John DeFlorian has built his share of odd vehicles, but of them all, it's the one phone call his boss Jerry Haas handed over to him with a project that went to the top of the list.

On the other end of the phone was a student from Principia College, a private liberal arts college in Elsah, Illinois.

The student wanted an aluminum frame built for a specific car, and his explanation wasn't connecting with Haas, who has built championship race cars for decades.

Greg Anderson doesn’t publicize the fact he was out of drag racing in the mid-1980s and didn’t plan on coming back. In fact, his return was brought about by the coaxing of Kurt Johnson. The invitation from Johnson enabled him to close a painful chapter in his life and begin a new story as a crewman turned crew chief turned Pro Stock icon.

Anderson befriended low budget Pro Stock racer John Hagen in 1979 and raced with him until the influential figure in his career lost his life during an unfortunate accident during the 1983 NHRA Northstar Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota.

Anderson cherishes those memories and if asked, will tell, but the pain prevents him from offering the subject. Instead, he’ll tell you that he’ll try to remember. The facts are, he remembers them well, unfortunately with the fond memories comes the horrific scene he witnessed that August afternoon in 1983.

Back in April, Kyle Koretsky had no idea how much his racer mindset would change once his family secured the purchase of Maple Grove Raceway. 

The first lesson he learned was how much more challenging being the one who puts on drag races is than being the one who participates in them. 

"We're getting there, slowly but shortly," Koretsky said. "Working out some of the kinks, trying to get new equipment. Like everything else, you can't buy anything. Trying to buy new tractors, and it's just tough."

Back in April, Kyle Koretsky had no idea how much his racer mindset would change once his family secured the purchase of Maple Grove Raceway. 

The first lesson he learned was how much more challenging being the one who puts on drag races is than being the one who participates in them. 

"We're getting there, slowly but shortly," Koretsky said. "Working out some of the kinks, trying to get new equipment. Like everything else, you can't buy anything. Trying to buy new tractors, and it's just tough."

Josh Hart is as mild-mannered of a driver as you will find in the NHRA pits. He smiles each time one of the teams expresses to him, “We are so glad you are out here.”

As much as it pains Hart to say it, it doesn’t take long for the smile to turn to a frown. 

He’s got this to say to some of those teams in the pits. 

“Quit trying to poach my crew and sponsors.”

S2, E27

LIVE at 9PM EDT (8/2), Competition Plus TV's drag racing talk show, Power Hour presented by Weldon Performance, airs with the latest in news, opinion, and relevant guests within the sport. Tony Schumacher breaks through at the NHRA Northwest Nationals and he is showing up on the Power Hour to chat along with NHRA owner and driver Buddy Hull who will compete at the upcoming national event in Topeka. They are our guests for the 88th Power Hour installment. Be sure to tune in on the Competition Plus Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channel.

Since seemingly Will Smith was a baby in a crib, he had one goal in mind – get a license to drive a Top Fuel dragster.

He can now check that goal off the list.

“Quite the experience,” Smith told Competition Plus about receiving his Top Fuel license while driving Larry Dixon’s Top Fuel dragster. “Definitely a sigh of relief, meaning of getting the goal accomplished, of getting it done. But I still don't think it's quite set in yet. But I couldn't have asked for it to go any better, honestly. Exceeded my expectations.”

Now, the intention is for Smith to debut in the Top Fuel ranks at the The Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals are Aug. 31-Sept. 5 in Indianapolis.

The plan was for Bob Bode to climb back in his seat of his nitro Funny Car at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., Aug. 18-21.

Bode, who last raced late in 2020 season, confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com there has been a change of plans and his son Bobby will be driving instead in Brainered.

“He (Bobby) convinced me he wants to do it, and he’s going to drive,” Bob said. “I was supposed to, and I got all licensed and got all my paperwork because I have to drive within two years of the last time I drove. I was going to drive this one, but after Bobby’s good Houston run and a pretty good Norwalk (Ohio) weekend, he’s driving better than I probably would so it is hard to win the argument that he shouldn’t keep trying right now.

You know your family is badass when they name a colony after you. 

Buddy Hull is blaming it on ancestry.com, the DNA-based genealogy website where patrons spit in a cup, send it off and wait for weeks to learn how many famous kin-folk they have. 

That's what the Texas-based Top Fuel driver Hull did, and the results have him knee-deep in tracing the family tree. 

"No one in my family really truly knew how our family got to the U.S.," Hull said. "Four years ago, I really took it upon myself to learn. And so I did the typical, I spit in the cup and sent it into ancestry.com, and they got me started."

Anybody who knows NHRA \ Top Fuel owner-driver Antron Brown should know better than to think he would lose faith and lose confidence in himself and the people with whom he has chosen to surround himself. 

He might have lost some races – well, he did, 30 of them in a row . . . 13 this year and 17 last year since the May event at Atlanta. But he never lost sight of his goals. He’s all about goal-setting and working hard, and that combination produces positive results.