For NHRA Top Fuel legend and three-time world champion Antron Brown, there’s something even more important than the success of his career – the success of his children. Now, as his middle child, Anson, prepares to age out of Junior Dragster competition, Antron is preparing for the next generation of Brown family racers in full size drag racing.

Before he got started racing in NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle in 1998, Antron attended Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School to complete their Pro Stock Motorcycle class; he joined the Don Schumacher Racing team in 2002 and returned to the School with teammate Angelle Sampey in 2005 to brush up on his skills.

If drag racer Alex Laughlin were a major league baseball player, he'd be known as a utility player. In other words, he's a jack of all trades and has pretty much mastered all of them.

"That's really what I should've done because I'd make a lot more money, for sure," Laughlin admitted.

For the record, Laughlin has licensed and raced an NHRA Pro Stocker, a Pro Modified, an A/Fuel Dragster, and has even won behind the wheel of a Radial vs. The World car, essentially a Pro Modified car on drag radial tires.

For a man who fights fire for a living, driving a fuel Funny Car in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series should be another formidable challenge.

Chris King will make his competition debut next Friday at the Dodge NHRA Mile High Nationals.

King, who has experience behind the Top Alcohol and Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars, will drive a Toyota for Mark Howard's Papillion, Neb.-based Howard Motorsports Funny Car operation.

Oh yes, with the Facebook posts of Rickie Smith headed to Jerry Bickel's Race Car shop one simply had to know something was up. Here it is. The Trickie one, Trickie Rickie Smith has taken delivery of this supercharged Camaro from Bickel's race car emporium. The question remains. Will this be a flirtation just like in the past? Or is the Trickster in this for the long haul. Time will tell.

Aaron Stanfield received his introduction to Thunder Mountain July 8.

The versatile race car driver was making test laps in Factory Stock Showdown 2020 COPO Camaros at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., just outside of Denver.

“I thought things went pretty good,” said Stanfield, 26. “I drove my car, Stephen Bell’s car and David Janac’s car. I made seven runs I think total. I drove all three cars so we could test them out and get them dialed in and get a feel for what they like up here. I have never raced here. I came here (to Bandimere Speedway) many years ago in Pro Stock with my dad, but I have never raced here. This will be my first time.”

 
Ty-Drive, a leading manufacturer of lockup and non-lockup torque converter drive units, will serve as the presenting sponsor of next week’s Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) Summer Shootout at Virginia Motorsports Park, July 15-17. Numerous Ty-Drive-equipped racers will compete at the fifth race on the PDRA tour, including Ty-Drive founder Todd Tutterow and Pro Nitrous points leader Jim Halsey. 
 
“The Tutterow family has been a part of the PDRA since the very beginning, and we’re excited to have their company, Ty-Drive, on board as the presenting sponsor of the Summer Shootout,” said Will Smith, marketing director, PDRA. “It’s really cool to have Todd Tutterow racing in the PDRA, serving our racers as a manufacturer, and now supporting the series as an event sponsor.”

Defending world champion Jim Halsey remains at the front of the Professional Drag Racers Association’s (PDRA) Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous class after qualifying No. 1 at all four races this season. With four races remaining on the 2021 PDRA schedule, Halsey has all but locked up another Nitrous Wars presented by Structural Concrete title for his team and engine builder Gene Fulton. 
 
“Nitrous Wars presented by Structural Concrete has been a show of dominance at the halfway point of the year,” said Tyler Crossnoe, race director, PDRA. “Jim Halsey, Brandon Switzer and Fulton Racing Engines have flexed their muscles through the first four races. Pat Musi, Charlie Buck, Sandy Wilkins, Billy Albert and others are not too keen of this and have been in their respective shops working hard for the remainder of the 2021 chase. We at the PDRA look forward to seeing the world’s best bottle-fed racers battle it out four more times until a world champion is crowned.”

Suppose there's a statistical question that has virtually all of the drag racing community scratching its head. In that case, there's a good chance noted historian and iconic announcer Bret Kepner has it stored away in the back of his mind for safekeeping.

Back in March, the day before the NHRA Gatornationals was set to kick off the 2021 season, Kepner was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame. Even after giving his acceptance speech, Kepner remains surprised he was considered for such a prestigious appointment.

"I was really, really shocked when I got that phone call from [Don] Garlits," Kepner said on a recent episode of the CompetitionPlus Power Hour. "And that would've been Labor Day of last year. I did not know that I was on the ballot, and therefore, it was really goofy when he called me up. And one of the first questions I asked was why? Obviously, there's a trillion people far more worthy than me to be in that group. To be inducted into any Hall of Fame is an incredible honor. I'm lucky enough to be in a couple of others, but this one's special.

Greg Carrillo has raced countless events at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., over the years. It is his home track, just 90 minutes from his race shop headquarters in Fort Morgan, Colo.

However, Carrillo didn’t get to compete at Thunder Mountain, as it is known, in 2020 because the race was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Mile-High Nationals are back this year – July 16-18 – and Carrillo is thrilled to be competing there in his Top Fuel dragster.