Tony Schumacher has proven he’s one of the greatest Top Fuel drivers in NHRA history.

He has 85 national event wins and eight world championships on his resume to state his case as the greatest.

Now, The Sarge, as he is known, is returning to race a full season in 2022 as the only car in carrying the Don Schumacher Racing banner. He will be sponsored by Scag Power Equipment, the philanthropic Maynard Family and Okuma.

The last time Schumacher ran a full NHRA season was in 2019 and he last competed at the season-ending race in Las Vegas in November of 2020.

Kalitta Motorsports today announced their crew chief and driver line-ups for the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series which kicks off with the 62nd NHRA Winternationals, February 18-20 in Pomona, California. World champion crew chiefs Alan Johnson, Brian Husen and Jason McCulloch will all join the Mac Tools and DHL/Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster teams. They will work with team owner and crew chief Connie Kalitta and current crew chiefs Kurt Elliot and Ronnie Thompson while Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon will return as drivers. The DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car will once again be driven by J.R. Todd and tuned by Todd Smith and Jon Oberhofer.  

Johnson and Husen will lead the tuning efforts along with Ronnie Thompson for Kalitta’s Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster. McCulloch will work alongside Elliot on the DHL/Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster for Langdon with drag racing legend Connie Kalitta making the final tuning decisions.  

The 2022 ANDRA Nationals scheduled for Sydney Dragway, February 11- 12, has been canceled.

This follows the announcement that IHRA Australia will replace ANDRA as the exclusive sanctioning body of Sydney Dragway beginning 8 February 2022 until 31 December 2024.

"Together with Top Fuel Australia and ANDRA, we tried our hardest to put on what was shaping up to be the event of the year and had the rug pulled from under our feet,” said event co-promoter Peter Pisalidis. “We did everything right, as did the racing community and the fans who were coming from all over Australia to support the event.”

Veteran team owner and Top Fuel driver/team owner Mike Salinas confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com he will have a new crew chief for his Top Fuel dragster for the 2022 NHRA Camping World Series season. 

“Okay, we have Rob Flynn. Rob Flynn came in, we picked him to take over where Alan (Johnson) left off,” Salinas said. “Alan did work with him before we made the decision to switch over. Alan and Brian (Husen) worked with Rob at the races and basically showed him their style of tuning, to follow the book that we have. So basically, the car should not skip a beat.”

A year ago, Salinas finished third in the world standings. He had one win Bristol, Tenn., and three runner-up finishes. Johnson and Husen tuned Salinas’ Top Fuel dragster from 2019-21.

From fighting to survive race-to-race to world championship contender.

That’s the story of NHRA Pro Stock driver Matt Hartford.

In 2019 and 2020, Hartford finished fifth in the world standings, and he was ninth in 2021. Hartford has four career Pro Stock wins to his name, including in Houston last year.

Now, the Scottsdale, Ariz., native is preparing to make another run at that elusive world title in 2022.

R+L Carriers will continue to sponsor Top Fuel dragster driver Josh Hart for 22 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series national events during the 2022 season. This partnership is a concentrated effort to bring career awareness for those looking to come work for R+L Carriers, one of the nation’s leaders in the freight-shipping industry. At several national events across the NHRA race circuit, the R+L Carriers recruiting team will be available on-site, ready to engage with NHRA fans to answer questions, as well as share the R+L Carriers experience. The marketing relationship will highlight the accessibility of Hart, one of NHRA’s rising stars, and showcase the benefits of R+L Carriers to fans across the country.

Second-generation racer Julie Nataas will continue her pursuit of an NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Top Alcohol Dragster world championship with Randy Meyer Racing this season, the team announced today. It will be Nataas’ fourth full-time season in RMR’s Oslo Tapet & Gulvbelegg (OTG) A/Fuel dragster.   

“I’m so glad I get to continue this journey with Randy Meyer Racing,” said Nataas, who finished fourth in national points. “I started racing in this class with Randy Meyer Racing. I have learned, failed and succeeded with this team so there’s no one else I’d rather win a TAD world championship with than Randy Meyer Racing`.”  

In 2021, Randy Meyer Racing scored its third consecutive world championship when Rachel Meyer drove the NTK Sensors A/Fuel dragster to her first world championship. The team won the 2019 and 2020 titles with Rachel’s older sister, Megan, driving the NGK Spark Plugs dragster.   

NHRA recently entered into a multiyear partnership with Simpson Performance Products to become the presenting sponsor of the NHRA Safety Safari for the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series.

Known as NHRA’s first responders, the NHRA Safety Safari presented by Simpson, the first full-time team devoted to safety in North American motorsports, has been a staple at events for more than 60 years, performing some of the toughest and most important jobs at each NHRA national event. They are quick to respond to any on-track emergency and also help provide a competition-ready track at every stop on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series circuit.

Simpson Performance Products are also a trusted name when it comes to safety in motorsports. For more than six decades, Simpson has provided helmets, head and neck restraints, harnesses, racing suits, gloves, shoes, and more to provide an impressive level of protection to racers.

There is only one John Force. His stats are incredible, his demeanor even more. The race fans either love him or hate him and by an overwhelming margin, they love him.

He's bold and loud - more entertaining than a comedian at the top of their game. Forrest Gump once said, "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get." The same could be said for drag racing's most prolific professional drag racer.

Force has over 1,000 round wins, over 150 national event victories and 17 world championships to his credit. Yes, 17 because many drag racing journalists overlook his 1985 American Drag Racing Association title.

Force made the calculated gamble to park his team amid the 2020 pandemic-ravaged drag racing team and returned in 2021. This season he's back to where he was pre-Covid in terms of team and racing financial strength.