Reigning NHRA world champion Pro Stock Motorcycle pilot Matt Smith stole the spotlight at the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals Sept. 5.

Initially riding a Suzuki and then switching to his trusty Buell and won the U.S. Nationals for the second time in his career.

However, Smith wasn’t the only rider in his Matt Smith Racing camp turning heads. The other was Jianna Evaristo on her Pep Boys/Scrappers Racing Suzuki.

It has taken a little bit of time but Fernando Cuadra Sr. and sons Fernando Jr. and Cristian are earning respect with their Ford Mustangs. Cuadra Jr. has won eight rounds this season, and Cristian has four round wins.

“From a father’s perspective, I never expect to be that way, but also, they outrun me by far. They went way above me, and they showed me what they were doing is special. Besides that, they are hungry. They want to make it. So, I raise them a little bit of cold, a little bit of hungry and the value of the money.

“So, they work for it. You come and see them. They're working themselves, and they prototype their own deals.. … They are very focused. They are not the Friday night drinking and partying type. They are talking all day long about racing and how to improve and do better.”

I didn’t think there would be a time when I would hate horses or lions. Well... hate is an awful strong word, so let me rephrase, “I strongly dislike horses and lions at this time.”

What I am talking about is the Recaptcha program we had to put on CompetitionPlus.com, forcing you to identify these animals following the severe DDoS attacks we experienced two weeks ago. Now what I will say I hate are individuals who attack one’s livelihood with no regard for what happens to us. For 23 years we've had to work our fingers to the bone to deliver a reputable news agency.

So what is a DDoS attack?

The McGaha family race team has turned heads in NHRA Pro Stock: Chris has eight national-event wins, and his son, Mason, 20, has been to 10 semifinal rounds in just 37 races.

“Like I said, I did those COVID races, so I feel like I got my feet wet here doing all those races,” Mason said about competing in Indy. “Then we ran last year (here), and we ran decent. I mean, it's the ‘Big Go,’ but it didn't really intimidate me much. It takes a lot to rattle me.”

Mason has had some impressive runs in his brief Pro Stock career, but he’s far from satisfied.

The final day of the JEGS Performance Summer Fling presented by Optima Batteries at National Trail Raceway had 312 entries staging up for $30,000 on American Race Cars Saturday.

A full week of beautiful weather continued throughout the day and into the afternoon. Increased round money and special awards would wrap up the third Fling event of the year.

The Fling Team selected Chris Bear as the 2022 Summer Fling MVP to receive the Todd’s Extreme custom-painted Impact Racing helmet and $1,000 bonus for his stellar performance over the course of the event, carrying double entries deep into eliminations during the Thursday 30K and Friday 100K races. Bear also had over five perfect reaction times, proving to be set up “on kill” each day and earning him a spot on the dragster side of the Brodix Best Package Runoff for the SR20 cylinder heads (qualifying with a .002 package).

It is a debate as old as the sport itself.

Who is more responsible for a great run? Is it the driver who has to be methodical in doing everything just right during the burnout, staging, reaction times, wrestling their machine down the track, and then getting it stopped, all in just a few breaths?

Or is the crew chief, who spends hours studying graphs, weather reports, track temperatures and makes sudden, last-second calls on the starting line based on ever-changing track conditions?

If you ask three-time world champion Matt Hagan, he says he knows the answer.

Travis Shumake hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps as a professional nitro racer. Today, he took another step forward in the process by adding  Sheetz, a family-owned convenience store chain based in Altoona, Pennsylvania, as the primary sponsor on the Randy Meyer Racing-owned Top Alcohol Dragster for the upcoming NHRA Pep Boys Nationals and NHRA Betway Nationals.

Shumake’s father, the late Trip Shumake, was a legend in Funny Car racing as an NHRA and IHRA national event winner and perennial front-runner. The second-generation driver is hoping to gain a little magic of his own. 

Shumake has a chance to stand out in the upcoming major league drag races. 
 
Partnering with Sheetz, a brand known for their customer service and creative marketing, the Sheetz dragster boldly asks the question “Why the Sheetz not?” and includes eighties comic book style graphics on Shumake’s car, fire suit, and helmet.

The week leading into the NHRA U.S. Nationals was not Tony Schumacher’s week. . 

First he was bitten, figuratively, by a $20,000 fine and 50-point penalty for an alleged violation of the rules during the quarterfinals of the most recent race, at Brainerd, Minn. His Maynard-Schumacher team has appealed the decision – which would drop him from eighth in the standings to 10th and has Countdown to the Championship ramifications – and is awaiting a final verdict. 

Then he was bitten, literally, by a black widow spider hiding in his motorcycle helmet, sending him to hospital at Austin, Texas. 

The NHRA announced last Friday it was punishing Schumacher for “driving a vehicle that had two disabled safety systems” and for “bypassing a performance restriction device” during eliminations at Brainerd. 

Ida Zetterström might not be well-known yet to American drag-racing fans. 

But the Scandinavian Top Fuel phenom, who is visiting the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park this weekend, said she “was hoping one day I can come over here and do some racing. That would be definitely the dream." 

"It's my first year at [the U.S.] Nationals,” Zetterström said. “We've been to some of the NHRA events, but never U.S. Nationals before." Getting the chance to race here in a dragster one day, she said, “would be something just extraordinary. I mean, Indy's the biggest one you can do.”