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​​The Miller family owned and operated Maryland International Raceway for 25 years, from 1990 to 2014 and then sold the facility to IRG Sports & Entertainment in 2015. Royce stayed on with IRG for the last seven years as the Chief Operating Officer with duties and guidance for all the IRG owned tracks as well as GM at Maryland International Raceway. The transaction is expected to close at the end of this year.

When IRG decided to sell the facility, Lou Partenza, the CEO of IRG, gave Royce the first option to purchase it. Royce Miller stated, “At 67-years-old I probably should have my head examined for buying the track back, but the deal made financial sense and I still have a little gas left in the tank.”

Cornwell Tools has been named the title sponsor for the annual Night Under Fire at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.

The partnership will begin with the eagerly awaited 45th Annual Cornwell Tools Night Under Fire, which is set for Aug. 6, 2022 and will stage more entertainers and excitement than ever before.

Cornwell Tools, which has been the Official Tool of Summit Motorsports Park since 2019, is a family- and employee-owned company which has been in business for more than 100 years. It is headquartered in Wadsworth, Ohio, and has distribution centers in Ohio and Utah, and manufacturing facilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Its products are sold to professional technicians across the country through independent mobile tool dealers.

A win in the 11th-and-final event of the year for the South East Gassers Association (SEGA), Nov. 6 at Shady Side Dragway, also secured the 2021 SEGA C/Gas championship for Larry Floyd, driving Leslie Horne's fan-favorite "Stud Muffin" Nova wagon. It marked the first SEGA championship for Floyd, but the second for the car, as Horne earned the 2019 C/Gas season title in it, too.

"It's a great car. I started driving the car in 2020, but we had some mechanical issues, finished seventh in points last year. But then this year it all popped together," Floyd said after scoring his fourth win in seven final-round appearances over an 11-event season.

Matt Smith has a lot on his plate for the 2022 season, including a possible manufacturer switch. 

Smith confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com that in 2022, Jianna Salinas and Jimmy Underdahl would join the multi-time championship-winning team Matt Smith Racing. They will continue to run their Suzuki program. 

"I think it's going to be awesome. What this is going to do, it's going to bring a two-bike Suzuki team to MSR. We're going to control the tuneups for all of that team and do the motor program and everything for it."

Smith said in 2022, he plans to scale back to just two V-twin bikes - those ridden by him and his wife, Angie. 

While many drag racing fans were getting all giddy over the NHRA's unpublicized revelation of its new Factory Experimental exhibition category, past NHRA Pro Stock champion Allen Johnson found himself a bit hot under the collar. 

Johnson found himself in a bit of anger deja vu.

"That's really what we wanted to try to do back in '15, or when we had the meeting out in Denver, with Mopar, NHRA, and myself, we brought that up that we needed to put these type engines in a Pro Stock car and bring the class cost down," Johnson explained. "It didn't really get anywhere. [NHRA VP of Operations] Graham [Light] decided he wanted EFI."

While Johnson got his venting out of the way, he began to change his tone to a more peaceful one. 

Wayne Swofford and his non-descript red Nova "Leroy" took the top spot over 25 entries in the South East Gassers B/Gas qualifying field, but it was number-two starter Colby Welch who would leave Shady Side Dragway Nov. 6, with the class elapsed time record and his second race win of the year.

"This was a really big win for us," the 18-year-old driver later declared in his pit. "And we set the record, too, so I mean, we made some good milestones to end the year."

Welch and his "Moonbeam" '65 Ranchero opened with a relatively easy victory over Jason Roberts, followed by a competition bye and a close, though off-the-pace, win over defending class champion T.J. York in the quarter finals. He returned to form in the semis, though, to officially post the quickest SEGA B/Gas pass ever while eliminating third-place qualifier "Tennessee Charlie" Lee.

A record-setting 104 entries showed up for the season finale of the South East Gassers Association (SEGA) Nov. 6, at Shady Side Dragway in Shelby, NC, where Ben Christopher took the A/Gas race title, Colby Welch prevailed in B/Gas, Larry Floyd wrapped up his 2021 championship run with the C/Gas victory, and Super Stock rookie Ron Allison capped off his own championship-winning run with his second race win of the year.

Just by showing up at Shady Side, former Outlaw 10.5 standout Ken Rainwater became the first to officially sew up a 2021 SEGA championship, as participation points alone were enough to put him and his '66 Nova "Renegade" out of reach of last year's B/Gas champ T.J. York. 

Veteran nitro Funny Car driver Ron Capps isn’t the best driver to never win an NHRA world championship. He accomplished that feat in 2016.

Now Capps heads to the season finale – the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., Nov. 11-14 with a 58-point lead over his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan and 83-points in front of third-place Cruz Pedregon.

And mathematically the top seven drivers in the points standings – fourth through seventh being J.R. Todd, John Force, Bob Tasca III and Robert Hight – are still in the championship hunt since 180 points are up for grabs in Pomona.

“The plan to win the race is the ultimate and that would take care of business,” Capps said. “There also more available points in qualifying and they are giving a few more points for qualifying position. Honestly, right now, we are going with the same mindset and that’s to qualify. There are going to be 20-plus Funny Cars and you just don’t know.

Reigning NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion Matt Smith is in position to win his second world title in 2021.

Smith heads to the season finale – the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., Nov. 11-14 with a 20-point lead over Steve Johnson and a 30-point lead over Angelle Sampey. 

Smith pilots a Buell while Johnson and Sampey are aboard Suzukis. In Pomona, at the finale, the race winner will receive 150 points instead of 100 like at the other previous Countdown to the Championship events. Also, a driver can obtain more qualifying points in Pomona than other races as well as receive more points for where they are specifically qualified on the ladder.

“Our plan is to get every point we can and win the race and if we win the race, it doesn’t matter what anybody else does,” Smith said.