DJ Cox is on the journey of a lifetime, not just talking about him making his way down to Ennis, Texas, for his first visit to the historic Texas Motorplex for the Texas NHRA FallNationals. The Maryland native recently clinched his fourth regional NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series title in his DXI Construction Top Alcohol Funny Car. But make no mistake, Cox has his eye on a bigger prize, and the hunt takes this drag racing family on the road. Regardless of what happens this season, this journey has been full of adventure.

Cox is currently just 63 points behind the national points leader, Shane Westerfield, and only ten points ahead of the third-place driver, Sean Bellemeur. While the Cox family crew typically doesn’t venture any further west than Indianapolis to compete, they’ve been broadening their horizons this year to finish the season strong.

Buddy Hull learned the importance of power and how to harness it for the greater good in his life. Today, he’s using horsepower in a similar fashion. 

For the former professional powerlifter, Hull is using the color pink to show there’s strength in the hue. He sees nothing but power in the pink adorning his Vertex Roofing and General Contractors dragster.

Hull is using this power to raise money for cancer research and will donate the proceeds to Baylor University. 

The Professional Drag Racers Association’s (PDRA) ninth season will wrap up this weekend at the Proline Racing Brian Olson Memorial World Finals presented by ProCharger, Oct. 13-16. World championships will be on the line as the all-eighth-mile series returns to its home track, Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP), for the third time this season. 
 
“The Brian Olson Memorial World Finals is a huge race for all of us at PDRA and VMP,” said Tyler Crossnoe, series director for PDRA and VP of racing operations at VMP. “There’s so much on the line at this race, which makes things especially exciting for the fans. The conditions are usually some of the best we see all year, so the racers are running on the ragged edge chasing world records and personal bests.”

There is plenty to do this week at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas long before the Texas NHRA FallNationals, Oct. 14-16.

One of the headlining events at the 2nd annual Stampede of Speed was Scott Palmer’s Nitro Side Show, which took place Oct. 10 at the facility.

“Well, the first time was kind of a spur of the moment, just a thing that it was dreamed up and we whipped it out there and it worked out so good that social media blew up over this deal,” Palmer said about the inaugural Nitro Side Show in 2021. “Then, I probably got 1000 or 2000 messages and I had at least 10 racetracks contact me about, ‘Hey, why don't we do this at our track?’ And so, you know that people are taking notice when they do that. So, when (Texas Motorplex officials) called me this winter, we just decided well we need to do it again and do some things different.”

Palmer explained the differences in 2022.

Two drag-and-drive stars, Garrett “Cleetus McFarland” Mitchell and Rick Prospero, faced off in a double final round for big money, big checks, and big trophies in two different classes to wrap up the 10th annual FL2K presented by Brian Crower at Gainesville Raceway. Mitchell scored the win with a career-best 6.543-second pass at 221.38 MPH to finish ahead of Prospero and his 6.741 at 209.33, taking the win in Elite Street Car Shootout and Extreme 28s. 
 
The double final round was just one of the thrilling final rounds that closed out five days of action at Gainesville Raceway. The historic NHRA track played host to FL2K after Hurricane Ian caused damage to the event’s usual home track, Bradenton Motorsports Park, just days before the race. 

​Success has never been so rewarding.

Every time Kalitta Motorsports has won a round, Feeding America has been better able to feed the nation’s homeless. The Ypsilanti, Michigan team announced recently they and primary sponsor DHL would team up to donate to Feeding America, the largest charity working to end food hunger and insecurity in the United States through their Drive for Purpose Challenge initiative.

Thanks to a resurgence in performance, 140,000 meals have been donated.

All good things must eventually come to an end, and on Saturday, during Day Two of the second annual Stampede of Speed hosted by the Texas Motorplex, the 2022 Funny Car Chaos season concluded.

In the A Field, it was No. 1 qualifier Kirk Williams capping his world championship season with his sixth win of the year, defeating Mike Newkirk for the Funny Car Chaos trophy commemorative Stampede of Speed belt buckle. Williams was second off the line in the final but made up the difference almost immediately, getting the win with a 3.679-second pass to Newkirk’s 3.749-second run.

There were 32 qualifiers in the A field.

 
A special shootout with four of the quickest cars on the property closed out Saturday qualifying at the 10th annual FL2K presented by Brian Crower at Gainesville Raceway. Rick Prospero collected the $3,500 payday, adding to a day that also saw the Florida native qualify No. 1 in Street Car Shootout presented by Motion Raceworks and Real Street Performance. 
 
Driving his twin-turbocharged, big-block-Chevy-powered Mazda RX-7 known as the “Green Mamba,” Prospero used a 6.753-second pass at 203.89 MPH to knock out David Farlow and his 6.779 at 177.77 in the first round of the shootout. In the final round, he left the starting line first and posted a consistent 6.769 at 203.28 to beat Jonathan Atkins and his 6.916 at 202.91. 
 
“This win means a lot because we finally got the car to another level of power and it's pretty consistent,” Prospero said. “We tried to lean on it a little bit harder the first round and it wheelied, but we managed to gather it up and still got the win.”