Yes, there was a sighting of Vincent Nobile competing in a new car at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., June 7-9.

Nobile was driving a 2024 Jerry Haas-built Camaro in the Johnson's Horsepowered Garage Mountain Motor Pro Stock class.

“That was the first race for us in that car,” Nobile said. “We got to shake it down a little bit. We just picked a car up from Jerry Haas's shop in St. Louis. I drove straight to Maple Grove (in Reading, Pa.), to race a divisional with my Super Comp dragster. Then after the divisional we stayed for a day to try and shake the car down and get it tested. We fought some new car blues, which wasted a little bit of time, so we didn't get to really put as many laps as we wanted to before we got to Bristol. But we didn't want to miss another race just because we weren't 100% ready to be there.”

Drag racers usually make guest appearances ahead of NHRA national events to help promote the events and encourage attendance. However, this week, a couple of championship drivers from Kalitta Motorsports made appearances at key venues to celebrate their prowess. 

Doug Kalitta, who is the 2023 NHRA Top Fuel champion, his status earned him a chance to throw out the first pitch at a Detroit Tigers baseball game. 

The NHRA’s decision to condense the Virginia Nationals into two days doesn’t present as big of a challenge to the more prominent teams as one might expect.

In. his first season as a Top Fuel driver, Tony Stewart believes the format will be just fine for his team. 

“I honestly think our team is more than capable of handling it," Stewart said. "On race day, they’re doing four rounds if they make it to the final. So, three rounds and having the time to prepare beforehand makes it not an issue as far as the teams are concerned. 

It might be the one thing the pandemic got right. 

NHRA confirmed in a statement that it would once again open its season in Gainesville, Fla. It's the third consecutive season the California-based sanctioning body has started its season in Match and on the East Coast. 

Tickets for the Gatornationals will go on sale on Aug. 19, and the entire 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule will be announced soon.

On a weekend where the Rooftec Competition Eliminator Bonus Fund traveled outside of its NHRA Division 5 (South-central) divisional base, the D5 racers who have long supported the series displayed their prowess in sweeping both races.

Scott Linder completed the sweep by driving his A/Altered Pontiac Grand Am to the title by stopping Adam Hickey in the final round. Linder joined Taylor Chomiski in winning those events. 

Tony Stewart Racing [TSR] will represent the Dodge brand as the team announced an extension for the foreseeable future. Details of the extension, which entails both the team’s Top Fuel and Funny Car teams, were not revealed in a team statement.

The partnership began in 2022 and has yielded 15 national event victories and the Funny Car NHRA Mission Foods championship in 2023 with Matt Hagan. In 2024, team owner Tony Stewart took over the driving chores on the dragster while his wife Leah Pruett is on leave of absence as they begin a family. 

NHRA has been rapidly charting new frontiers, and the upcoming NHRA Virginia Nationals will showcase two of its latest efforts. Not only will the event hosted by Virginia Motorsports Park become an unprecedented two day national event where professional teams qualify on Saturday and race on Sunday, it will also feature title sponsorship for its new PlayNHRA, an initiative that provides fans opportunities to engage in fantasy games, gaming, and betting for NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series events.

The PlayNHRA Virginia Nationals, June 21 - 23, 2024, serves as the ninth of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.

For those on the outside looking in, the great PRA/PRO vs. NHRA conflict of the 1970s might have appeared to be a pissing match of epic proportions. However, when details of what caused the public relations dust up almost five decades later come to light, it was more about professional drag racers demanding what they felt was their worth compared to other forms of motorsports. 

In 1971, with the Vietnam War raging, the United States motorsports community came together in a show of support for the troops during a USO tour at the request of Rear Admiral Emmet H. Tidd. The team featured the best of the best in all forms of racing and included the likes of Richard Petty, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, and drag racing’s Don Garlits. 

Little did Tidd know, the tour would create another kind of war. 

In this five-part series, CompetitionPlus.com will explore ten races that were really great at one time, and some were famous, while others were obscure. The bottom line is they were fun and epitomized the spirit of drag racing. 

We will undoubtedly miss a few, but save your judgment until the series ends. Special thanks to Bret Kepner, Dave Wallace, Steve Earwood, and others who helped ensure this series came to fruition with their knowledge of the sport and willingness to contribute. 

They likely didn’t ask for it, but they got it. The Franklin and Steding families both secured double-up victories. 

On Father’s Day weekend, Franklin and his daughter scored a double-up victory, with him taking the Pro Nitrous win and Amber scoring the title in Pro 632 during the North vs. South Shootout in Budds Creek, Md. Not to be outdone, Kurt Steding and son Ethan taking home the Pro Boost and Pro Street titles respectively. 

Elijah Morton (Extreme Pro Stock) rounded out the top winners at Maryland International Raceway.