Versatility is in Alex Laughlin's DNA. 

Laughlin, the face of the Gas Monkey enterprise in drag racing, has raced a variety of race vehicles from Pro Stock to an A/Fuel Dragster to a 10.5-inch tire Drag Radial entry and soon a turbocharged Pro Modified. 

"A lot of people asked last year the difference between the A/Fuel Dragster and the Pro Stock car and how you adjust because they’re so different, and they are," Laughlin admitted. "Everything about them is different, wherein the Pro Stock car the shifter is the brake handle in the Dragster. 

Among the many performance marks smashed during the running of Willowbank’s 51st Gulf Western Oil Winternationals was the raceway’s oldest track record.

Thirty-nine track records were broken at the June 7-10 event, including the B/Modified Altered marks of 9.95sec and 133.53mph (214.88km/h) which were set as minimums for the opening meeting of Willowbank Raceway in September, 1985. When Willowbank officials were preparing to open the track 33 years ago, the elapsed time records from Surfers Paradise International Raceway were adopted as minimums, along with the national speed records.

 
Impressed with the success of the inaugural DRAG ILLUSTRATED World Series of Pro Mod, MagnaFuel is back as a sponsor for the second year of the event, and it is bringing big Top Dragster and Top Sportsman purses with them.
 
Drag Illustrated officials announced today that MagnaFuel has been named the title sponsor for both the Top Sportsman and Top Dragster classes at the DRAG ILLUSTRATED World Series of Pro Mod, which takes place Aug. 10-11 at Bandimere Speedway. The winners in both the MagnaFuel Pro Star 16 for Top Dragster and Quick Star 16 for Top Sportsman will receive $4,000, an impressive purse that has already gotten the attention of racers in both classes.

NHRA officials confirmed today that Summit Racing Equipment has renewed its title sponsorship of the NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League, a popular racing league for kids ages 5-17.
 
The NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League celebrated its 25th anniversary during the 2017 season and continues to enjoy impressive growth and participation from youth across many of NHRA’s 120 member tracks throughout the United States and Canada. Competitors in the NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League race cars called Jr. Dragsters, which are half-scale versions of Top Fuel dragsters. They go as fast as 85 mph and as quick as 7.90 seconds in the eighth-mile using a five-horsepower, single-cylinder engine, though younger age groups are restricted to slower times and speeds.

Sixteen-time Funny Car world champion John Force will be making a special appearance at the Triad ParkerStore located in Brook Park, Ohio (5305 W 137th St.) on Thursday, June 21.
 
“ParkerStore is a great partner of ours. I’m always excited to get out to any of their stores but getting to be a part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the Triad location in Brook Park just makes it even better,” said Force, driver of the PEAK Coolant and Motor Oil Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car. “The whole day is going to be a great show and I’m looking forward to getting to meet the fans and employees at the store. Our partners are important to us and coming out for events like this is just a small way for us to show them that.”

Strains of the Tennessee anthem “Rocky Top” had floated over the hills, and the crowd at Bristol Dragway had dissipated just as quickly.
 
NHRA Chaplain Craig Garland had brought Clay and Donna Millican plates of food – because, Millican said, “he knew that we had been nonstop.” He offered encouraging words, and probably shook his head that the Top Fuel racer was chomping on a bologna sandwich. (“He brought this wonderful food over and I was already eating a bologna sandwich, which is towards the top of the list for me, anyway. Tennessee boy likes him some bologna.”) Garland bid them goodnight.

Tony Schumacher has insisted all year long that he and his U.S. Army Dragster team “know we’ve got a good car, and sooner or later things are going to start going our way on Sundays.”

It happened sooner rather than later, in Sunday’s Top Fuel finish to the Fitzgerald USA Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals at Tennessee’s Bristol Dragway.

It’s hard to imagine Ron Capps with pompons in his hands and leaping into the splits Saturday upon entering crew chief Rahn Tobler’s office in one of the NAPA AUTO PARTS technical trailers at zMAX Dragway at Bristol, Tenn.

But if that’s what it would have taken to help his Mello Yello Funny Car team snap out of a 13-race slump, the 2016 NHRA Funny Car champion would have happily taken the chance on ripping a groin muscle.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. hadn’t been in a winner’s circle for about four years until he won the NHRA Pro Stock title two weeks ago near Chicago in his JEGS.com/Elite Performance Chevrolet Camaro.

He followed that by winning the Super Comp Sportsman title a week ago in Virginia and made it three straight Sunday when he won the Pro Stock title in the Fitzgerald USA NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol, Tenn.