Elite Motorsports, LLC announced today that Scott “Woody” Woodruff has been named the company’s Branding and Motorsports Director.
 
After a successful career at JEGS spanning nearly 25 years, Woodruff is eager to tackle his next challenge at Elite Motorsports, LLC. He’ll work closely with the litany of brands within the organization, including Elite Motorsports, Elite Performance, Elite HP, Patterson-Elite and Elite Cultivation, helping take each brand to a new level.

NHRA is sticking to its guns regarding its steadfast rule; the Factory X class will remain true to its factory roof and quarters edict.

According to three of the major chassis builders and a leading composite body manufacturer participating in the building of the Factory X cars, NHRA held a meeting with them on the Tuesday following the NHRA Gatornationals. They said the meeting left them believing that building these cars would begin with a high-end one-piece composite body instead of the initial factory roof and quarters.

While the NHRA's Lonnie Grim, the driving force before Factory X, said this might be what the chassis builders wanted, it was never promised, and there was no flip-flopping of the procedure.

NHRA and its broadcasting team was recently honored with six prestigious Telly awards for video excellence during the 2021 season and the beginning of the 2022 campaign. The team has now been recognized with 25 Telly awards over the past eight years.

 The Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens. Of the six overall awards, NHRA was bestowed four Silver Tellys, as the entire NHRA on FOX crew was honored in the General Television category for the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout show that was featured on FOX in March. That show also earned a Bronze Telly in the General Sports category.
 

Erica Enders has won a lot.

She has four world championships. She has 38 career wins. She has 404 round wins.

And this year, she might be having her best start yet. The 38-year-old driver from Houston, Texas, has five wins and six finals in eight total races. She has a commanding points lead..

So how does a driver of her skill and stature stay motivated when nearly every run is routine, and more often than not, another win?

Tyler Hilton wouldn't mind experiencing a normal NHRA Holley Hot Rod Reunion.

A year ago, at the traditional nostalgia event held over Father's Day weekend at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Ky., the second-generation drag racer endured one of the most catastrophic fires from a front-engine dragster. Hilton's fire was so destructive it resembled a scene from the movie Ghost Rider as Hilton traveled down the shutdown area.

A year later, he found himself racing for the title at the closest national event venue to his home. The will of redemption drove him to return this year, not politics or anything else.

Staying in your own lane when it comes to business can be challenging - just ask Richard Freeman. 

To clarify lane assignments, Freeman is adamant his lane is in doorslammer racing, whether it be his beloved Pro Stock or Competition Eliminator. Fuel racing or any other type that doesn't have doors is classified as outside his lane. 

"Every time I get out of my lane, I get in trouble," Freeman admitted. "That's one thing about that Top Fuel deal. It's out of my lane, but just like Pro Stock, I believe those two classes, Fuel and Funny Car, need some help and need some new blood. Not taking anything away from anybody that's over there, but Pro Stock was in that situation. We were having trouble getting cars, and we didn't change the platform, we just changed the class a little bit, how things were done, and it's worked tremendously. It seems like every time somebody decides to hang it up; somebody else comes in."

July 15, 2021, will go into the history books as one of the most critical dates in the history of Australian drag racing. 

On that date, the four leading Oz Top Fuel teams, Jim Read Racing, PremiAir Racing, Rapisarda Autosport International and Lamattina Top Fuel Racing, announced they had joined forces to establish their own Australian Top Fuel Championship series.
  
The six-round series would run from January to June 2022 across three states and territories and include venues in rural Australia.

The announcement sent shockwaves through the Aussie drag community that was still in the grip of the Covid -19 pandemic that had wreaked havoc on the sport. 

The drag racing community is mourning the loss of jet-truck driver Chris Darnell, who died on Saturday, July 2, 2022, following a crash at the Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival in Michigan.

Darnell, 40, was performing in the Shockwave jet-powered Peterbilt semi amid pyrotechnics when a tire on his rig reportedly failed, sending the vehicle into a series of rolls at a high rate of speed. Police have not officially released a cause for the crash.

Throughout the upcoming NHRA Western Swing Doug Kalitta’s Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster will feature major associate branding from Revchem Composites as the third-year sponsor increases their visibility. The three-race stretch from Denver to Sonoma to Seattle will highlight Revchem’s alliance and contributions to Kalitta Motorsports. The relationship continually grows as Revchem utilizes Kalitta Motorsports' VIP hospitality and B2B program to increase brand awareness. The company was an integral part of the Toyota GR Supra Funny Car redesign and continues to make contributions to the team throughout the season. As an industry leading composite materials distributor and technical resource Revchem is involved with many industries, from surfing to aerospace and everything in between.
 
"We have seen our relationship grow with Revchem over the past two years. Their sponsorship has helped the Revchem brand become recognized as the composite distributor of choice in the NHRA. We are their primary promotional tool so highlighting them on Doug Kalitta’s Top Fuel dragster was a great opportunity during the Swing," said Chad Head, Kalitta Motorsports general manager. "Their relationship and input with our fab shop have been a huge plus to our technical development."

The last time the National Hot Rod Association debuted a video game for the masses, Antron Brown was competing on a Pro Stock Motorcycle.

That was nearly 15 years ago.

Brown was in that game, titled, “NHRA: Countdown to the Championship” and still remembers the excitement of being a part of a game that touched fans around the world and brought them closer than ever to the sport of drag racing.

“I remember back when we ran the bikes and they did it, I think the coolest part was that people who could race against you and truly felt they could compete against you,” Brown said. “And maybe they could.”