Four-time and reigning NHRA Heritage Series Funny Car Champion Bobby Cottrell pulled off the hat trick to start the 2022 Heritage season campaign by capturing a massive win on Saturday afternoon at the Holley Hot Rod Reunion from Bowling Green, Kentucky.
 
With only five Nitro Funny Cars entering the event, Cottrell qualified second in the Austin and O'Brien '69 Camaro dubbed "The Northwest Hitter" and improved his performance in every round of competition.

Cottrell eliminated local favorite Eric Stevens aboard the "Bluegrass Thunder" '69 Camaro Nitro Funny Car in the first round, running a stout 5.738 at 256.45 miles per hour. Cottrell's time was low of the round, giving him a bye in the semi-finals, which meant an automatic berth into the final round.

Greg Kamplain is currently sitting in an enviable position. Not only is he leading the points in the Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund, with the potential to win $100,000 at the end of the season, but he’s also sitting at the top of the national NHRA points race in the ultra-competitive Competition Eliminator category. The experienced driver from Brownsburg, Ind. is quick to note that there’s still a lot of NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series action left this season. 

It didn't take United States congresswoman Diana Harshbarger long to realize she was in the perfect place on Father's Day eve. She was a guest of former Pro Modified crew chief Randy "Crusher" Lewis (Randy Moore) at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. 

Harshbarger has been a staunch supporter of the RPM Act, bipartisan legislation to protect Americans' right to convert street vehicles into dedicated racecars, and the motorsports-parts industry's ability to sell products that enable racers to compete. The bill clarifies that it is legal to make emissions-related changes to a street vehicle for the purpose of converting it into a racecar used exclusively in competition. It also confirms that it is legal to produce, market, and install racing equipment.

Nothing much this past weekend fazed Justin Ashley, Sunday’s NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals Top Fuel winner. 

The 136-degree temperature Sunday afternoon on the storied Bristol, Tenn., racetrack didn’t. (“It was a challenge, but it’s always a challenge [each race]. Honestly, I try to do the same thing every time,” he said. “But it’s the crew chiefs, Mike Green and Tommy DeLago, who did a great job in looking at the track and analyzing it.”) 

Two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Ron Capps has been around drag racing long enough to know it's not how one starts a race but how they finish that counts. On Sunday, the NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored driver's race day started off ugly with an uppercase U. 

Capps entered eliminations as the No. 9 seeded driver and was on his way to victory over Paul Lee in the opening round when the engine grenaded in his Toyota Supra GR, causing severe damage to his new Funny Car body. If not for the quick thinking of a crewmember who guided him down the track with his disheveled race car at 270-plus miles per hour, he might have crossed the centerline or collided with Lee. 

Pro Stock icon Warren Johnson said there was no such thing as an ugly win, just a win. With all due respect to the professor of Pro Stock, he likely never saw what happened Sunday during the Thunder Valley Nationals final round. 

It's not often race fans are treated to a pedalfest and a blow-up in a Pro Stock race, but that's precisely what happened when Elite Motorsports teammates Aaron Stanfield and Erica Enders met in the money round at Bristol Dragway. 

Jerry Savoie said when he began his NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racing career almost a dozen years ago at age 52 that he “just wanted to win one race.” 

It has turned into a series championship and 14 victories, with his triumph Sunday at Bristol, Tenn., at the Thunder Valley Nationals. 

 Pro Stock racer Fernando Cuadra Sr. crashed during Friday’s lone qualifying session; he just didn’t hit anything. 

Making a qualifying run alongside of Alan Prusiensky, Cuadra drifting towards the centerline and lifted. As the car was slowing in the shutdown following his aborted 7.39 elapsed time, the car apparently hit a bump in the shutdown area, upsetting the chassis and nearly taking the Mustang out of control.