All good things must come to an end and we concluded the 2016 NMRA Keystone Automotive season with the 18th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA All-Ford World Finals at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. With one last chance to accrue crucial championship points, racers were going all out in hopes of going big, or simply going home. Despite initial rain delays, the race wrapped up in a big way as six heads-up and five index champions were crowned as the sun dipped into the horizon on Sunday.

The baddest of the bad came to go rounds in VP Racing Fuels Street Outlaw. After two rounds of rain-shortened qualifying, Joel Greathouse driving Charles Hull’s turbocharged ’92 Mustang took the top spot with a 4.439 at 170.92 mph pass. In eliminations, it was last year’s champion Phil Hines with his ProCharged ’01 Mustang who got the final word when it came to winning as he defeated Greathouse who uncharacteristically rolled the beams and allowed Hines to cruise to victory.

Just weeks after announcing a new partnership with NHRA legend Warren Johnson to campaign a Pro Stock car in 2017, the Philpot Family Racing team has signed a new major sponsor. Falcon Automation, an oilfield automation company specializing in systems integration, has signed on to back the team’s sportsman racing entries owned by Tim and Lareasa Philpot and driven by their sons, Austin and Aaron, beginning at this weekend’s Thunder in the Heartland NHRA divisional event in Noble, Okla., Oct. 5-9.
 
“We’re extremely happy with the partnership,” said Austin Philpot, a two-time Junior Dragster champion. “We feel it’s something that’s going to benefit both us and Falcon Automations."

The 2016 NHRA Breakfast, held annually at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, will continue the celebration of NHRA’s 50 years of Funny Car with some of the sport’s biggest stars.
 
Funny Car drivers featured during the NHRA breakfast are include pioneers of the sport Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen and “Jungle” Pam Hardy, along with current Funny Car racers John Force and Del Worsham.

Drag racing has done well to prepare PDRA Pro Extreme racer Terry Legget to expect the unexpected. 

Leggett, a logger from Pinetown, NC, had his preparation put to the test earlier this year during a routine physical. He missed a few races but is now back and feeling better than ever. 

An examination revealed Leggett had melanoma on an eye and cancer in his thyroid. What was supposed to be only an eye examination led to the discovery of the thyroid issue. 

The OFAA series, presented by Lone Star Forklift, welcomed eleven fuel altereds to the property.

All eyes were on three particular drivers who found themselves in a heated Championship battle for the 2016 OFAA series title. Nick Poloson and team "Sundown" entered this event with just an eight point lead over Donny McSwain's "Wild One" entry. Our most recent winner, Raymond Dawson and team "High Octane" sat comfortably in third just three points behind McSwain as an eleven point gap separated the top three.

Officials from the American Drag Racing League have unveiled their 2017 ADRL Tour schedule. The eight race tour will kick off in March in Florida and finish up the first weekend of November in St. Louis.

“I want to personally thank each and every track owner and manager that has reached out since it was announced that the ADRL would be returning in 2017,” said ADRL President and CEO Kenny Nowling.

 As the 2016 Sportsman class champion at Ohio’s famous National Trail Raceway, veteran drag racer Dana Thompson’s success on the strip is a combination of natural talent, hard work, a great team around him and the best performance technology on the market in his ’67 Camaro.
 
And throughout most of his nearly 25-year racing career, Thompson has utilized an innovative program to ensure he never misses a chance to try the latest and greatest performance products.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the road less traveled for Ron Capps.

Capps has been competing in NHRA’s Funny Car ranks since 1997 and he’s still searching for his inaugural world championship.
Capps has finished second in the points in 1998, 2000, 2005, and 2012.

With this third race of the season, the stakes are greater as championship points become scarce and racers need to make every round count. The 5th Annual Energy Suspension NMCA West Street Car Nationals featured several racers who pulled away from the rest of the pack, while others found it hard to dominate the competitive fields.

In Fastest Street Car Pro Mod, Mack Moffat put an end to Greg Seth-Hunters dream of a perfect season. In the final round, Moffat took the starting-line advantage and would go on to take the win, 5.17 to 6.03 over Seth-Hunter.