Sometimes you just know, and Billy Morris knew.

Morris drove his way to a first NHRA Heritage Series race win, stopping Tony Jurado in the Nostalgia Funny car [AA/FC] finals of the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, Ca.

Morris, the former drag boat racer who converted to drag racing on land, had reached the final round against Tony Jurado. 

Morris, who had yet to win a national event, knew if he wanted to win this weekend, it couldn't be status quo versus Jurado.

Even Ray Charles could have seen this coming. 

Tony Stewart, a Hall of Fame NASCAR driver who has driven just about any form of racing, will add drag racing to his ever-growing resume of motorsports experience. Stewart will drive a dragster fielded by the Rich McPhillips team. 

Stewart will race a Top Alcohol Dragster at the NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas this weekend. After two multi-day sessions at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School and a handful of tests over the last two years in both a Top Alcohol dragster and a Top Fuel dragster, he's done enough practicing and is ready for competition. 

Dale Creasy Jr. has learned to deal with the ups and downs of drag racing and several personal tragedies along the way. Last week, a new tragedy will likely park the team for the rest of the season and possibly beyond. 

Creasy's nephew, Josh, who serves as the team's car chief, was diagnosed with cancer. Josh has been coming to the drag races with Creasy's brother since he was five years old and has been an integral part of the team. 

"We were parked in the holding area waiting to park in Dallas when the call came in," Creasy revealed. 

Tyler Hilton and his Great Expectations team invested considerably in their Top Fuel program before the California Hot Rod Reunion. That investment was purchasing a championship-proven dragster previously campaigned by Tony Bartone and Steve Boggs in hopes of helping Tyler have a realistic shot of winning the 2022 NHRA Heritage Series Top Fuel Championship. Well, it paid off for them. 

Hilton rolled into this weekend's 30th annual California Hot Rod Reunion, second in the Top Fuel points, just two rounds behind leader Bret Williamson for the Top Fuel Championship. Hilton not only got around Williamson to win the Top championship, but he also qualified number one, set low elapsed time with a career-best 5.592, and won the race, leaving nothing on the table for the competition. 

Well, that ought to answer a few questions. 

Ever since Tyler Hilton and his dad Bobby announced they would purchase the championship-proven dragster once campaigned by driver Tony Bartone and tuner Steve Boggs, many wondered just how well they would fare. 

After the first and lone session of Top Fuel qualifying on Friday afternoon at the 30th annual California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, California, Hilton blistered his way to the No. 1 qualifying position. Hilton blasted out a 5.751 at 226 miles per hour out of the trailer, thus marking a career-best elapsed time for the Great Expectations driver. 

One conversation with Richard Tharp and you will quickly conclude this is a man who has lived life on his terms. He certainly was no saint but a star... he was every bit of that persona. 

Tharp is 81, and every one of those days, he's lived bearing the reputation of what some say is one of the best drivers to climb behind the wheel of a race car or snare the race queen. He has a straightforward answer for what earned him this legend. 

"It's pretty easy to realize I had big balls," Tharp said without hesitation when asked what made him a great race car driver. "I had two balls and a brain."

For the fourth year in a row, Jim Halsey wrapped up the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) season as the Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous world champion. The driver of the Brandon Switzer-tuned, Fulton-powered “Daddy Shark” ’68 Camaro won two races and took runner-up honors at another two races to hold off Chris Rini’s late-season charge. 
 
Halsey is now the only driver in PDRA history to win four world championships in the same class.