Although the schedule had to be rearranged a bit due to rain earlier in
the day, the opening round of qualifying is complete at the NHRA Lucas
Oil Drag Racing Series event at Beech Bend Raceway Park.  Robin Samsel,
Marion, Ind., is the best qualifier in Top Alcohol Dragster and
Davenport, Iowa’s Chris Foster is No. 1 in Top Alcohol Funny Car.

Samsel outpaced the Top Alcohol Dragster field by more than a tenth of
a second, putting him squarely in the No. 1 spot.  His 5.370-second,
255.29 mph run was more than enough to cover No. 2 qualifier Ken Perry
of Richmond Hill, Ont.  Perry ran 5.475 seconds at 257.97 mph. 
Currently, there are nine Top Alcohol Dragsters vying for a spot in the
eight-car elimination field.

Reigning Pro Stock champion and current Full Throttle point leader Jeg
Coughlin Jr. was just 6 years old when his father Jeg Coughlin Sr.
won his first of two Indy trophies. But even at that tender age, Jeg
Jr. realized how important it was to claim glory on drag racing's most
hallowed grounds.
 
Sixteen years later, the extraordinary feeling of accomplishment that
comes from conquering the sport's longest running event returned when
Jeg Jr. watched from the grandstands as older brother Troy Coughlin
handled a competitive Super Gas class to earn the hardware.
 
Just a year after that, Jeg Jr. was in the driver's seat of his own
JEGS-sponsored Super Gas hot rod, beating veteran Sherman Adcock for
his first U.S. Nationals title. It was almost too much for the lifelong
drag racer to comprehend and the memory is as special now as it was 17
years ago.

Marvin Bridge came to the States nearly two decades ago and has found a niche in racing Modular Mustangs
on radial tires on the NMRA series. This is considerably different than
the combination he ran in Super Stock halfway around the world.

Then again, Bridge is used to change having migrated from Australia to Southaven, Miss.

“It's very, very different, said Bridge, his Australian accent still
very much intact, when asked about the cultural differences between
Australia and Mississippi. “Where do you start? There are just too many
differences. One thing with drag racing, it’s pretty well the same all
over. As long as you knock around some drag racing you don't know where
you are anyway. It's pretty good.”

Getting in good with the fast Mustang racers was a good start.

Drivers in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge presented by
ProCare Rx will be signing autographs and eating wings  from 5-7 PM
Thursday evening, September 3 at Buffalo Wild Wings in Speedway, Ind.
 
Fans are invited and encouraged to join the party for a laid back and
enjoyable time before the marathon of the Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals
kicks into high gear.

The National Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL) is pleased to announce that Goforth Racing’s two-car Extreme Pro Stock (XPS)
team has chosen to finish its 2009 National Guard ADRL season with
appearances at both remaining ADRL races: Sept. 11-12, in Rockingham,
North Carolina, and Oct. 23-24, at Ennis, Texas.

Dean Goforth, the most recent XPS winner on the ’09 National Guard ADRL
Tour, and son, Cary, both from Holdenville, Oklahoma, have competed in
both the National Guard ADRL Extreme Pro Stock and IHRA Pro Stock
classes this year, but with both series racing on the same weekends as
the year winds down, a decision had to be reached.

“We knew this day was coming six months ago and it was a very hard one
to make, but we had to do what’s best for our team,” Cary Goforth
stressed. “We looked at where we are in the points for each series,
evaluated different scenarios and to be honest, this is the only choice
that makes sense.

Tony Pedregon nearly chose a career in boxing.
 

He trained for months for his first bout, but his debut was postponed
after his sparring partner opened a cut near his eye. So he informed
his mother, "I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is
I'm not going to be a boxer. The bad news is I'm going drag racing."
 
With General Motors filing for bankruptcy in July and backing out of
its agreement with Pedregon and several prominent Po Stock teams, the
two-time NHRA Funny Car champion and current points leader is in a
fight for his financial life.
 
Again, Pedregon has a good-news/bad-news situation.
 
The bad-news part is obvious.

The passion to drag race is something that never seems to die for some people.
 
Terry Earwood can attest to that fact.
 
Earwood,
who last drove in the Super Stock class in 1996, is coming out of
retirement to compete at the 55th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in
Indianapolis Sept. 2-7.
 
"I'm already thinking about all of my
old friends who I'm going to get to see and I driving again is just
going to be a hoot," the 61-year-old Earwood said. "There's nothing
like being a part of the atmosphere at the U.S. Nationals. It's the
biggest drag race in the world."
 
Earwood is going to drive a
1982 Super Stock Camaro for his good friend John Livingston at Indy.
Livingston, who is 66 years old, plans to compete at the event in a
1982 Stock Eliminator Camaro. The two Camaros will carry the L&L
Auto Sales sponsorship. That's Livingston's business in Murfreesboro,
Tenn.

Riding a streak of back-to-back victories that has catapulted him to a
240-point lead in the NMCA's Pro Street category, veteran racer Troy
Coughlin arrives at Milan Dragway for this weekend's third annual JE
Pistons Muscle Car Nationals with designs on putting the NMCA Edelbrock
Series Championship out of reach.

Coughlin and his JEGS.com teammates have been close to perfect over the
past two events, setting a national record en route to a big win in
Chicago before plowing through the field in Charlotte by posting the
quickest elapsed time of every round.

"We didn't do much to the car other than clean everything up and double
check all the components," Coughlin said. "If we can keep it repeating
like it has been and stay in that low 6.3-second range, we like our
chances.

The fifth annual Las Vegas Pro Stock Showdown will take place Feb. 5-6,
2010, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The event – the
biggest pre-season professional drag racing competition in the country
– also will include the first-ever Las Vegas Supreme Sportsman Series
with racers in Super Comp, Super Gas, Top Dragster and Top Sportsman
categories competing for record purses.

“For eight years fans and racers alike have been coming to Las Vegas
the weekend prior to Pomona's Winternationals to kick off their racing
season with one last shot of testing by the professional teams," said
Chris Blair, LVMS’ vice president of racing operations.  “In 2006, we
added the Pro Stock Showdown and that event just continues to grow each
year. The best Pro Stock racers come to Las Vegas for the opportunity
to test under excellent conditions. It’s an exciting race format that
showcases the most competitive cars in the sport and awards an
impressive winner's trophy.”

One of the largest automotive events of it's kind, the 3rd Annual
Muscle Car Reunion, featuring hundreds of muscle cars from the 60s and
three days of nostalgia drag racing, will take over Kansas City
International Raceway on Friday through Sunday, Sept. 11-13, 2009.
 
This event is unique as three of the nation's top nostalgia drag racing
organizations will have a presence at the MCR as the National Hot Rod
Association's "Hot Rod Heritage Series" tour, the Drag Racing On
Line.com Nitro Funny Car circuit and the Nostalgia Pro Comp Association
will all have their own qualifying and eliminations during the weekend
making for three races in one event.  Other classes racing include the
Midwest Nostalgia Super Stock, which will crown it's series champion at
the race, the Hot Rod and Muscle Car divisions and the very popular
"Geezer Gassers.
 
Highlighting the on-track action will be a full field of nitro
Nostalgia Funny Cars racing all three days competing for the series
points lead.  Entries include "Doc" Halladay's "Telstar" Plymouth
Arrow, Greg "Jake" Jacobsmeyer's "All-Star" Dodge Challenger and Paul
Romine's "Man-O-War" Ford Mustang among others.