Robert Hight and NHRA Championship Drag Racing earned the votes in AAA’s Decision 2020: Drags or Checkered Flags to retain bragging rights as best racing series. Hight, who also won the contest in 2016, faced off with fellow AAA sponsored NASCAR driver Joey Logano.

After a grueling campaign highlighted by debates at the Auto Club 400 on March 1st and The Last Debate (held virtually on November 2nd), Hight garnered enough fan votes to win a second term for Dra

Tommy Johnson Jr. understands that he could face many dire consequences at this stage in his life.

Johnson, 52, finds himself on the sidelines, without a driving job for the first time since 2014, when he filled the seat vacated by Johnny Gray at Don Schumacher Racing. He's not finished driving, nor is he ready to retire, but Johnson understands the quality opportunities available for even a 23-time winner are slim to none.

In what could be described as the epitome of NHRA drag racing's next generation moving to the forefront, Troy Coughlin Jr. will become the lead driver for Team JEGS in 2021 and beyond, driving the JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro tuned by Rickie Jones.

Just one year after the inception of the Pro Stock class 50 years ago, JEGS Automotive joined the battle with company founder Jeg Coughlin Sr. grinding gears in his JEGS-sponsored car. Troy Coughlin Sr., one of Jeg Sr.'s four sons who now own and operate JEGS, was next to contest the factory hot rod class, running various yellow-and-black hot rods from 1994-2004. Then came Jeg Coughlin Jr., who won five world titles and 65 races in the class during a 24-year professional career.

American fans of the straight-line sport are experiencing difficult times due to restrictions necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Hot Rod Association’s prime national event schedule of 24 events having being decimated through curtailment of many races. Coronavirus has invoked a literal shutdown of many facets of daily life, starting in mid-March and continuing in an onerous manner to this day.

Over in Europe, matters have been equally challenging for drag racing devotees, with Europe’s prime quarter-mile strip, Santa Pod Raceway, being obliged to cancel numerous events at the 250-acre site situated on the county borders of Northamptonshire and Bedford, some 70 miles to the north of the capital. It has been particularly galling insomuch as there were 72 events on this season’s calendar, which would have made it one of the world’s busiest tracks -- running from mid-February through to the first week of December. There’s truth in advertising as the well-chronicled rural facility bills itself as the UK’s most action-packed venue…

George Blanda was 48 years old when he played in his last NFL game.

Baseball legend Satchel Paige was just shy of 60 when he threw his final pitch. 

Gary Player was 73 in his farewell pro golf tournament.

Stock car racer Hershel McGriff was 90 when he competed on a 3/8ths-mile Tucson Speedway in 2018.

J.R. Todd finds it hard to be upset with the way his 2020 season played out.

Todd, who won the 2018 NHRA Funny Car title, was one of those who wasn’t even sure the season was going to happen. As he sees it, anything beyond the first two events was a bonus. 

“I was glad we were able to get on track this year and get in the amount of races that we did,” Todd explained. “We were able to race in front of a select group of fans at some events. At the same time you want to go out there and perform at a high level and be in contention to win a championship.

McLeod Racing, a leading performance clutch manufacturer, has announced that it will be the West Coast supplier for Boninfante Friction racing products. Boninfante Friction, based outside Philadelphia, is a world leader in friction clutch manufacturing for the motorsports racing market. With a West Coast supplier available to customers, Boninfante continues to uphold quality customer service and quick turnaround times for new clutch disc and steel floater products as well as clutch unit re-certifications.
 
McLeod, located in Anaheim, CA, will stock various sizes of discs and floaters, clutch units, and will have the ability to recertify customers’ units. McLeod will be available to serve the West Coast customers in the Nostalgia Funny Car and Top Fuel, Top Alcohol, Truck Pull, Drag Boats, and NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car classes.

The Virtual Reality Hot Rod Association, a fan-vote drag racing series created by CompetitionPlus.com during the pandemic shutdown, will return on Tuesday, December 1, 2020, for its second season.

The inaugural series featured five events and crowned champions in five professional categories. Defending series champions include Terry McMillen (Top Fuel), Tim Wilkerson (Funny Car), Kyle Koretsky (Pro Stock), Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle), and Rickie Smith (Pro Modified).

To know Bobby Lagana Jr. is to know he's a glass-half-full kind of person.

Lagana epitomizes what is good with drag racing. He's passionate, competitive, and, most of all, kind-hearted. The son of drag racer Bobby Lagana Sr. has endured the highest of highs behind the wheel of a race car and the lowest of lows when injured in a life-changing accident. He then took his talents in tuning to work in conjunction with Richard Hogan at Steve Torrence Racing on a three-time championship run.

This year has been a tough one for Lagana, but he sees the bright spots amid adversity. In our annual tradition, Lagana steps up to deliver a list of the things he's grateful for in this year's What I'm Thankful For Series.

The Camping World Era of NHRA Drag Racing began in October, but it’s generating even more excitement as business mogul Marcus Lemonis opens up about his decision to become the series sponsor and what kind of an impact he hopes to make in the sport. Lemonis spoke November 23 with CompetitionPlus.com Senior Writer Susan Wade and shared some of his insights about what’s meaningful to him:

SUSAN WADE: What intrigued you about the NHRA and drag racing that made it an attractive property?

MARCUS LEMONIS: Motorsports has been a pretty good investment for our company – actually, very good investment for about 10 years now. We’ve had the truck series for just shy of 10 years now. And what I really started to notice is that out of all sports sponsorships – we do a lot – the highest conversion rate of familiarity with our brand and loyalty to our brand comes in the motorsport space. NASCAR has been an amazing partner, but I’ve always studied NHRA from a distance and really tried to understand how it works . . . because obviously the size of the attendance at the races was always different from what NASCAR had, at least back in the day, huge crowds. And what I didn’t realize was that NHRA gets the same thing. It just gets it over a series of days.