With apologies to Mario Andretti, whose autobiography is titled “What’s It Like Out There?” Tony Stewart’s latest insider report might be headlined, “What’s It Like In There?”

Inquiring NASCAR minds want to know. Stewart’s associates in circle-track / stock-car racing have been curious about his drag-racing experience.

“They've asked questions about it. Obviously, when I ran the Top Fuel car, they had a lot of questions,” he said. “Kyle Larson was there when I ran my last run, in Charlotte last year. So it was fun for those guys and fun to show them around and show them something different, because I know how cool it was for me. It was cool to just see it.

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Dougzilla!

It’s highly unlikely that anything can top the thrill of driving a Top Fuel dragster. 

But Doug Herbert, a winner of 30 Top Fuel national events as a driver, has found something that – in many ways – is as close as he’ll get to recreating the excitement of racing.

Haley James made a little drag racing history Oct. 30, when she became the first woman ever to win a Duck-X Productions event by beating Stephen Barnett in the No Mercy 13 Ultimate Street final.

James made an outstanding 4.46 pass at 161.11 mph down the South Georgia Motorsports Park (SGMP) eighth mile to beat Stephen Barnett in the final round. Along the way she also officially lowered the class ET mark to 4.45 seconds in the quarter finals.   

“I honestly am speechless, it really hasn’t sunk in yet,” the Brownsburg, IN-based racer said of her record-setting ways. “But I know it means a lot, to me and my team.”

Earlier this year McKinney Corp. based in Lafayette, Indiana, acquired Florida-based Tommy Waters Race Car Products and added the entire suite of their products to the expansive list of offerings to their long list of winning customers.  Since 1981 customers who want to win and utilize the best and safest products have relied on McKinney Corp. products and services. The addition of Tommy Waters Race Car Products including SFI 4.1 Certified transmission shields, motor plates and SFI Certified 30.1 Flex Plate shields continues to make McKinney Corp. the premier destination for motorsports and fabricated products for any industry.

“We acquired Tommy Waters Race Car Products earlier this year and have been working to reach out to their customers as well as new customers,” said Murf McKinney. “We started as a motorsports company in 1981 and we have diversified into commercial machining and fabricating as well over the years. Our expert staff is growing and we are equipping them with state of the art CNC machinery.”

Drag Illustrated has announced the return of the World Series of Pro Mod (WSOPM), an invitation-only, $100,000-to-win event celebrating the Pro Modified division. New for 2023, the race will take place March 3-5 at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Bradenton, Florida, with an outlaw eighth-mile format. Forty drivers will be invited, and 32 drivers will qualify for the main field.
 
“Pro Mod is the universal language of drag racing,” said Wes Buck, founder and editorial director, Drag Illustrated. “This is the largest inventory of pro-level, heads-up race cars on the planet. This is a brand of drag racing that has a unique cult following and, in my opinion, is home to many of our sport's biggest personalities and most competitive racers. It's a style of drag racing that has grown by way of regional series all across the country and around the world that are healthy and thriving. It's our goal with the World Series of Pro Mod to bring racers from all those various sanctions and series and let them race for the largest purse in Pro Modified history, on the grandest stage and under the brightest lights possible.”

As a 22-year-old rookie in 2011, Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Hector Arana Jr. was the recipient of the Auto Club Road to the Future Award as NHRA’s rookie of the year and was series runner-up to champion Eddie Krawiec.

By 2017, he had qualified for the Countdown to the Championship for seven consecutive seasons.

The following year, he opened the Pro Stock Motorcycle season at Gainesville, Fla., by breaking the class’ 200-mph barrier (201.01).

And then his career was derailed by that dirty, four-letter word: cash.

If not for a dragging engine diaper in the opening round of Outlaw Drag Radial at No Mercy 13, it’s unlikely anyone would be talking today about Houston Dial as Radial vs. The World champ at No Mercy 13. But that’s how it turned out Oct. 30, at South Georgia Motorsports Park when Alabama’s own Dial ran a 4-flat at 184.02—a solid pass for an ODR car—against West Coast heavy hitter Jason Lee in the RVW final to score the biggest win of his career.

“I'm super excited, but emotional at the same moment. My son won today, too,” Dial revealed while waiting his turn at taking over SGMP’s victory lane. “He called me right before we were both going to the finals and then he called me again when he won. He was Junior drag racing at GALOT in North Carolina and he won, too, so this is really extra special because of that.”

NHRA and In-N-Out Burger announced today that In-N-Out Burger, California’s first drive-thru hamburger stand, has been named the title sponsor of both the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip and the In-N-Out NHRA Finals as part of an exciting multi-year partnership that begins during the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

Additionally, the legendary track in Pomona will also play host to a massive event to celebrate In-N-Out Burger’s 75th anniversary on Oct. 22, 2023, with NHRA and In-N-Out Burger teaming up to celebrate the car culture that has been so important in the history of both organizations. In-N-Out’s 75th Anniversary Festival is slated to include drag racing from test-and-tune to class eliminations on the Pomona Dragstrip’s iconic quarter-mile, a car show, concerts with celebrity guest appearances, and more entertainment, complete with In-N-Out Burger’s Cookout Trailers to serve their signature fresh Double-Doubles® and French fries all day and into the night.

From the day a sketchy website report published an account that said the Pomona Fairplex was going away, NHRA immediately denied the fake news report. Today, they absolutely proved its inaccuracy. 

The NHRA and the Fairplex today announced a long-term extension between the two longtime partners, ensuring NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series action will take place at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip through at least the 2033 season.

Up until the 2020 Pandemic wrecked the world Pomona had served as the traditional season-opening event and the home of NHRA drag racing since 1953. The NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series will also close out a thrilling, record-breaking 2022 year with the upcoming 57th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at the legendary track in Pomona on Nov. 10-13.