Radial vs. The World driver Jason Lee had a feeling something good was going to happen Wednesday night during the opening session of the Duck X Productions marquee event, Lights Out 13, at South Georgia Motorsports Park. 

Credit a successful test at Orlando Speed World ahead of the event for the impetus of his success. 

"We just made small changes and to keep improving," Lee explained. "But as the air gets better, we're definitely going to look to go a lot faster. We tested last week, and we're just duplicating what we've already done in testing.

The NHRA stands poised to make a run at a demographic they haven't held firmly since the late 1960s, and to do so, they plan on playing games, literally. 

Since the pandemic hit in early 2020, NHRA has been working with video game developers to create a game that genuinely extols the virtues of the straight-line sport. 

A lot of the details on the upcoming game remain hush-hush, but what has leaked out, one can assume strategically, is it should be available in time for the Countdown. 

One person, who knows more about the game than he's allowed to tell, is NHRA's FoxSports announcer Brian Lohnes. 

The Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Drag Racing Series (MWDRS) presented by J&A Service will add its first two-wheel class when it welcomes Top Fuel Motorcycle to its class lineup at three races in the 2022 season. Pingel Enterprises, a long-time supporter of Top Fuel Motorcycle racing, has signed on as the presenting sponsor. 

The nitro-burning motorcycles join the all-eighth-mile series’ headlining classes, Pro Modified and Top Alcohol Funny Car, as well as Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, and Jr. Dragsters.

Starting to come back stronger from his 2020 pandemic-caused hiatus and encouraged by a season that netted him three victories in five finals, John Force has tweaked his four-team program a bit this year.

For one thing, he has hired his own in-house team of sponsorship-procurement specialists. 

“I’ve realized it’s time to build my own marketing team, not go with an agency,” the multiple-car team owner said. “And it’s costing me. Took money out of my savings to hire them. I brought some guys from basketball. I brought some guys from IndyCar and NASCAR to chase money. Racing is a rich man’s sport. That’s why the Torrences can do it; that’s why [Connie] Kalitta and [Don] Schumacher, people with money, can do it. I’m a truck driver. That’s where I come from. And I have to have sponsors to make it. 

Sparkling Ice +Caffeine, part of the Talking Rain Beverage Company, has partnered with Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) for its inaugural season in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series.
 
Sparkling Ice +Caffeine will serve as the primary sponsor for TSR driver Leah Pruett and her 11,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster in two NHRA events this year – this weekend during the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, and July 29-31 in the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent Washington. For all other races, Sparkling Ice +Caffeine will be an associate sponsor on Pruett’s Top Fuel dragster with logo placement atop the driver canopy.

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.