This time last year, Josh Hart was an unknown quantity in the Top Fuel class. He was a former Lucas Oil Series Top Alcohol driver from Ocala, Fla., who had achieved some success, especially in winning the U.S. Nationals twice. But he was the toast of the Camping World Drag Racing Series after winning in his first weekend, at his home track at Gainesville and in the fall at Charlotte. 

He brought not only a quiet perseverance to the sport but also a handful of brand-new sponsors, including his current primary marketing partner, R+L Carriers. And for that, he gained the admiration of his peers, including Funny Car’s Cruz Pedregon and fellow Top Fuel team owner Antron Brown. 

Funny Car driver Jim Campbell, whose Jim Dunn Racing team doesn’t participate in testing, has no problem at all with using a practice Christmas tree to work toward cutting consistently quick starting lights. It’s a tool he uses, for sure. But he cautioned that it’s not necessarily realistic preparation for competition. 

The missing element, he said, is the human drama. 

“Practicing on a practice tree is nothing. That's just a mechanism to get your hand-eye coordination. There's not 10,000 other things going on. 

NASCAR captivated a TV audience of nearly 4.3 million households Feb. 6 for its Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum at Los Angeles and 50,000 fans in the grandstands. Rapper Ice Cube provided the halftime entertainment for the younger, avant-garde clientele the stock-car racing executives are hoping to hook, as the 150-lap event on the unique, purpose-built track was divided into 75-lap segments. NASCAR hired music-industry entrepreneur DJ Skee to perform during all caution breaks. 

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced Thursday that superstar DJ/producer Martin Garrix will headline a lineup of global electronic music artists May 29 at the Race Day concert at the Snake Pit at the Indianapolis 500. Among the performers will be deadmau5, Galantis, Steve Aoki and Yellow Claw. And the venue is charging between $45 and $150 for tickets for the separate-admission event (and a package that includes both the general admission to the Indianapolis 500 and Snake Pit for $85, and a VIP package for $190). VIP amenities will include access to a raised viewing platform located beside the stage, a private cash bar and private air-conditioned restrooms. 

While many of their counterparts were running to the quarter-mile in Bakersfield, a fair share of Pro Stock drivers participating in the Nitro Spring Training session at Wild Horse Motorsports Park were only running to the 1,000-foot mark. 

Dallas Glenn usually runs to the 1,000-foot mark in his test sessions, so the shortened distance wasn't anything out of the ordinary.  

"I've done testing before, so that's just kind of what we usually do for testing," Glenn explained. "Every now and then, we'll go a little bit farther, but the track prep was set up for Top Fuel in the last week, so a thousand feet was just fine with me. Going to the quarter-mile was starting to get a little questionable, so it's totally fine. I mean, we're in high gear anyway. And that last 320 feet is just wear and tear on parts that we didn't need."

Justin Ashley could smell what the Prock was cooking, and he wasn’t having any of it.

The two youngest drivers in the NHRA’s Top Fuel class – Ashley, 27, a Long Island real-estate developer and Prock, 26, an aspiring chef and restaurateur – met in Sunday’s final round of the Lucas Oil Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.

Robert Hight has won a lot of races in a lot of different ways.

He has finished first in pedal fests and celebrated fiery finishes. He has won big and he has won by the narrowest of margins. But until Sunday, never had he won a race with so much taking place before ever taking the tree.

Never count out Erica Enders.

And especially don’t doubt her publicly.

It was love at first clutch. Well, not exactly the first clutch for Bo Butner, as he made his triumphant return to Pro Stock, this time as a driver in the Elite corral of cars. 

"Felt good," Butner said." I've always hopped in and out of them, but to have our own new car built around me, for me, Rick Jones knocked it out of the park. Very good car, but this is our first time also being on a prepped track."

The 400-pound gorilla in the room, leaving KB Racing for Elite was the baseball equivalent of leaving the Yankees for the Red Sox or vice versa. 

Here are some curious little facts folks might not know:

Tony Schumacher’s primary sponsors this season are the Maynard Family and Scag Power Equipment/Lawn Mowers. But at the Arizona Nationals, his Top Fuel dragster will sport the name of a new marketing partner, Kaizen Collision. The collision repair/auto glass/paint shop centers, which stretch from California to Arizona (where it’s based at Scottsdale) on to Nebraska and Iowa, met Schumacher through his vested interest in credit-card merchant processing firm RAC Financial. (So even when Schumacher raced with Global Electronic Technology livery, he was a partner in RAC Financial. “We have our own processing company. We've been doing it for years,” he said.