One of Piedmont Dragway's [Greenboro, NC] most anticipated events kicks off Thursday and extends through Saturday with the North vs. South Big Dog Shootout. A healthy $50,000 purse is on the line when eight of hottest cars north of the Mason Dixon Line travel to North Carolina to face eight of the baddest hot rods from the south. This is the largest event on the track's schedule.
 

p>Memphis-area drag racing fans have the opportunity to watch favorite son Clay Millican at work during the O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park, Friday through Sunday.

This time around, Millican, a Drummonds, Tenn. resident, arrives as one of the 10 Top Fuel drivers in contention for the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series championship.  With two of the six deciding events already completed, Millican is 10th with 2062 points.  But he’s only a round win out of ninth and, should the Hope4Sudan/Motorvation dragster get on a hot streak, he’d climb higher.

“We would go a long way toward filling in a lot of the valleys we’ve had this year if we win this race,” Millican said.  “It would mean a lot.  It would certainly be something I could write off my to-do list – win the Memphis race, win my first NHRA race . . . and to do it all at home would be just awesome." 

With seven national event victories and 14 races atop the Full Throttle point standings this season, Jeg Coughlin Jr. has been the most prolific drag racer on tour in 2009. Yet since the Countdown to 1 playoff began two races ago, Coughlin has been playing catch-up, relegated to second place by his only first-round loss of the season in Charlotte.
 
Through two of six Countdown to 1 events, Coughlin finds himself 63 points off the lead. A manageable deficit, yet one he hopes to begin erasing at this weekend's 22nd annual Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park.

John Montecalvo erased a 19 point lead held by Frank Gugliotta headed into last weekend's IHRA President's Cup Nationals and because of that, leads the IHRA Pro Stock point standings into the final event of the season. His semi-final finish at the Maryland International Raceway-hosted event puts him in the driver's seat for the championship.

“We did what we came to do,” said Montecalvo, who lives in Center Moriches, NY. “We wanted to leave the event with the points lead and that’s exactly what we did. Our day ended a little earlier than we hoped for, but Cary just put up a good run against us and then went on take the Iron Man. Congratulations to him and his team on a job well done.

Under a boiling hot California sun, Randy Walker did this past weekend what he’s done so many times in 2009: pilot the Walker Racing Group ’74 El Camino into the finals.

In qualifying, Walker’s 6.350 was second only to Rod Burbage’s stunning 6.254 in his blown ’58 Corvette. Burbage would fall to Tim Henry in the semi-finals, setting up an all-nitrous showdown for the event win.

After locking up the West Coast Hot Rod Association Pro Street championship with his semi-final round win over Bob Bunker, Jr., Walker got the jump on Henry off the line in the finals, but tire shake at half track allowed the fuel-injected Firebird to drive around for the win.

Cruz Pedregon said he wishes he had reacted better at Indianapolis to John Force's and Robert's Hight's semifinal match-up that generated controversy. But he said he still supports the Countdown system.
 
"The points system builds drama. You've got to be in the top 10 to be elite. If you're not, you've got to take it on the chin, like we did. We've got to come back next year and make darn sure we're going to be in the top 10. What jumped out, of course, was the incident in the semifinals. The reality is that, collectively, as a team, we didn't score enough points," he said.

Official starter Rick Stewart gave Mike Edwards crew member Allan Lindsey the clear message that he wasn't going to entertain any protest after the Christmas tree blinked oddly and cost the Pro Stock dominator a chance to extend his points lead at the NHRA Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas.

Edwards, who had been nearly untouchable on the track, had an almost-unheard-of opportunity to gain a huge advantage on his closest Countdown rivals. Jeg Coughlin succumbed to mechanical troubles early in his semifinal run against Johnny Gray. Jason Line, Greg Stanfield, Allen Johnson, and Kurt Johnson were finished for the day. But instead of a fair shot at semifinal opponent Greg Anderson, all Edwards got was a head start to Memphis Motorsports Park.

Cristal Kulungian and Billie Brown want to be more than wives on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag

Racing tour.

Cristal, wife of Pro Stock Motorcycle crewman Tim Kulungian, and Billie, wife of Top Fuel racer Antron Brown, want to be women who make a difference.

This weekend, as the tour heads into Memphis, Tenn., for the NHRA O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals, Kulungian and Brown intend to make
a positive investment towards the well-being of those in need, medically.

They have organized a blood drive at Memphis Motorsports Park during this weekend’s race in an effort to replenish the blood supply for the local Memphis blood center all the while conducting bone marrow testing to help the National Registry with finding suitable donors for those on waiting lists.

From Southern California’s earliest drag strips to the prestigious Raceway Park outside Indianapolis, Tom “The Mongoo$e” McEwen blazed a trail peppered with historical “firsts.” Mongoo$e’s uncanny ability to chase the almighty dollar made this enterprising racer a natural with the glitz and glamour associated with being a touring race car driver.
    
This book contains a magical mystery tour of drag racing’s glory days, where McEwen recalls his exploits and antics from 40 years of intense quarter-mile acceleration contests. Of course, some came with big prize money while others were waged primarily for bragging rights, where the payoff merely kept the show on the road for another week. Throughout, you’ll see what it takes to maintain a top-notch professional drag racing team and meet the loveable characters it produced along the way.

It just got easier than ever to fly your National Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL) colors. The National Guard ADRL has opened its online store today, offering the same products and apparel available through its Adrenaline Zone merchandise store at all National Guard ADRL events, along with exclusive items available only through Adrenaline Zone Online.