on the cover, and that was tremendous publicity. Not everybody looked inside the magazine, but everyone saw the cover."

Garlits later removed the innovative wing, but he reemployed it eight years later on his first rearengine car, Swamp Rat XIV, which he debuted with a victory in 1971 at the Winternationals, a race he would win five times.

The Mystery Train (1963)

Typically, the winner of a major event such as the NHRA Winternationals would be eager to see his or her name in print and to bask in the glory and adulation of friends and family, but such was not the case for 1963 Top Gas winner Bob Muravez.

A big win at the 1962 March Meet at the wheel of the famed John Peters/Nye Frank twinengine Freight Train had earned him notice and a severe reprimand from his father and a demand that he stop racing if he hoped to be part of the family's Maytag dealership franchise.

To continue racing and to stay under the radar, Muravez - like Don Prudhomme, Tommy Ivo, and other famous California racers a member of the famed Burbank Road Kings car club - adopted the pseudonym Floyd Lippencott Jr. and competed at the 1963 event under that name.

A young Steve Gibbs, in his pre-NHRA days, was the Drag News reporter for San Gabriel Drag Strip, and after Muravez won a race there, he implored Gibbs to use an alias. Hence, Floyd Lippencott Jr. was "born."

"The Floyd part came out of thin air, but I borrowed the name Lippencott from a college textbook that was on my shelf," recalled Gibbs. "I threw in the Jr. part as an afterthought. The track announcer, Mel Reck, started using the name at subsequent events, and it stuck."

After piloting the Train through the tough Winternationals field that included 1961 Top Eliminator winner Jack Chrisman, 1962 champion Jim Nelson (with Danny Ongais now driving his Dragmaster Dart), Connie Kalitta, and Gordon "Collecting" Collett, Muravez reached the final, where he faced off with Kalitta's impressive single-engine Chrysler mount.

Although his final-round 8.82, 178.21 was far from his meet-best performances of 8.36, 185.18, Muravez won the race and faced the dilemma of how to keep his name from the spotlight.

Initially, team owner Peters was listed as the winner, and Muravez's roommate, Rex Slinker, was photographed holding the trophy standing next to a "Who me?" Muravez.

Not until years later were records amended to officially reflect Muravez, who also won Top Gas at the 1967 and 1969 Springnationals, as the rightful champ.

'Grumpy' Rules First Pro Stock Go (1970)

With the increase in national events from four to seven to create the Super Season, anticipation had reached unprecedented heights for the 1970 Winternationals, a fever stoked by the debut of the newly created Pro Stock class.

The Mopar teams had worked feverishly during the off-season to prepare the '70 Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Barracuda entries for the elite factory drivers, and the remaining Mopar competitors showed up with their equally potent reworked '68 Darts and Barracudas. The Ford factory campaigners arrived with Mustangs, Mavericks, and Mercury Cougars, and the underdog independent Chevy contingent consisted primarily of '68 and '69 Camaros.

The Sox & Martin team, which had scored three Super Stock victories at four events in 1969, was heavily favored entering the event and proved those touts accurate by qualifying No. 1 with a 10.006, easily outperforming the No. 2 qualifier, Chevy stalwart Bill Jenkins, who posted a 10.088 at the wheel of the same big-block-powered Grumpy's Toy IV '68 Camaro that he had raced in Super Stock.

Jenkins, though, showed the mastery of the class that would reward him well throughout the decade and opened Sunday's first round with a 9.98, low e.t. of the meet, then roared through the field to face Ronnie Sox in the final.

Jenkins was the only driver to dip into the nines, wheeling to three sub-10-second runs in eliminations. He sandwiched a pair of 9.98s around an early-shutoff 10.26 in respective victories against Bill Hielscher, Mike Fons, and a red-lighting Dick Landy. In the final, Jenkins left first and never looked back, running 9.99, 139.53 (top speed of the meet) against Sox's 10.12.

Garlits Kicks 'em in the Rear (1971)

The near end of Don Garlits' driving career marked the beginning of a new era in Top Fuel after the cagey Florida veteran, horribly injured in an early- 1970 transmission explosion that cut both the chassis of his front-engine Top Fueler and his right foot in half, went back to the drawing board to try to improve on the previously unworkable rear-engine Top Fuel chassis design.

Although rear-engine Top Fuelers had been tried for years, they were cursed, ill-handling machines, and even Garlits' first passes in the car that he designed from his hospital bed were white-knuckle trips during late-1970 testing. He finally hit upon the right steering ratio, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Just days before the Winternationals, at the same AHRA event at Lions Drag Strip where he had been injured a year before, Garlits rolled out the car to much derision from his fellow stars yet scored runner-up honors.

Then in Pomona and still running without the rear wing he would later add, Garlits qualified No. 9 in the 32-car Winternationals field with a 6.80. He ran progressively quicker in each round before the final, posting low e.t. in three of the five rounds.

Garlits defeated Tommy Allen, 6.85 to 6.89; John Nichols, 6.72 to 6.85; Carl Olson, 6.72 to 10.61; Jim Dunn, 6.70 to 7.58; and, in the final, spun the tires to an uncontested sixth NHRA national event victory at 7.03 against a broken Kenny Safford.

Garlits showed them all the way home and the way to the future, and within two years, the front-engine dragster was extinct in Top Fuel.

Up, Up, and Away (1989)

Fresh off a remarkable 1988 season in which his bright yellow Super Shops/Pennzoil Nuclear Banana Top Fueler had become the first to run in the four-second zone, Eddie Hill's career continued to rise at the 1989 season opener, but not so much in a great way.

During Friday qualifying, the front wings on Hill's dragster slipped into an upright position as he approached the finish line, lifting the front end. As air got under the nose, lifting it even higher, the rear wing tripped the clocks at 5.210, 236.15, then the dragster did a backward somersault, rolled right side up, and struck nose first, deploying the parachutes and slowing as it tumbled down the track. Except for the roll cage and driver's compartment, the car was destroyed, but Hill suffered only bruised knees.

"It happened so suddenly, it was out of my hands," said Hill, who had plenty of crashes in a long career in asphalt and boat drag racing. "Once I started crashing, I covered up my pretty parts [face] with my hands and closed my eyes. I tried to ball up like I learned in boat racing; you know, whatever sticks out goes in the water. My sore knees were self-inflicted when I jerked up to get into the ball position and hit the control panel. It wasn't any problem getting out of the car. I was gonna sit there, and then I saw the fuel tank on fire and got right out."

Amazingly, Hill returned in a car borrowed from Darrell Gwynn to qualify for the event and stage an amazing comeback, making the field at the eleventh hour. Ironically, his effort paired him against Gwynn in round one, but Hill discovered a four-inch crack in his last engine block that morning that left him unable to race but with the admiration of the Pomona fans.

6. That's Really Showing 'em (2006)

Robert Hight's Funny Car engine blows in round two, destroying the body. The team pulls the body off its show car and wins

7. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1981)

The roof of Raymond Beadle's famed Blue Max Funny Car blows off at the finish line on a winning semifinal run, but fellow Texan Kenny Bernstein allows Beadle to saw the roof off of his car and graft it to the Max. Beadle loses the final but not for lack of effort

8. Scelzi Sez ... Winner (1997)

Gary Scelzi wins at his first event since taking the wheel of Alan Johnson's dragster five months after the death of Alan's brother, Blaine. He becomes the first driver since K.C. Spurlock in 1990 to win in his Pro debut

9. 'The Snake's' Double Strike (1998)

The two fuel cars owned by Don "the Snake" Prudhomme double up with wins by Larry Dixon and Ron Capps. Prudhomme hasn't won as a driver or owner in Pomona since 1978

10. The Kid Is All Right (2008)

Former Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Antron Brown shows that he is as adept on four wheels as on two when he qualifies No. 1 in his Top Fuel debut

11. The Flyin' Hawaiian (1969)

Roland's Leong's first Hawaiian Funny Car, an ill-handling, fullsize Dodge Charger driven by Larry Reyes, takes flight and sails backward through the finishline lights. The duo wins the race the following year

12. 'The King' Gets Crowned (1993)

Kenny Bernstein loses more than the Top Fuel final to Joe Amato. The former world champ loses, in succession, an engine, a tire, control of his race car, and the race car itself in a violent top-end tumble that leaves "the Bud King" dazed but unhurt

13. Garlits' Gift (1975)

Don Garlits smokes the tires against Don Ewald in round one of Top Fuel, but Ewald is disqualified for crossing the centerline. Garlits wins the event and season title and admits that had he not won the Winternationals, he likely would not have pursued the championship

14. Hawaiian Domination (1965-66)

Car owner Roland Leong wins Top Fuel back to back, giving Don Prudhomme his first win in 1965 and Mike Snively his a year later

15. Thar She Blows ... Again! (1984-85)

Al Segrini wins dramatic back-to-back Funny Car titles. In 1984, he rides out a huge top-end blower explosion; the following year, he crosses the finish line with a cockpit full of sparks from a disintegrating clutch

16. Ladies Day (1966)

Shirley Shahan becomes the first woman to win a major drag racing national event eliminator title with her stunning victory in the popular Top Stock class

17. Upset of the Decade (1990)

With the ink practically still wet on his nitro license, K.C. Spurlock wins Funny Car in his Pro debut, knocking off John Force, Bruce Larson, and, in the final, Ed "the Ace" McCulloch

18. Roll Over, Ivo (1974)

Tommy Ivo barrel-rolls his beautiful Top Fuel dragster in the finish-line lights during qualifying in a fiery and cardestroying crash

19. Rookies Rule (2001)

Former Top Alcohol Dragster racer Darrell Russell joins Gary Scelzi and K.C. Spurlock as the only drivers to score in their Professional debuts by winning aboard Joe Amato's Top Fuel dragster with rookie crew chief Jimmy Walsh

20. Galloping Ponies (1968)

Ford crashes Mopar's Stocker monopoly with a fleet of 10 Cobra Jet Mustangs, and Al Joniec, at the wheel of the Rice-Holman entry, collects the victory

21. The Real Winter-nationals (1978)

Southern California is supposed to be home to sunshine and blue skies, but the 1978 event is besieged by foul weather, including a first ever: a rare dusting of snow

22. The America's Cup, Quarter-Mile Style (1987)

While U.S. sailors battle the Australians in the America's Cup, American Kenny Bernstein and Aussie Graeme Cowin wage their own war in Funny Car, complete with flags on their tow vehicles

23. Seven Seconds to Glory (1982)

After years of using a complicated weight-break rule, NHRA switches Pro Stock to a straight-up 500-cubic-inch limit. The big horsepower gains lead to the class' first seven-second pass, by the late Lee Shepherd

24. Too Slick for Its Own Good (1986)

Gary Ormsby unveils a super-swoopy streamliner, and the car's debut is a bang ... in the worst way. An ignition short caused by the engine-cloaking body leads to a huge blower explosion in the water box on its first pass

25. In Hindsight ... (1975)

Dennis Geisler calls his rare rear-engine Funny Car Hindsight; after he backflips the flopper in a huge startingline wheelstand, he might have had second thoughts on its design