Rodger Brogdon is going to be quite busy at the Menards NHRA Nationals Presented by PetArmour this weekend at Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, Kan.

Brogdon will be driving a Chevy Camaro out of the KB Racing stable, and the standout Sportsman racer will debut his Comp car – a Jerry Haas-built unique 1966 Chevy II wagon powered by a 500-inch Pro Stock engine built by Chris McGaha.

“This will be my second Pro Stock race this season as I ran in Houston,” Brogdon said. “I have a five-race deal with those guys (KB Racing) this year. I’m racing Topeka, Indy, St. Louis, and Dallas. It is a lot of fun. It had been a while since I had been in there. It’s almost like riding a bike. The KB guys make it really easy to feel comfortable.”

Most of the season nitro Funny Car driver Jim Campbell had been struggling.

That changed for Campbell at the Lucas Oil Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., Aug. 1.

Campbell, who drives for legend Jim Dunn, advanced to the semifinals. Campbell defeated Blake Alexander and Alexis DeJoria before falling in a pedal fest to J.R. Todd.

The 50th Anniversary of anything is always special; this year’s Nightfire Nationals was no exception.

The weather on a couple of days was seasonable for Idaho’s high desert, while the others were much milder.

This good weather and an excellent racing surface made for excellent racing. The other factor was the size of the crowd in Idaho. The place was full, and the drivers and crews took notice.

Spencer Massey of Fort Worth, Texas, who won 18 NHRA tour events in a brief six-year Top Fuel career, showed that he has lost none of his skill Saturday in driving Pat Dakin’s Commercial Metal Specialties dragster to an overall victory in the long-awaited return of the Northern Nationals presented by ARP and Perfit Corporation to US 131 Motorsports Park.

Massey was the only undefeated nitro driver in the round robin competition that also included three-time NHRA series champion and 62-time tour winner Larry Dixon of Indianapolis, six-time IHRA champion Clay Millican of Drummonds, TN, who was driving the Lagana brothers’ track record-holding “Nitro Ninja” dragster, and NHRA tour rookie Mike McIntire Jr. of Chesterland, OH.

Jet car gypsies are racers who live a very different lifestyle from that of the everyday racing community. Unlike most racers who race for class domination, record runs, or championship points, jet cars are actually exhibition vehicles. They are not competition machines created expressly to win every time they make thunder. On the contrary, they are WOW machines conceived to put on a show, and they get paid to show up. Winning anything is just a perk. Their bag is entertainment, not who gets to the finish line first.

They each will do their best to get to the stripe first every time, no matter who is in the lane next to them. They are all genuine racers at heart.

The professional exhibitionists who own and sometimes pilot their jet cars are a unique bunch who add greatly to the flavor of the sport known as drag racing. There are roughly thirty jet car teams in the continental United States in the year 2021. For close to 52 weeks a year, these ultimate mayhem machines crisscross continental America, earning their keep by entertaining throngs of racing fans everywhere. With enormous billowing smoke shows that can bury the largest house you can think of, and with their fire shows, they can make even the most seasoned firefighter cringe.

The fields are now set for the 50th anniversary Nightfire Nationals in Boise, Idaho.

Johnny West thundered from worst to first in the final day of qualifying, driving to the pole of the AA/Fuel Altered division. The nitro divisions headed by Bobby Cottrell (Nostalgia Funny Car) and Dan Horan Jr. (Nostalgia Top Fuel) remained at the top of their respective divisions. Ed Marx took over the top spot in Pro Modified.

West, the longtime fuel Funny Car racer who is a noted tuner in today's Big Show, came from the outside looking into the No. 1 position with a 6.100. West will take on Shayne Stewart in round one.

Multi-time NHRA Heritage Series Funny Car champion Bobby Cottrell was in a league of his own during first-day qualifying for the 50th anniversary Nightfire Nationals in Boise, Idaho.

Joining Cotrell atop their respective divisions were Nostalgia Top Fuel veteran Dan Horan Jr., Rick Van Horn (AA/Fuel Altered), and Sean Renteria (Pro Modified).

Should you ever wander through the pit area at an NHRA drag race and see Christina DiBartolomeo tossing bags at a cornhole board, just admire her work …

… because you don’t want any of that. Odds are strongly in her favor that she’ll whip your butt.

You don’t think so?

OK, be that way -- but don’t whine that you weren’t warned.

​On Thursday, August 5, high winds visited the Bonneville Salt Flats race course and wreaked havoc across the Salt. 

Gusting winds to 80 mph caused complications throughout the pits and across racing courses. The high gusting winds persisted throughout the night.

Chris Graves, the photographer turned Funny Car promoter, laughs at the notion, if his Nitro Chaos event were a dinner, it could be considered a pot luck meal.

"Everybody brought their favorite dish," Graves confirmed.

And they indeed did.

The inaugural Nitro Chaos at Eddyville Dragway in Eddyville, Iowa, attracted not only fuel Funny Cars but also dragsters and altereds. The Funny Cars were new and old, while the dragsters had engines in the rear and the front. Some entries had superchargers, and others had injectors. Some were small mom-and-pop teams and at least two Big Show NHRA fuel cars.