Tony Pedregon his hired respected tuner Mike Kloeber to his team.  

“It is exciting to have Mike on our team, not just for this week’s race, but for many more,” commented Pedregon.   “Mike worked with us last week in New Jersey we look forward to working with him.   It will take him some time to adapt to our system, but we expect to be more competitive in a short time.”

Tim Wilkerson understands while numbers usually don’t lie, they can be deceiving. This season, he believes, is one of those instances.

Wilkerson is ninth in the NHRA Full Throttle points standings and just 18 points ahead of 10th.

“It's one thing to know in your heart that you're a little bit lost, or that the car is a long way from running right,” Wilkerson said.  “I've been there and I know what it feels like, and it really wasn't that long ago.  In 2006 and 2007 we DNQ'd seven times each year, and we only won two rounds of racing in '06; so it's still pretty fresh in my mind and I know how unpleasant it can be.  I also know what it's like when the car is running fine, or at least coming around, and you just can't seem to capitalize on it.  You feel like you couldn't hit water if you fell out of a boat.

Top Fuel racer Shawn Langdon has a leg up on the competition headed into Bristol Dragway for this weekend’s NHRA Thunder Valley Dragway Nationals.

The sophomore nitro racer and pilot of the Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster, recently put in a few laps in a major bracket race hosted by the facility located in Bristol, Tenn. This weekend he’s racing with a significantly larger amount of power.

It’s racing on those off-weekends from the NHRA Full Throttle tour which has enabled him to sharpen his already piercing driving skills. And even when he is racing, he’s getting more shots at the track, by not only racing Top Fuel but a Lucas Oil Sportsman Series car.

Numbers to some people do not mean much.

For Joe Jackson, however, drag racing statistics are his livelihood.

The past 15 years, Jackson has run Nitro Joe’s DragRacingStats at his www.nitrojoes.com website. Jackson is based in Loudenville, Ohio.

Prior to compiling drag racing stats, Jackson raced competitively in Super Gas and Super Comp in the NHRA and Modified eliminator in the IHRA.

After an overwhelmingly successful five month tour of the southeast, with stops in Florida, Louisiana and North Carolina, the Nitro Jam Tour is packing up and heading west for huge weekend of racing at Salt Lake City’s Rocky Mountain Raceways.

During the month of June and July J.W.

Jack Beckman has always been an NHRA historian, often reciting facts and statistics drawn from the "old" days of the sport. As he heads to this weekend's 10th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway this weekend, he can't help but talk about this track's history and how neat it is to race there.

"For me, as a racing historian, Bristol is one of those places that's got it all," said the driver of the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger which will feature a tribute to the troops in Afghanistan in its paint scheme. "It's got history. NHRA first went there in 1965 for what was then the Spring Nationals. NHRA left in 1967 and after the 1997 season the original track closed and work began on an $18 million facility under the guidance of new owner Bruton Smith. The facility reopened in 1999 and hosted the first Thunder Valley Nationals in 2001.

“And if you've never been to that track you're missing a unique experience. Bristol completely stands out. It's the only track we race at that is literally in a valley, therefore the name Thunder Valley.

Driver Rodger Brogdon confirmed the Attitude Apparel/Kent Services team will race the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., with a new crew chief. The move was part of changes intended to make the car perform better.

“We’ve been struggling for most of the season with our 60 foot times,” said Brogdon, who is currently seventh in the K&N Horsepower Challenge rankings. “And for Sunday’s eliminations, we made wholesale changes to the setup that was in the car. Most normal teams try out changes during qualifying or testing, but we’re a little on the daring side and we figured the worst that could happen would be a first round loss, and that is something we’ve done far too often this year as it is. We made the changes, saw some very positive results and came within 13 ten thousandths of a second from stealing a first round win from Jeg Coughlin.”

Veteran Top Fuel drag racer Doug Herbert will compete in the upcoming NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., with the Mail Terminal Services “MAIL FROM HOME” Program / B.R.A.K.E.S. Dragster.

After not competing full time over the past two years, Herbert is excited to return to the track where he has won six times.  He will promote the “MAIL FROM HOME” Program, which honors the service personnel in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.  Mail Terminal Services, through its partnership with the US Post Office, receives, sorts and packages all of the mail going to the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Doug is committed to honoring military service personnel,” said Rodger Comstock, President of Mail Terminal Services.  “His sister and brother-in-law have both served overseas, so he knows how tough it can be for service men and women to be away from home.  Doug is a strong competitor that needs to be out racing on the NHRA National Event Circuit.  I’m glad that we’re able to help him do that this weekend in Bristol.”

When Bristol Dragway introduced its inaugural class of the Legends of Thunder Valley back in 2007, North Carolina drag racing great Rickie Smith was emotional when he found out he was one of the four inductees.

Smith, who was dominant at the old Bristol Dragway back in the 1980s during his IHRA Pro Stock career, joined Larry Carrier, Wally Parks and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits as the first official members of the Legends of Thunder Valley, the track’s hall of fame.

“To be one of the first inducted alongside those three was really, really special,” Smith said. “I couldn’t believe it. There’s a lot of racers who’ve run there over the years and for them to pick me, it was a real honor, probably bigger than any championship I ever won.”