Iconic drag racer Kenny Bernstein said Dale Armstrong best explained their working relationship, which yielded multiple championships.

"He said, 'Kenny, you go out and find the money, and I spend it," Bernstein recalled with a laugh.

This relationship can be attributed to the transformation of recognizable Funny Car designs to a one-size-fits-all box type configuration only recognizable through graphics.

When NHRA's Factory Experimental concept hit the drag racing community, it did so with rave reviews and great anticipation. However, a little over a month later, the iconic Factory Experimental designation no longer exists.

NHRA has given the extension of Factory Stock Showdown and possibly the new redesign of its Pro Stock division, a trendier designation.

Call it Factory X, the artist formerly known as Factory Experimental.

LIVE at 9PM EST (12/14), Competition Plus' drag racing talk show, Power Hour, airs with the latest in news, opinion, and relevant guests within the sport. Guests are Paige Coughlin who has recently announced the intentions of a no-prep run along with Richard Brogdon who has a great wagon plus we'll see him in NHRA pro stock once more. Hosted by Slammin' Sam and the Monday Morning Racer be sure to tune in on the Competition Plus Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channel.

NHRA Pro Stock racer Kyle Koretsky, better known around the pits as Kid Chaos, will continue to represent Lucas Oil Products throughout 2022, as announced during PRI 2021.

“As a racer, having Lucas Oil Products displayed on the side of your car is a really big deal,” says Koretsky. “Their exposure across various types of motorsports tells you a lot about their company and commitment to racing. I am stoked that they think so highly of our race team and would like for us to continue representing their brand at NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series events, as well as off the racetrack too.” 

If there is a drag race car design equally as iconic as the rail dragster, it would have to be the Funny Car.

Developed out of the Factory Experimental movement of the mid-1960s when drag racers began taking liberties with moving the rear axles forward for better traction, developing peculiar-looking cars or as the late CJ Hart dubbed them, "those Funny Cars."

It might not be an identical Karate Kid scenario like in the movie, but when rookie Pro Stock driver Camrie Caruso and veteran crew chief Jim Yates hit the track in 2022, they’re hoping for similar results.

Caruso, the third-generation drag racer and soon to be NHRA Pro Stock’s second female racer in competition, she’s determined to master her “wax-on wax-off” routine when it comes to learning from Yates, who was once a decorated championship competitor as a driver.

The first point Yates would like to make is Caruso is a good driver, and his role is just to help her get better.

A common misconception suggests the origin of nitrous-injected doorslammer racing can be traced back to the International Hot Rod Association’s Top Sportsman division. In fact, the first organized competition for nitrous-aided door cars dates back to the American Hot Rod Association's Pro Stock class. During the last four years of the AHRA’s existence, officials bucked conventional Pro Stock regulations of the day by allowing the use of nitrous oxide.

In 1980, Pro Stock was a class in transition. On the National Hot Rod Association side, Pro Stock cars were running on a pounds-per-cubic-inch basis with special weight breaks and/or handicaps based on the make of car. The IHRA took advantage of their rival’s complicated and rather unpopular structure and countered with a simplified unlimited cubic-inch format. As a result, the first Pro Stock car to break into the seven-second zone was racing under IHRA sanction

So where does AHRA Pro Stock fit into the equation? At the start of the 1980 season, the AHRA was deep in the same quagmire as the NHRA, struggling to maintain a level playing field through the use of a cumbersome rules package. To their credit, those in charge of the AHRA recognized the quandary they were in, and they reacted accordingly, making sweeping rules changes. 

The 1980 AHRA Pro Stock season had gotten off to a lackluster start, but that was soon to change. The organization decided that implementing a Mountain Motor format was the best way to give the class the publicity it deserved, and inject new life into it.

There was a major problem, however.

Third-generation drag racer Paige Coughlin is making a dramatic step in 2022, trading in the Super Comp dragster she's been competing in for the last few years for a '92 ProCharger Chevrolet Camaro. The college-aged daughter of three-time Pro Mod world champion Troy Coughlin will be vying for wins and national prestige on Discovery Channel's "Street Outlaws No Prep Kings" television program, the latest series in a line of extremely-popular drag-racing-centric reality shows.