Donnie Bender, whose last crew chief gig was with Don Prudhomme Racing last season, is at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals this weekend with a different blue uniform.

Bender is working with the Kenny Bernstein Racing Co-Part-sponsored team for at least this weekend as a consultant.

The NHRA officially ushered in four wide qualifying Friday afternoon, a truly historic moment in the sport's history.

Pro Stock Motorcycle opened the professional qualifying session for the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway.

According to sources in the zMax Dragway pit area the NHRA approved at least three different designs of wheel tethers – two of which were tested on the Monday following the Gatornationals in Gainesville.

The most impressive, according to one team, is the system designed by Ed “Ace” McCullough, crew chief on Ron Capps NAPA Dodge. Additional designs were submitted by Steve Chrisman, Jim Head and Alan Johnson. According to Larry Dixon, the designs of Chrisman and Johnson were tested at Gainesville by Del Worsham and Jeff Arend.

Larry Morgan has admittedly experienced “one of those weeks” leading into the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, NC.

Morgan’s dysfunctional days began on Tuesday, when while dyno testing a primary engine, the unit dropped two valves. The subsequent damage rendered the block and cylinder heads in need of some serious TLC.

“I could have fixed it all,” Morgan pointed out. “But not in short order.”

Morgan made the decision to elevate a second engine to the starting line-up, so he and the Lucas Oil team could travel down to Rockingham Dragway for some test laps.

“It is with a great deal of patriotic pride that we welcome the United States Air Force as an associate sponsor on our Copart/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster beginning this weekend at the Inaugural Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway,” said team owner and six-time NHRA champion Kenny Bernstein.

“Our team will be used as a marketing and recruiting tool for the Air Force for the remainder of the 2010 season and will be instrumental in working with influencers who will in turn open doors for recruiters.

"We are excited about our new partnership with the Kenny Bernstein Racing Team for the 2010 NHRA race season," said Brig Gen AJ Stewart, Commander of Air Force Recruiting Service.  "We know how professional the KBR team is and believe they reflect the standards that personify the Air Force personnel. I'm positive this will lead to an increase in exposure for our Air Force and allow us to reach out to those eligible men and women who may be interested in joining our team."

Pat Musi had a simple game plan headed into his return to the ADRL’s Pro Nitrous division at the recently contested ADRL Dragpalooza event hosted by Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Tex.

Musi, a past multiple Pro Street champion from Carteret, NJ, figured he’d use the Buford Pusser approach to his first eighth-mile event with his new Dodge Stratus using an 864-inch, EFI-equipped engine. The engine is equipped with the Sonny’s Racing Engines Wedge head configuration.

He simply wanted to walk tall and carry a big stick into competition.

On the eve of the NHRA’s inauguaral 4-Wide Nationals at Bruton Smith’s ZMax Dragway, John Force told his team that this week’s four-lane competition isn’t rocket science.  The thing to remember, said the 14-time champion, is that just because everything’s different, doesn’t mean anything’s changed.
 
As strange as that may sound, it contains a profound truth, which is that no matter how advanced the technology, no matter how many opponents are lined up on either side, no matter what the configuration of the Christmas Tree starting system, the basic premise remains the same and that is to get one’s car to the finish line ahead of all the others.
 
Over 35 years, Force has done that better than anyone in history, getting to the finish line first 1,047 times, which is one of the reasons the 60-year-old legend has been installed as the pre-race favorite in a suddenly resurgent Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang that celebrates his 25-year association with BP/Castrol.

Four different racers. Four different reactions. And yet they all had, as Karen Stoffer so plainly put it, “fun.”

Karen Stoffer, Hector Arana, Doug Horne and Morgan Lucas took three-lap rides courtesy of the Richard Petty Driving School at Charlotte Motor Speedway Thursday afternoon.

The NHRA technical department announced as of today, the GSA Pro Modified division will be prohibted from using automotic transmissions as well as automatic shifting devices.

Terry Haddock, benched after flaming performances at both Pomona and Phoenix, could return to both Top Fuel and Funny Car racing in the NHRA.

Before Haddock can make his return he will have to satisfy certain requirements. Haddock needs to make six (6) incident free runs in the Funny Car and three (3) incident free runs in the Top Fuel dragster before the NHRA will allow him to compete once again.