Driver of the Strutmasters.com powered by MANSCAPED™ Top Fuel dragster and 2020 NHRA Rookie of the Year Justin Ashley took some time to reflect on his successful rookie season. The young driver also looked ahead to a longer than usual off-season as well as his plans and goals for the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season which will begin in March.

Day Two of the COMP Cams Street Car Super Nationals 16 Presented by FuelTech at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was capped off under the lights Friday by a trio of 4-Wide grudge races. Twelve racers were divided into three "quads," each putting $5,000 of their own money on the line with the winner pocketing a cool $20,000 for approximately six seconds of track time.

Each quad consisted of two small-tire cars and two big-tire cars. With LVMS' unique layout of four lanes, a small-tire class can run on one pair of lanes while Jeff Foster's world-class drag crew preps the other two lanes for the next big-tire class.

Preparations for the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season are well underway at Cruz Pedregon Racing (CPR) headquarters as team owner Cruz Pedregon announced the following changes to the CPR team roster today. Accomplished tuner John Collins will be taking over the crew chief duties on the Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger Nitro Funny Car in 2021. Collins most recently led the Make-A-Wish Nitro Funny Car team and driver Tommy Johnson Jr. to a second-place points finish in the 2020 season. Collins will be joined at CPR by the entire crew that powered Johnson Jr. to four final rounds and three wins in 2020. 

You don't want to miss the biggest SAVINGS event of the year at Quarter-Max with deals on over 100 top brands. This special program includes products from Quarter-Max Chassis & Racing Components, Strange Engineering, Weld Racing Wheels, Racepak Data Systems, Stroud Safety, M&M Shifters, and many more. This special program has superb timing just in time for build season.

Strange Engineering is kicking off the holiday season with a huge Black Friday Sale. We are offering 10% off and free ground shipping for ONLINE orders placed from November 20th until Midnight CDT November 30th. Go to www.strangeeng.net to build your order and take advantage of this great opportunity. Orders will begin to be processed the following business day. 

Kalitta Motorsports has added two premier-level sponsors for the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season bringing on Ion Defense Technologies (IDT) and Outer Circle Motorsports wear, to the multi-time world championship organization. IDT will be recognized as the premier face-covering sponsor and Outer Circle Motorsports wear will be the premier team apparel provider. Both companies will begin supplying Kalitta Motorsports immediately with products and apparel.

“Our goal is to continue to keep all our team members as safe as possible,” Kalitta Motorsports General Manager Chad Head said. “The addition of IDT and their superior face coverings is an outstanding solution during these unprecedented times with regards to keeping our teams healthy. Outer Circle has a long history of providing great looking apparel for motorsports teams and we are looking forward to wearing their gear in 2021.”

So much for a steep learning curve for Top Alcohol Dragster driver Mike Bucher.

While competing in only 14 career NHRA events since his rookie season three years ago, the 58-year-old won the 2020 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series North Central Region title with 235 points earned behind the wheel of Robin Samsel’s dragster.

“They shortened how the standings would work this year to best 4 out of 5 races and I only had four races to count and I won it (the North Central Region Standings),” Bucher said. “It was a total miracle. There’s no way that should have happened. If somebody at the start of this year said look at this list and who is the last guy to win a regional championship, it would have been me because I don’t do that many races because I’m a pastor.”

Bucher is the son of Jim Bucher, a popular Top Fuel driver who won the 1975 NHRA Summer Nationals before becoming sick and eventually passing away in 1977 at the age of 37.

Two weeks ago, Pro Modified racer Brandon Snider was in a battle for the NHRA series championship, and even though he came up one spot short in the championship chase, he's already hard at work for the 2021 series championship. 

We just received a gaggle of photos from our spy over in Missouri, who snapped these photos of Snider's new weapon in the quest for the 2021 title rolling out of Jerry Bickel Race Cars. 

Melanie Salemi delivered the big prize in the Radial vs. The World division at the 27th annual Orlando World Street Nationals hosted by the Orlando Speed World drag strip.

Salemi set the pace for the eight-car field behind the wheel of her Strange Engineering-sponsored Camaro by qualifying. She didn't let up at all as she drove her way to the winner's circle with victories over Mike Decker II, Stevie "Fast" Jackson, and David Reese in the finals.