The family moniker was in effect long before Austin Prock became a drag racer.

Prock’s father, Jimmy, having come within a round of tuning rookie Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan to a championship, moved over to Joe Amato, where his tuning tendency of swinging for the fence earned whatever car he tuned as the “Prock Rocket.”

On occasion, even Robert Hight’s Camaro was called the Prock Rocket. 

It's about a friend honoring a friend, and in this instance, a series and its racers benefit from their friendship.

Thanks to former drag racer turned NASCAR legend Jack Roush, those competing at NMCA’s Muscle Car Mayhem event at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, KY., will receive significant purse increases and top qualifier cash over the weekend of May 30 - June 2. 

On February 22, 1979, my life changed forever.

That was as far as she always got. Maybe a few sentences further each attempt, but the effort always ended in the same fruitless result. She always aspired to be a writer but things never materialized. Robbie Elizabeth, as my grandparents named her in February of 1935, was the second oldest among four children. I just knew her as “Momma.”

That fateful date she continually referenced provided a memory that affected more than just her life. It changed mine, my sisters Deborah and Karen and most certainly my Dad’s – Bobby, Sr., as well as our entire family Momma was diagnosed with an aggressive growth that began as ovarian cancer. By the time the physicians performed a “look-and-see” operation, the growth had swollen to the size of a football.

The doctors basically gave Momma a month or two to live, tops. Of course, they didn’t know her resolve to succeed against all odds. They certainly didn’t understand her mission from God. Her assignment was to touch as many lives as she could in the short time she had left. Momma’s illness came at a time when cancer research and treatments were in the formative stage and essentially rocket science to the medical community. In those days, you just didn’t beat the disease.

The discussion could only happen after the track was gone. With Atlanta Dragway gone in favor of a battery manufacturing facility, the real story is coming out. 

Atlanta Dragway was a political pawn, and when its use was over, it disappeared. 

You'd think that by age 63, being fidgety would be a mannerism one wouldn't have to concern themselves with. But standing there in the pits at No Problem Raceway last Saturday, waiting for his team to get a run in the BB/Altered Dodge Status, was sportsman drag racing icon Jeff Taylor steadily working a fidget spinner between his forefinger and thumb. 

"My grandson got me hooked on these," Taylor admitted. 'I went to visit, and we were just sitting around, and he had one. So I started playing with it. So he said, 'Well, you can just have it." 

Taylor declined the generous offer and purchased ten of the units when he got back home.

Missing the first five races of a season would likely affect almost any drag racing team, but for Chicago native T.J. Zizzo, the deliberate delay in starting the season works perfectly into his master plan. He and his team are, what some in the media and drag racing community have coined, a super part-time team.

Zizzo, who reached the semi-finals last season in his NHRA Route 66 Nationals debut, has visions of lightning striking twice with his Rust-Oleum Top Fuel dragster.

PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant is the presenting sponsor for the NHRA Route 66 Nationals but over the weekend of May 17-19, they plan to present event more. After a decade of exclusively sponsoring 17-time Funny Car champion John Force, the PEAK and BlueDEF brands will expand to include another nitro-burning race machine. 

The expansion will remain in the family as Brittany Force will run a PEAK-themed dragster at the proclaimed home race for parent company Old World Industries. 

"I'm very proud to carry the PEAK colors next weekend in Chicago," said Brittany Force, whose PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant dragster will match her father's Funny Car. "When I see PEAK, I see my dad, John Force, 16-time champion. And now to be connected with him through PEAK is something very unique, something very special. I actually ran a PEAK car back in 2018, so I'm excited to bring it back on board again in 2024."

Kalitta Motorsports continues to attract new-to-drag racing partners, and in Bristol will unveil their latest. 

Mark III Employee Benefits will debut as primary sponsor on reigning NHRA Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta’s Top Fuel dragster at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., June 7-9, 2024 – it is the company’s first NHRA sponsorship. 

Pingel Enterprise, Inc., a manufacturer of high-quality motorcycle performance parts, has ensured the Top Fuel Motorcycle division will appear in at least four 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.

Pingel has signed on as the title sponsor for the series which will appear at NHRA national events starting with next weekend's event at Route 66 Raceway outside of Chicago, Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond (June 22-23), Brainerd International Raceway (Aug. 16-18) and the finale at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte on Sept. 20-22. The category will receive final-round coverage on FS1 at each of the four stops

NHRA will now offer four qualifying sessions at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Performance on May 17-19, thus decreasing the number of the three-session events on the schedule to six. The NHRA reduced the number of qualifying sessions to three at select events following the pandemic-raged 2020 season. 

The four qualifying sessions adds an extra run on Friday, where race fans will also witness the GETTRX Pro Stock All-Star Callout and the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge on Saturday. Friday’s qualifying sessions are scheduled for 2:30 and 5 p.m. CT with the final two rounds of qualifying on Saturday, at 11:40 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. CT. Eliminations begin at 11 a.m. CT on Sunday, May 19.