There is something to be said for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Of course, this location is known worldwide for all manner of racing, but the yearly arrival of the Performance Racing Industry show here still makes big news locally. Following its return in 2013 to the Hoosier State after a number of years in Orlando, Fla., the city rolls out the red carpet for this event and local news programs pointed out that visitors now fill the myriad group of downtown hotels and quality eateries to the “breaking point.” The truth is, this is truly a trade show that belongs to this city of motorsports importance. Indeed, PRI now has its main headquarter in nearly Speedway, Ind., as well.

Heading into 2023 Texas Motorplex, the only quarter-mile multi-use racing facility in North Texas and home of the Stampede of Speed and NHRA Texas Fall Nationals will once again host a wide variety of drag racing events drawing fans from across the country. The Stampede of Speed, the largest continuous motorsports event second only to the Indy 500, will anchor an exciting season of racing action in 2023.

“We saw tremendous growth in 2022 and we are expecting even bigger events in 2023,” said Christie Meyer Johnson, Texas Motorplex co-owner. “The Stampede of Speed will be back and bigger than ever. The whole team is looking forward to promoting and hosting the best drag racing events in the country. We will have some more exciting announcements about additional events in the coming weeks.”

John Force Racing announced today a multi-year extension with Chevrolet that will see the iconic Bowtie prominently displayed on the National Hot Rod Association’s championship-winning team’s Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars.

“We’re excited to be extending our partnership with Chevrolet and General Motors,” team owner and CEO John Force said. “We have a long history with Chevy, a long successful history and we look forward to continuing that tradition into the future. The support we receive from Chevrolet goes beyond the racetrack. They are part of the John Force Racing family; they help keep us doing what we love and we want to keep winning for them.”

The World Series of Pro Mod $100,000 Winner-Take-All Race To Be Broadcast on CBS Sports 

Perhaps one of the biggest announcements of the 2022 PRI show was made at 1:00PM on Thursday when Wes Buck gave the formal introduction to the World Series of Pro Mod invitational-only $100,000 race, which will occur at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida on March 3-5. Also on stage for this was track owner Victor Alvarez and racers Melanie Selami, Lyle Barrett and Tommy Franklin. Buck, founder of Drag Illustrated magazine, has been laying plans to create what he will eventually hopes to be a global promotion of the category, which he notes is the most popular in all of professional drag racing.

When you already have the largest professional drag racing team in the civilized professional drag racing world, what’s one more team going to hurt?

On Thursday, the Elite Performance juggernaut expanded to include Jerry Tucker, a drag racer proficient in many drag racing arenas.

Tucker, a lifelong resident of Lindsay, Okla., has raced everything from Sprint cars to midgets and has been a constant in the world of competitive drag racing. Now he can add Pro Stock to his extensive resume.

 
Factory Motor Parts (FMP) and its FVP brand of automotive products, which has been the “Preferred Battery of NHRA” since 2019, is excited to join AB Motorsports and three-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown, it was announced today during the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show. 

FMP will feature its FVP brand prominently on the sides of the AB Motorsports Matco Tools dragster and anticipates strong participation in the team’s pitside hospitality experience, with more than 1,300 guests invited to join FMP trackside during the 21-race NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. 

Alex Laughlin is not new to the NHRA or winning big events but he is new to Jim Dunn Racing as the team’s Funny Car driver in 2023. Laughlin, who has succeeded at every level he has competed at in drag racing, will bring a wealth of talent and young energy to the historic team. Team Manager, Jon Dunn, announced the new driver at this year’s Performance Racing Industry (PRI) tradeshow in Indianapolis.

The team’s first order of business will be to get Alex a crossover license from Top Fuel Dragster to Nitro Funny Car prior to next season’s opening Camping World Drag Racing Series event at Gainesville, Florida in March.  The team will get Alex fitted for the Funny Car and then schedule a testing and licensing session for its new driver.  Alex has already had a chance to visit the team’s shop in California and spend time with Hall of Fame team owner and former Funny Car driver, Big Jim Dunn. 

NHRA has released the 2023 schedule for the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, as well as specialty classes and all Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series categories competing at NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series national events next year.

The NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series will open in Gainesville, the first of 10 races in the 2023 campaign. The action-packed class will race at the four-wide event in Charlotte and make its debut at both Route 66 Raceway in Chicago and also New England Dragway in Epping.

Those two first-time appearances are part of a five-race stretch that also includes a return trip to Bristol and an event in Norwalk, before a break until Brainerd. After a race in St. Louis, the season finale will also move back to Las Vegas in late October.