Lyle Barnett doesn't care what role he plays behind the wheel of a race car as long as he's got one. Last season, the iconic small-tire, grudge racer who turned big show NHRA superstar is still awaiting a definitive role for 2023.

Barnett drove with Elite Performance and Justin Elks last season, but when the NHRA rules felt out of favor for the turbo combination, it essentially ended the team's bid to compete for a championship.

With Barnett sharp on the tree, the team captured three NHRA event wins, including an NHRA U.S. Nationals victory.

We love fast hot rods and there's a lot to love about this one.

Check out the new hot rod built for ProLine Racing and reigning MWDRS Pro Mod Champion Dustin Nesloney. This brand new RJ-built Chevy Camaro is set to debut next week at the 2023 Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod in Bradenton, Florida.

Rodger Brogdon is devoted to the NHRA’s Competition Eliminator class – and wants others to feel the love, too.

That’s why he’s bringing back his RoofTec D4 Competition Eliminator Bonus Fund in 2023.

He said the sportsman-level category is, “to me, the most interesting class in drag racing, by far, because the combinations are so diverse. So many different people out here trying to run some of the craziest car engine combinations you’ve ever heard of – [like] a Subaru engine in a dragster with a head off, a damn Hemi on it. I mean, it don’t get much more creative than this class. I just like the creativity of the class. I like the idea of just about any crazy combination you can come up with. If you can think of it, there’s probably a class you can run it in.

Sponsorships are drag racing's lifeblood, and for Josh Hart, news comes that he will be living just fine in 2023.

In 2023, the second-year Top Fuel driver raced his way to a seventh-place finish in the NHRA's Camping World Drag Racing Series, and that proved to be the icing on the cake for R&L Carriers to extend the sponsorship. The partnership focuses on the dynamic business-to-business relationships and marketing opportunities for R+L Carriers, one of the nation's leaders in the freight-shipping industry. This marketing relationship will showcase the wide variety of business opportunities R+L Carriers provide their customers.

Renowned tuner Lee Beard confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com he will be back as a consultant for Cruz Pedregon’s NHRA nitro Funny Car team in 2023.

“They presented me with a really good package, made it really easy for me,” Beard said. “I don’t have to go to the shop; I can fly into the races. I work really well with (crew chief) John Collins; I have a lot of respect for him.

Beard has nothing to prove in the NHRA ranks but now wants to pay back the sport that gave him so much.

The North Carolina Drag Racing Hall of Fame (NCDRHOF) held its 16th annual induction ceremony Feb. 18, during the 20th Anniversary Shriners Drag Racing and Hot Rod Expo at the Greensboro Coliseum. 

Headlining the class of 2023 was three-time NHRA Top Fuel World Champion Shirley Muldowney, who now lives in North Carolina, with what remarkably represents her 16th motorsports-related Hall of Fame inclusion.

Reigning PDRA Pro Boost Champion Todd Tutterow, former Pro Modified champ and current South East Gassers Association owner and competitor Quain Stott, and nine-time nitro motorcycle champion Jay Turner also were on the inductee list.

There are multiple types of stories in drag racing. Those you can tell, and those you shouldn’t. Then there are those you tell to win a trophy.

For almost a decade, some of drag racing’s greatest storytellers came together for a good old-fashioned yarn-spinning competition where the first liar almost always took the prize. The scary part about it was that the stories were accurate with some embellishments.

Over the next couple of weeks, we plan to bring you the best of these stories, some in word and some in video. - Editor

If NHRA drivers are anything, they are creatures of habit.

Well, those drivers will have to alter their routines because for the first time in decades and decades and decades the 2023 season will not start in mid-February with the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., but rather the Gatornationals March 9-12 in Gainesville, Fla.

The change-up in the slate has the attention of world champion nitro Funny Car driver Matt Hagan of Tony Stewart Racing.

NHRA officials are pleased to announce today the United States Air Force has been added to the team of partners for the NHRA Youth and Education Services (YES) Program for the upcoming 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

The NHRA YES Program is the only full-time education program in motorsports providing quality educational content and activities for schools and youth organizations nationwide. The YES Program invites students to NHRA national events to see first-hand the career opportunities within the motorsports field, bringing thousands of students to the track each year. In 2023, the YES Program will take place at 15 races during the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

f there’s one aspect championship team owner/driver has mastered in his first year of the dual role is the importance of being flexible and learning how to adapt. But this time, the challenge plays into his hands. 

And it’s nothing more than a change in the NHRA schedule. 

Now, the first four races of the season will be the Gatornationals, the Arizona Nationals (March 24-26) in Phoenix, the Winternationals (March 30-April 2), and the Four-Wide Nationals (March 14-16) in Las Vegas.