It was deja vu - in the worst sense of the term - for Jasmine Salinas this year at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. In the semifinal round of Top Alcohol Dragster competition, she found herself in the same lane (the right), facing the same competitor (Karen Stalba) as she had just one year ago when she survived a traumatic experience that still lives on, rent-free in her mind. Lifting off the ground, seeing only blue, flying through the air, landing in a heap of unrecognizable metal - a terrifying blowover that shook her to her core. This year, the outcome was very different. After defeating Stalba, she went on to win her first national event in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. It was not an easy journey to the winners circle. It was one full of emotion, determination and persistence. And isn’t that what makes any journey great? 

Famed research professor and author Brene Brown says, “Vulnerability is not weakness. It’s our greatest measure of courage… Vulnerability is not winning or losing. It’s having the courage to show up when you can’t control the outcome.” If that’s the case, every drag racer who gets behind the wheel faces extreme vulnerability. This sport is emotional. It’s psychological. It’s dangerous. It takes a mental toughness that is courage at its finest. 

Jasmine Salinas is not afraid to be vulnerable. In fact, she’s not really afraid of much, now…

In what promoter Donald "Duck" Long described as "essentially a $115,000 test session," Jason Lee, Charlie Cooper, Tim Kincaid, Rob Goss and Kieffer Simpson prevailed in their respective classes Mar. 27, for Duck X Productions' Sweet 16 V at South Georgia Motorsports Park.

In front of minimal fans and with relatively small fields in each of the five featured classes--Radials vs. the World, Pro 275, Limited Drag Radial, X275 and Ultra Street--it was a quick, tight show that wrapped up about 1 p.m Sunday.

There are times when Ozzy Moya wonders, “Why in the world do I run a dragstrip?”

Then there are others when he wonders what he would do without it.

“Honestly, it’s a love/hate relationship,” Moya said when asked what makes him want to be a dragstrip owner. “I believe there’re some racers that appreciate everything you do. And it keeps you motivated, but then some of them just bash you, and they’re never satisfied. And it makes you think, 'Well, what do I do this for?' I will tell you that the good ones outweigh the bad ones. I would say that 80% of the people that do appreciate what you do — and they do — when things go wrong, they make a phone call to me, It outweighs the negatives. You’ve always got those one bad apples or two bad apples that honestly sometimes make you wonder, ‘Why do I do this?'

The Funny Car Chaos Classic, the second annual season opener for the popular flopper series, brings all of the action annually with sixty-plus entries to the hallowed grounds of the Texas Motorplex. We have highly-acclaimed photographer Dave Kommel bringing us a photo gallery of the event.

​Technically he wasn’t wrong. 

NHRA’s Jeffrey Young responded to rumors which suggested that Wild Horse Motorsports Park was going away as a drag racing venue. Multiple reports had circulated the web hinting the track would be demolished to make way for hotels, a concert venue, and office buildings, among other things.

“It’s not going anywhere,” Young responded to CompetitionPlus.com in a January 23, 2021 article. “We plan on being back there in 2022.”

Apparently, beyond 2023 is another story. 

Multi-time Funny Car Chaos Champion Ken Singleton experienced a fire behind the wheel of his race car on Friday evening during qualifying for the Funny Car Chaos Classic at the Texas Motorplex.

According to witnesses, the car became engulfed in flames at half-track, and once it came to a stop, he was able to exit the car under his own power as the safety team of the Texas Motorplex arrived. Singleton was said to be alert and talking to race officials before he was airlifted to Parkland Burn Hospital.

Team spokesperson Tammy Singleton delivered this update on the team's Facebook page.

March 3, 2002.

It was a good day for late-winter drag racing in central Florida.

Seventy-eight-degree temps warmed the asphalt, the fans, and racers at Orlando Speed World Dragway. Cloudy skies, and a comfortable southerly breeze of 15 miles per hour.

It was a near-perfect setting for the kickoff of the Fun Ford Weekend season, especially for racers from cold climates who had toiled through the winter to get back to action.

So what could go wrong?

​Pep Boys Auto Service & Tires recently announced that Pep Boys, one of the nation’s leading automotive service networks, is partnering with NHRA Top Fuel driver Mike Salinas at several events on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule this year. Coming off of their first win of the season in Phoenix, the Scrappers Racing team, led by Salinas, first revealed this new partnership at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. when the 11,000-horsepower dragster rolled up to the starting line displaying a new Pep Boys livery, catching the attention of everyone in attendance as well as the thousands tuned in to NHRA on Fox. 

This partnership marks the first time that Pep Boys, a staple in American auto service for more than 100 years, has sponsored a driver in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series and the esteemed car care provider plans to partner with Salinas for several additional events throughout the 2022 season including the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., close to the Pep Boys headquarters in Philadelphia.

What started out to be a discussion about next weekend’s NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway ended up being a declaration of love.

All that moderator Brian Lohnes asked John Force toward the end of an NHRA-arranged Zoom press conference with the John Force Racing (JFR) team was which lane in a four-wide race he prefers.

Before he closed the session by saying, “Robert [Hight] stole my line: the one you win in,” Force poured out his heart about drag racing and its premier sanctioning body and pronouncing the sport has a bright future.

“The pandemic about took me out, mentally and financially. And the sponsors stayed by me, by us. In the process, I changed a lot of how I looked at things,” he prefaced. “But I know how to get my mind right.”

Veteran nitro Funny Car Paul Lee didn’t like the trend his team has been since 2021.

The 2021 season saw Lee finish 12th in NHRA’s point standings after compiling a 7-15 elimination round record.

Unfortunately, things haven’t gotten better in 2022.

Lee failed to qualify for the season-opening Winternationals and then lost in the first round to Robert Hight and Chad Green in Phoenix and Gainesville, Fla., respectively.