Drag Racing’s history has always fascinated three-time NHRA Funny Car champion Ron Capps. Coming up in February, Capps relishes the fact he’ll have the opportunity to be a part of it. 

Capps is just one of the frontrunning Funny Car racers entered to compete in the inaugural Scag Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout presented by Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage, Feb. 8-10, 2024 in Bradenton, Fla. The $250,000 prize posted for the winner is more than Capps or any of his Funny Car counterparts have ever raced for. 

“This event has been snowballing since the idea came up,” Capps said. “I’m pretty pumped about it. It’s fun to hear all the ideas. But I think the format will be something that we as fans – even though we’re racers – have always thought, ‘Let’s try this’ or ‘Let’s try that.’ Now is going to be the chance we get to finally do that.”

Once upon a time, less than 30 years ago, a foreign car maker could enter an American racing series dominated by American-made cars and not be the subject of continuing controversy.

Those of you who also watch circle track racing know a lot of hands have been wrung the past couple of years over NASCAR’s decision to grant Toyota eligibility to run its Camry coupes and Tundra trucks in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series.

Besides the idea of letting a Japanese manufacturer participate in what was always the all-American sport of stock car racing, the worry was, and is, that Toyota would spare no expense to engineer winning cars and trucks, possibly driving American car makers out of the game. It’s how Toyota and Honda engines came to dominate Indy Car and Champ Car racing in the late 1990s and early 2000s, forcing Ford and General Motors out of those series, although that hasn’t happened in NASCAR – yet.

When the NHRA tour kicks off in Gainesville at the NHRA Gatornationals, it will feature a new team consisting of a Top Fuel car driven by Justin Ashley and a pair of Funny Cars driven by Tim Wilkerson and Dave Richards.

Legendary NHRA team owner Roland Leong, who was known for his Hawaiian-themed fuel-burning Funny Cars and dragsters, died on December 29, 2023. He was 79.

Leong began his career as a successful gas dragster driver in Hawaii and gained popularity locally before moving to California in the early 1960s. At the 1964 Winternationals, Leong's Dragmaster-built rail won the Top Gas competition with Danny Ongais behind the wheel.

JCM Racing, the Maynard family’s team, will undergo a new transformation for the upcoming NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season in 2024. The team will transition into a two-car Top Fuel team, with Tony Schumacher, an eight-time world champion, leading the charge as the driver for JCM’s flagship entry. Joining him will be Ida Zetterström, the 2023 European FIA Top Fuel champion, who recently announced her move to the United States to pursue her dreams of competing for an NHRA world championship as a member of the JCM Racing organization.
With crew chiefs Mike Neff and Jon Schaffer at the helm, Schumacher will aim for his ninth series title and a first for JCM Racing when the season kicks off at the NHRA Gatornationals in Florida on March 8-10. 

Before CJ Jenkins ever made a pass in his Junior Dragster, he already had clearly defined goals for both drag racing and life. The kid wanted to be a Top Fuel Dragster driver and, wise beyond his years, understood such lofty aspirations required the means to fund the dream. Many of his classmates wanted to be pro athletes, while others just wanted to be famous as entertainers; Jenkins wanted to be the one who made stuff fly better and faster. He had wanted to be an aerospace engineer from a time when many of his peers couldn't even spell it. 

Recently, Jenkins took a significant step toward his aspirations in winning the Junior Dragster division at the 2nd Annual BTE King of the Coast Christmas on the Coast Junior Dragster $10,000 Invitational 64-Car Shootout presented by DragChamp. The event took place December 14-18, 2023 at Gulfport Dragway.

When one only has $300 to start a business with their wife and succeeds against the odds - nothing can overwhelm them, not even the best of the best in the Top Fuel division competing for the largest winner’s purse in the history of drag racing’s quickest and fastest eliminator.

“I know what real pressure is,” Hart added.

And coming from a driver who won in his Top Fuel debut back in 2021 [Gainesville, Fla.] and, earlier this year, won in his first-ever special race-within-a-race at the Pep Boys Allstar Callout event during the NHRA Gatornationals.

The team at CompetitionPlusTV has a series you are bound to love. Each episode delivers a top ten listing of certain topics, with honorable mentions. The Peanut Gallery, comprised of various drag racing figures, will react and comment on them.

This episode features the blowover phenomenon of primarily in the nitro ranks. While some might limit it to Top Fuel dragsters, the Funny Cars had their share of mayhem. Throw in a few Byron Power Wheelstand events and some drag radial action, you have a show chock full of wildness.

Dale Pulde just wanted to be unique.

In 1985, the world of professional Funny Car racing was in full swing with competition in the NHRA, IHRA (with only floppers and no Top Fuel) and to a lesser extent the ADRA (American Drag Racing Association, formerly AHRA) where mostly every other entry was a Firebird or a Mustang.

Pulde dared to be different.

The Pro Comp concept had all the makings of a great concept on paper, but in reality the classification is one that became antiquated the moment the 1974 season began.

Pro Comp was a star destined to shine, a bridge covering the colossal gap which existed between sportsman racing and the nitro-burning division.

The semi-professional division was actually a salve to ease the sting of losing Top Gas eliminator earlier in the season while elevating many of the “overqualified” Comp eliminator entries.

Pro Comp featured a mix of the “everything to everybody” nature of sportsman drag racing with the cutthroat nature of professional racing’s heads up pro-tree format. Maybe cutthroat didn’t describe the nature of its followers, but it described the level of competition to a tee.