Drag racing is about win lights and fast performance for Kalitta Motorsports.

Today, the multi-car team based in Ypsilanti, Michi., announced an initiative with longtime sponsor DHL Express to take winning to another level and doing so off the track. They are partnering to accelerate hunger relief and help those who need it most -- working families, children, and the elderly.

With Feeding America, the largest charity working to end hunger in the United States, Kalitta and DHL Express are in a race to end food insecurity with the ‘Drive For Purpose Challenge’. During four NHRA national events in September (Charlotte and St. Louis) and October (Dallas and Las Vegas), Kalitta Motorsports will be donating $1,000 for every win light on race day that Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon and J.R. Todd earn, with DHL matching each donation with another $1,000. This combined monetary donation will be the equivalent of 20,000 meals per win light for Feeding America.

In less than 17 seconds Sunday at Reading, Pa., Austin Prock morphed from a self-proclaimed “charity” recipient into the racer no Top Fuel competitor has any sympathy for as the NHRA Countdown to the Championship got under way with the Pep Boys Nationals. 

With his 3.755-second elapsed time at 329.67 mph on the 1,000-foot Maple Grove Raceway course in the final-round victory over new points leader Justin Ashley, Prock ended his personal streak of five first-round defeats. 

​Following a script is great in theory but a lot of time it doesn’t come to fruition.

That, however, wasn’t the case for Robert Hight.

Erica Enders’ stellar 2022 NHRA season hit the pause button at the U.S. Nationals on Sept. 5.

Fast-forward to the next race – the Pep Boys Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., and Enders’ highlight reel was rolling again.

Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Joey Gladstone was euphoric about winning the opening race of the six-event NHRA Countdown to the Championship Sunday afternoon at Maple Grove Raceway, near Reading, Pa. 

It came on daughter Olivia’s second birthday. 

It was a dominant start for John Force Racing to open the Countdown to the Championship playoffs, as Top Fuel’s Austin Prock and Funny Car points leader Robert Hight powered to wins on Sunday in front of a capacity crowd at Maple Grove Raceway at the 37th annual Pep Boys NHRA Nationals. 

Erica Enders (Pro Stock) and Joey Gladstone (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also picked up wins at the first of six races in the Countdown to the Championship during the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. 

Stop me if you’ve heard this before – NHRA Top Fuel Superstar Brittany Force is the No. 1 qualifier.

Force’s latest qualifying triumphant came on Saturday in Q3 at the Pep Boys Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.

Sunday's final results from the 37th annual Pep Boys NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. The race is the 17th of 22 in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series:

John Force was expecting the reporter's call. What he didn't anticipate was the opening question. 

"John, what are your feelings headed into your 800th race?"

Force responded with a question, "My 800th race? Really, it's my 800th?"

Time goes by when you're having fun, so it appears. 

Motorsports superstar Tony Stewart was invited into the FOX Sports broadcast booth for the third time this season this weekend for the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals, and the adventurous, newbie drag racing team owner has embraced his newfound challenge.

"I'm not near as knowledgeable on the drag racing side as I am on the stock car side or sprint car side," Stewart admitted. "But at least on the nitro side, I'm learning a lot. It's a crash course, so to speak, minus the crash. But I am learning a lot in a short amount of time.

"The Pro Stock and Bike stuff, I have a lot to learn there. So that part I have struggled with. I know a lot of the riders and the drivers on the Pro Stock side, but just don't know a lot about the bikes. I'm learning on the nitro side."