One would be wise to never count Rickie Smith’s boy out of anything. 

Matt Smith, the son of one of drag racing’s most prolific doorslammer racers, hasn’t ridden his father’s coattails to prominence, but this doesn’t mean he hasn’t learned a thing or two from the crafty veteran along the way. 

Current and three-time Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence is the 2021 recipient of the Mike Aiello Award.

CompetitionPlus.com owner and publisher Bobby Bennett made the surprise presentation before eliminations Sunday to Torrence during the NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex at Ennis, near Dallas.

The Capco Contractors Dragster driver from Kilgore, Texas, is the 16th recipient of the award that honors Aiello, the Houston native and standout college athlete at Texas Tech University who was a longtime drag-racing fan and former National Hot Rod Association Pro Stock crew member.

Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Joey Gladstone started the year in the hospital in Florence, S.C., with a long list of serious injuries from a testing accident at Darlington. Amazingly, he recovered enough to start the NHRA season in March at Gainesville, Fla. But then this fall at Charlotte, where he was focused on moving up in the Countdown, teammate Cory Reed’s bike crashed into him during their side-by-side match in Round 2. Reed, who also was a Countdown racer, is recuperating from a broken leg at home in Virginia. Gladstone was unhurt, and he finished the race at zMAX Dragway as runner-up to Angelle Sampey because his engine lost power when he was ahead downtrack. 

Aaron Stanfield is 26 years old, but he said, “People ask me if I have a driver’s license.” 

Evidently no one who asks him that ever has been to a drag race. If they had, they’d know he understands exactly what to do behind a steering wheel.  

Stanfield is the newly crowned two-time Factory Stock Showdown (FSS) champion, cementing back-to-back titles at the previous race, at St. Louis. And he’s a top-five Pro Stock Countdown contender who entered this race just 51 points behind No. 4 Dallas Glenn and 167 behind leader Greg Anderson. 

A funny thing happened to Mitch King’s La King’s Confectionery Dragster when it came brand-new out of Murf McKinney’s shop at Lafayette, Ind. Several other racers got the benefit of it more than King did, and eventually he sold it – and bought it back home to Galveston two months ago.

“This car was built for me in ’09, and then we licensed Ron August, Keith Murt, and a few other people in it, and I ended up selling it to Keith Murt. It changed hands a couple of times. Terry Brian ended up with it, and I bought it back a couple of months ago,” King said of the circuitous life of the surprisingly still-rather-new dragster.

Point standings (top 10) following the 36th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex, the 17th of 20 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series -

Final round-by-round results from the 36th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex, the 17th of 20 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series:

Pro Stock Motorcycle veteran Steve Johnson is looking for a t-shirt he cannot find. 

When he finds it, it will likely read, “Never thought I’d be qualifying No. 1, winning races, and in the points lead, but here I am KILLING IT!”