Jeg Coughlin Jr. will add some championship flair to this weekend's third annual
Pontiac Showdown test session in Las Vegas as the defending NHRA POWERade Pro
Stock champion and his JEGS.com race team finalize their tune-up for the 2008
season. A four-time world champion with 51 national event wins, Coughlin arrives
at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as one of the most decorated drag
racers of all-time.

"We're extremely excited
about the start of the season and this test should give us a real good gauge of
how we're going to stack up against the competition this year," the 37-year-old
Coughlin said. "I'm sure everyone else has been working hard this off-season and
is taking aim at us but we're ready for them. It's going to be another terrific
year."

The Pontiac Showdown
officially runs Friday and Saturday, with teams testing throughout the day
Friday before setting an elimination field Saturday morning. Then the Showdown
itself takes place with the winner gaining a nice cash prize and a ton of
momentum heading into the 48th annual NHRA Winternationals, Feb. 7-10, in
Pomona,
Calif.

Although he’s been racing for over 25 years, and has worked his way up
through the classes, Wayne Nielsen will be ready for some Pro Modified
racing in 2008 with the Pro Modified Racing Association.
 
“I looking forward to running in the PMRA,” said the London-based
driver recently. “I’m also looking forward to going a little quicker!”
 
Nielsen said he has raced with the usual progression of getting faster
cars during his career, and has been running Top Sportsman and Quick 8
competition at tracks such as the Grand Bend Motorplex and Toronto
Motorsports Park in Cayuga, Ontario.
 
Nielsen also competes in the IHRA’s Top Sportsman class.

Ed “Isky” Iskenderian, legendary founder of Iskenderian Racing Cams and
his lifetime friend and associate Robert “Bones” Balogh have been named
as 2008 co-recipients of the Wally Parks Motorsports Statesman of the
Year Award by the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame.  Iskenderian and
Balogh, both of Southern California, will receive the Wally Parks
Motorsports Statesman Award during the annual Hall of Fame weekend in
Henderson, NC, October 17-18-19, 2008.
   
“We are excited to name these two men who have meant so much to the
racing and performance industry as our 2008 co-recipients of the Wally
Parks Motorsports Statesman Award.  Isky’s name is synonymous with
racing, and Bones Balogh has worked alongside Ed since both were
teenaged dry lakes racers as well as having a distinguished career as a
race driver”, observed Executive Director Nancy Wilson.
   
“I’m confident that both these individuals would be heartily approved
of by the man it’s named for, the late Wally Parks.  It’s even more
special that Wally knew Isky and Bones personally, and only recently
Wally and Isky appeared together for a question and answer session at
the Wally Parks-NHRA Museum of Drag Racing, in Pomona, California”,
added Ms. Wilson.

Atlanta Dragway, home of the Summit
Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals April 24-27, has recently
undergone a track renovation project. The project consisted of
installing new sections of concrete and asphalt and texturing the
entire surface.

Initially, 225 yards of concrete were poured and set. New concrete
areas include the burnout box and various locations downtrack. After
allowing the new concrete to cure for a month, new asphalt was applied
from the eighth-mile to the quarter-mile, totaling 5,100 square yards.

The City of Delaware, Ohio, hometown of JEGS
Mail Order and the entire Coughlin family, was quick to honor their famous
native sons in 2008. City workers have just erected new signs at the city's
borders announcing "Welcome to Delaware, Home of JEGS -- Four-time NHRA World
Champions and 12-time NHRA Divisional Champions."

For
John Force, drag racing’s most prolific winner, four months of
intensive rehabilitation following the most serious crash of his pro
career culminated Monday in a unexpected and spectacular 4.782 second,
327.51 mile per hour sprint down a resurfaced quarter mile at Firebird
Raceway.

It was the quickest run recorded during a National Time Trials test
session extended by Sunday’s rain and it all but ended speculation
about Force’s ability to rally from injuries that included a compound
fracture of the left ankle, broken bones in both hands, broken toes and
ligament and tendon damage.

As a show of its strengthening commitment to the NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series, ESPN2/ESPN2HD will be presenting 21 of the 24 races
during the 2008 season in the coveted 7-11 p.m. ET prime time viewing
window.

This year marks the eighth consecutive year of NHRA’s exclusive
broadcasting partnership with ESPN.  The season begins with the 48th
annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals from Auto Club Raceway
at Pomona, Feb. 7-10.

Outside of races in Houston, Topeka and Chicago, which are scheduled to
air late Sunday afternoon, every NHRA POWERade Series race during the
2008 season will begin or end between 7 and 11 p.m. ET.   During the
last half of the season, NHRA will be featured in the same time slot, 7
-10 p.m., for 10 of the final 14 races.

Additionally, the popular pre-race show that debuted in 2007, NHRA Race
Day presented by Lucas Oil, will be back in 2008, once again being
produced on-site to allow fans attending the Sunday race a chance to
watch – and participate – in the show.   It will air on Sunday race
days at 11 a.m. ET on ESPN2/ESPN2HD.

Get ready the Outlaw 8.5-inch Racing Craziness Is Headed Your Way

The folks at Mickey Thompson Tires felt they had heard it all. The
racer on the other end of their tech line was making a suggestion for
an improved design on a tire that is not among their common fast
doorslammer product line.

“We’ve had a request to beef up our 26 X 8.5 X 15,” said Ken Warner,
Vice President/Sales - Marketing at Mickey Thompson Tires. “We have
requests from some racers who really want us to raise the bar in this
arena. They want us to make this a stiff wall tire.”

Yes, that’s right, Outlaw 8.5-inch tire racing is in the formative stages.

NHRA Founder Wally Parks was inducted posthumously into the Eastern
Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame Saturday night during a
ceremony at the 40th annual EMPA Convention held near Philadelphia.

NHRA Division 1 director Bob Lang accepted the Hall of Fame induction
on behalf of NHRA for Parks, who died last September at the age of 94.
Parks founded the NHRA in 1951 to provide a safer place to race for hot
rod enthusiasts, most of whom were racing illegally on public streets
at the time. That goal remains the NHRA’s primary mission today, and
the sport has grown into a major spectator sport and the world’s
largest motorsports sanctioning body. NHRA visits 22 major U.S. cities
during its 24-race NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series which is
highlighted by coverage on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD, the exclusive broadcast
partner of NHRA for the past eight years.

Tickets to nostalgia drag racing’s premier event, the 2008 March Meet, Mar. 7-9
at Auto Club Famoso Raceway, are now on sale at www.famosoraceway.com. According to Blake Bowser, vice president and general manager of the
Kern County Racing Association, operators of Auto Club Famoso and producers of
the fabled March Meet, race fans can purchase a Super 3-Day Pass for $75 online
now and pick them up at the track beginning Mon., Mar. 3. Bowser said there are
no service charges for tickets purchased online.

Individual day tickets
for the event will go on sale Mar.3, but will be available only at the track.
Ticket prices are $25 for Fri., Mar. 7; $30 for Sat., Mar. 8; and $30 for Sun.,
Mar. 9.

Auto Club members also
receive a $2 discount off daily admission tickets by showing their cards when
they purchase tickets at the track. Daily
tickets for children ages 7 to 12 are $10 and kids 6 and under are free when
accompanied by an adult with paid admission.