​NHRA Funny Car point leader Ron Capps understands the influence this weekend's Toyota NHRA Nationals could have on his bid to win a first-ever NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series championship. 

Forgive Capps if he smirks a little at the mention of two of his most disappointing days, and the fact they transpired at the very race track he heads into wielding a 61 point lead. Two key DNQ (Did Not Qualify) outings have shaped the position he currently holds.

Flashback to four years ago, at the 2012 NHRA Las Vegas Nationals, Capps missed the field. This shortcoming led to a crew chief shake-up at Don Schumacher Racing where multi-time world champion Rahn Tobler became his crew chief.

It didn’t take Texas Automatic Outlaws racer Chris Domino long to find success with his new Pat Musi-built 903 cubic inch nitrous motor.  In his first race out with the newly acquired power plant, Domino reset his personal best elapsed time and speed on his way to taking a win at his hometown track of Evadale Raceway just outside of Beaumont, Texas.  A hung throttle in a Friday night test run almost ended Domino’s weekend, but the team was able to make the necessary repairs to get his Pro Mod 1968 Camaro ready for Saturday’s competition.
 
The Texas Automatic Outlaws is an organization aimed at giving the ‘little-guy’ a chance to run heads-up Pro Mod.  Performance restrictions are in place on all of the power-adders in an effort to maintain parity and control costs.  Eliminations are run using a sportsman ladder.

NHRA announced it has named Aeromotive Inc. as the presenting sponsor for the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series portion of the NHRA Toyota Nationals at Las Vegas, Oct. 27-Oct. 30. The race is the tenth and final event for the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series in 2016.

"Aeromotive is proud to be the title right sponsor for the NHRA Pro Mod class at the Vegas Nationals,” said Steve Matusek, president of Aeromotive Inc. and Pro Mod racer. “This is our third year sponsoring Pro Mod at this event and it has been very gratifying to see the Pro Mod class grow, both in popularity with the fans and participation with the racers. In our opinion this is the most competitive heads-up class in NHRA and we are looking forward to continuing our partnership with this class for years to come."

The hysteria of the Chicago Cubs making their first World Series since 1945 is alive and well in Chicago, including at NHRA nitro Funny Car driver Bob Bode’s house in Barrington, Ill., which is 25 miles from Wrigley Field.

“We sure like watching the Cubs,” Bode said.

The last time three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon raced for Rapisarda Autosport International was at the Reading, Pa., and Dallas races, and he said he was simply filling in for Las Vegas-bound Wayne Newby.

RAI announced Wednesday that Dixon will be back in one of its dragsters, this time back in Australia at the Nov. 4-5 East Coast Thunder meet at Australia’s Sydney Dragway.

A crude green 1955 Chevrolet called the Night Stalker was the result of a conversation between two dudes, literally. 

Greenville, South Carolina's Greg Porter, who is known for his penchant to call his friends Dude, was at a cruise-in about seven years ago and befriended an old school drag racer named Dude Moore. 

Moore revealed to Porter that he still had an old original Gasser sitting out behind his shop in the South Carolina countryside, and if he could do a restoration on the classic machine justice, the car was his. Though he could have gotten the car for free, he still gave Moore $3,000 for the basket-case Gasser. 

Several recently crowned world champions of the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) backed up their titles with season-ending wins at the PDRA Brian Olson Memorial World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park, Oct. 20-23. NAS Racing Pro Extreme champion Brandon Snider defeated defending world champion Jason Scruggs in the final round, while Tommy Franklin (Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous presented by MoTeC), Kevin Rivenbark (GALOT Motorsports Park Pro Boost), and Eric McKinney (Drag 965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle) ran world-record performances en route to their victories.

Six rookie drivers representing the four NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series categories, Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle, were announced by officials from NHRA and Automobile Club of Southern California as the eligible candidates for the 2016 Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award.
              
The award, which recognizes the top rookie competitor in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and offers a $20,000 prize and traditional trophy to the winner, will be presented during NHRA’s annual championship awards ceremony on Monday, Nov. 14 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, Calif. The nation’s leading auto racing journalists will select the winner through a voting system based on the following criteria: number of events participated, performance on and off the racetrack, participation in NHRA promotions and relationships with fans, sponsors and media.

JEGS Automotive, Inc., has extended its agreement with the NHRA as title sponsor of the JEGS Allstars event.

The extension will keep the JEGS name on the race-within-a-race bonus program for the best of the best NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series competitors.  JEGS has been a long time title sponsor since 2002 and in that time, the JEGS Allstars event has continued to be one of the most anticipated events during the season where individual and team bragging rights are at stake.

Tony Bartone knew he could not lose the Top Fuel final round at the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, Ca. With a third consecutive championship on the line, Bartone defeated past Heritage Series champion Jim Murphy to take home yet another title. 

Bartone, who entered the final round as the No. 1 qualifier, ran a 5.600 elapsed time at 247.25 miles per hour to easily defeat Murphy's 9.519, 74.74.