Why mess with what's working? And for the Muscle Milk and Shields Racing team, Madison Payne driving their Top Alcohol Dragster is definitely working. Today, the team has announced she will return to the team for another season as their driver. 

There’s a simple way employees of Tasca Automotive Group can see where they stand with the company, according to its vice-president, Bob Tasca III.

“I can tell you the No. 1 service advisor in my company, No. 1 salesperson, No. 1 technician, No. 1 service manager, No. 1 general manager,” he said. “I can tell you the last-place ones. The truth be told, if you are at the bottom of the pile in our company, you have a lot of pressure on you to either improve or leave.”

And similarly, he said, that’s the same manner in which “racing flushes people out.”

Getting an opportunity to compete and succeed in NHRA drag racing is not easy.

However, NHRA team owners Joe and Cathi Maynard are now trying to help that process along for drivers.

On Feb. 22, the Maynards announced the launch of the JCM Racing Driver Development program.

No stranger to NHRA Drag Racing, Powerbuilt Tools of southern California is joining Jim Dunn Racing as an associate sponsor for the full 2023 season.  The tool manufacturer has worked with NHRA competitor, Alex Laughlin, the past several years and is excited about his jump to the Funny Car class with the historic team.  Powerbuilt Tools will be an associate sponsor of the Jim Dunn Racing team all season, with logos on the car and crew members utilizing their products in their pit area.

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.