Penske Racing Shocks and Precision Racing Suspension will serve as the class co-sponsors of the Professional Drag Racers Association’s (PDRA) Pro Boost class in 2020, series officials announced today. The two collaborative brands signed a multi-year agreement that also continues their role as a series contingency sponsor.  
 
“Penske Racing Shocks and Precision Racing Suspension have had a major presence at the PDRA races for years now, and we’re thrilled to have them step up as the co-sponsors of Pro Boost,” said Will Smith, marketing director, PDRA. “The Lambert brothers provide technical support for our racers in numerous classes, and I’m sure that will only continue to grow through this new partnership.”

On February 23, 2019, tragedy turned Kyle Michalek's life upside down. His wife, Steph, passed away unexpectedly while giving birth to their son Andrews.

Almost six months later, Kyle returned to the place he has called home for many years - the drag strip.

Kyle, who tunes the Top Alcohol Dragster driven by his younger brother Corey, returned to the drag strip during the 2019 Night Under Fire event, the independent extravaganza promoted by Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. The evening was one the siblings and many race fans will never forget.

Corey made sure no one would.

With three of the five entries in Top Fuel, team-owner Santo Rapisarda is unfazed at the prospect that teammates Wayne Newby, Damien Harris, and Ashley Sanford will race against each other at the New Year’s Thunder meeting at Willowbank Raceway, January 4.

“Under the one-day format, it will happen,” said Rapisarda. “It’s not the first time that we’ve had teammates racing one another. The last time it happened was at the opening round of the season, the East Coast Thunder meeting in November, when Wayne defeated Ashley in the semi-final. All I want is to see is all three cars race hard and put on a good show for the crowd.”

NHRA VP of Operations Graham Light described the summer of 1978 as a lot of fun.

Former Funny Car driver Gordie Bonin felt it was a balanced mix between fun and the absurd.

The two drag racing figures teamed up as drivers in the 1979 B movie Fast Company.

Fast Company featured lots of Funny Car footage in its storyline about an aging Top Fuel driver and a sponsor-driven team owner who walked outside of traditional ethical lines. There were plenty of fires and a number of explosions, some skin from the female actors and a great measure of ludicrousness from producers not familiar to the sport.

It's hard to picture it now because he's been so big for so long, but even Kenny Bernstein was once a little guy like everybody else. He worked on the car, rode in the truck with the rest of the team, and once drove a truck by himself from Texas to Puyallup, Wash., to race, not knowing who was going to be there to help unload the car when he got there.

"Prudhomme, Force – probably anybody you can think of – started out that way," Bernstein said. "People see what we have today and presume everything was handed to us. Trust me, it wasn't. Almost all of us had nothing when we started except a love for the sport."

Ever heard the one about how Bernstein got his original Budweiser deal by towing his car to Budweiser's St. Louis headquarters and unloading it in the parking lot for employees to see on their way to work? It's true.

When John Montecalvo first approached Sonny Leonard about purchasing a new powerplant for his IHRA Pro Stock entry, the legendary engine builder wanted nothing to do with him. Now, the newly crowned PDRA Pro Stock world champion is the longest-standing continuous customer for Sonny's Racing Engines.

"It was the late-'90s and I was with another engine builder, but I realized Sonny was the leader of the pack. He was building motors for Doug Kirk, Billy Huff, Harold Denton, who was number one and my mentor back then, and they were all winning races left and right," Montecalvo recalls. "But Sonny thought I was just going to take his engine to my guy and copy it, so he wouldn't sell me one.

Peck Racing, a Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car team that competes in the NHRA Heritage and UNFC series, will be partner with QuoteWizard, an online Insurance marketplace as its primary sponsor for the 2020 season.  

“PeckRacing is beyond thrilled to join forces with QuoteWizard in the 2020 season,” said Michael Peck, team owner. “We are even more excited about introducing the NHRA fan base to QuoteWizard’s Insurance marketplace.  Our fans and followers will quickly realize there is a lot of money to be saved when using QuoteWizard to shop for your Auto, Home, Life, Health and Medicare insurance.

FOX Sports and the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) today announce the release of the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series television schedule, highlighted by live FOX broadcast network coverage of four consecutive summer events, including the  “Western Swing” (Denver, Sonoma and Seattle), as well as the iconic U.S. Nationals from Indianapolis on Labor Day Weekend.

The 24-event 2020 FOX NHRA season opens Sunday, Feb. 9, with the 60th Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals live from Pomona, Calif., at 5:00 PM ET on FS1. Fifteen of the season’s final 16 events are scheduled to air live, including the season finale Auto Club NHRA Finals from Pomona.

The theme at a lot of the booths at the 2019 PRI Trade Show has been collaboration and partnerships.

A lot of companies, racers and teams announced unique alliances and partnerships to help better grow their race teams and businesses and one of those highlighted at the show was that of Boninfante and Pro Torque.

With the beautiful Fireball Camaro from Discovery Channel’s Street Outlaws that just won the No-Prep Kings series on display in the booth, Joseph Rivera of Pro Torque highlighted the partnership between his company and Boninfante to create the best products available to the racing public.