Pro Stock Motorcycle veteran Steve Johnson is looking for a t-shirt he cannot find. 

When he finds it, it will likely read, “Never thought I’d be qualifying No. 1, winning races, and in the points lead, but here I am KILLING IT!”

Don Prudhomme had his doubts. 

For a little over a decade, the iconic driver whose name was synonymous with Funny Car racing had raced against Billy Meyer, a driver who dreamed big and talked even bigger. This time Meyer wasn't planning to do something behind the wheel of his Funny Car. Instead, he proposed a drag strip the likes of what no one had ever seen, much less raced on. 

Meyer told anyone who would listen, including Prudhomme, his plans to build the greatest drag strip ever, one which featured an entire concrete quarter-mile racing surface. 

Krista Baldwin hadn’t planned to be driving her Top Fuel dragster here at Dallas. 

Intense planning for the upcoming SEMA Show on behalf of Paul Lee’s Wharton Automotive Group has been occupying her 9-to-5 world. She still is General Manager for Lee’s Funny Car team. And even when she isn’t racing the car she and her grandpa, Chris Karamesines, own together – and are in the process of transitioning the sole ownership to her – she still has to attend to the business of that. 

So the NHRA’s FallNationals at Texas Motorplex, just south of Dallas, wasn’t on her agenda. But the Stampede of Speed and the excitement surrounding that lassoed her in. 

If Texas is known for its largeness, then Top Fuel racer Brittany Force just wanted to fit in during Friday Night qualifying at the NHRA FallNationals hosted by the Texas Motorplex just outside of Dallas, Texas.

Force put herself in a league of her own with a 3.637 elapsed time, at 335.32 miles per hour, to grab the pot of gold in Friday’s Stampede of Speed qualifying session. Not only did Force grab the fifth quickest run in NHRA 1,000-foot drag racing history and seventh fastest run in Top Fuel racing since it began, but also took home a $15,000 bonus. If the run holds, it will be her 11th 2021 No. 1 qualifier. 

The most impressive part of Robert Hight's Friday evening No. 1 qualifying run at the NHRA FallNationals is that he even made it to the finish line under power. Equally impressive is the fact he made it off of the starting line following a series of snafus.

But, he did, and in doing so, kept his dimming championship hopes alive by securing six bonus points in leading both sessions. However, the second session 3.878, 331.94 mile per hour run also netted him a check of $15,000 courtesy of the Texas Motorplex Stampede of Speed bonus. 

Greg Anderson had a vision of what his Hendrickcars.com-sponsored Camaro needed to run if he was to have a chance to win the $2,500 bonus during Friday's Stampede of Speed at the NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex. 

When you're at the back of the line to run, the experience can be tough to stomach. 

When you look at almost every new drag strip built in the 1990s and later, almost all of them have a bit of Texas Motorplex inspiration. 

That's how far ahead of the game Billy Meyer's vision was when the track opened in 1986. Take a look at the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series roster of national event tracks, and it's not hard to see a bit of the Ennis, Texas-based facility.

“Fall Frenzy” continues this week (Oct. 9-10) at Rockingham Dragway where many of the Southeast’s most accomplished bracket racers compete for prize money, prestige and more than 250 special prizes in Carolina Powerfest 9 presented by Yuengling beer.

For Top ET and Footbrake racers, the weekend begins Friday with a pair of Gamblers’ races interspersed with a test-and-tune session.  The competition intensifies on Saturday with a $10,000-to-win race in Top ET, a Footbrake race paying $2,000 and the addition of a Jr. Dragster race with a $500 top prize and concludes with three more races on Sunday.