Fan voting for the 2022 ESPY Awards is underway and Kilgore, Texas native Steve Torrence, the four-time reigning NHRA Top Fuel drag racing champion, is among the nominees in the Best Driver category.

Those wishing to vote for Torrence or nominees in any other ESPY categories can do on a daily basis at https://t.co/oCMLB4o9mo.

The Rayce Rudeen Foundation has partnered with Tony Stewart Racing in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series, and the non-profit organization that honors the life of Rayce Rudeen will be emblazoned on the Top Fuel dragster of Leah Pruett during the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals July 22-24 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. 

The Rayce Rudeen Foundation works with organizations and programs to encourage a healthy and productive life that is free of addiction. The designated 501(c)(3) is named in honor of Rayce Rudeen, who at age 26 passed away from an accidental Fentanyl overdose. Since its inception, the Rayce Rudeen Foundation has advocated for creating a supportive community in which everyone can access prevention, treatment, recovery and family-support services, all free from stigma. That message will be carried on Pruett’s blue-and-yellow Top Fuel dragster at Sonoma. Following Sonoma, the Rayce Rudeen Foundation will remain on Pruett’s car as an associate partner with branding near the canopy. 

Rodalyn Knox, a Hall of Fame tractor pulling puller and former NHRA drag racer, passed on July 2, 2022.

Knox was most widely known for her drag racing and tractor pulling career as "The Country Girl."

Stevie "Fast" Jackson might not be the Robin Hood of NHRA Pro Modified. However, after a rule change heaved on the screw supercharger combination and the subsequent alleviation of regulations on the roots version, he’s looking like someone who might have robbed from the rich in advantage and delivered to the poor.

Jackson isn’t looking for hero status as much as he prefers to expose sandbagging the rules.

“I got tired of watching it happen,” Jackson said. “All the sand leaking out everywhere, and I wanted to show everybody what a real actual racing engine would do, with a real Supercharger, with somebody that really wanted to run and knew how to run one. I can play a screw blower like Beethoven played the piano or whatever instrument he plays. I wanted to go out there and just let everybody know that things aren’t as dire as what they initially appear.”

Elite Motorsports, LLC announced today that Scott “Woody” Woodruff has been named the company’s Branding and Motorsports Director.
 
After a successful career at JEGS spanning nearly 25 years, Woodruff is eager to tackle his next challenge at Elite Motorsports, LLC. He’ll work closely with the litany of brands within the organization, including Elite Motorsports, Elite Performance, Elite HP, Patterson-Elite and Elite Cultivation, helping take each brand to a new level.

NHRA is sticking to its guns regarding its steadfast rule; the Factory X class will remain true to its factory roof and quarters edict.

According to three of the major chassis builders and a leading composite body manufacturer participating in the building of the Factory X cars, NHRA held a meeting with them on the Tuesday following the NHRA Gatornationals. They said the meeting left them believing that building these cars would begin with a high-end one-piece composite body instead of the initial factory roof and quarters.

While the NHRA's Lonnie Grim, the driving force before Factory X, said this might be what the chassis builders wanted, it was never promised, and there was no flip-flopping of the procedure.

NHRA and its broadcasting team was recently honored with six prestigious Telly awards for video excellence during the 2021 season and the beginning of the 2022 campaign. The team has now been recognized with 25 Telly awards over the past eight years.

 The Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens. Of the six overall awards, NHRA was bestowed four Silver Tellys, as the entire NHRA on FOX crew was honored in the General Television category for the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout show that was featured on FOX in March. That show also earned a Bronze Telly in the General Sports category.
 

Erica Enders has won a lot.

She has four world championships. She has 38 career wins. She has 404 round wins.

And this year, she might be having her best start yet. The 38-year-old driver from Houston, Texas, has five wins and six finals in eight total races. She has a commanding points lead..

So how does a driver of her skill and stature stay motivated when nearly every run is routine, and more often than not, another win?

Tyler Hilton wouldn't mind experiencing a normal NHRA Holley Hot Rod Reunion.

A year ago, at the traditional nostalgia event held over Father's Day weekend at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Ky., the second-generation drag racer endured one of the most catastrophic fires from a front-engine dragster. Hilton's fire was so destructive it resembled a scene from the movie Ghost Rider as Hilton traveled down the shutdown area.

A year later, he found himself racing for the title at the closest national event venue to his home. The will of redemption drove him to return this year, not politics or anything else.