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Proclaimed as the greatest NHRA national event ever, and rightfully so, the 1975 NHRA World Finals from Ontario, Ca., had everything for the race fan from an incredible facility, championship battles and world record times.

Watch Don Garlits' incredible 5.6-second barrage, as well as the first Funny Car 5-second run, and Pro Stockers from an era that made fans gravitate towards the factory hot rods.

NHRA has confirmed five eligible candidates for its 2024 Rookie of the Year award in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. Those candidates are Chase Van Sant, David Cuadra, Eric Latino, Dan Mercier,  and Jerry Tucker.

The candidates comprise three Pro Stock drivers, a Top Fuel competitor, and a Pro Stock Motorcycle rider. 

The leading candidate appears to be Van Sant, who sits No. 6 in the national Pro Stock Motorcycle point standings. Van Sant, representing the White Alligator Racing team led by former champion Jerry Savoie, has impressed with four semi-final and four quarterfinal appearances this season.

If you’re going to win a championship, it only makes sense to do it when it’s a prestigious season. Ten years ago, Tommy Franklin was one of a group of investors who invested to get the Professional Drag Racers Association [PDRA] off the ground. 

In the end, Franklin had to pull off the driving effort of a lifetime to put it together against a murderer’s row of competition, including defending Pro Nitrous champion Jim Halsey. 

Allen Johnson isn’t exactly an old dog, but he’s been learning a lot of tricks this season. 
 
Johnson, who won the 2012 NHRA Pro Stock championship and is credited with 27 national events, retired from professional drag racing in 2017. He had a few stints behind the wheel of the family’s Factory Stock Showdown car before returning in 2023 as the driver of Geoff Turk’s Factory X entry. 
 
“It brings back a lot of old memories and getting to see all my old friends, but the performance of the cars coming around,” Johnson said of the Dodge Challenger he pilots. 

Matt Hagan played high school football in southwestern Virginia, and he knows the game is nothing like drag racing. In football, a player can neutralize the opponent and cause a momentum shift. He can tackle the running back on a crucial play, sack the quarterback, or intercept a pass. But in this Funny Car championship chase, points leader Hagan, for instance, can’t just go and tackle Robert Hight, who’s in third place in the standings and starting to cut his margin by winning the event, taking the No. 1 qualifying spot and earning bonus points.

“Oh, I can,” Hagan said with the audacious laugh of a linebacker.

Of course, he won’t. Nor will he flatten No. 2 Bob Tasca III.

The NHRA Pro Stock world is back to a sense of normalcy.

The NHRA announced that Pro Stock will compete at all 21 races next year, marking a return to a full-season schedule for the exciting category. Despite having its schedule reduced to 18 races in 2019, Pro Stock has seen a surge in talent and participation, leading to large fields in recent seasons. In 2024, Pro Stock will rejoin Top Fuel and Funny Car in competing at every NHRA national event.

​Fernando Cuadra says it’s not rocket science. Helping Pro Stock Motorcycle racers protect their feet, and other impact points on their bodies is a mission he has adopted since significant injuries in consecutive events to Angie Smith and Chase Van Sant. And the bootmaker and leather goods crafter from Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, knows he has the resources to at least help resolve the problem.

“For me, it's easy because that's my business,” Cuadra said.

Cuadra has 34 factories, and he gathered the leaders among his 12,000 employees for a brainstorming session about how collectively they can provide solutions and improve safety for NHRA motorcycle racers.

 Bobby Cottrell has nearly done it all behind the wheel of a Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car. Over the past seven seasons, Cottrell, at the wheel of the Bucky Austin-owned green Bardahl machine, has won countless races, including six consecutive NHRA Heritage Series Funny Car Championships. However, on Sunday at the Nevada Nationals, Cottrell did the impossible and accomplished what nearly every drag racer hopes to do in a season, and that's go undefeated. The six-time champ took home the trophy, winning the Legends Nitro Funny Car division at Las Vegas for the second year in a row, defeating Geoff Monise in the final round to complete his perfect season, not losing a single round of competition all year. 

Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Nevada Nationals

Needing a big weekend in Vegas to stay in the NHRA nitro Funny Car world championship mix, Robert Hight hit the jackpot sweeping all 130 points available.

The veteran John Force Racing driver qualified No. 1 -- but not without some controversy – and then turned on four win lights at the Nevada Nationals on Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hight clocked a 3.851-second elapsed time at 326.79 mph in the final round to defeat Bob Tasca III, who slowed to 4.235-second, 268.28 mph. This is Hight’s 65th career NHRA nitro FC win and his fourth this season.
  
Hight is a three-time world champ – 2009, 2017 and 2019 – and would love to add No. 4 at the season-ending race in Pomona, Calif., on Nov. 9-12. Hight will head to Pomona third in the points standings 17 behind leader Matt Hagan. Tasca is second 15 points out of the lead.