The National Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL) is proud to announce Mickey Thompson as the official tire for the eighth-mile drag racing series. In addition, Mickey Thompson will continue offering its extensive contingency sponsorship program to all five professional classes in the 2010 National Guard ADRL Tour.

“What this means is that it gives us a bigger venue and level of exposure for the brand,” Mickey Thompson Motorsports Manager Carl Robinson says of the new official tire status. “It’s all about getting the Mickey Thompson name out there, building relationships and increasing our market share on the race track and on the highways.”

Billet Specialties has announced their sponsorship of Steve Spiess and his Pro Stock Chevy Cobalt in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Jim Dunn Racing has announced that Funny Car veteran Paul Lee will drive the CANIDAE All Natural Pet Foods/Lucas Oil/WileyX Chevrolet for the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season.

Lee is a four-time national-event winner in the Funny Car category, winning once in 2008 in the IHRA Nitro Funny Car class and three times in 2004 in NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car. 

The difference between life and death, according to John Medlen, is what is done with the data.

The wheel which ripped free of sophomore Funny Car driver Bob Tasca's Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang during a qualifying run at zMax Dragway in Concord, NC, could have caused a fatal outcome. It didn't because of what was done with the data from Eric Medlen's fatal practice run at Gainesville two years earlier. It didn't because of what was done with the data from John Force's wreck at Dallas.

The probability of fatality lessens each time data from previous incidents is collected, understood and acted upon. The chance of a death in drag racing will never be eliminated, it can however be lessened when data is acted upon in a positive manner.

Robert Patrick believes there’s nothing finer than a classic piece of Ford machinery. With that said, the veteran Pro Stock racer from Fredericksburg, Va., plans to implement a nostalgic look into his 2010 Ford Mustang GT in the coming season.

After nearly a decade’s absence, Patrick plans to bring his new look and same familiar intense attitude into the NHRA 500-inch Pro Stock arena.

One trip to the drag strip was all the inspiration Lewis Bloom needed to become a drag racing addict. Growing up eight miles from the sounds of Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ, the ten year old kid who would later become the official ESPN drag racing statistician, used to hear the sounds of the strip emanate every time he played tennis with his friends.

He really didn’t know what was making those strange sounds.

The young Bloom asked his father for clarification, and the response was, “I think there’s a race track, do you want to go?”

On May 2, 1970, his eleventh birthday, Bloom received the present that would forever influence his life. The elder Bloom took him to the drag strip.

WFORadio.com with Joe Castello, a leading Internet motorsports radio show, will broadcast on Friday, December 11, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., on location from the Red Line Synthetic Oil exhibit at the 22nd annual PRI Trade Show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL.  To listen live, on demand, or to download, go to http://www.wforadio.com
   
WFORadio.com with Joe Castello on location at PRI, will feature a special edition of NHRA Tuesday, plus interviews and commentary with drivers, promoters, and media representing all types of motorsports.

The PRI show boasts exhibitors from over 1,200 racing companies, including over 100 new exhibitors for 2009.

As anticipation builds towards the debut of the brand new Nitro Jam season, so does the anticipation felt among many of the competitors preparing to make their Nitro Jam debut in one of two new IHRA classes.

Among the new classes set for 2010 are Pro Fuel, a spinoff of Top Fuel with more nitro in the tank, and Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car, a form of outlaw pre-1980s bodied Funny Cars, and fans and drivers alike are both looking forward to what promises to be an exciting and record breaking year for both classes.

One class in particular, the newly formed Pro Fuel class, is already eying what it can accomplish in its first year on the tour.

The infamous, 2002 Top Fuel burndown between Doug Herbert and Clay Millican at Maple Grove Raceway sparked a rivalry that earned Herbert his ‘Dougzilla’ nickname.

Although the two Top Fuel veterans had each personally put the incident behind them over the past seven years, an opportunity to create new public service announcements for Herbert’s charity B.R.A.K.E.S. brought them together to bury the hatchet for a good cause.

After nearly two decades behind the wheel of a wide variety of race cars, Troy Coughlin claimed his first championship in 2009 when he drove his JEGS.com Pontiac GXP to the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) Pro Street title. Coughlin posted two victories during the season in Chicago and Charlotte and clinched the title at the final event in Memphis, Tenn., with a performance that included a national record run.

"The Pro Street class is very competitive and we had to fight all season for this championship," Coughlin said. "There were about six of us that were very close through the first two or three races and I figured some would drop off but that never happened.

"We won the race in Chicago and set a national record, which gave us a lot of points, but it wasn't enough for us to move into first. It wasn't until we won Charlotte that we finlly got to first place."