CarSafe has been named as the major sponsor for Extreme Pro Stock Mustang racer Cale Aronson. The sponsorship debuts this weekend at the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VI in Martin, Mich.

For Ron Capps, the NHRA Route 66 Nationals was not one of his better outings despite a strong qualifying position.

Capps, who made the field in his last qualifying attempt, was a first round casualty opposite of Jeff Arend.

The driver of the NAPA Batteries Dodge contends the NHRA’s track prep is largely to blame for much of the unpredictability of the racing surface.

"We saw an oildown a couple of pairs in front of us and the sun started beating a little harder on the track," said Capps, "and our teammate Matt Hagan went right down that same left lane and ran a great 4.18.

Robert Hight didn’t win his fourth consecutive national event victory at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals. Despite the loss, the defending NHRA Funny Car series champion didn’t leave the rainy event empty handed. He is now the point leader.

Hight missed out by thousandths on securing a part of drag racing history. Only four drivers including Don Prudhomme (30), Cruz Pedregon (22), John Force (21) and Kenny Bernstein (18) have longer consecutive round win streaks than Hight’s 15 in a row.

It took a national record setting performance from second year driver Matt Hagan to beat Hight.

Some race weekends are made to be forgotten. For 64-time national event winner Jeg Coughlin Jr., the Route 66 NHRA Nationals provided one of those experiences.

It wasn’t so much Coughlin’s day ended in the first round as it was the way it ended. He couldn't get his car to cooperate during his first-round staging procedure.

In one of the most bizarre race starts of the season, Coughlin executed an odd and very short burnout, backed up, tried another, and then his engine lost fire. A mad, last-second thrash didn't help and V. Gaines was given a free pass against the second quickest racecar on the property.

In the opening round of ODSS Pro Mod eliminations at the Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com South Carolina Spectacular, Danny Blankenship steered his blown 1940 Ford (formerly ’41 Willys) to an unofficial quickest pass ever by a Powerglide-equipped doorslammer.

In just his first outing with the car recently acquired from Terry Leggett and only his fifth pass in it, Blankenship left with a .975 60-foot time, followed by 2.604 to halfway (330 feet) and 3.959 at 181.96 mph that beat Eddie Smith to Orangeburg Dragstrip’s eighth-mile finish line.

Larry Dixon raced past defending world champion Tony Schumacher to grab the win at the rain-delayed United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway.

Matt Hagan, Mike Edwards and LE Tonglet also won in their respective categories at the 10th of 23 events on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Dixon drove his Al-Anabi Racing dragster to a 3.823-second run at 323.12 mph past Schumacher to earn his fifth win of the season and 53rd of his career. It was also the sixth time this season that Dixon and Schumacher met each other during eliminations.

Final round-by-round results from the 13th annual United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Miller Welders at Route 66 Raceway, the tenth of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the 13th annual United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Miller Welders at Route 66 Raceway, the tenth of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series -

Sunday's final results from the 13th annual United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Miller Welders at Route 66 Raceway. The race is the tenth of 23 in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

Friday’s three qualifying sessions for the Attitude's CompetitionPlus.com South Carolina Spectacular, the first of six scheduled events this year for the Coca-Cola Outlaw Doorslammer Series (ODSS) presented by Hooter’s, resulted in Tony Johnson leading the headlining Outlaw 10.5 class, Greg Godwin at the head of the Pro Modified list, Eric Dillard first in Limited Street and Wes Whittle on top of the Outlaw 275 Drag Radial field.

Johnson’s 1968 Camaro tripped the eighth-mile timers at Orangeburg Dragstrip in 4.43 seconds at 179.63 miles per hour, followed by Brian Harrell and Danny Lowry, who will be unable to compete today after crashing his 1998 Mustang in the last qualifying round.

“It just got over toward the (right) wall and I thought it was going to stick, but all of a sudden it turned left and the back end came out from under me,” Lowry recalled. “It hit pretty hard, but I don’t think there’s really that much damage other than cosmetic. It did tear up the four-link (rear suspension) pretty bad, though, which is what really bums me out because we’d just got that working perfectly.”