In an article published in the Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal on May 22, it appears a strong line in the sand has been drawn by Heartland Motorsports Park owner Chris Payne, who owes Shawnee County more than $2.6 million in property taxes.

Payne in the article by Tim Hrenchir says he intends to close the racing facility if his appeal fails in his lawsuit against Shawnee County over a years-long tax battle.

Payne said that in an email last week to The Capital-Journal.

It all started for Jason Beckman with his “little Tony Stewart diecast on I-racing.” He said he wanted to recreate it, so he “spent a few hours watching YouTube tutorials” and taught himself how to use a graphic program. (He cautioned that the description “studied” is a bit too “generous.”)

This weekend, the extensive NHRA drag-racing community has seen the 16-year-old home-schooled Californian’s handiwork – or at least gotten a glimpse of it as it sped down the Route 66 Raceway dragstrip on Chris King’s Funny Car. Seeing that also was a first for the creative young man.

King is one of the many racers that Jason’s father, 2012 Funny Car champion “Fast Jack” Beckman, has helped though the years as a long-time instructor for the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School. And he turned to Jason Beckman for the artwork on his car when he was ready to return to NHRA action with his Howards Cams/Competition Products Dodge Charger for the first time since 2021.

RAM Clutches will return for a second season as title sponsor of the RAM Clutches Palmetto Shootout,' on June 24th at the South Carolina Motorplex [formerly Orangeburg Drag Strip] in Neeses/Orangeburg. This event marks the second consecutive year that the South East Gassers Association [SEGA] has brought its traveling time machine into Orangeburg, SC, where a record number of competitors plan to compete in the A/Gas, B/Gas, C/Gas, H/Gas, A/FX, and Super Stock categories.

Quain Stott’s approach to putting on a Southeast Gassers Association race is simple and straightforward.

Dallas Peffley, who is the series’ tech director, hits the road the week of the race and visits  businesses in the vicinity of the event, placing banners and posters wherever he can. That weekend, weather permitting, the race goes on as planned, and fans can enjoy authentic gasser competition from cars that came off the assembly line no later than 1967.

This month, SEGA was set to pay its annual visit to Farmington (NC) Dragway, but that event didn’t go off as planned – and “weather permitting” had nothing to do with it.

With the stars shining bright above the Texas Motorplex, Brad Plourd gave an object lesson of what versatility is.

Last month Plourd drove his Lucas Oil Stocker to victory at the Thunder Valley Raceway Park. With the sun already gone from the Ennis, Texas skyline, Plourd drove to his first victory of the season in the Rooftec Competition Eliminator Bonus program and did so behind the wheel of a supercharged, alcohol-burning altered. 

The NHRA is looking for a new series sponsor.

Jeffrey Young, vice-president of marketing and communications, confirmed Sunday that Camping World does not plan to renew its agreement with the NHRA at the end of next season and that the sanctioning body actively is searching for a replacement.

“Our contract expires at the end of next season. They let us know that they’re not going to renew that at the end of 2024.  They said they’re going to invest that [money] in their employees,” Young said during the NHRA’s Gerber Glass and Collision Route 66 Nationals at Joliet, Ill.

Clay Millican can still remember the exact day and the hour of his NHRA Top Fuel debut.

Sporting a unique Chicago White Sox-backed livery that spring afternoon back in 1998, Millican distinctly remembers the blur of faces in the grandstands and the sound of his nitro-powered engine when it roared to life for the first time. Though he failed to qualify that afternoon, placing his machine 25th out of 26 cars in a race won by Kenny Bernstein, Millican fondly recalls the feeling of finally seeing his dream come to life.

So it was no surprise when Millican crossed the finish line first at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Performance at Route 66 Raceway on Sunday, a flood of emotions washed over the veteran racer.