Jeff Perley, a successful Pro Stock crew chief, will return to the NHRA
Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Pro Stock community in 2009 as co-crew
chief for Allen Johnson’s Mopar team.

Perley will team up with the existing powerhouse combination of Mark
Ingersoll and Johnson’s engine builder and father Roy Johnson.

Perley’s resume includes a stint with Kurt Johnson (1997 – 2001) and four championship runs with KB Racing.

“I probably over-killed things a little bit.”

This is what Kenny Barnes, the owner of the new Dallas Raceway, said
when asked about the construction of his new all-concrete facility 24
miles east of Dallas, Texas. Barnes, who undertook the construction of
Dallas Raceway with his eye on building a successful place to spend his
retirement, has been meticulous in every detail of his facility. He
hired engineers to test the concrete that will make up his racing
surface, he plotted and planned, taking the steady approach towards the
construction as opposed to throwing something together and worrying
about fixing it later. And the result, when all is said and done, will
be one of the nicest drag racing facilities in the country.

Antron Brown and Lee Beard will continue to lead championship-contending NHRA race team

3B Racing (owned by Tim Buckley) and David Powers Motorsports (owned by
David Powers) announced today an agreement that will see 3B Racing as
the sole owner of the Matco Tools Top Fuel Team driven by Antron Brown.
The transition was completed in an effort to align the financial
estates of Buckley and Powers. Powers remains the owner of Hot Rod
Fuller’s Caterpillar team.

The Matco Tools and Caterpillar teams will continue to operate from the
team’s Brownsburg, Ind. race shop in the heart of NHRA drag racing near
Indianapolis. The structure of the team remains intact with Lee Beard
as the crew chief and Brown, an 18-time NHRA winner, as the driver of
the Matco-backed rail. The Matco Tools and Caterpillar teams will
continue to operate on a shared technology basis. The configuration of
the 3B Racing/DPM pit setup also stays with the popular Iron Eagle Club
hospitality area located between both the Matco Tools and Caterpillar
Top Fuel teams.

When Chad Head left the NHRA’s employ years ago to join the Indy Racing League he wondered if he’d worked his last job in

Chad
Head (right) poses for a picture with his dad Jim Head, a noted nitro
racer. The second-generation Head returns to drag racing as the team
manager for Alan Johnson's Al-Anabi operation.

drag
racing. Shortly before Alan Johnson’s announcement that he’d signed an
agreement to field a two-car nitro team in conjunction with Al Anabi
Motorsports, his questions were answered.

Head is the team manager for Johnson’s Alan Johnson/Al Anabi
Motorsports team scheduled to debut in January 2009 when testing opens.
He can say with a high amount of certainty that he’s happy to be back
in drag racing.

“Alan called me when he was putting the team together and asked me if I
would be interested,” Head said. “Considering the long-standing
relationship between my dad, myself and the Johnson family the decision
was really a no-brainer. The toughest part of the decision was leaving
the Indy Car series and the person I worked for -- Brian Barnhart.”

Alan Johnson/Al Anabi Motorsports team manager Chad Head would love to
earn a dollar for every time someone has inquired or tried to get the
inside scoop regarding who will drive the team’s Top Fuel dragster in
2009. He’d be a rich man.

“We’re still working on that and Alan’s got it narrowed down to a
couple of people,” Head admitted. “I think he’s just trying to put the
finishing touches on a few things. We could have an announcement within
a week or so.”

Racers for Christ is currently conducting an eBay auction for an
autographed John Force helmet along with an NHRA Fan Experience for an
upcoming 2009 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series national event of the
winning bidder choosing. The helmet was recently autographed by the
14-time Funny Car champion at the conclusion of the 2008 NHRA POWERade
season.

The International Hot Rod Association, a division of Feld
Entertainment, Inc., will keep its current  1/4 mile format for all
Nitro Jam national event races. This traditional drag racing format is
what works best for IHRA as a sanctioning body, its racers and fans
according to IHRA vice president of racing operations, Skooter Peaco.

“With our cars, our speeds, our drivers and our safety precautions in
place we feel we can safely maintain our current format,” Peaco said of
quarter-mile Nitro racing. “We are an organization that is known for
making big changes when we need to. We tend to make conservative
decisions in this area and have completely stopped racing at events
when conditions existed that were outside our comfort zone regardless
of the class we were running at the time. By no means is our decision
to continue quarter mile an attempt to stick our heads in the sand and
pretend our sport doesn't need to address these issues. This decision
is simply no different than ones we have made in the past.  We will
continue to monitor the speeds our cars produce, continue to have open
conversations with our drivers and adjust as necessary. We have to make
decisions based on IHRA nitro teams and our unique situation.  Nothing
is more important than our driver's safety.”

The 2008 IHRA season saw consistent, strong fields in both Nitro
classes at Nitro Jam national events. While there were the occasional
on-track incidents associated with 8,000 horsepower vehicles in
straight-line acceleration contests, the ’08 season was one of the
safest and most incident-free in IHRA history. That, Peaco contends, is
a tribute to many people.

Richard Maskin understands the traditionalism of Pro Stock and the
rules surrounding the class. However, in light of recent developments,
and the gradual pullback in factory support during the last
half-decade, the Pro engine builder and noted cylinder head specialist
wonders if the time has come for those in charge to consider changing
some of those rules which were created based on factory participation.

Maskin has no problem in admitting an agenda, but his is shared by many of today’s aftermarket parts manufacturers.

Per the NHRA rulebook, in certain divisions, select parts such as
cylinder heads and blocks require factory part numbers although these
components are often cast in a place other than in the manufacturer's
foundry.

“Now that the car companies have all but pulled out and the aftermarket
industry has been supporting it and will continue to support it, the
NHRA should open their eyes,” Maskin said. “There’s been a stigma for
fifty years now whether it’s NHRA or NASCAR that racing is the car
companies’ territory.