Walk the floor of the SEMA Show with Roger Richards as he brings you the highlights of the longest running automotive aftermarket trade show. You'll see the cars, parts and knowing Roger, the girls on display in Las Vegas.

Drag racing gets into your blood and is hard to shake, sometimes liking it to a drug; perfectly legal yet maybe just as addicting. For Mike Ferderer, that addiction has festered in his system ever since he was an 11-year-old attending the long since gone Puyallup Dragway in the northeast corner of his home state of Washington. Sixty years later, he’s still at it with a certain amount of dominance, although retirement may be on the horizon.

Travis Shumake, the son of the late Funny Car drag racing legend Tripp Shumake, was injured on Monday afternoon when the Funny Car he was driving crossed the centerline and impacted the opposite lane guardwall at The Strip at Las Vegas. It was his second run of the day. 

Shumake had already completed his licensing requirements on his first run.

Fresh from her season-first Funny Car victory at Bristol, Tenn., Alexis DeJoria continued her momentum, capturing the No. 1 starting position for Sunday’s eliminations at the Dodge //SRT NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas.. 

She drove her Bandero Tequila Toyota Camry for DC Motorsports to her second straight top-qualifying berth with a 3.896-second pass at 327.03 mph. 

“That was a very straight run, just on a rail. It was great,” De Joria said.   

The mama cow was in labor, and she and her calf possibly were in danger. 

Jerry Savoie just didn’t know exactly what was going on. He was hundreds of miles away from his property at Cutoff, La. 

One of his employees was on the other end of the telephone line, reporting on how the situation was developing. And Savoie was dividing his attention between that mama cow and his White Alligator Racing motorcycle he was about to wrestle in NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series competition. 

Savoie put his head down on the counter in the lounge of is motorhome. He had seen this play out days before. 

Engine experts gathered early Friday afternoon at Pro Stock racer Matt Hartford’s hospitality area to learn about the evolution of piston rings and cylinder honing from Lake Speed Jr. and Keith Jones of Total Seal Piston Rings and Ed Kiebler from Rottler Manufacturing. They took some time to answer technical questions sent from Hidden Horsepower podcast listeners via Total Seal's social-media outlets. 

Kiebler shared how proper honing techniques produce the appropriate surface finish for optimal piston-ring performance and shared the capabilities of Rottler’s machines.

Speed is a chemist by trade – more specifically, a tribologist. And tribology, he said, “is a fancy word for the study of friction, wear, and lubrication.” And that leads to ring seal, which he said “is the key to optimizing the power in the engine. 

Top Fuel points leader Steve Torrence received a phone call – and a scolding – from his crew last week. 

“They were pissed off at me,” he said, because of his reaction times that they decided were a little on the snoozy side and what cost him victories in the past two Countdown races. 

Cruz Pedregon is a two-time NHRA nitro Funny Car world champ in 1992 and 2008. He’s trying to make it three titles.

Pedregron is in position to do just that after winning the Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Dallas Glenn is an NHRA rookie.

Yet, the way Glenn has been driving in the 2021 NHRA Camping World Series in the Pro Stock class he has looked like a savvy veteran.