As a multi-time world championship-winning team Kalitta Motorsports knows what it means to be in a tough fight. The entire organization understands one of the toughest real-life fights is the daily battle millions of Americans face against cancer. In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month all three Kalitta Motorsports race cars will add pink to their livery for the NHRA national events contested in October.
 
“We have lost some brave women in our lives to breast cancer and we wanted to honor them as well as everyone else across the country and world who is dealing with this terrible disease,” said Chad Head, Kalitta Motorsports General Manager. “The month of October is a busy month for our race team with multiple events across the country. We wanted to help keep this issue in front of people and encourage them to keep fighting as well as support this cause however they can.”  

Former Division 2 Services Coordinator Cody Savage has been named the NHRA’s Southeast Division Director (Division 2), serving NHRA member tracks in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Puerto Rico.
 
A native of Loganville, Ga., Savage graduated from Georgia Southern University with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Sport Management. He got his start in motorsports in 2009 as an event worker at Atlanta Dragway. Savage assumed the role of Division Services Coordinator in 2014 and relocated to his current home in Gainesville, Fla. In that capacity, he was responsible for client service and account management, event planning and staffing, processing licenses and memberships, and on-site event management for the more than 25 events held annually within the Southeast Division.

The Funny Car Chaos series concludes its 2020 Championship Tour presented by Red Line Shirt Club and Mears Mazda Volvo this Friday and Saturday at Alamo City Motorplex outside San Antonio, Texas. The season finale will cap off a challenging, yet amplifying effort for the series to push through the obstacles of the pandemic we have all faced this year.

At the World Finals, Funny Car Chaos is upping the payouts for its sixteen qualifiers which will now top $30,000 total and pay the ‘A’ Field winner $7,500 and ‘B’ Field winner $5,000. Without a doubt, this is icing on the cake for the passionate racers in this series and adds excitement to what is sure to be a thrilling weekend of flopper racing in Texas.

Out West, in the Midwest, down South, against any challengers, against each other, after skipping events or buzzing through consecutive final-round appearances, the duo of two-time and reigning NHRA Top Fuel king Steve Torrence and dad Billy Torrence always seem to find a way to dominate. Together they had won exactly half of the previous six races in their Capco Dragsters before arriving at this weekend’s Amalie Oil Gatornationals.

Steve Torrence tipped the scales for a third championship in his favor Sunday by conquering Florida’s Gainesville Raceway at his dad’s expense. He used a 3.809-second elapsed time (curiously, his slowest of the day) at 322.11 mph on the 1,000-foot “Kenny Bernstein Way” course to top Billy Torrence’s 3.810, 320.74. (The finish wasn’t as close as it might look on paper, thanks to Dad’s sluggish 0.104 reaction time on the launch).

Entering the pandemic-delayed Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals, only four drivers had won the event four times or more. Let the record reflect there's now a fifth driver joining the exclusive group -- Ron Capps, a fan of the sport since his childhood.

Capps, in winning the 66th national event of his career, and the second of the season, pulled himself into fourth place in championship points when he stopped Tim Wilkerson in the finals of the first NHRA national event staged outside of Indianapolis since the series resumed in July.

As Pro Stock racer Alex Laughlin sees it, Gainesville owed him one. And through a twisted sense of reimbursement, fate delivered to him his fourth career NHRA victory at the Amalie Oil Gatornationals. But clearly, Laughlin had to work for it.

Laughlin left on final round opponent and Elite Motorsports associate Aaron Stanfield and won a double tire-shake-plagued battle, winning with an off-pace 7.068 elapsed time at 204.26.

Rickie’s boy finally did it.

Since 2006, Matt Smith, the two-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion and son of iconic doorslammer champion Rickie Smith, finally sealed the deal at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals. And he did so in impressive fashion, winning from the No. 1 qualifying position and beating Andrew Hines in the final round.

Defending Top Fuel world champion Steve Torrence vaulted into the points lead on Sunday at Gainesville Raceway, powering past his father, Billy, in the final round to win the AMALIE Motor Oil Gatornationals for the first time in his career.

Ron Capps (Funny Car), Alex Laughlin (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won in their respective categories at the seventh race of the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

On a special weekend that saw him share the winner’s circle with his son, Matt, multi-time world champ Rickie Smith raced to his first win of the 2020 E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series season on Sunday, beating Mike Janis in the final round of the 51st annual AMALIE Motor Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

It was the fourth race of the season in the class and Smith became the fourth different winner in the talent-filled category, going 5.801-seconds at 249.63 mph in his nitrous-powered Camaro to defeat Janis, a former world champ.

Point standings (top 10) following the 51st annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway, the seventh of 14 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series -