Lyle Barnett had a passenger in his car on the ride home from Dallas, Texas. His co-pilot was silent; didn't speak an audible word the entire trip yet spoke volumes about the driver.

Barnett's co-pilot was not a human, or animal, or a living thing for that matter.

Sharing the ride home, buckled into the passenger seat, was Barnett's first career NHRA Wally. Barnett nearly died as the result of a fire while drag radial racing on September 15, 2015.

Paul Lee will showcase his newest acquisition, Silver Sport Transmissions, with a brand-new scheme for his nitro funny car this weekend at the Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, TN. 

Silver Sport Transmissions (SST), a Rockford, TN based company, is a TREMEC Elite Distributor and leads the industry in TREMEC 5 and 6-Speed kits. The Jim Oberhofer-led team looks to continue their tenacious effort in the ultra-competitive Funny Car class.

TechNet Professional, an Advance Auto Parts-operated network of more than 13,000 independently owned vehicle repair shops across the United States and Canada, will continue to be a major primary sponsor of Josh Hart’s Top Fuel Dragster in the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. TechNet and Advance Auto Parts have been partners of Josh Hart's racing team since 2016.
 
“We are proud to continue our partnership with Josh Hart next year,” said Lauren Beaulieu, Advance’s vice president of marketing, professional. “Josh is a great representative of Advance Auto Parts and TechNet, and we look forward to seeing him succeed on track and with his business in the years to come.”

Toyota announced today that Torrence Racing will join Team Toyota beginning with the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. The addition of Torrence Racing’s two-team effort expands Toyota’s team partnerships to include five Top Fuel dragsters and two Funny Cars.  

“Torrence Racing is a leader in NHRA competition, and we look forward to bringing Steve and Billy into the Toyota family in 2022,” said Paul Doleshal, Group Manager, Motorsports and Assets, Toyota Motor North America (TMNA). “We have incredible drivers and team partners in the NHRA landscape. The addition of Steve and Billy Torrence will only enhance that outstanding lineup.”

Billy Torrence sparked a bit of discussion at the Countdown opener last month at Reading when he accepted his Top Fuel winner’s trophy and referred to the manipulated points adjustment -which erases the actual tally of earned points and gives the Nos. 2-10-seeded drivers a huge break by bunching up the standings – as “the Loser Appreciation Program.” That’s because this year, the NHRA is allowing racers out of the top 10 to participate in the Countdown if he/she attended every regular-season event and made at least two qualifying passes at each.

Torrence and son Steve – and fellow Top Fuel racer Josh Hart – contend that the NHRA decision-makers have caved into the “Everybody gets a trophy for showing up” practice.

During the third qualifying session at the No Mercy 12 event in Valdosta, Limited Drag Radial racer D.J. McCain rode out a monster wheelstand, and barely avoided the driver in the other lane. Smith was uninjured in the crash.

There's no such thing as a sure bet in drag racing. However, based on Pro 275 racer Mo Hall's track record at South Georgia Motorsports Park, he's pretty darn close to this status. 

Hall, who entered this weekend's event undefeated at South Georgia Motorsports Park, continued his dominance by blasting out a 3.753 elapsed time at 197.88 miles per hour. Hall has two wins at SGMP with Lights Out 12 and Sweet 16 titles under his belt. Hall was second in Wednesday's provisional qualifying with a 3.810, 195.65.

His secret? Give the Gene Fulton-powered engine in his Corvette as much nitrous as it can take. 

Tony Stewart added another entrée to his racing platter Thursday, announcing he’s now a NHRA team owner, but quickly noted that without veteran team owner Don Schumacher and Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett, the team wouldn’t be a reality.

“She’s done so much work just to get us to this point of helping us understand the budget,” Stewart said about his fiancé during Thursday’s press conference at zMAX Dragway. “She’s had to lay out budgets for other teams in the past. Without Don and Leah, there’s no way this would have happened.”

Jack Wyatt, who for years has run his IHRA and NHRA Funny Car operation out of his Seymour, Iowa, race shop, has experienced broken motors before. But a couple of weeks ago, the veteran owner-driver was on his way to World Wide Technology Raceway at Madison, Ill., near St. Louis. But that time, the broken motor was on his tow vehicle.

“We were going to run St. Louis, and I broke the motor in my tow truck and we couldn't get there. So we've got another truck to use for here because they're still working on mine. This was a 12-hour drive, close to home,” Wyatt said.