Chicago native Don Schumacher rekindled his drag-racing involvement in 1998, because son Tony wanted to step up to a Top Fuel dragster and Dad wanted to ensure he competed in safe equipment.

But that passion snowballed into an empire that fielded the most race cars for a single team, claimed 19 championships, and featured some of the biggest names in the sport. Don Schumacher Racing elevated Tony Schumacher to his status as the Top Fuel’s all-time leader in victories (86) and series championships (eight).

Don Schumacher called them his “cast of characters,” but he, too, was a leading character on NHRA’s premier stage. And five months after his final act played out, before qualifying began for the Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 Nationals on Friday at Joliet, Ill., came an emotional curtain call. Drivers, team owners, and associates gathered at the Schumacher Family Tent next to the Nitro Mall for a Celebration of Life ceremony to remember the 2019 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee.

The last time Adam Hickey found himself in a final round at the Texas Motorplex was a race to determine whether he pocketed $100,000 or $25,000. 

Hickey not only won the race, he also clinched the second season championship of the Rooftec Comp Eliminator Bonus fund. After a forgettable 2023 season, Hickey has reinserted himself in the conversation again.

If Competition Eliminator standout Rodger Brogdon had known that adding shingles to his B/Altered Planetary-classified Camaro was all it took to put a season of mayhem on the right track, he might have wrapped his car back in February. 

Brogdon, who owns Rooftec, Texas' largest roofer, debuted a new wrap sporting the likeness of Owens Corning shingles and went to the top qualifying position during the first of two events in the NHRA Division 4 weekend at the Texas Motorplex. 

This was quite the emotional day that Top Fuel driver/owner T.J. Zizzo will likely never forget.

Zizzo, racing at his hometown track – Route 66 Raceway outside Chicago -- captured the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot Friday at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by Peak Performance.

Zizzo had the quickest elapsed times in Q1 and Q2 and the second one – a 3.735-second elapsed time at 331.77 mph in his Rust-Oleum sponsored dragster -- kept him in the No. 1 spot.

The highlight reel that has been Austin Prock in NHRA’s nitro Funny Car class this season kept rolling Friday.

Prock, who pilots the Cornwell Tools Camaro for John Force Racing, clocked the two quickest elapsed times in qualifying Friday at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by Peak Performance May in Joliet, Ill.

Prock’s quickest run came in Q2 and kept him on top of the qualifying ladder with a 3.907-second time at 332.43 mph.

T.J. Zizzo is doing a terrible job of impersonating a part-time racer. 

The Chicago native made the quickest run in each of Friday’s Top Fuel qualifying sessions to set the pace for the 24th annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK Performance.

Austin Prock (Funny Car), Erica Enders (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also set the high-water mark in each one of their prospective Mission Foods Drag Racing Series divisions. 

Well. that didn’t go as planned. 

Steve Torrence, the four-time NHRA Top Fuel champion who has dominated the four-wide drag racing format, fell in the first round of the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals outside of Charlotte. 

There are two four-wide races annually, the aforementioned one in Charlotte and one in Las Vegas. Torrence has advanced to the final quad four times in five appearances, winning in 2018 and 2021, and runner-up finishes in the last two years.  At ZMAX Dragway in Charlotte, N.C., he won four consecutive times from 2017 through 2021 (there was no race in 2020). This year those stats were a throwaway. 

It's a proven fact. The reaction is both dynamic and energetic when Clay Millican wins an NHRA Top Fuel drag race. 

Those who know Millican will attest that this assessment is no surprise. He's all of those characteristics and more wrapped up into one. 

Years after winning multiple IHRA championships and leaving the series as its winningest driver, Millican scored his first NHRA Top Fuel race in 2018 at Route 66 Raceway, the same place he'd made a forgettable debut two decades earlier. 

Chicago firefighter Chris King, who battles a different kind of fire once a year, understands the monumental challenges ahead of him as a part-time nitro Funny Car racer. 

King is giving it another shot at this weekend’s NHRA Route 66 Nationals. While he fell short in last season’s appearance, he was encouraged enough to bring his Cams/Competition Products Dodge Charger Funny Car back to the track outside Chicago for another shot. 

“We made some significant changes in the off-season, and I feel like we are starting the season in a much better position,” said King, who made his professional Funny Car debut in 2021. “Last year, we raced in five races, and we had our ups and downs. I have to thank everyone that has worked over the off season and beginning of this year to get us to this point. I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep in the past couple of weeks, but when you are chasing a dream, that doesn’t really matter.”

When drag racing legend “Big Daddy” Don Garlits calls you “old man,” it’s an assessment intended to make you chuckle. However, when he tells you that you are doing a good job and to keep it up forever. Then the pressure is one. 

With 16 NHRA Funny Car championships and 156 national event wins to his credit, Force has learned to make pressure his long-lost friend.