After an uncharacteristic first-round loss in Chicago, NHRA Pro Stock star Erica Enders wasted no time in finding her groove at the next national event: Epping, N.H.

Enders clocked a 6.488-second elapsed time at 211.79 mph in Q2 Friday, and the ET held through Saturday giving her the No. 1 qualifying position at the New England Nationals.

Enders, a six-time world champion (2014-15, 2019-20 and 2022-23) collected her 37th career No. 1 qualifier and third this season to go along with those from Gainesville and Chicago.

Doug Kalitta finally added an elusive NHRA Top Fuel championship to his stellar resume last season.

This weekend, he’s trying to check another career accomplishment off his bucket list.

New England Dragway in Epping, N.H., the site of this weekend’s New England Nationals, is the lone NHRA national event track that Doug Kalitta has yet to win.

Kalitta took a step in the right direction to reach that goal, qualifying in the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot with a 3.702-second elapsed time at 332.84 mph Friday in Q2.

The torrid pace Austin Prock has been on in NHRA’s nitro Funny Car ranks in qualifying shows no sign of slowing down.

Prock, who pilots the AAA/Cornwell Tools Camaro for John Force Racing, clocked a 3.837-second elapsed time at 336.23 mph in Q2 Friday night to capture the provisional No. 1 spot at the New England Nationals in Epping, N.H.

If Prock’s time holds through Saturday’s final two qualify sessions it would be his fifth No. 1 qualifier of the season in seven races.

“It's pretty surreal. I'm just holding onto the wheel. It's all the kudos to this AAA team this weekend and Cornwell team in the past,” Prock said. “They're just doing such a great job, and my dad (Jimmy) and brother (Thomas) just making really smart decisions and the team is putting the car together the same way every time. It's really impressive watching this team work. It really is cinematic. Everyone's in the right spot at the right time and they just get the job done.”

From the onset of Funny Car qualifying, John Force staked its claim at the top of the Funny Car leaderboard. First, the boss, John Force, and then the freshman flopper phenom Austin Prock, made things right with his crew after apologizing for a mistake on the first run. 

Prock was joined as a provisional leader by defending NHRA champions Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Erica Enders (Pro Stock).

It’s too bad Prock has already used up his Rookie of the Year status on a lesser Top Fuel season than he’s experiencing in the first season of driving a Funny Car. 

Prock went to the top in the second session with a 3.837 elapsed time at 336.23 miles per hour. 

There are better-suited race cars that Jason Ochoa could have chosen than a 1972 Vega to run Competition Eliminator. But for the second-generation drag racer from  Amarillo, Texas, there was no other ride he wanted to drive.

Ochoa races the Vega in NHRA Competition Eliminator's D/Super Modified division with a small block and a five-speed. But this is no average version of Chevrolet's gas-friend compact from the 1970s.

"We built this car back in 2015 because my dad owned this car since I was about eight years old," Ochoa said. "When my dad passed in 2015, we decided to send it down to EasTexas Race Cars and have it converted to a Comp car."

Next weekend, during the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., drag racing pioneer Shirley Muldowney will be inducted into The Legends of Thunder Valley at Bristol Dragway. Track officials will place her name high above the track, on the grandstand suite fascia, alongside the other members of the esteemed group of 20 male members.

As she has done so many times in her career in other instances, Muldowney is the first female inducted into The Legends of Thunder Valley. Muldowney, 83, is the 21st inductee.

 “I’m overly excited,” Muldowney said. “I’ve always looked up at those names and wondered, ‘Hey, why isn’t my name up there?” 

Fresh off his first win of the season in Chicago on May 21 in Chicago, Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown believes weather could be the great neutralizer this weekend in Epping, N.H.

The weather Friday through Sunday at NHRA’s New England Nationals calls for highs in the mid to upper 70s on Friday and Saturday with a high of 82 on Sunday. The humidity is supposed to be in the 40 to 60 percent range all three days. 

Brown thinks those numbers could benefit his Matco/Toyota team.

Bill Bader Jr., a second-generation drag strip owner from Norwalk, Ohio, understands the old saying, "To whom much is given, much is expected."

Now, make no mistake, Bader was given little. He had to earn it. It was indeed one of the lessons he had to learn from Bill Sr., as he eventually took over the Norwalk Raceway Park his dad built into an incredible facility and summarily took it to the next level. 

"I've completed 46 years in motorsports entertainment, and I've had the good fortune of being mentored and being taught by a number of really bright minds," Bader said. "I feel that after so many years, my father, myself, my family, the dear friends that work with us here, we commit our lives to this. I think it's important at some point that you start to give back to an industry that has been very good to you."

Iconic doorslammer racer Rickie Smith has forgotten more about drag racing than most will ever know. However, the one thing he will never forget is the car first car that threw him back in the seat.

At a casual glance, a 1974 Maverick might not have instilled fear in the hearts of many drag racers. But a specific iteration of this car, a hidden powerhouse, sent shockwaves through the racing community. 

Country music icon Keith Fowler had a 1974 Maverick purpose-built for the IHRA’s new Super Modified division. Unlike the music he promoted, he intended for this car and his young driver, Rickie Smith, to make, as they say in the South, some racket.

  
With all the momentum on his side, Matt Hagan plans to go with an old look to keep things rolling this weekend.

Hagan, who pilots a Tony Stewart Racing Dodge SRT Hellcat nitro Funny Car, has won two races in a row in Charlotte, N.C., and Chicago and he told CompetitionPlus.com he will be sporting his good luck mustache this Friday through Sunday at the New England Nationals in Epping, N.H.

“I better start drawing my handlebar mustache because every time I have run a handlebar mustache up there, I have won the race,” Hagan said. “It is kind of a funny thing I was joking (NHRA’s) Joe Castello in the winner’s circle (in Chicago), and he was asking me ‘What about the handlebar?’ I was like dude I’m going to have to send you daily pictures of how it is drawn.”