Bob Bode knows all too well the ups-and-downs of life behind the wheel of a nitro machine.

He has seen the highest of highs, with his one-and-only win coming at Brainerd way back in 2010. And he has seen the lowest of lows, with incidents like what happened to him Friday night in Indianapolis.

During the first round of qualifying on Friday, Bode blew a hole in the block of his Funny Car, creating a unique set of circumstances that created a flash fire inside the cockpit. While Bode emerged uninjured, it was a spectacular sight to witness under the lights during the only night session of the season.

The 2020 Denso U.S. Nationals didn’t work out in Steve Graham’s favor.

The Santa Clara, Calif., Pro Stock driver failed to make the 16-car field. Graham’s Camaro quickest time was 6.715 seconds at 206.01, which was 20th on the ladder.

The U.S. Nationals was Graham’s third race of the season.

There was a glaring absence at the recently completed Denso NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway just outside of Indianapolis. Unless one is into the sportsman ranks, it might have been gone unnoticed.

The Factory Stock Showdown, the division created for factory-built race cars, was missing its frontrunning Ford Cobra Jet Mustangs. Chris Holbrook and the Skillmans, Bill, and Drew opted out of the Big Go.

Veteran NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion Hector Arana Sr. has quite the impressive resume.

He has competed in 326 NHRA national events and has seven wins and 16 runner-up finishes and one world championship. 

Arana Sr. planned on racing with is son, Hector Arana Jr. at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals March 13-15 in Gainesville, Fla.

It is often said that drag racing is a fraternity.

It is a unique brotherhood of racers, crews, and fans that is unlike any other sport on the planet.

So when one of their own is in trouble, you can expect the entire pit area to respond. And respond they have.

NHRA drag racers and fans have responded in a big way to help fellow racer Dom Lagana as he struggles in an Indianapolis hospital recovering from life-threatening injuries resulting from an auto accident that also seriously injured Top Fuel racer Richie Crampton and crew member Jake Sanders. Crampton continues to recuperate from multiple injuries, and Sanders was treated and released following the late-night crash in August.

Performance Racing Industry (PRI) has announced that the 2020 PRI Trade Show will not be taking place as scheduled in December.

The announcement comes after months of working closely with the Visit Indy team, the Indiana Convention Center staff, and other Indianapolis officials to develop a plan for a safe and productive PRI Trade Show. Despite health and safety guidelines that would have been in place, mounting uncertainty related to the Coronavirus resulted in an environment that would not be conducive to a productive trade show.

Lex and Gerda Joon are in the market for a car chief.

Lance Larsen decided after the final qualifying run at the Denso U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis that he would step away from the Hot Wheels Americana Car Care Products Top Fuel team.

Marc Meadors has a new hot rod rolling out of the Jerry Bickel Race Cars shop. This neat classic Chevrolet will be powered by a Carl Stevens-built, turbocharged engine. 

Despite all of the wins, despite the 2016 championship and the more than 750 round wins, the one - and possibly only - thing still missing from Ron Capps’ career resume in Funny Car is a trophy from the biggest drag race of them all.

Capps has collected 65 trophies in all during his decorated career, a career that has spanned more than two decades, but he has never held one at the U.S. Nationals. He has one runner-up, coming here in 2017, but a win has eluded him.

That all changed - sort of - four weeks ago when Capps collected his first career win at Lucas Oil Raceway. While it wasn’t the big one, Capps finally got a taste of victory in Indianapolis.

As they say in life, all good things must come to an end.

That is exactly how Jack Beckman is treating the remainder of the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season as he learned just a few weeks ago that his time in the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing would be coming to an end at the conclusion of this season and, very well, could spell the end to his time in Funny Car.