It seems like just yesterday, although it was 2001, when Greg Anderson earned the first of five U.S. Nationals victories 

Greg Anderson's most recent Indy win came in 2006 at the expense of Dave Connolly.

He sat there in the media center at what was then named Indianapolis
Raceway Park, not accustomed to all the attention. He looked almost
stunned at his success. After all, he had just won his first NHRA Pro
Stock race that April 29 at Bristol, Tenn.
 
"How did this happen?" Anderson said several times.
 
Well, Anderson got used to winning and interviews pretty quickly. By
2003, he was winning 12 races, then 15 the next year, taking the class
by storm and generating talk of dynasty and domination as the Minnesota
native and North Carolina transplant reeled off three straight
championships.
 

The NMCA returned to Milan, Michigan, this weekend for the Third Annual JE Pistons NMCA Muscle Car Nationals this weekend, just three
short weeks after the Concord, North Carolina stop on the tour. After a
difficult Friday that was rained out thanks to Mother Nature, the skies
lightened up for Saturday and Sunday, and we got some great racing into
the books.

In the Scorpion Performance Pro Street class, eight competitors showed
up to take their shot at the Milan Dragway 1320, highlighted by Troy
Coughlin’s 6.35 shot during qualifying. As racing action progressed,
heavy favorite Coughlin went out in semifinal action, thanks to a
starter that wouldn’t start in the burnout box, opening the door for
Chris Rini and Noel Felton to do battle in the final round. In an
anticlimactic final, Rini popped through the carburetor and didn’t
re-fire the car, giving Felton a single pass. Felton took the run,
turning in a 6.53 before the hood flew off through the traps, handing
Felton his very first NMCA Pro Street class win.

NHRA announced today that it has repositioned two events on its 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule.

The O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston has been moved to the
April 9-11 weekend, exchanging places with the SummitRacing.com NHRA
Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which will now be
held on April 16-18. The move was necessary due to NASCAR’s anticipated
2010 schedule.

“We certainly want the fans in our area to be able to take advantage of
all the great entertainment opportunities that the world of motorsports
has to offer in the great state of Texas,” said Seth Angel, general
manager of Houston Raceway Park.

Hector Arana will headline a special eight-rider field from the No. 1
qualifying position as he is seeking his first victory in the Ringers Gloves
Pro Bike Battle at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis on Sept. 5th.
The special bonus event for NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle competitors will
be held during the 55th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by
Lucas Oil, the world’s most prestigious drag race.

The total race day purse for the 19th annual Ringers Gloves Pro Bike
Battle is $61,000. The winner will earn a $25,000 bonus from Ringers
Gloves. Any rider who can win the Battle and the Mac Tools U.S.
Nationals will earn a $10,000 ‘Double-Up’ bonus from the NHRA.
 
The Battle runner-up will earn $10,000. The two semifinalists will earn
$6,000 each, while the four first-round finishers will earn $3,500
apiece.

 “Big Daddy” Don Garlits is making a comeback to NHRA competition for
the first time since 2003, driving his Dodge Challenger Drag Pak
by Mopar® into the heat of NHRA Stock eliminations at the Mac Tools
U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend. His historic first run in the Drag
Pak will be on Wednesday, Aug. 2, in A/Stock Automatic qualifying at
O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. The full U.S. Nationals event is
scheduled to begin Sept. 2 with final eliminations on Monday, Sept. 7.

Garlits hung up his helmet after Top Fuel qualifying at the U.S.
Nationals exactly six years ago in 2003. He last ran a stock class car
in 1963 when he competed in a 1963 Dodge Max Wedge drag package car
carrying “Garlits Dodge” graphics. His new Dodge Challenger Drag Pak by
Mopar has the same lettering emblazoned on its sides, along with the
same Mopar graphics from his historic run last year alongside “Miss
Mighty Mopar” Judy Lilly in Drag Pak prototypes at the Mopar Mile-High
NHRA Nationals.

John Force Racing crew chief John Medlen will join an all-star panel of
experts Dec. 1 at the inaugural International Motorsports Industry Show
(IMIS) Safety Conference at Indianapolis.
 
Medlen, who manages the Brownsburg, Ind.-based Eric Medlen Project that
grew from his son's fatal accident in a Funny Car in 2007, will join
Wayne State University's Dr. John Melvin and Safety Solutions Inc.
President Trevor Ashline. Melvin and Ashline helped sort through the
dynamics of Eric Medlen's crash and gave direction to JFR as it formed
the foundation for the safety project.
 
IMIS co-founder Chris Paulsen has put together an all-star line-up that
former CART Vice-President and Director of Operations Kirk Russell will
coordinate.
 
The list includes another name familiar to drag racers. Tom Gideon,
currently NASCAR's director of safety initiatives, was for 38 years a
General Motors engineer who became manager of the automaker's Racing
Safety Program. Among his projects today are the development and
installation of SAFER barriers.

For seven years a refrigerator white, 1964 Chevy II wagon terrorized
the IHRA landscape. The car was no best appearing candidate, but it
could run hard and win.

It rambled around the Carolinas and the Southeast, hunting and
gathering round wins and purses along the way. One month in 1974 this
legendary race car won as much as $15,000 in one month.

The high-winding Modified eliminator runner, known simply as Gene
Fulton’s white wagon, won three world championships with the ace engine
builder behind the wheel.

Veteran Funny Car racers Peter and Helen Russo are targeting a return
to racing on home soil for the 2009/10 Australian Drag Racing season.

Four-time Australian Funny Car Champions, the Russos have based their racing in the USA since the 1999 season.

Self-funding
their limited campaigns, the Russos won the 2000 AHRA Funny Car World
Finals held at Spokane, Washington, defeating a field that included
two-time NHRA World Champion Cruz Pedregon and NHRA national event
winner Gary Densham.

The Russos ran a best of 5.035 seconds with
their Dodge Avenger Funny Car at the NHRA Automobile Club of Southern
California Finals at Pomona, California in November, 2006, before the
debut of a new Chevrolet Monte Carlo the following season.

Three repeat winners re-established their dominance at Summit Motorsports Park outside Norwalk, Ohio this weekend as over 250 racing
entries did battle at the Goodguys 8th DuPont Blue Suede Cruise. Steve
Nichols (Funny Car), Darrell Wathen (B/GAS) and Sam Patrick (Nostalgia
Gas) went home victorious for the second year in a row as racers
enjoyed cool temperatures and an ultra-sticky racing surface which
resulted in spectacular runs in both pro and sportsman classes. Rich
Guasco’s “Pure Hell” and Dave Hough’s “Nanook” fuel altereds also gave
the fans their money’s worth over the weekend coming to the line for a
three-race match race which culminated in a thrilling Sunday climax run
with Nanook’s 6.460 @ 198.79 defeating Pure Hell’s 6.475 @ 214.11! The
crowd went wild!!!!

Nostalgia Funny Car action provided wild
side by side action. Sunday’s final round between low qualifier Peter
Gallen and Steve Nichols turned into the quickest side-by-side
Nostalgia Funny Car race in the history of Goodguys Vintage Drag
Racing. Gallen and his gorgeous “Poverty Stricken” ’74 Vega were
quickest in every round of qualifying and eliminations and it appeared
to be his race to lose. But his slightly tardy reaction times proved to
be his undoing in the money round as he lost a heartbreaker on a
holeshot to defending event champion Steve Nichols in the Mill Road
Boys ’70 Camaro. Gallen and his team put on a show that will not soon
be forgotten. His successive runs throughout the weekend were 6.048,
5.898, 5.919, 5.913 and 5.899 in the final.