Only three races remain until the eight-car field for the lucrative K&N Horsepower Challenge, a special race-within-a-race bonus event for Pro Stock competitors, will be finalized.

The K&N Horsepower Challenge will be contested June 26 during the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. Until then, Pro Stock drivers have three races – at Chicago, Englishtown, N.J. and Bristol, Tenn. -- to improve their positions in the point standings and earn a spot in the event. If they fail to make the cut via their qualifying performances, they can rely on their popularity among NHRA fans as a last resort to make the starting lineup.

Seven of the K&N Horsepower Challenge participants will be those drivers who accumulate the most points during qualifying at each NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event during the 25-race Challenge series. Official top 10 point standings for the K&N Horsepower Challenge event are listed below.

Night qualifying once again returns during the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, and highlights the first day of action on Friday, June 18.

Qualifying under the lights in Thunder Valley gives fans an unparalleled experience as the 8,000 horsepower, nitro-powered machines light up the evening and thunder through the valley at speeds in excess of 300 mph.

Those who have witnessed it before know nighttime qualifying adds an extra mystique to an already exciting show. With the track lights reflecting off the colorful machines and huge flames shooting from the exhaust, the resulting show is unlike anything else in the motorsports world.

Just nine races into the 2010 Full Throttle Drag Racing season John Force Racing has experienced much success on the racetrack but it is the fans who have turned out to be the big winners. Through the BrandSource “Win with Force” promotion six lucky fans have won 52” Mitsubishi TVs compliments of the three wins by John Force and most recently the three wins in a row by Robert Hight. In addition seven fans have won Whirlpool washers and dryers for the seven No. 1 qualifiers Ashley Force Hood, John Force and Robert Hight have won collectively so far this season.  In 2009 a total of six Whirlpool washer and dryer sets were given away and four Mitsubishi TV’s.

“We are thrilled to see the success on the track by John, Robert and Ashley. We love to give away Whirlpool washers and dryers and especially Mitsubishi TVs. That just means that fans are enjoying their day at the races that much more when they can leave with an exciting prize like a great product and a fun experience,” said Bob Lawrence, CEO of BrandSource.

Antron Brown will have a new boss during the NHRA's annual visit to the ultra-quick drag strip at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill. While NHRA mogul Don Schumacher still owns Brown's Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster, Brown will report to Matco Tools distributor John Wolfe, of Plainfield, Ill., during the 13th annual United Association Route 66 Nationals, June 3-6.
 
Brown's Matco Tools dragster will shed its 2010 paint scheme and reward Wolfe, Matco's top distributor for the last four years (2006-'09), with an exclusive John Wolfe paint scheme during the Route 66 Nationals. The John Wolfe Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster will be unveiled during a Matco Tools customer appreciation dinner at the team's Iron Eagle Club hospitality area on June 3 at the Chicagoland track. The veteran tool man also will host more than 150 of his loyal customers during the race weekend.

Roger Burgess, owner of the R2B2 Pro Mod racing teams and the vision behind the Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, is announcing the formation of the WorldWide Pro Mod Association, a conglomeration of Pro Mod sanctioning bodies that will coordinate a Worldwide Pro Mod Challenge.

"Pro Mod is a class I love and it's the most popular form of drag racing globally," Burgess said. "Bringing all the world's best Pro Mod racers together has been a dream of mine and now is the perfect time for this bold first step."

The Challenge will be an Olympic-style competition run under NHRA rules. Currently six countries -- the U.S., Canada, England, Sweden, Finland, and Germany -- use NHRA rules for their races. Tracks in the various countries will bid to hold the event at their facilities. More countries will be added as they adopt NHRA rules for their associations.

Frank Manzo smiles as he recollects his first days as a Pro Modified crew chief.

Manzo, a 13-time NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car series champion, couldn’t believe the simplest of duties got the best of him. Tune a supercharged alcohol Funny Car? He could do it in his sleep. Pedal his way down a slick track? For him, it’s as simple as straddling a bike down the street.

But, directing a Pro Modified/Pro Extreme car driven by Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani into the staging beams was clearly a challenge.

“I’m standing there and he’s waving at me inside of the car,” said Manzo, recalling a moment during the team’s third test session. “I was like … what the hell is he talking about … what is wrong? I turned around and I had my foot in the pre-stage light and he was trying to tell me I was standing in the beam. I was clearly a fish out of water.

For the past eight years it has been a real pain for Annette Summer to go racing.

Every time she folded her body up to squeeze behind the wheel of a turbo-boosted Pro Mod a sharp stabbing pain would resonate throughout her body and she would spend the next minute or two trying to stretch out behind the wheel to catch her breath and make the agony subside.

“Eight years I had been complaining to doctors with the same problem until finally in January, I went to a new doctor and she ordered the right tests that showed my gall bladder was bad,” she says.

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series star Gary Densham will lead a stellar parade of 21 nitromethane-burning nostalgia Funny Cars to the May 28-30 NHRA Heritage Series/Rockabilly Rod Reunion at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Set to go head-to-head with Densham will be Leah “Heartbreaker” LeDuc of Redlands, Calif. LeDuc will be driving Steve Plueger’s “Plueger & Gyger” Mustang. She is the first female driver to win the famed March Meet in Bakersfield (2010) and also is the current Nitro Nostalgia Funny Car speed record holder at 255.78 mph.

The entry list of 21 cars will compete on both days (Saturday and Sunday) vying for a coveted berth in the tight eight-car field.

The Goodguys 22nd Hot Rod Nationals is set to blast off June 11, 12 & 13 at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, officially kicking off another hi-revving trio of vintage drag races for the Goodguys/VRA. The Hot Rod Nationals kicks off a three-race series for vintage drag racers which includes the Hot Rod Nationals, the 9th Blue Suede Cruise August 20-22 in Norwalk, OH and the 3rd Nostalgia Nationals October 15-17 in Bowling Green, KY.

The Hot Rod Nationals is one of the country’s largest vintage hot rodding events combining a massive car show with over 4,000 ’72 & earlier rods, customs, muscle cars and classics with a weekend long vintage drag race on O’Reilly Raceway Park’s vaunted drag strip. Vendor exhibits, a swap meet, car corral, special awards and live entertainment round out the festive weekend.