Friday sets the pace for Saturday. Saturday is when the storm hits.

Ed Hoover is one of eight Pro Modified drivers who will race for a
$100,000 on saturday. Hoover is currently qualified third in Pro
Modified. (Roger Richards)

The storm in this instance is the $50,000-to-win Torco Pro Mod
Shootout, a special race-within-a-race during the IHRA Torco Northern
Nationals in Martin, Mich.

The top eight Pro Modified drivers in the world will square off,
looking to claim the $50,000 first prize while the rest will grab their
share of a record $100,000 Shootout purse. This will be the richest
one-day drag race in Pro Modified history.

Bruce Litton knows every move he makes from this point in the 2008
season can be crucial to his IHRA Top Fuel championship defense. The
Lucas Oil-sponsored driver leads
rookie driver Spencer Massey by only two points with four races left on
the tour.

Bruce Litton entered this weekend's event leading Spencer Massey by
two points with four races to go in the season. He's ranked one spot
higher after Friday's qualifying. (Roger Richards)

Massey is not the only driver Litton should be concerned with and he’s aware of that.

Donnie and Hollie Faulkner are the proud parents of a baby girl.

Hollie delivered the 7 lb., 1 oz., Emma Jacquelin Falkner at 6:38 PM, at St. Vincent's Hospital in Little Rock, Ark.

Proud father Donnie proclaimed, "She's as perfect as you can get."

Both mother and baby are resting comfortably at this time.

John Lawson will drive the Dale Creasy Jr., Nitro Funny Car in
competition during this weekend’s IHRA Torco Northern Nationals in
Milan, Mi.

Creasy told CompetitionPlus.com that he initially planned to have
Lawson drive the car in a September match race, but the opportunity
presented itself and he invited Lawson to drive this weekend.

Vance and Hines Motorsports Inc. will expand their Indianapolis plant, creating 26 new jobs by 2011.  

As part of the expansion, they will invest more than $4 million to
build and equip a 66,000-square-foot exhaust systems manufacturing
facility adjacent to its current race shop in the suburban Indianapolis.

"Motorsports has a rich history and a bright future in Indiana," said
Lt. Governor Becky Skillman. "We'll continue to encourage motorsports
companies from across the country and around the globe to locate and
expand here as we build Indiana's reputation as the motorsports capital
of the world."

Cory McClenathan has a five year plan for the balance of his drag racing career.

Jon Asher Photo

The 34-time national event winner, and driver of the Fram Top Fuel
dragster, says he plans to walk away from the sport at age 50, giving
him until 2013 to win at least one championship.

“I’ve got five years to win a championship before I walk away,”
McClenathan admitted. “If I can do what John Elway did for the
[National Football League’s Denver] Broncos, then I will be a happy guy
and walk away with a smile on my face.

“I’d still like to be involved with drag racing and work with the new
drivers coming up through the ranks. I’d like to do some teaching and
be there for them.”

Bobby Lagana Jr., has largely raced unchanged over the past decade.

His Top Fuel dragster is another story.

Beginning this weekend, the veteran independent drag racer from
Scarsdale, N.Y., will debut a new theme replacing the POW-MIA awareness
scheme he started the season with. He’ll return to the traditional
Lagana blue, but this time the paint will have a meaning.

“Our entire racing life, this goes for my father and my brother and I
we have always had blue race cars, well here we go again, for Martin
MI. we will be sporting a brand new body painted by Olson body and
paint,” Lagana said. “The body will be painted with a blue angel wing
theme. It is by far the prettiest race car we have ever had. We will
also be adorning the new paint with some new decals, seeing as how we
are so close to home for Evan Knoll and his family business, we are
going to be supporting the family Knoll Gas and Propane business.

More than 3,000 race fans attended the 2nd annual Eric Medlen Ice Cream
Social at Infineon Raceway on Sunday following the FRAM Autolite NHRA
Nationals.

Fans were able to enjoy an array of flavors, but they also donated
$3,824 to the Eric Medlen Scholarship Fund. The total will be matched
by Infineon Raceway and the sum, $7,648, will be awarded to Petaluma’s
Kevin Neft, winner of Infineon Raceway’s high school bracket drag
division, in Medlen’s name. Race fans and the raceway have combined to
generate more than $16,734 for scholarships over the first two years of
this event.

Veteran crew chief Jimmy Walsh is excited to have a chance to contend for a championship.

The opportunity arrived earlier this weekend when team owner Morgan
Lucas, owner of Morgan Lucas Racing, announced the addition of Walsh to
his team to work alongside of longtime team tuner John Stewart.

Walsh will tune the dragster driven by Lucas while Stewart will
concentrate J.R. Todd's dragster. Together Todd and Walsh accounted for
four national event victories and a berth in last season’s Countdown to
Four.

He tuned Todd to his first national event victory, and he’s hoping to pull off the same feat

The NHRA Review Panel completed their review regarding action
taken against Don Schumacher based on an incident occurring during the Las Vegas national event in April, 2008.

The Panel upheld the finding that Don Schumacher Racing
violated NHRA rules regarding nitromethane as well as Section 1.3.1 of
the NHRA Rulebook regarding participant conduct.  The panel, reportedly comprised of NHRA employees, upheld the
original fine.