There’s making hay while the sun is up, and then there’s what cattle rancher extraordinaire/Funny Car point leader Matt Hagan did on Friday at the NHRA In-N-Out Finals in Pomona. Ca. He made a pair of strong runs to secure the provisional pole in Friday's qualifying. 

Joining Hagan atop their respective divisions were Steve Torrence (Top Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) at the 21st race of the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season, and the sixth of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

Hagan saved his best for last on Friday, thundering to a 3.869-second elapsed time at 328.46 mph in his Dodge Direct Connection Charger SRT Hellcat. If the run holds, it will mark his second No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 51st of his career. He's got the advantage in a three-way championship battle against Bob Tasca III and Robert Hight. Only 17 points separate the trio of aspiring champions.  

Winning does have its rewards, and for Kalitta Racing, their round wins in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series have rewarded the food insecure in the United States. 

In a joint venture between Kalitta Motorsports, DHL Express, and Kalitta Air, the trio donated over one million meals in the “Race to End Hunger.” For every round win the team made during the Countdown to the Championship, Kalitta Motorsports donated $1,000 to the cause matched by DHL Express and Kalitta Motorsports. 

John Force might embellish a story, and he might live in the gray areas of the rulebook. But the 16-time champion said he will not cheat.

While the accusations fly of steadfast cheating in the Funny Car ranks today, history buffs will recall when a fellow competitor accused the cagey veteran of bending the rules. 

The year was 1995, and Force, at the NHRA Atsco Nationals in Phoenix, struggled in qualifying, barely making the 16-car field and in the bottom half of the qualifying list, with a 5.34 elapsed time. NHRA's tech scrutinized with every qualifying run, and the more scrutiny he faced, the worse he did. 

The Pro Modifieds and large displacement Pro Stockers won't be the only ones getting lots of coin to win their respective divisions at the 5th annual Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Modified event. FTI Competition Converters has stepped up at the March 1-3, 2024, event to deliver the inaugural Intercontinental Top Sportsman Championship. 

It seems natural that two classes that provided the impetus for the headlining category be included in the lineup. IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock's competitiveness in the mid-1980s forced some of their competitors to consider the Top Sportsman division as a showcase for their fast cars, and then the advancement of Quick Eights through Top Sportsman led to Pro Modified. 

NHRA Top Fuel championship contender Leah Pruett has a long history of drag racing at Pomona, Calif. – not just in the nitro-powered class but dating back to when she was in the second or third grade in nearby Redlands.

The racetrack has changed names more than once, and now it’s In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, home of this weekend’s Auto Club Finals. And Pruett, for the first time in her career, is ranked third in the standings, just 34 points off leader Steve Torrence’s pace.

The rumor became a reality today as NHRA announced the return of Virginia Motorsports Park to the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Championship Drag Racing Series. The event fills the first of two TBA events on the schedule.

The Virginia NHRA Nationals outside of Richmond, Va., will be held June 21-24, 2004. Tickets will go on sale for the event on November 13, 2023 first for existing customers, and on December 18, 2023 for those new customers. 

For NHRA Funny Car racer Robert Hight, the “Cruz Pedregon Factor” is guiding his thinking heading into this weekend’s Auto Club Finals at Southern California’s In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.

The Auto Club Chevy Camaro driver is in a battle for the championship with Bob Tasca III and fellow three-time titlist and points leader Matt Hagan. Hight is in third place, two points behind Tasca and just 17 off Hagan’s pace.

It’s a known fact that to get to the second round; one must win the first round. And, after seven consecutive first-round losses, to get not only a round win but to come within a round of the final can make one feel like they have won a national event.

By nature, Top Fuel racer Josh Hart is a positive thinker. He has tried to see the good always in life when the solid ground often appears to be sinking sand.

But in taking out two 2023 NHRA Top Fuel point leaders in one day and scoring his first round wins since the NHRA Heartland Nationals back in August at Heartland Motorsports Park, Hart was almost as overjoyed in the forward progress as he was in winning the Pep Boys All-Star Shootout to start the season.

They served, and now In-N-Out Burgers wants to serve them.

In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip will commemorate Veterans Day on November 11, 2023, by providing a complimentary combo meal to all veterans and active military members.