Defending NHRA Northwest Nationals champions Antron Brown and Tim Wilkerson will headline WFO Radio NHRA Tuesday with Joe Castello, tonight at 7 p.m. ET.  To listen live or on-demand following the show, go to wforadio.com or download the top-rated WFO Radio iPhone application.

"Hot Rod" Fuller will return to NHRA competition behind the wheel of the Yas Marina Circuit Top Fuel dragster. The seven-time Top Fuel winner will make his 2010 NHRA debut at the 23rd annual FRAM-Autolite Nationals, July 16-18, at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Champion crew chief Lee Beard, who served as Fuller's crew chief in 2006, will call the shots on the Yas Marina Circuit car. The Yas Marina Circuit dragster is owned by Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management (ADMM) and based in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). Fuller and the Yas Marina Circuit team also will compete at the Mile-High Nationals near Denver, the prestigious U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, and the Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway at Concord. The car will then return to Abu Dhabi for winter events at the Yas Drag Centre at Yas Marina Circuit, home to the Formula 1 Eithad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix scheduled for Nov. 12-14, 2010. The Yas team is sponsored on its United States tour by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and managed by DSR.

When intense summer heat brings dragstrips on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series to a mild sizzle, many crew chiefs on the circuit start scratching their heads, trying to figure ways to make their 7,000-horsepower machines cover the race distance without losing traction.

For Funny Car veteran Tim Wilkerson, one of the only drivers in the category who also serves as his own crew chief, the opposite is true. He starts salivating because he knows his notebook is jammed full of proven tune-up methods should his team encounter such sticky situations.

A quick glance at his racing accomplishments reveals multiple victories during the hot summer months. By racing to victory during oppressive weather conditions at St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis and Englishtown, Wilkerson has earned the unofficial title of “Hot Track Master” on the circuit.

Bill Miller is a man who holds true to his traditions.

Miller, the veteran piston and rod manufacturer who campaigns a Top Fuel dragster as the company’s research and development car, has raced the NHRA event in Seattle for the past two decades, faithfully.

The only entity more reliable than Miller in Seattle has been rain.

This year, for the first time since he began Top Fuel racing, Miller will be absent from the Pacific Raceways pits when the NHRA Northwest Nationals kicks off this Friday.

Top Fuel driver Morgan Lucas was just 11 years old when he took his first drag racing road trip from Southern California to Seattle's Pacific Raceways. Riding along with Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Jason Rupert, Lucas might as well have been travelling to the Land of Oz that weekend 15 years ago, for that's how exotic the Emerald City seemed to the son of Lucas Oil founders Forrest and Charlotte Lucas.

I will never forget that trip," the now 26-year-old driver of the GEICO Powersports Lucas Oil dragster said. "It was the most significant thing I had ever done, up to that point in my life, by a long shot. I pretty much thought it didn't get any better than that and, even now, I think I still feel the same way. It was an awesome experience."

In 2010 the NHRA shuffled the order of the long standing Western Swing of races on the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series moving the Denver NHRA event to the end of the swing. The three race sprint will now start in Seattle move to Sonoma, Calif. and then culminate in Denver at the end of July. For someone used to going straight down the racetrack at speeds in excess of 300 mph in her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang the change is welcome to Ashley Force Hood considering it will mean an almost straight shot south in her El Monte RV.  

“My husband and I are very excited about getting the chance to again take an El Monte RV on the Western Swing. We rented one last year for the first time and had a wonderful time,” said Force Hood.

In the final results from Lebanon Valley Dragway it was Todd Veney and Darren Nicholson taking the wins and the trophies for the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and the 4th of July Celebration.

Indiana racer Veney, also qualified in the No. 4 spot then ran low elapsed time in each of the three rounds of eliminations including a 5.754 second run at 251.34 mph in his semi final round against reigning National champion Frank Manzo, Morganville, N.J. Outside of the driver's cockpit, Veney is a talented writer and contributor to Attitude's CompetitionPlus.com.

Halfway through the 2010 racing season, John Force stands as the most significant driver in all of American motorsports.

Think about that, drag racing fans.

And be PROUD.

This is the star-spangled reality as of July 4.

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY BY MICHAEL KNIGHT

Gradually, Trevor Eman’s American Drag Racing League learning curve is getting less steep.

The 23-year-old Eman is in his first full year competing in the ADRL’s Extreme Pro Stock class, and he showing a lot of progress.

Eman qualified eighth at the ADRL Hardee’s Independence Drags IV at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan., this past weekend. He proceeded to win his first-round match-up with Elijah Morton. Eman used a holeshot to beat Morton, clocking a 4.206-second pass, compared to Morton’s 4.191. Where Eman beat Morton was at the light, with a .034 reaction time, while Morton was two hundredths slower at .058.

This past weekend’s ADRL Independence Drags in Topeka, Kan., had a rather intense fireworks show but for the rain-delayed event the action was not in the sky but on the track instead.

Jeff Helmkamp was one of the many thousands of race fans who flocked to Heartland Park- Topeka to take in the Independence Day weekend’s schedule of doorslammer racing. Of those thousands, it was Helmkamp who stood out among the crowd.

Helmkamp is an avid photographer and while many race fans would give their right arm to shoot from the starting line, he prefers the grandstands as his studio of choice.