Any way you slice it, second-generation drag racer Mick Snyder experienced a tremendous season. He added his sixth career series championship, winning the Texas Outlaw Pro Modified crown. The championship was the seventh overall for Snyder Motorsports, which has won in four different organizations and five different classes with dragsters, funny cars, and door cars.

Despite traveling 7,822 miles, and at times racing in an adjusted altitude of 9.079 feet above sea level, Snyder made the most of the 13 events he competed in at eight different tracks. He certainly made the most of his 63 passes.

These passes resulted in four final rounds and seven No. 1 qualifiers.

Some might see Rob Boninfante as one of the most influential people in professional drag racing. After all, three of the most significant needs in fuel racing are tires, nitromethane, and clutches.

Rob serves as the driving force behind Boninfante Friction, the largest supplier of clutches for the fuel ranks.

Rob, who stands as one of the more colorful manufacturers in drag racing, purchased the brand from his father Nick Boninfante Sr. some years ago.

Roger Conley has joined the team at Holley Performance as Motorsports Sales Manager.

Conley brings with hi.m three decades worth of experience, which includes product development, sales, technical support, and engineering. Previously he has held General Manager Positions with Racepak and Precision Turbo and Engine and currently serves as the Technical Director for the NMRA/NMCA sanctioning bodies.

They didn't come with pitchforks and torches in the middle of the night, but that kind of a mob might have been easier to deal with at the time. They were a secret circle of sorts, the kind that traveled with a chrome-plated anvil replica seeking to make everyone remember their most forgettable moments.

While the multitude of personalities we interviewed couldn't say definitively who created the "anvil award," they didn't hesitate to point out who kept the recognition of shame going.

It was all on former crewman Mike Guger, a Dale Armstrong protege who tuned Leah Pritchett to her first NHRA Top Fuel win. He readily takes the credit for drag racing's version of the Darwin Awards.

The week of December 9th is shaping up to be a busy one for Don Schumacher Racing, NHRA’s preeminent drag racing team. The 32nd annual Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show gets underway in Indianapolis, Thursday, December 12th, and DSR’s star-studded roster of drivers have been selected to be the featured guests at the trade show’s prestigious Grand Opening Breakfast that morning.

Jack Beckman, Antron Brown, Ron Capps, Matt Hagan, Tommy Johnson Jr., Leah Pritchett, and Tony Schumacher will join noted motorsports broadcaster Ralph Sheheen on-stage for a live talk-show style panel in front of more than 3,000 industry professionals. The event is available to all PRI attendees, free of charge, and will be held at the Sagamore Ballroom in the Indianapolis Convention Center. Doors open at 7:00 a.m. 

Jason Rupert understands there are 24 hours in a day. That reality hasn't prevented him from petitioning God for an extension.

"Either that or stop time," Rupert said. "It's coming. We'll be ready. I've got just about everything. I just lack a few things, and we'll have to push forward and get ready for that test session, and hopefully, everything will go good, and it'll all work out."

Rupert is gunning to have his big show Mustang Funny Car ready for the PRO Winter Warm-up in Phoenix, at the end of January.

Mobil 1™ will return to the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series in 2020. ExxonMobil, in partnership with Toyota Racing Development (TRD), will become Kalitta Motorsports’ official lubricant partner in 2020 and Mobil 1 racing oil will be used in all team cars. 

Under the agreement, ExxonMobil will supply Kalitta Motorsports, the seven-time NHRA world championship-winning team, with a newly developed Mobil 1™ Drag Racing motor oil, along with other lubricants, while also providing engineering support throughout the season. In addition, ExxonMobil will continue to develop next-generation lubricants to improve engine and gearbox performance.

“NHRA is one of the most extreme forms of motorsports on the planet, and it is the perfect place to showcase the performance of our advanced Mobil 1 synthetic lubricant technologies,” said Kai Decker, global motorsports and sponsorships manager at ExxonMobil. “ExxonMobil last competed in NHRA back in the 1990s.  Our return to the NHRA is the result of a true development and competition partnership between TRD, Kalitta Motorsports and our Motorsports Technology team at ExxonMobil Engineering and Research Company (EMRE).”

With son Cory calling the shots on his turbocharged '92 Mustang, Randy Matlock won the 2019 Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS) X275 championship.

"We've won several races in different classes before, but this is our first big championship," the Wentzville, MO-based driver said. "So it was especially gratifying to do it as father and son, a lot of fun."

After scoring his lone Mid-West Series race win at Memphis in September, Matlock, 60, took over the points lead from Kenny Hubbard and his Procharger-equipped '74 Nova, then followed up with a runner-up finish to seal the deal a month later at the MWPMS World Finals in Tulsa.

Eric Lane has joined Cruz Pedregon Racing as co-crew chief on the team’s Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger Funny Car for the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. 

Lane has worked with some of the sport’s biggest names including Jimmy Prock, Rahn Tobler and Austin Coll. He has been a part of over 30 wins and two world championships. Lane will team with Nick Casertano, who he worked with at Tasca Racing on the team’s rebuild in 2018, as co-crew chiefs on the team’s entry. 

Wins in each of the opening pair of races for the 2019 Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Pro Mod Series season led to a championship-winning season for Top Sportsman veteran Earl Folse.

In the season opener in March at the Texas Motorplex, Folse beat eventual points runner-up Bob Gulitti in the Race Star Wheels Top Sportsman final. Hailing from the aptly named Raceland, LA, he repeated the feat the next month in St. Louis, where last-round opponent Mark MacDonald broke out at the eighth-mile stripe.

"You always go out there hoping to get the win everywhere you go, but we really didn't expect to win two in a row," Folse admitted. "That really got the ball rolling.