After experiencing “Four-Wide” competition at Charlotte, Rodger Brogdon and the Attitude Apparel/The Racers Edge team are ready to return to the norm this week, and being able to do so at Houston Raceway Park just makes it that much better,

“Steve Kent’s business operations are based out of southern Louisiana,” said Pro Stock driver Rodger Brogdon, “and my roofing business is based out of northern Houston, so racing at Houston Raceway Park this weekend is a ‘coming home’ for our race team.”

“Between Steve and myself, we’ll be entertaining over 300 clients, friends and family members this weekend so to say it’ll be a normal weekend at the races for us isn’t exactly true, but we always look forward to everyone being able to come out at our home event and see our Pro Stock team in action. We’ve had a good season so far this year and have qualified well at every event except Charlotte, and that was such a unique situation we were just glad to be there on race day.”

Registration for one of Thunder Valley’s most popular events, PINKS All Out, soon will take place on Bristol Dragway’s webpage. Because racer entry slots fill quickly, Bristol Dragway officials encourage racers to register early.

Driver registration will begin on Monday, April 12 at 10 a.m. EST with four hundred racer entries available initially. The registration link will be found at www.bristoldragway.com/events/pinks_all_out/. All drivers MUST register online.

Pro Stock veteran Larry Morgan is quickly closing in on his 500th national event start. He figured at this point in his career he'd pretty much seen it all. But as the NHRA tour heads to Houston Raceway Park for this weekend's 23rd annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals, Morgan realizes there are still things to learn.

This past off-season, Morgan took on the Herculean task of making a Ford-powered racecar competitive in a class dominated by other brands for the last 25 years. He knew he'd have no usable data to work with and that he'd have to start from scratch, but with the support of Ford Motor Company and longtime sponsor Lucas Oil, he decided to take a chance.

Terry McMillen will display his Amalie Oil Top Fuel dragster and sign autographs during a Parts Plus Customer Appreciation Day on Tuesday April 13 (1pm - 3pm) in Albuquerque New Mexico. One lucky person will win a trip to the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals April 16-18 compliments of Parts Plus, Amalie Oil and Hoosier Thunder Motorsports.

The Super Chevy Show is kind of like the carnival of motor sports - it offers a little bit of everything for everyone. Whether you like sportsman or pro-class drag racing, an eye-pleasing car show, or the ever-popular swap meet, this event is for you. It's also a national touring series with regional flavor, and that will be evident when the Super Chevy Show makes its first East Coast stop of the season, visiting Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP) on Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18.

The weekend's highlights include the Nitro Xtreme Doorslammers, Jet Funny Cars, ProMod Corvettes and four bracket racing classes. Car show enthusiasts will be in heaven as VMP traditionally attracts one of the largest entry lists on the 10-race Super Chevy Show Series. Racing and car show fans will also be treated to one of the largest vendor swap meets on the tour.

Two months following a decisive victory in the championship-deciding Round 7 of the Arabian Drag Racing League series, Sheikh Khalid Al Thani (KH, center left) is preparing for his next challenge – the American Drag Racing League’s Pro Extreme division.

Al Thani, who earned three wins in his world championship-winning rookie season, will make his American debut Apr. 23-24, in the ADRL Hardee’s Georgia Drags VI at South Georgia Motorsports Park, near Valdosta, Georgia.

“Undoubtedly, the American Drag Racing League is the most competitive doorslammer racing organization in the world,” said KH, checking in from his hotel in New York City. “It will be an honor and a privilege to line up with legendary drivers such as Jason Scruggs, Todd Tutterow, Joshua Hernandez and Bubba Stanton and race against my heroes.”

ESPN announced two schedule changes for its television programming package for this weekend’s O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park. The re-air of the qualifying show on ESPN2 has been moved to noon (ET) on Sunday, April 11 and expanded to a two-hour show. In addition, NHRA Race Day, the 30-minute magazine preview show on ESPN2, has moved up a half-hour, to a 2 p.m. (ET) start time on Sunday, April 11.

Copart, major sponsor on the Kenny Bernstein-owned Copart/Lucas Oil team, will pay tribute to the U.S. Air Force at the SummitRacing.com Nationals April 16-18 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In a patriotic salute, Copart has relinquished their primary position on the race car to the U.S. Air Force for this event only.

“All of us at Copart have a tremendous appreciation for our service men and women who keep America safe and fight for our freedoms,” said Copart CEO Jay Adair. “Our founder, Willis Johnson, is a Vietnam veteran and many of our employees have served in the Armed Forces or are currently serving in the Reserves. Copart is also headquartered in Fairfield, California, home to Travis Air Force Base, so we are honored to be able to give the Air Force some recognition by giving them the primary sponsorship position on the Bernstein dragster.”

Carolyn Melendy wonders sometimes if her place in drag racing history is destined to be one of the best kept secrets in the sport.

Twenty years ago, Melendy, now a Super Stock racer from Bayville, NJ, was Pro Modified’s first female driver.

Credit the late Vinny Napp, owner of Raceway Park with providing the inspiration, then Robby Vandergriff for leading her in the right direction.

The guts to go racing against some extremely hard core male drivers were Melendy’s, exclusively.

This transition usually goes the opposite direction.

Dave Connolly, a championship-contending Pro Stock driver from 2004-2008, returned to his bracket racing roots the past two seasons, but it wasn’t an easy switch, at least initially.

“Racing in the Sportsman class can be a little tough to take after racing Pro Stock,” the 27-year-old Connolly said. “I found myself going out there and kind of going through the motions last year. I really didn’t do that well in the Sportsman ranks and I kind of got on myself a little bit. I thought if I’m going to keep racing, I have to take this seriously. Those guys in the bracket racing and Sportsman racing they’ve just got tougher and tougher and the cars have got better and better.”