The first day of qualifying for the NHRA Unleashed presented by Lucas Oil event at O’Reilly Raceway Park has been completed and Mike Janis raced his WidowMaker Ford Mustang to the top of the field in the Pro Mod Class.  All racers got their first shot at the world famous racing surface during the day during one qualifying session on Friday.  They will get two more passes on Saturday prior to eliminations taking place on Saturday night.

Leading the way in their respective classes was: Pro Mod Mike Janis; Outlaw 10. 5 Tony Jonson; EZ Street Matt Bell; Limited Street Kevin Scott; Aerospace Components 8.50 Index David Donaldson; Aerospace Components 9.0 Index Gary Varney, Reynoldsburg, OH; Aerospace Components 9.5 Index Larry Zahnd, Champaign, IL; Aerospace Components 10.0 Index Dennis Woody, Thorntown, IN; Aerospace Components 11.0 Index Jeff Thomas, Columbia, KY; Aerospace Components 12.0 Index Ed Parker Jr., Shelbyville, IN; Aerospace Components 13.0 Index Len Mahurin, Indianapolis, IN;

The NHRA made their debut at zMax Dragway in 2008 before a packed house. The NMCA/NMRA made their debut a year later with a different result.

In the two years that the joint NMCA/NMRA All-Star event has been hosted by the drag strip located on the hallowed grounds of Charlotte Motor Speedway the largest demographic of attendee has been empty seats disguised as spectators.

There’s a very real chance this could be the final event for the NMCA/NMRA event at the Bellagio of Drag Strips.

Late Friday night, John Montecalvo led the winners’ parade for the rain-postponed Hardee’s Independence Drags IV from Topeka with his fourth-in-a-row ADRL Extreme Pro Stock event title. Also adding to winning streaks were Rickie Smith with his third-straight Pro Nitrous win and Ashley Owens with his second Pro Extreme Motorcycle win in as many events. Also scoring Topeka titles were Gary White with his third Extreme 10.5 win of the year and Sheikh Khalid Al-Thani, who turned in a dominating performance to take his second Pro Extreme trophy this season.

Eliminations for the delayed Topeka race were held within qualifying sessions for Saturday’s ADRL Hardee’s Independence Drags III at Gateway International Raceway, lying practically in sight of downtown St. Louis, just across the Mississippi River in Madison, Illinois.

This was an unfamiliar position for Tony Pedregon.

Pedregon, who has won two Funny Car world championships, in 2003 and 2007, found himself having to make some tough business and racing decisions because of his tight budget this season.

“It has been a tough year,” Pedregron admitted. “Any time you have a limited budget it restricts you in other areas. I’ve made some business decisions to cut costs so I get through the year with what I have to work with. It doesn’t allow me to run the car as hard as it needs to be sometimes.”

Despite financial constraints, Pedregon is 10th in the point chase with 733. Jeff Arend, who races out of the Kalitta Motorsports stable, has 700 points, followed by Cruz Pedregon, Tony’s brother, at 652 points.

Kenny Nowling, President of the American Drag Racing League, heads across town to the seventh of ten events on the schedule, the ADRL Hardees Gateway Drags III, with a dark cloud hovering above. And for Nowling, according to weather.com, there’s a zero chance of rain forecast this weekend.

The dark cloud has nothing to do with Mother Nature or the successful organization and everything to do with the future of Gateway International Raceway, the host of this weekend’s event.

The ADRL is based in O’Fallon, Mo., and with Gateway International announcing their departure from NASCAR, there’s a strong likelihood this year’s ADRL event will be the last.

Even Cash for Clunkers, a congressional bill aimed at taking gas guzzling classic automobiles off of the highway, couldn't deter Charlie Harmon. Neither could the major sanctioning bodies in drag racing.

Harmon loves muscle cars, and to him, the more of them gathered in one place, the better.

Harmon presides over both the National Muscle Car Association and the National Mustang Racing Association, smaller drag racing associations when compared to the gigantic NHRA, but in the world of niche filling they are giants.

Amid all the flashy show elements and high-stakes nitro racing that will be featured at this year’s Northern Nitro Jam at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, August 13 - 15, 2010, lies the real reason that Martin, Michigan’s annual summer tradition holds a special place in the hearts of fans and drivers – the Moser Engineering Axle-Mania Sportsman Showdown.

Easily the richest sportsman race of the year, the Moser Axle-Mania competition pits 32 of the best sportsman racers in the country against one another in an inter-class battle for a share of the $51,000 purse generously offered by the people at Moser Engineering. Of that purse the winner will walk away with the single largest payday of the year, a hefty $22,500 for just five rounds of work.

Two of the most prominent chassis builders in sportsman drag racing, Mullis Race Cars and American Race Cars will each be holding separate raffles for new dragster chassis’ over the next month with both drawings culminating at the 2010 Mickey Thompson Million (held at O’Reilly Raceway Park September 9-12).  While the two raffles are completely separate, both are structured in essentially the same way.  Each chassis builder will sell 250 raffle tickets at $100 per ticket.  The winner of each raffle will win a new dragster chassis (details on each car below).  The second prize in each raffle will be an entry into the 2010 Mickey Thompson Million Dollar Race.  The third prize in each raffle will be $500.

Burk Smith, more commonly referred to as Papa Bud by his friends and family, passed away early this morning at the age of 79. The father of drag racing legend Rickie Smith had suffered from Alzheimer's Disease.

When Shane Gray made his NHRA Pro Stock debut this season, he brought with him realistic goals.

“When I started this deal, I hoped to qualify at half the races,” Gray said.

It’s safe to say he has accomplished that goal and much more.

Gray is presently eighth in the Pro Stock point chase and has already clinched a spot in the Countdown to 1 playoffs which begin at the U.S. Nationals Sept. 1-6 in Indianapolis. The Countdown to the Championship concludes at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals Aug. 12-15 at Brainerd, Minn.