Red Line Oil signed a two-year agreement becoming the title sponsor of the NMCA Muscle Car Nationals, solidifying the oil company’s commitment to the modern and vintage muscle car market. The Red Line Oil NMCA Muscle Car Nationals offers six national events catering to grassroots drag racing, street performance, and the restoration and customization segments. 

“Red Line Oil has a rich history in motorsports and bringing them into the NMCA as the series sponsor is a great fit from hardcore Pro Mod racers to street performance enthusiasts as well as fans across the country,” said Steve Wolcott, CEO and founder of ProMedia Events, the parent company of the NMCA Muscle Car Nationals. “We’ve worked with Red Line Oil, along with Arrington Performance, through our exclusive Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout program and we’re thrilled they’re stepping up to an even higher profile position with the NMCA for 2022 and beyond.”

Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) has fielded as few as one car and as many as nine.

And Schumacher told Competition Plus that he doesn’t think the single-car team – à la Antron Brown’s and Ron Capps’ new operations – is an indication of things to come.

“No, I don't feel that is ultimately the trend in the direction the sport will go,” Schumacher said. “I believe the multi-car teams with the current owners and the new owners will be ultimately the way the sport progresses and goes forward.”

Who could argue with him? Even Brown and Capps likely won’t remain single-car operations. Brown has said that eventually he’d like to expand his team, with the ultimate limit two Top Fuel dragsters and two Funny Cars. Dean Antonelli, Capps’ co-crew chief along with John Medlen, said, “I would say he has aspirations to grow to a multiple-car team, probably a two-car team, in the next few years – not right away.”

SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) has released its “SEMA Future Trends – January 2022” report. The in-depth report, conducted by the SEMA Market Research Team, provides valuable insight and information to help the specialty-equipment industry make vital decisions and plan for the future.

The SEMA Future Trends report provides a detailed analysis of the industry’s most important issues and trends in 2022 and beyond. The report includes four primary sections:

Don Schumacher Racing is proud to announce that it has added a third team to its 2022 Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown Series line-up with the addition of Warren Walcher to the organization’s championship-winning program. Walcher, who will campaign a third 2021 Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak for DSR, is eager to join his two new teammates, David Davies and Mark Pawuk, as he begins his first full season competing in the popular FSS category.
 
The Grand Junction, Colo. resident is scheduled to compete in all eight FSS events, making his DSR debut at the series’ season-opener at the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. in March. Walcher’s machine will utilize a DSR engine and drivetrain, and the car will be tuned and maintained by co-crew chiefs Kevin Helms and A.J. Berge who will continue to oversee Davies and Pawuk’s Drag Paks, in addition to Walcher’s new entry.

NHRA championship-contending Top Fuel driver Justin Ashley announced the addition of Aladdin Bakers, Inc., a Brooklyn based bakery and owner of Baked In Brooklyn pita chips, snack sticks, and assorted snacks, as an associate sponsor for the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. Baked in Brooklyn logos will appear on Ashley’s 11,000 horsepower Top Fuel dragster.

“We are thrilled to have Baked in Brooklyn join our team,” said Ashley, the 2020 NHRA Rookie of the Year and No. 4 finisher in Top Fuel in 2021. “As a native New Yorker, I am proud to represent a company with such delicious snacks located so close to home. I am looking forward to introducing these foods to NHRA fans across the country.”

Weldon High Performance has signed as presenting sponsor of CompetitionPlusTV.com, the video department of iconic internet drag racing magazine CompetitionPlus.com. CompetitionPlusTV presented by Weldon High Performance celebrates its tenth year and the popular YouTube Channel has grown to over 42,000 subscribers largely in part to its original and historical content including its Legends: The Series and Storytellers videos. 

Local hero Phil Read etched his name in the record book after fending off Peter Xiberras in the final round of the Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel championship at Sydney Dragway. 

“It was great to race against Peter,” said an elated Read. “I went a little bit deep on the line and Pete did as well but shouldn’t beat himself up too much. I wasn’t sure I had won until the officials came up and told me because, when I pulled the 'chutes, Peter went flying past."

Veteran owner-driver Phil Lamattina led down NHRA legend Larry Dixon in the B final and RAI star Wayne Newby came from behind to account for rookie Shane Olive in the C final.

 
Ron Capps can tell lots of tales about drag racing – about times before he ever sat in a Top Fuel dragster or Funny Car. He and brother Jon followed all the heroes of their childhood and watched both of their parents race, at coastal California dragstrips at Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo.
 
“I grew up around the sport of drag racing,” Ron Capps said. “I probably was conceived at a racetrack. It’s been everything in my life.
 
And it’s about to become even more intense, according to his colleagues.

NHRA Top Fuel pilot, Alex Laughlin, will be back in a Pro Stock Car for the first two stops of the 2022 Camping World Drag Racing Series.  Laughlin, four-time NHRA National Event winner will start the season in Pomona, California at the Winter Nationals with Powerbuilt as the Primary Sponsor on the Prusiensky Racing Dodge Dart. 

“I received a call earlier this off-season from Alan Prusiensky asking if I would be interested in wheeling his spare car in Pomona and Phoenix”, said Laughlin. “It really got my attention because my current Top Fuel program with Scott Palmer wasn’t set to debut until the third race in Gainesville. I gave the folks at Powerbuilt a call, pitched this spontaneous idea, and they were in from the start. They’ve stood by me through so much in these short three years together and I am so thankful for their support.” 

Pro Modified racer Lyle Barnett was red-hot at the end of the 2021 NHRA Pro Modified season, winning the final two races. When the competition drifted over into the fan-vote realm of the Virtual Reality Hot Rod Association, Barnett merely picked up where he left off. 

Barnett scored his seventh win of the season, stopping Mike Castellana at the Le GrandNational in Montreal and, in doing so, clinched the series title.

" I don't have to press the gas or the trans-brake button to let go of it on time, to guide that seat down through there," Barnett said. "But for a week at a time, I'm pecking the hell out of the screen of my phone, promoting it on social media, making videos. Stevie gave me a good run for my money there for about four weeks, and we were back and forth on social media. And it was really fun. But I think that ... I said it after; I think it was race three when Stevie and I went for a spread of five votes, decided in a race where you had over 6,000 votes cast.