Montana’s Derek Menholt earned the Aeromotive Wild Card Shootout win at the inaugural Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod presented by One Cure and J&A Service at Bandimere Speedway Friday night. Menholt was awarded a $10,000 check and one of the final spots in the invitation-only World Series of Pro Mod Main Event, which has a $100,000 winner-take-all payout and will be contested on Saturday.
 
Menholt’s day began with two shakedown runs as he and the other Wild Card Shootout participants prepared for eliminations. He received a bye run in the first round of eliminations, then pedaled his Steve Petty-tuned ’68 Camaro to drive around Tommy Johanns’ supercharged ’53 Corvette in the semifinals. In the final round, Menholt charged toward the finish line and reached the stripe ahead of Daniel McKune in his supercharged ’68 Firebird.

Friday qualifying was led by Steve Torrence in the Top Fuel category at the 30th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

Robert Hight (Funny Car) and Bo Butner (Pro Stock) were also provisional qualifying leaders in their respective categories at the 16th of 24 events on the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule.

Steve Matusek prides himself on being relaxed and calm no matter the situation.

He proved that even a crash just over a month ago and a rush job to get the car repaired couldn’t make him flinch, and the Pro Mod veteran hopes a similar reaction will be apparent during this weekend’s high-stakes Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod race at Bandimere Speedway.

The Western Swing has been fun for Jim Dunn Racing as they are closing in on a spot to compete in this year’s NHRA Countdown to the Championship.  

This week at Pacific Raceways in the Seattle market, driver Jim Campbell will try to repeat his recent semifinal round at Denver with a goal to advance and win the finals.

On July 30, LE Tonglet was crowned the Pro Stock Motorcycle champion at the Toyota NHRA Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals over Matt Smith.

The only problem with that is the photo finish FOX Sports aired live appears to show Smith crossing the finish line first.

“I’m not mad at NHRA or anybody like that,” said Smith in an exclusive interview with CompetitionPlus.com Wednesday. “I just want to understand and have a clear picture of this.”

Even fictional boxer Rocky Balboa, a character made famous by Sylvester Stallone, would have been envious of Scott Palmer. 

Palmer, the likable Top Fuel driver who is a throwback of days gone by in fuel racing, stands on the cusp of something many hoped for but didn't believe possible. 

If the regular season ended today, Palmer and his Cat Spot Litter-sponsored dragster would be in the Countdown to the Championship with a mathematical chance to win a world championship. 

Jim Campbell is having the time of his life. 

The driver of the Jim Dunn Racing Funny Car is one of four drivers in the battle for the final Countdown to the Championship spot available with just three races left in the regular season.

Campbell's ranked 11th, just eight points behind two-time NHRA champion Cruz Pedregon. He's 15 ahead of Jonnie Lindberg and 21 in front of Del Worsham. He's 65 behind Alexis DeJoria. 

Many racers will tell you that ending a season on a positive note, especially with a victory, is a good way to set the tone for the upcoming year, and that certainly was the case for Jason Rupert, who closed the 2016 season by winning at a track he had always wanted to conquer, Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif.

"We had been trying to win there for a really long time, but for whatever reason, it just never happened," said Rupert, who has piloted the Rupert & Littlefield Rolling Thunder Nostalgia Funny Car to six national championships, three in IHRA and three in NHRA. "I never had good luck there when I was racing Top Alcohol Funny Car, either. We’ve qualified No. 1 there a bunch of times and made the first 260-mph run there at the March Meet in 2012. 

Last year Leah Pritchett was what some might call a nitro nomad. 

These days she's looking for a much bigger house considering her nomadic experience is in the rearview mirror.

Pritchett, who started the 2016 season as a fulltime driver for Bob Vandergriff Racing, found herself three races into the season looking for a new gig. She bounced around from team to team, three total, putting deal after deal in place until Don Schumacher offered her a ride to finish the season. And then the deal to end all deals materialized as Papa John's Pizza stepped up with a deal to fund her through the final six races of the season.

Simply put, Gary Phillips is a legend in Australian drag racing. 

Sunday, in front of a capacity crowd at Darwin's Hidden Valley Drag Strip, he provided proof while he's an icon in Pro Alcohol racing, he's still very much on the competitive edge in Top Doorslammer competition. 

Phillips successfully defended his Top Doorslammer event championship and put an exclamation mark on his final appearance as a Lucas Oil-sponsored driver. His qualifying elapsed time of  5.721 was also a personal best for the 47-year veteran.