Top Fuel racer Steve Torrence remained the dominant car in the category on Friday and raced to the provisional qualifying lead in the category at the NHRA Carolina Nationals presented by WIX Filters at zMAX Dragway.

Ron Capps (Funny Car), Erica Enders (Pro Stock), and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also provisional No. 1 qualifiers in their respective categories at the fourth of six playoff events during the 2018 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship.

Jeremy Ray, who won the most recent race in the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by J&A Service in Dallas is the current No. 1 qualifier during their portion of the NHRA Carolina Nationals presented by WIX Filters. This weekend’s Pro Mod racing, presented by MR RACE OIL ®, is the 11th of 12 races this season.

Ray leads the category with his run of 5.705-seconds at 252.10 mph in his ’63 Corvette during qualifying

John Force shared the Auto Club stage in the baking Saturday afternoon sun last weekend in Dallas with company president Robert Hight and teammate daughters Brittany and Courtney as fans gathered to ask questions.

Beginning at the 2018 SEMA and PRI shows, JE Pistons will be recognizing engine builders’ hard work, creativity, and commitment to combustion with a new competition dubbed Masters of Motors. Judged by industry experts David Freiburger, Brian Lohnes, Steve Brulé, and Mike Kojima, the competition will pit the top engines of SEMA and PRI against each other on the grounds of creativity, style, engineering, as well as several other facets.

Robert River, 25-year-old son of Pro Stock journeyman Dave River, was the odd man out in the 17-car Pro Stock field by .025 of a second two weeks ago in his NHRA debut at St. Louis. He absorbed another DNQ last weekend, as well, falling .18 of a second short of recording bis first NHRA pro start. 

Before he took to the Texas Motorplex track last Friday, the Maquoketa, Iowa, native who followed his father and older sister Amanda in the sport, said, “Our plan is to be safe, keep the car and motor intact. You know, progressively get better through the weekend. Keep going solid A to B’s. Just do our best and have some fun out here. That’s kind of the bottom line.”

Top Alcohol Dragster racer Justin Ashley understands the importance of driver safety. He's also in tune with the importance of a driver's well-being, which is just as important. 

Ashley, throughout his second season, has been racing with the aid of a custom-fitted GuardLab mouthguard. While some might be content to get something from a local sports store, he believes you get what you pay for.

"Personally, it’s helped me with performance, relaxation, and concentration," Ashley explained. "As it pertains to NHRA, it can help other drivers do the same. There’s something to be said about having a nice, comforting, safe mouthguard backed by the necessary sciences to prove it."

The recently completed event at the Texas Motorplex is a special one for Top Fuel racer Clay Millican, mainly because it’s “one of the first races my parents let me go to without them when I was racing Super Comp. I raced Super Gas first, but one of my parents usually would go.”

However, the high-schooler from tiny Drummonds, Tenn., had chaperones – his two sisters.

“Now, because I travel so much, the Texas Motorplex seems like a short trip to me. It’s basically eight and a half hours from home. But at that age, it was like a trip across the world because it wasn’t like we traveled that often,” Millican said. We certainly raced all the time, but it usually was within an hour or two of the house. So coming here was a huge deal, especially without my parents coming with us.

Defending NHRA champion Robert Hight is quick to shake off praise for his toughness. After all, the 49-year old doesn't play baseball, a sport he gave up 31-years ago, or any stick and ball sport for that matter. He's a race car driver; piloting a 10,000-horsepower, 320-mile per hour Funny Car in the National Hot Rod Association's Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. 

Hight climbed behind the wheel of his race car a little over a week after surgery to repair a broken collarbone suffered three days earlier when the engine in his Camaro exploded during the final round of the NHRA Midwest Nationals. The force of the explosion destroyed the body on his race car, sending the chassis housing Hight head-on into the left retaining wall. 

Lee Beard can add another line to his ever-impressive career resume.

Beard, an NHRA world championship crew chief and team manager, will be inducted into the Great Pueblo Sports Association Hall of Fame Nov. 14 at the Occhiato Ballroom at the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus.

Beard is a native of Pueblo, Colo. Beard was a 1971 graduate of Pueblo Central High School, and a 1975 graduate of the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo with a degree in industrial arts.

Former Top Fuel driver Spencer Massey still is at the dragstrips. He still gets his nitro fix. And the Fort Worth native, who’s competing in the Top Alcohol Dragster class at the NHRA FalolNationals, said he’s having a lot more fun than he ever had as a pro.

“I have a bracket-racing program. I have a ’71 Nova that I’ve had forever, my street car that I turned into a bracket car. And I have a 2007 Super Comp dragster that I bought from Megan Meyer. Since she went to an alcohol dragster, she stopped running Super Comp. So I bought her bracket dragster. I’ve been running that and my Nova every weekend and having fun,” Massey said.

“The bracket-racing program with all the sportsman racers around the country is the best family and the best people out here in drag racing. I can go anywhere in the country every weekend and find a great bracket race to go to with great money and have fun doing it.