This season has been a struggle for NHRA Pro Stock driver T.J. Coughlin at least numbers-wise.

Coughlin is ninth in the points standings with a 4-4 elimination round record.

However, Coughlin, who drives a Camaro for Richard Freeman’s Elite Motorsports team, is a glass-half full guy when he talks about the season.

Some sports look great to watch on television.

However, TV coverage, which has gotten much better in recent years with FOX coming onboard, still does the sights and sounds and smell of drag racing an injustice.

Tony Schumacher, an eight-time Top Fuel world champion, and one of the best drivers in the history of the sport wish people – especially non-drag racing fans – could understand how cool drag racing is in person.

“I've said it, even in the beginning, I wish it was 10 times bigger. 30 times bigger,” said Scumacher, who returned to fulltime driving in 2022. “I don't understand how we can have such a great sport. Anyone that's ever been there's like, this is the greatest sport ever. The people who actually come and sponsors that jump into this sport, they go, ‘holy.’ What have we been missing? Why aren’t there 300 cars showing? This is the greatest damn sport in the entire world.”mpion, and one of the best drivers in the history of the sport wish people – especially non-drag racing fans – could understand how cool drag racing is in person.

Flames adorned the nose and front fenders of Ken Singleton’s funny car. 

On March 25, halfway through the car’s second run down the Texas Motorplex track, actual flames engulfed the vehicle.

The inferno changed forever the life of Singleton, the only champion of the Funny Car Chaos series in its first three seasons. The 55-year-old native of Chickasha, Oklahoma, may never race again due to the amputation of two-thirds of all eight of his fingers, and because of that loss, it’s uncertain whether he will ever again be able to pursue his trade as a welder.

One of drag racing's more colorful personalities has passed away.

Tony Christian, 74, passed away this morning (June 9, 2022) following complications related to a heart attack. Christian suffered a second "widowmaker" heart attack. 

Daughter Heather Kircher said her father took the situation in stride and was joking with family and hospital personnel right up until the end. She said those who knew her father shouldn't be surprised by her father's happy to the end nature. 

Summit Racing Equipment will be featured as the primary partner on the Stringer Performance Parts Plus Top Fuel Dragster driven by Clay Millican at the upcoming Summit Racing NHRA Nationals at the famed Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH June 24-26, 2022. This primary paint scheme is the highlight of an already successful full season sponsorship program with the world championship drag racer.

“Being able to work with our key partners like Summit to create this awesome paint scheme is just one of the exciting opportunities of this program and having Clay race it at their annual Summit Racing NHRA Nationals makes it super special” explained team owner, Doug Stringer.

Sales of specialty-equipment parts reached a new high in 2021, increasing to $50.9 billion in retail sales for the first time in history – up from $47.9 billion in 2020.

The finding comes from the new “2022 SEMA Market Report,” which is available for download at www.sema.org/research and provides the automotive aftermarket industry a comprehensive review of the specialty equipment market in 2021. The report includes new data on the U.S. market size, consumer profiling, industry trends, and changes in the vehicle population.

NHRA lead television analyst Brian Lohnes has had some pretty exciting assignments in drag racing over the last two decades. His latest has him feeling extremely excited.

Lohnes will oversee the newly formed NHRA DRAG group, short for Drag Racing Announcers Group.

"This is going to be effectively a modernization of the famed announcer school that the late Dave McClelland had years ago, and it will be done remotely as to include as many people as we can in the program," Lohnes explained. "There will be video (zoom) classes which will be on a different topic each time. These will be recorded as well, so they can be watched when members can view them."

Current points leader for the 2022/23 Pro Stock Championship, Tyronne Tremayne is currently being treated for a serious injury after falling on his shoulder while leaving work on Friday. The heavy fall left him needing immediate surgery and will require 6-8 weeks’ recovery time but could be up to a year for full use of his arm.

Phillips Connect has announced that Sensata Technologies will join the Justin Ashley Racing team as a partner for the remainder of the 2022 NHRA Camping World drag racing series. 

Drag racing has evolved dramatically over the last decade with racers looking to their team for data insights about the vehicle’s performance that could give them an edge on the track. As innovators in their respective industries, Phillips Connect and Sensata Technologies will take their growth initiatives to higher speeds.

While COVID restrictions in China [where key automotive resources and materials originate] are just now starting to ease slightly, Russia’s military assault on Ukraine has kept the global supply-chain situation unstable. Inflation hovers at undesirable levels, and it’s most noticeable in America at the gas pump. Labor shortages and sometimes astronomical shipping and transportation costs have sent ripples of concern through specific economic sectors. 

Christian Hinton, in a January 31 article for SEMA, wrote that more than 80 percent of its members have experienced supply-chain disturbances and that prices are expected to remain elevated into 2023. Despite that, he said, the specialty-equipment market continues to grow and that SEMA calculated the worst is behind us. In the Camping World Drag Racing Series, teams from the big-budgeted ones to the small-resource entries report they’re doing fine so far and are keeping their fingers crossed. 

Don Schumacher, who has his Top Fuel operation and two Factory Stock Showdown cars, is keeping a close eye on the availability of raw materials because of his interconnected DSM Precision Manufacturing. According to jpmorgan.com’s May 25 article, “Ukraine is the largest exporter of alumina to Russia and operations were suspended in early March. The potential for alumina shortages is an immediate and tangible issue, which could be problematic for supply chains, as aluminum is a critical metal used in packaging, transport (automobiles and aerospace), renewable energy infrastructure, and wiring.”