Drag racing can often be a survival of the fittest competition. Keith Haney knows this all too well after his experience last weekend at the St. Louis Midwest Pro Modified Series [MWPMS] event during the Anarchy at the Arch event.

The action for Haney began before his team even arrived at the track, northeast on I-44, approaching the halfway point of their 400-mile trip, when a tire suddenly let go on the trailer, forcing an emergency stop at the next available exit in tiny Mount Vernon, Missouri.

Trevor Eman and the Aruba.com team just took delivery of a new Jerry Haas-built 2018 Mustang. This will be the first major update for the team since they debuted their 2011 Mustang seven years ago. The new Mustang will be equipped with their tried and true Jon Kaase Ford power. 

“The car is beautiful,” stated team owner Ven Eman. “It’s difficult to say, but it’s even more beautiful than the other one. It’s really nice. It looks fast and it should be more aerodynamic.”

Team owner and driver Cruz Pedregon announced Wednesday the hiring of noted tuner/crew chief Tommy DeLago as the crew chief for the team’s Snap-on Toyota Camry Funny Car effective immediately.

“Tommy has one of the most impressive resumes in the sport and we believe he can help take our Snap-on Funny Car to the Countdown to the Championship playoffs,” said Pedregon. “His championship-winning experience will be a tremendous asset to our program.” 

NHRA world champion Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson has made his return to racing this season.

Johnson has been trying his hand in the Factory Stock Showdown class and now he’s expanding his schedule – at least for one weekend.

Johnson will match race Sept. 8 in his 2015 Dodge Challenger at Mountain Park Dragway in Clay City, Ky., as part of Mopar’s at the Mountain event Sept. 7-9.

The race coverage for the DRAG ILLUSTRATED World Series of Pro Mod, which takes place Friday and Saturday at Bandimere Speedway, will get even better as race officials announced today that Aeromotive, Inc. has been named the sponsor of the World Series of Pro Mod’s “Embedded” vlog-style video series.

World Series of Pro Mod Embedded presented by Aeromotive will give fans unprecedented, behind-the-scenes access in the days leading up to the $100,000 winner-take-all event. The video series will include six comprehensive, high-quality videos in a vlog-style format starting Monday and continuing each night through the conclusion of Saturday’s final eliminations.

On a night made for racing, Sikeston, Mo.’s Daniel Pharris edged Shane Stack at the line for the victory in the VP Racing Fuels LDR class at Anarchy at the Arch V. The fifth year of the Premier Street Car Series’ brand of small-tire racing at Gateway Motorsports Park saw incredible racing all weekend, including Pharris’ 4137-second ET at 185.38 mph against Stack’s 4.191 at 181.06 mph. In the Morrow Bros. Ford Radial Vs. The World class, Marty Stinnett raced door-to-door with Jeff Naiser to the stripe, earning the big check with a 3.748-second pass at 201.16 mph over Naiser’s 3.780 at 194.66 mph.

Rising from a 12th-place start in the largest and quickest field in Frankenstein Engine Dynamics Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS) history, Kevin Maddux scored his first series win Aug. 5, during the 5th annual PSCA Street Car Super Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park, near St. Louis. Also celebrating victories with the all-eighth-mile drag racing series were Marty Stinnett in Radial vs. the World (RvW), Alan Felts in the X275 drag radial class.

“This particular race was something outstanding, special, a history-making event,” MWPMS owner and promoter Keith Haney declared. “We had the biggest Pro Mod field in our history, the quickest field ever, it gave us our sixth different Pro Mod winner in six races so far this year, and I can’t even count how many of our racers made career-best runs—even a lot who didn’t qualify—they still left St. Louis with big smiles on their faces. And that’s what this is really all about, letting these guys shine in a series that gives everyone a chance to compete.”

This season there have been plenty near-miss race wins for Ron Capps.

The driver of the Pennzoil Synthetics/NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger for Don Schumacher Racing had three runner-up finishes in 2018 and just one win at Bristol, Tenn., June 17.

Just 16 races after personnel changes that made his Matco Tools / Toyota / U.S. Army Dragster crew feel like an entirely new team this year, Antron Brown snapped a 23-race winless streak Sunday at the CatSpot NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

Brown used a 3.835-second elapsed time at 322.88 mph on the 1,000-foot suburban Seattle course to defeat Leah Pritchett in a Top Fuel showdown between two Don Schumacher Racing drivers with U.S. Army backing. Pritchett challenged with a 3.849-second, 320.13-mph effort.