Funny Car racer Gary Densham has been racing in NHRA fuel Funny Car competition since 1973, and it never occurred to him to keep track of how many events he'd raced. As he saw it, "I just want to go to the next race; that's all that counts."

So last year, NHRA's FoxSports broadcasts proclaimed on the FallNationals broadcast from Dallas, he was content to "go with it."

As such, Densham's family and friends began planning a 500th race celebration, and after racing the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, the party was on for the Auto Club Finals in Pomona, Ca., the place where it all began on February 15, 1973.

Densham then got a surprise in Brainerd. 

Three days after winning the Dodge NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, three-time reigning Top Fuel World Champion Steve Torrence was back in town Wednesday to attend the SEMA Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center and announce an expansion and extension of his team’s partnership with Red Line Synthetic Oil. 

Phillips 66 performance oil brand will continue to provide the internal protection that has made the Capco Contractors dragsters the most dominant vehicles in drag racing’s premier category the last five seasons.  Red Line Oil Brand Director Mark Beatty confirmed a multi-year contract extension, starting in 2022.

Although Top Fuel racer Brandon Welch said it has “been frustrating coming out of the COVID lockdowns and reducing the number of races we can run,” he is showing that he is using the extra time at his San Diego shop wisely. He came off the trailer Friday and took the provisional No. 9 spot in the line-up with a 3.940-second pass at 260.26 mph. His Max Mileage Dragster skated all over the lane and ended up crossing the center line, but the former Funny Car driver made a case for his best qualifying position yet in Top Fuel. 

Unfortunately, Troy Buff bumped him out in the final qualifying session Saturday as they ran side by side. 

His still-freshly restarted program, Welch said, “is in a stage of constant growth and improvement. With the extra time in the shop, we have been examining any areas of our program where we are light on spares or where special tools would help make us faster in servicing the car. We use our time to slowly address those items and keep on growing. 

Walk the floor of the SEMA Show with Roger Richards as he brings you the highlights of the longest running automotive aftermarket trade show. You'll see the cars, parts and knowing Roger, the girls on display in Las Vegas.

Drag racing gets into your blood and is hard to shake, sometimes liking it to a drug; perfectly legal yet maybe just as addicting. For Mike Ferderer, that addiction has festered in his system ever since he was an 11-year-old attending the long since gone Puyallup Dragway in the northeast corner of his home state of Washington. Sixty years later, he’s still at it with a certain amount of dominance, although retirement may be on the horizon.

Travis Shumake, the son of the late Funny Car drag racing legend Tripp Shumake, was injured on Monday afternoon when the Funny Car he was driving crossed the centerline and impacted the opposite lane guardwall at The Strip at Las Vegas. It was his second run of the day. 

Shumake had already completed his licensing requirements on his first run.

Fresh from her season-first Funny Car victory at Bristol, Tenn., Alexis DeJoria continued her momentum, capturing the No. 1 starting position for Sunday’s eliminations at the Dodge //SRT NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas.. 

She drove her Bandero Tequila Toyota Camry for DC Motorsports to her second straight top-qualifying berth with a 3.896-second pass at 327.03 mph. 

“That was a very straight run, just on a rail. It was great,” De Joria said.   

The mama cow was in labor, and she and her calf possibly were in danger. 

Jerry Savoie just didn’t know exactly what was going on. He was hundreds of miles away from his property at Cutoff, La. 

One of his employees was on the other end of the telephone line, reporting on how the situation was developing. And Savoie was dividing his attention between that mama cow and his White Alligator Racing motorcycle he was about to wrestle in NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series competition. 

Savoie put his head down on the counter in the lounge of is motorhome. He had seen this play out days before. 

Engine experts gathered early Friday afternoon at Pro Stock racer Matt Hartford’s hospitality area to learn about the evolution of piston rings and cylinder honing from Lake Speed Jr. and Keith Jones of Total Seal Piston Rings and Ed Kiebler from Rottler Manufacturing. They took some time to answer technical questions sent from Hidden Horsepower podcast listeners via Total Seal's social-media outlets. 

Kiebler shared how proper honing techniques produce the appropriate surface finish for optimal piston-ring performance and shared the capabilities of Rottler’s machines.

Speed is a chemist by trade – more specifically, a tribologist. And tribology, he said, “is a fancy word for the study of friction, wear, and lubrication.” And that leads to ring seal, which he said “is the key to optimizing the power in the engine.