Sometimes being the championship points leader has perks before the season ends. Saturday at the NHRA Midwest Nationals outside of St. Louis, the Pro Stock racers, both the four-wheel and two-wheel versions, benefitted from being at the head of the pack.

NHRA race officials awarded Jason Line and Matt Smith No. 1 qualifier status based on their current championship points standings. Rain had delayed qualifying into later in the night, making running the Pro Stock vehicles an unsafe proposition.

Mother Nature didn’t want to cooperate Saturday at the ninth annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Pennzoil.

When the rain finally stopped the Pro classes did get in one qualifying session and Paul Lee couldn’t have been happier.

Eight-time Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher powered to his first No. 1 qualifier since 2018, breaking the track speed record during Saturday’s ninth annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Pennzoil at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Paul Lee (Funny Car), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also No. 1 qualifiers in their respective categories at the eighth race of the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. Only one run of qualifying was completed in Top Fuel and Funny Car on Saturday due to weather.

Final round-by-round results from the ninth annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Pennzoil at World Wide Technology Raceway, the eighth of 11 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series:

 Point standings (top 10) following the ninth annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Pennzoil at World Wide Technology Raceway, the eighth of 11 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series -

NHRA may very well have a new series sponsor as early as Sunday. At least this is what rumors and the Twitter-sphere suggest.

Shortly after NHRA announced Coca-Cola had decided not to fulfill their contract, tweets began to materialize from Camping World Chairman and CEO Marcus Lemonis, suggesting he'd be interested in the NHRA series.

Surrounded by a pack of Chevrolet COPO Camaros, former NHRA Pro Stock standout Mark Pawuk raced his way to the top of the provisional Factory Stock Showdown qualifying list at the NHRA Midwest Nationals outside of St. Louis.

Pawuk unloaded with a monster run of 7.814 seconds at 175.48 mph in Friday’s lone FSS qualifying session to reset both ends of the World Wide Technology Raceway track record.

Top Fuel Dragster pilot Dominick Lagana was injured in a late-night car accident in Hendricks County in Brownsburg, Ind. He suffered life-threatening injuries in the single-vehicle crash.

According to Hendricks County Sheriff’s County Office Captain Amanda Goings, at approximately 11:11 pm on Sunday night, Hendricks County Deputies responded to a single-vehicle accident at 100 East South of 56th St. near Brownsburg, Ind. The preliminary investigation indicates that the 1957 Chevy Wagon, also known as the “Sh*tbox of Doom,” which made an appearance at Drag Week in 2018, was traveling southbound on County Round 100E when it traveled off the west side of the roadway and struck a utility pole.

Lagana was the driver in the Wagon at the time of the crash, according to authorities. He suffered life-threatening injuries.

Former American Drag Racing League champion Jason Hamstra drove his ’69 Camaro to the top of the Pro Extreme charts at the Texas Motorplex Friday night with a lap of 3.608-seconds at 216.65 mph down the eighth-mile track. The opening night of the ADRL US Drags saw near-perfect weather with an even better day expected Saturday. Tickets for the race, as always, are completely free of charge.

Since 2002, Gateway Classic Cars has been an associate sponsor of Jim Dunn Racing’s NHRA Nitro Funny Car.  The team has seen the company go from its original location in the St. Louis market to now having more than 18 locations throughout the U.S., as the largest dealer of classic and exotic cars.
 
In addition to the racing team watching the dealership grow in a number of store locations, they have also watched its online presence grow to the point that cars for sale on Gateway’s website are viewed on average more than seven million times per month.   Jim Dunn Racing team manager, Jon Dunn, always enjoys visiting the headquarters location in O’Fallon Missouri so he can see the latest acquisitions on the showroom.  “As racers, we are the biggest auto enthusiasts you can imagine.  Seeing everything from classic muscle cars to high-performance sports cars on the showroom is impressive”.