NASCAR captivated a TV audience of nearly 4.3 million households Feb. 6 for its Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum at Los Angeles and 50,000 fans in the grandstands. Rapper Ice Cube provided the halftime entertainment for the younger, avant-garde clientele the stock-car racing executives are hoping to hook, as the 150-lap event on the unique, purpose-built track was divided into 75-lap segments. NASCAR hired music-industry entrepreneur DJ Skee to perform during all caution breaks. 

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced Thursday that superstar DJ/producer Martin Garrix will headline a lineup of global electronic music artists May 29 at the Race Day concert at the Snake Pit at the Indianapolis 500. Among the performers will be deadmau5, Galantis, Steve Aoki and Yellow Claw. And the venue is charging between $45 and $150 for tickets for the separate-admission event (and a package that includes both the general admission to the Indianapolis 500 and Snake Pit for $85, and a VIP package for $190). VIP amenities will include access to a raised viewing platform located beside the stage, a private cash bar and private air-conditioned restrooms. 

While many of their counterparts were running to the quarter-mile in Bakersfield, a fair share of Pro Stock drivers participating in the Nitro Spring Training session at Wild Horse Motorsports Park were only running to the 1,000-foot mark. 

Dallas Glenn usually runs to the 1,000-foot mark in his test sessions, so the shortened distance wasn't anything out of the ordinary.  

"I've done testing before, so that's just kind of what we usually do for testing," Glenn explained. "Every now and then, we'll go a little bit farther, but the track prep was set up for Top Fuel in the last week, so a thousand feet was just fine with me. Going to the quarter-mile was starting to get a little questionable, so it's totally fine. I mean, we're in high gear anyway. And that last 320 feet is just wear and tear on parts that we didn't need."

Justin Ashley could smell what the Prock was cooking, and he wasn’t having any of it.

The two youngest drivers in the NHRA’s Top Fuel class – Ashley, 27, a Long Island real-estate developer and Prock, 26, an aspiring chef and restaurateur – met in Sunday’s final round of the Lucas Oil Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.

Robert Hight has won a lot of races in a lot of different ways.

He has finished first in pedal fests and celebrated fiery finishes. He has won big and he has won by the narrowest of margins. But until Sunday, never had he won a race with so much taking place before ever taking the tree.

Never count out Erica Enders.

And especially don’t doubt her publicly.

It was love at first clutch. Well, not exactly the first clutch for Bo Butner, as he made his triumphant return to Pro Stock, this time as a driver in the Elite corral of cars. 

"Felt good," Butner said." I've always hopped in and out of them, but to have our own new car built around me, for me, Rick Jones knocked it out of the park. Very good car, but this is our first time also being on a prepped track."

The 400-pound gorilla in the room, leaving KB Racing for Elite was the baseball equivalent of leaving the Yankees for the Red Sox or vice versa. 

Here are some curious little facts folks might not know:

Tony Schumacher’s primary sponsors this season are the Maynard Family and Scag Power Equipment/Lawn Mowers. But at the Arizona Nationals, his Top Fuel dragster will sport the name of a new marketing partner, Kaizen Collision. The collision repair/auto glass/paint shop centers, which stretch from California to Arizona (where it’s based at Scottsdale) on to Nebraska and Iowa, met Schumacher through his vested interest in credit-card merchant processing firm RAC Financial. (So even when Schumacher raced with Global Electronic Technology livery, he was a partner in RAC Financial. “We have our own processing company. We've been doing it for years,” he said.

There's a handful of next-generation drag racers in Pro Stock, and the thought is often conveyed, "How would they have fared in their dad's Pro Stock. 

Kyle Koretsky, whose father Kenny Koretsky raced Pro Stock for almost decades, believes he could have held his own back in those days if time travel was possible. 

"I feel like I was kind of fit to be here," Koretsky said without hesitation. "I kind of got in the car, somewhat a little bit natural. I'd been racing in other classes. I think if you put me 10, 15 years ago when my dad was racing Pro Stock, I'd be right there with him. 

Father and son never spoke to one another about it.

The exodus last fall from Don Schumacher Racing, part of it no surprise at all and part of it late-season and post-season disclosures, shrank the team that had fielded seven cars down to zero. Tony Schumacher already was planning to return with a Top Fuel dragster at the start of 2022, but the whole wave of change hit him here at Pomona last November. 

Without any conversation between him and his son – the one who drew him back into the sport in 1998 – and precious little to the media, either, Don Schumacher went about his business. He’s a man who lives in reality, so he kept his emotions to himself, hid any bruises to his ego, and shrugged it off with “Things transpired that– it is what it is.