McPhillips Racing has announced a vacancy in the seat of its powerful Top Alcohol Dragster that Troy Coughlin Jr. drove to back-to-back regional championships and a pair of top-three finishes in the national points over the course of the last two seasons.

"We had a great time with Troy Jr., and I believe we showed, as we have for several years now, that we are a team that can legitimately contend for world titles," team owner Rich McPhillips said. "We are looking for a funded driver and/or some marketing partners to move forward. With the team and crew we have in place, we are ready to compete in any region."

Matt Hagan wasted little time making a statement to kick off his 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series campaign Friday night in Pomona.

Hagan drove his Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to the provisional No. 1 qualifier with a 3.867-second pass at 331.20 mph to edge his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jack Beckman by .001 at the 60th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

Well, that certainly didn’t take long.

After spending the first nine years of his professional career behind the wheel of a dragster in the ranks of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, Shawn Langdon took a little detour the past two seasons behind the wheel of a Funny Car.

Dan Horan walked away unhurt after his Nostalgia Funny Car took a high-speed trip into the top-end catch net Friday afternoon at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.

Let's begin with this: Jeg Coughlin Jr. is already regarded as one of the best drivers in NHRA history. He's won five Pro Stock championship and 63 Pro Stock races in his glorious career, so Coughlin's place in the sport is already cemented.

So finishing second in 2019 isn't a big deal, right? Wait, he finished second in 2018, too. Hmm, maybe he'd be a bit perturbed, but no worries since he's already accomplished so much.
Well, you don't get to such a lofty place in your career without always wanting more. And Coughlin definitely wants more after finishing runner-up to Elite Motorsports teammate Erica Enders last year and to Tanner Gray a year before.

Brandon Welch took care of the hard part first. The former Funny Car racer has acquired sponsors for his first season in a dragster, beginning with new-to-drag-racing Better Diesel. All he needed to do at this weekend’s test session at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was earn his Top Fuel license.

He laughed. “Yeah, no pressure,” he said. “I’m having fever dreams about getting my license, because we just set up a fully sponsored race the week after my last chance to get my license – but no pressure.

 JR Todd makes no bones about it. After enjoying a season as the reigning Funny Car champion, he was disappointed to finish seventh last November. He was the third driver on the racetrack this last Thursday as the PRO preseason testing kicked off. He had a few aspects of the 2020 campaign he was curious about – “You never know what it's going to be like . . . different car, a couple different crew guys, cold track . . .” Whatever the question marks were, it was clear he was eager to get started.

The DHL Toyota Camry driver for Kalitta Motorsports was third-quickest among Funny Car testers that first day with a 3.95-second, 287-mph pass that even was a planned shutoff. In Friday’s session, he was fourth at 3.883 – in a bunch after leader Robert Hight who all ran in the 3.8-second range. But he knows testing simply is testing.

Nostalgia nitro Funny Car racer John Lawson is dealing with a horrible loss as a result of a fire at his race garage Feb. 3 in Joliet, Ill.

“The garage is at their home and they use it as a race shop,” said Samantha Lawson-Mitchell, Lawson’s daughter, who lives across the street from where the fire took place. “He had three complete Funny Cars in there and one we were working on that we lost. He lost three everyday cars that he drives, 10 classic cars and three motorcycles in the fire. He lost everything in the fire. The garage was demolished.”