Angelle Sampey said last year after her first – and her Pro Stock Motorcycle class’ – visit to Tennessee’s Bristol Dragway for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals that she “was genuinely petrified” to go down the quirky lanes, with their capricious bumps. 

This year the staff at the historic Bruton Smith-owned facility in the hills of East Tennessee renovated the racing surface. So the track was significantly improved but still a mystery, with few runs on it, a Friday rain shower, still not a ton of data from it, and Saturday conditions that were the hottest the Camping World Drag Racing competitors had encountered.

After years of wishful thinking from race fans, NHRA will deliver its first video game in years for video consoles and PC on August 26, 2022.

NHRA: Speed For All, the definitive drag racing video game based on the world’s largest auto racing organization, will be released on Aug. 26, 2022, for PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. 

The game is available for pre-order now at major retailers with a $49.99 price tag. 

Just when it appeared NHRA Top Fuel owner-driver Josh Hart was starting to get a handle on his new R+L Carriers Dragster by cranking out a 3.791-second elapsed time on a Bristol Dragway racetrack that had frustrated almost every Funny Car racer in the minutes before, along came Steve Torrence. 

Trying himself to coax those epic class-dominating performances of the past four or five years from his still-strong Capco Contractors Dragster, Torrence matched Hart at 3.791 seconds and raised the ante in their 300-plus-mph Thunder Valley Nationals poker game Friday on the Tennessee track. 

It wasn’t pretty. 

It didn’t come without some late-Friday-night damage control for the Automobile Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro crew. 

Pro Stock driver Matt Hartford has spent years building his team into a legitimate world championship contender.

So far this season, Hartford’s team hasn’t looked anything like a world championship contender.

Veteran NHRA Pro Stock driver John Gaydosh confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com he’s retiring from driving.

Gaydosh made that decision after suffering another serious back injury. Gaydosh’s most recent back injury happened when he was lifting some equipment at his Gaydosh Performance shop in Baltimore, Md.

Though the Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Drag Racing Series (MWDRS) presented by J&A Service is still mourning the recent loss of Pro Mod driver Ronnie Hobbs, the series is moving forward with the fifth race of their eight-race season, the Summer Speed & Fire Spectacular at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis. It’s the last event before the MWDRS goes on a summer break. 
 
“Ronnie was a good friend, a fierce competitor, and an advocate of the series,” said Keith Haney, founder and owner, MWDRS. “His loss of life impacted the whole MWDRS staff and our racers. It's going to be hard for us all, but Ronnie wouldn't want it any other way. He'd want us to strap back into our race cars and for us to continue on with the show we've been providing for six years now. We will go on. We have to.”

From the moment Bob Tasca III walked into the Bristol Dragway tower, he knew he had a reputation to uphold. 

"I walked in the tower, and I saw a picture of my grandfather's car when he raced there, on the wall, when you first walk in, and I just fell in love with the place. I mean, how can you not?" Tasca admitted. "The setting, the sound is the most unique sound in any venue that we go to, with the cars that echo off the mountains. It's like you're right on top of the racetrack. I mean, I don't know, it's just got an old school with a state-of-the-art, modern facility feel, and I've always loved racing there."

Bristol also has legends. 

NHRA officials have announced that Pro Stock has been added to the upcoming Pep Boys NHRA Nationals on Sept. 15-18 at Maple Grove Raceway. The track was purchased in April by veteran NHRA racer Kenny Koretsky and his family, including current Pro Stock driver Kyle Koretsky.

The annual stop at Maple Grove Raceway is the kickoff event to the six-race NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship playoffs. With the addition of Pro Stock to the fan-favorite race, all four professional categories (Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle) will be in action at the playoff opener.