Three-time Top Fuel champion Antron Brown has a 10-year old admirer from Lake Charles, La., a Jr. Dragster eighth-mile ace in the 8.90-second class named Phillip Mouton. 

And before qualifying began Friday, Brown gave young Phillip a thrill he never will forget.

Phillip, it turns out, received a Jr. Dragster for Christmas but wasn’t going to make a pass with it until Brown signed the rear wing of the half-scale dragster. 

The opening round of the 2021-22 400 Thunder season scheduled for Heathcote Park Raceway, Victoria, on November 26-27 has been cancelled.

Organizers citing uncertainty around spectator numbers allowed due to Covid-19 restrictions and delays with track renovations as factors behind their decision.

For all the cowboys, all the pipeliners, all the Capco Construction customers, all the hunting buddies, all the friends and neighbors in Kilgore who were having homecoming parties, ready to celebrate another Steve Torrence NHRA victory, the beer went flat and the nachos suddenly went cold and soggy. 

And they can blame Justin Ashley. 

Hell hath no fury like a Funny Car driver who beats himself up over a mistake. 

Ever since Ron Capps left the NHRA Midwest Nationals two weeks ago, admittedly, he was not the most fun person to be around. 

​Finally.

It’s not so much Greg Anderson has to be concerned with winning one more race to pass Warren Johnson on the all-time wins list. He just doesn't have to field questions about when he's going to win his 98th career national event victory. 

One would be wise to never count Rickie Smith’s boy out of anything. 

Matt Smith, the son of one of drag racing’s most prolific doorslammer racers, hasn’t ridden his father’s coattails to prominence, but this doesn’t mean he hasn’t learned a thing or two from the crafty veteran along the way. 

Current and three-time Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence is the 2021 recipient of the Mike Aiello Award.

CompetitionPlus.com owner and publisher Bobby Bennett made the surprise presentation before eliminations Sunday to Torrence during the NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex at Ennis, near Dallas.

The Capco Contractors Dragster driver from Kilgore, Texas, is the 16th recipient of the award that honors Aiello, the Houston native and standout college athlete at Texas Tech University who was a longtime drag-racing fan and former National Hot Rod Association Pro Stock crew member.

Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Joey Gladstone started the year in the hospital in Florence, S.C., with a long list of serious injuries from a testing accident at Darlington. Amazingly, he recovered enough to start the NHRA season in March at Gainesville, Fla. But then this fall at Charlotte, where he was focused on moving up in the Countdown, teammate Cory Reed’s bike crashed into him during their side-by-side match in Round 2. Reed, who also was a Countdown racer, is recuperating from a broken leg at home in Virginia. Gladstone was unhurt, and he finished the race at zMAX Dragway as runner-up to Angelle Sampey because his engine lost power when he was ahead downtrack. 

Aaron Stanfield is 26 years old, but he said, “People ask me if I have a driver’s license.” 

Evidently no one who asks him that ever has been to a drag race. If they had, they’d know he understands exactly what to do behind a steering wheel.  

Stanfield is the newly crowned two-time Factory Stock Showdown (FSS) champion, cementing back-to-back titles at the previous race, at St. Louis. And he’s a top-five Pro Stock Countdown contender who entered this race just 51 points behind No. 4 Dallas Glenn and 167 behind leader Greg Anderson.