Bob Tasca III has never led the NHRA point standings in his Funny Car driving career. But after securing his sixth No. 1 qualifying, he’s hoping heading into race day as the top seed at the NHRA Midwest Nationals will put him atop the championship race.

The leaderboard remained unchanged after substantially warmer Saturday's conclusion of qualifying at World Wide Technologies Raceway Park. Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Erica Enders (Pro Stock), and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

Tasca’s 3.852 elapsed time at 324.90 mph on Friday was never in jeopardy. 

“Very exciting, but one round at a time, one run at a time,” Tasca said. “We really don’t pay as much attention to what the cars around us are running. We have enough data now with this car and enough track information to go up there and try to go as quickly as we can for the conditions that are presented.

Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Angie Smith was involved in an accident during the second qualifying round at the NHRA Midwest Nationals outside of St. Louis, Mo.

Smith became separated from her bike shortly after passing the finish line at World Wide Technology Raceway. She came to a rest in the track's shutdown area. 

This has been a season to remember for veteran NHRA nitro Funny Car driver Bob Tasca III.
 
He navigated through an offseason when he was searching for new crew chiefs to being in the mix to win his first career nitro Funny Car world championship.
 
Tasca III arrived at the Midwest Nationals in St. Louis, fresh off a win at the last race in Charlotte, N.C., and second in the points standings just 25 back of leader Robert Hight.

Timing is everything in life and sports, and veteran Top Fuel driver Doug Kalitta’s couldn’t be better.
 
After a so-so 2023 NHRA regular season, Kalitta has been on a torrid pace in the ever-important six-race Countdown to the Championship.
 
Kalitta won the first two races in the Countdown – Reading, Pa., and Charlotte, N.C., and vaulted himself into the points lead.

A day after Mother nature came up big during Wednesday's action at the RAD Torque Systems Fall Fling presented by Optima Batteries at Bristol Dragway, she was no match for Mike Barber during the ATI Performance Products $30,000 Thursday.

Barber outlasted 424 other competitors for the big payday, the first main event big check of the weekend. In the end, he beat Chris Ferguson in a double-breakout match. 

Never let it be said that John Force isn't up for a good story, either telling or creating one. And some of the best stories are created on Force-inspired road trips.

The 16-time champion, drag racing's ultimate rags to riches story, has always remembered where he came from, whether it's the trailer park in Bell Gardens or the logging community of Redwood Creek. On July 3 - 5, Force embarked on a journey with film producer Brent Travers and digital coordinator Aaron "AJ" England to relive a few of those memories.

Iconic doorslammer chassis builder Jerry Bickel passed away on April 5, 2023, but his legend in the Pro Modified division will carry on. This weekend, Bickel’s successful brand will serve as the presenting sponsor of the NHRA Pro Modified competition during the NHRA Midwest Nationals, the ninth of ten races on the Fuel tech Pro Modified Series. The race is held at World Wide Technology Motorsports Park, the closest venue to Bickel’s Moscow Mills, Mo.-based chassis shop. 

Bickel, known for his prowess in building some of the class’ quickest and fastest cars, will always be remembered as the builder of the first Pro Modified national event winner in March 1990 in Darlington, SC. 

There’s a big difference between empathy and sympathy in Dan Parker’s world. 

Parker, in 2012, was one of the iconic outlaw Pro Modified doorslammer racers tearing up the tracks around the Georgia and Alabama region when on March 31 of that year, he lost control of his nitrous-injected Corvette and took a tumble in the Alabama International Raceway shutdown area.

By nature, Clark Smiley’s GTO isn’t the kind of car, at first glance, you would expect to see in Competition Eliminator. 

But, on the contrary, the nature of Competition Eliminator is to provide refuge for the dozens of oddball combinations one can concoct in one's mind. Thanks to the Rooftec Division 4 Competition Eliminator bonus spearheaded by Rodger Brogdon, cars like Smiley’s gas-burning, 406 cubic inch Pontiac, topped with a 14.71 supercharger and others, are making their way regularly to NHRA divisional and national events. 

While it could also be written off as a novelty, Smiley’s blown entry has qualified No. 1 at two NHRA Division 4 events and, most recently, back-to-back final round appearances at the Tulsa double-header race.