What a difference a year makes.

To say Kebin Kinsley's Funny Car Chaos Series' Funny Car Classic performance a year ago was a disaster would be an understatement. Kinsley and his "War Wagon" Nitro Funny Car team were plagued with numerous issues at last year's Funny Car Classic from the Texas Motorplex in 2022. Kicking the rods out during the burnout in the first qualifying session on Friday afternoon, added with a small fire in the pits, before finally smoking the tires right at the hit during their final chance to make the show on Saturday. 

Fast forward one year later, Kinsley and his team would right the ship and not only win the battle of taking home a trophy from the Funny Car Classic but also win the War by taking home top honors. Kinsley put together a dominant performance on Saturday evening at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis to capture the 'A' Field title at the third annual Classic and his first Funny Car Chaos victory. 

Competition Plus’ water-cooler topics from the Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park
 
CAMRIE CARUSO NOTCHES FIRST PRO STOCK VICTORY – Pro Stock sophomore Camrie Caruso made NHRA drag-racing history Sunday at the Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix, beating Bo Butner in the final round. But the second woman (behind five-time champion Erica Enders) to win in the Pro Stock class had a controversial road to her first pro victory.

Stock Eliminator Bryce Granier racer was 11 years away from being born when Houston Raceway Park was built in 1988 as an NHRA response to Billy Meyer taking away the flagship national event facility over to the rival IHRA. Suffice to say; he didn't know the politics of the track being constructed. 

What he did know was the magnitude of being the final NHRA Stock Eliminator winner at the famed facility in Baytown, Texas. And for it to be his first career victory, he will never forget it. 

Granier stopped Rylie Trumble in the final round for a monumental victory. 

Camrie Caruso dismissed any notion of a sophomore slump for her and her team in 2023. The 2022 NHRA Rookie of the Year made history at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports park when she captured her first career win in Pro Stock at the track's final race, powering her Powerbuilt Tools / Tequila Comisario Camaro to a win over Bo Butner in the final round to become just the second woman to win Pro Stock. 

"I'm just excited and thankful, and I was really hoping we'd start the year off with a really good bang," Caruso said. 

"There's just a whole bunch of people here that I couldn't have done it without, my team and the partners. It was a great day of racing. We said last night after Q3, I was like, 'Hey, we got to win this because I want hibachi tonight.' And Mike said we were going to win it and we did. It was awesome, and I'm just thankful and blessed to have the team and the partners I have."

 The weekend didn’t have a perfect script for Robert Hight.
 
The past world champion driver’s best run in three qualifying laps was a 4.218-second elapsed time, leaving him No. 9 on the qualifying ladder at the Arizona Nationals near Phoenix.
 
However, Hight wasn’t worried about his plight because of his renowned crew chief Jimmy Prock – and he was right. 
 
Hight mowed through the competition on Sunday, defeating reigning world champ Ron Capps in the final race at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.

In the finals, Hight clocked a 3.930-second elapsed time at 328.62 mph, while Capps slowed to 5.534 seconds after smoking the tires.

There’s no question that fellow NHRA Top Fuel racers can’t sleep on driver Justin Ashley.
 
The young star is a force to be reckoned with week after week, and on Sunday, he was the last man standing at the Arizona Nationals near Phoenix.
 
In the finals, Ashley and his crew saved the best for last as he clocked a 3.705-second elapsed time at 329.34 mph to defeat Shawn Langdon’s 3.732-second lap at 329.58 mph at Wild Horse Motorsports Park.
 
This was Ashley’s sixth career NHRA Top Fuel national event win and his first in Phoenix.
 
 

There's go big or go home, and then there's what Comp Eliminator racer Clark Smiley pulled off during the NHRA Div. 4 event at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas. 

During Saturday's rain-delayed Q-1 session, Smiley ran his BB/Altered 2009 Pontiac GXP to a -.806 under 7.114 elapsed time to claim an overwhelming qualifying lead. The run for the gasoline-powered was more than Smiley had expected in a classification where the index is meant to be bent, not broken.

"Yeah, it went a little faster than I thought it would go," Smiley admitted. 

Point standings (top 10) following the 38th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, the second of 21 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series -