Before the engine fired in the Funny Car, drag racing's jack-of-all-trades Alex Laughlin quickly realized he'd underestimated the task he faced. It was January 2023, and Laughlin, one month after he was named the driver of the Jim Dunn Racing Funny Car, was preparing for his maiden runs at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Ca. 

"I 1000% underestimated the difference between the Top Fuel and Funny Car,". Laughlin said. "I thought that based on just the acceleration factor of the Top Fuel car it would prepare me a lot more for this."

Those who know, know. Um, no. 

1. - Mike Salinas proves he’s not messing around – The San Jose, Calif., businessman has far too much on his corporate agenda to travel across the country just to spend money and time cavalierly with his Scrappers Dragster. He came to Florida this weekend to win. He nearly hit the Daily Double, finishing as runner-up in Saturday’s Pep Boys Top Fuel All-Star Call-Out bonus race. He scored impressively enough, parlaying his self-described “phenomenal” and “world-record-number” testing results into his eighth career victory and command of the standings as the Camping World Drag Racing Series heads west to Phoenix in two weeks for the Arizona Nationals. He and his crew have a unique relationship. After what he called a “pretty disappointing” weekend last November at the Finals at Pomona, Calif. – where he cemented a respectable top-five finish – Salinas set the tone for the offseason. He told the team, “You’ve got a long offseason. Go find me some horsepower, and let’s not talk until time to go racing. Don’t care what you do, how you do it – find it. And evidently they found it.”  That also puts him in a position to win the first Top Fuel #2Fast2Tasty Mission Foods Challenge.

During the offseason, Mike Salinas had one mission for his Scrappers Racing team: Find more performance.

While that sort of request is common in a sport that is measured in thousandths of a second, how it is accomplished was a bit of an anomaly. Following the final pass of the 2022 season in Pomona, Calif., Salinas handed the reins of his 11,000-horsepower dragster to his team and fully stepped away from the decision-making process.

The result? A victory at the season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

It always pays off to have a Plan B. And for Justin Bond, the Canadian from Mission, British Columbia, having an alternative option translated into victory at the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Bond tested and raced the previous weekend at the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Modified in Bradenton, Fla. When a new car didn't deliver the desired results, he and his team parked the new ride and went to last season's car, aptly nicknamed Old Faithful.  

So what does an Old Faithful do? For starters, Bond took his trusty Camaro to the provisional pole on Friday, and even though he slipped to second in the final session, it was No. 1 on race day.

 Last season saw a jumpstart in Troy Coughlin Jr.’s Pro Stock career.

Coughlin finished a career-best fourth in the points standings thanks to two wins and three-runner-up finishes. He kept that momentum rolling into 2023 as he won the season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals Sunday.

Coughlin, driving the Jegs.com/Elite Performance Chevrolet Camaro, muscled past Mason McGaha in the final round.

It didn't take long for Gaige Herrera, the newest rider in the Vance & Hines camp, to find the winner's circle.

Herrera, who joined the renowned Vance & Hines team in the offseason, won the season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals Sunday.

Herrera, on the Mission Foods Vance & Hines Suzuki, clocked a 6.706-second time at 200.89 mph to defeat Angie Smith's 6.845-second run on her Matt Smith Racing Buell in Gainesville, Fla.

Reigning NHRA nitro Funny Car world champion Ron Capps didn’t lose any momentum in the offseason.

Capps powered his NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra to a 3.874-second elapsed time at 333.25 mph in Q4 to grab the No. 1 qualifying spot at the season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals Saturday.

“Yeah, very cool,” Capps said. “That round (Q4), for me, it was a little bit of anxiety because I couldn't see the Christmas tree. I could barely see the pre-stage, the blue, and then I started bumping it in and I could see the bottom half of the blue stage light, light up, but I couldn't see any ambers. I just said to myself, ‘Okay man, don't mess up and leave before the tree. Just wait until Robert (Hight) hits the gas and go, which is what I did. It was hard to go down the track because he is out in front of me, and you're used to just shutting it off when that car's out in front of you. I'm like, ‘Well, he is not pulling away, we're just staying there.’ Every time I do that, my brain would say, ‘Stop looking, focus on the track.’

Final round-by-round results from the 54th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway, the first of 21 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series: