If sportsman drag racing icon Jeff Taylor has proven himself to be one thing besides a great driver, it's his versatility. With this said, he and team owner David Nickens are parking their cutting-edge BB/Altered Dodge Stratus and racing this weekend's NHRA Division 5 event at Flying H Dragstrip with a B/Dragster Automatic entry.

While some might double-take at the notion of Taylor stepping away from a doorslammer to run a rail, remember that the 50-plus-time NHRA national event winner has raced and won with a Super Comp dragster. 

"I've probably made more runs on a dragster than I have a door car," Taylor admitted. "I had two dragsters in the late '80s and early '90s, and I bracket raced them every weekend. And then, I won two Super Comp national events. I think it's the right thing to do."

If there's one thing Jeggie Coughlin has learned in his storied drag racing career... one must always have a plan. And, the 67-time NHRA national event winner certainly had one for archrival and final round opponent Greg Anderson. 

When two drivers race each other as much as Coughlin and Anderson, and Sunday's final round match marked the 108th time they had faced one another in eliminations, a strategy different than the other 107 times was necessary. 

Coughlin needed a plan for when the tree dropped in the Pro Stock final round at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, Anderson was away first with a .001 reaction time. Shortly after the launch, Anderson pushed in the clutch after experiencing tire shake, ending what was going to be a close race. 

Competition Plus’ Random Water-Cooler Topics From The Super Grip Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol, Tenn.

In most cultures, when grandpa speaks, it would be wise to heed his advice. That's the most critical lesson Gaige Herrera admits he learned in life.

"Like my grandfather [Phillip Herrera]always says, "Once you're at the top, there's only one way you can go, and that's down," Herrera added. 

While it looked like Herrera's momentum of his incredible 2024 season, all it took was race day at the NHRA Thunder Valley to bring him back to dominance and put him in the drag racing history books. 

Historically, Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway has been very good to Top Fuel star Tony Schumacher.

It was again Sunday.

Schumacher won for the seventh time at the facility when he took home top honors at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.

There’s no question that Austin Prock has always had great skill as an NHRA driver.

Still, it was hard to imagine this unfolding.

Prock, who never raced a Funny Car full-time until this season, was thrust into that role when three-time world champion driver Robert Hight was sidelined with a medical condition before the season opener.

NHRA announced the disqualification of J.R. Gray’s run on Sunday during a post-race inspection following the final round of the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by LearnEV+ due to a technical violation after bypassing a safety device.

As a result of the disqualification, Kris Thorne has been named the winner at Bristol Dragway, with Gray finishing as the runner-up.

The threat of rain for Sunday forced NHRA officials to push the start time for Thunder Valley Nationals final eliminations up an hour. In the end, not one drop of rain fell on Bristol Dragway. What did fall was an abbreviated day chock full of excitement. 

Moments before precipitation began to fall in Bristol, NHRA crowned Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Austin Prock (Funny Car), Jeggie Coughlin and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

The event ended with a Top Fuel rematch of last weekend's NHRA New England Nationals with a resurgent Tony Schumacher, this time getting the best of defending Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta. 

Schumacher left the line well before Kalitta, who appeared to double clutch on the starting line. He never looked back en route to a 4.236, coasting to 259 miles per hour to collect his 87th career Top Fuel victory. The win also marked Schumacher's seventh victory at Thunder Valley. 

Final finish order (1-16) at the 23rd annual Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. The race is the eighth of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.