What do Dave Northrop, Matt Hartford, Angie McBride, Matt Smith, Kyle Koretsky and Ray Fordyce have in common?

They all will be decked out in Kenny Koretsky’s Nitro Fish Wear colors
while competing for U.S. Nationals victories in the 55th edition of
NHRA’s oldest, most prestigious event at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

Northrop, of Perkasie, Pa., will drive the Nitro Fish Pro Stock Pontiac
GXP while Hartford, of Phoenix, Ariz., steps into the Nitro Fish Pro
Stock Dodge.  McBride returns to NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle competition
aboard the Nitro Fish Buell and Smith rides the Don Schumacher Racing
Nitro Fish Suzuki.

Kyle Koretsky, Kenny’s youngest son, is in his second NHRA Competition
Eliminator race, driving the Nitro Fish Super Modified Chevy Cavalier
of Mike Iacono.  Fordyce drives the Nitro Fish Super Comp dragster. 
Nitro Fish is also an associate sponsor of Tony Pedregon, the Funny Car
points leader.

NHRA Funny Car superstar Ashley Force Hood will throw out the
ceremonial first pitch prior to the baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and Oakland A’s at U.S. Cellular Field on Tuesday, September 8th.

“My youngest sister, Courtney, and my brother-in-law, Robert Hight, are
huge baseball fans and I enjoy watching games with my husband Dan who
is from Chicago. I am really excited to be throwing out the first pitch
and I just hope I can get it over the plate. We have a ton of fans in
the Chicago area and I hope they can come out to the game,” said Ashley
Force Hood, driver of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang.

NHRA kicked off the 55th anniversary of the Mac Tools U.S.
Nationals presented by Lucas Oil, the world's most prestigious drag
race with two qualifying sessions for the muscle car contingent at
O’Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont, In., today.

Under sunny skies and operating on a racing surface of 100 degrees, 150
Stock Eliminator hot rods were the first to take to the historic
quarter-mile. The 128-car qualifying field was lead by two A/SA
Stockers, representing the future and the past.

Division 5’s Chad Holzman, from Wichita, Kan., leads the pack after the
first two sessions. Driving his 2008 Ford Cobra-Jet Mustang, Holzman
negotiated the quarter-mile in 9.968-seconds, 1.332 seconds under his
11.30 standard. Only 0.005-seconds separates the new Cobra-Jet from the
second qualifier, the classic Mopar of Division 1 competitor David
Barton from Robesonia, Pa. Barton ran a solid 9.973-second elapsed time
in his 1965 A/SA Dodge Coronet.

Two-time defending NHRA Pro Stock Champion Cagnazzi Racing today
announced the appointment of veteran motorsports executive Ken Cohn as
their Senior Vice President.  In this new capacity, Cohn will oversee a
multitude of areas for the Mooresville, NC based organization,
including team sponsorship, marketing, strategy, sales/business
development and operations.  In light of the challenging financial
environment, team owner Victor Cagnazzi sees the pro-active addition of
Cohn as a key to his company’s continued success.
 
“As we continue to strengthen and grow our organization’s business
operations, we feel very fortunate to be able to bring on board
somebody with Ken’s diverse motorsports background and business
acumen,” said Cagnazzi. “His experience helping brands strategically
utilize motorsports marketing/sponsorship to engage passionate race
fans and drive tangible business results, coupled with a strong
reputation across the motorsports industry, provides Cagnazzi Racing
with a tremendous asset that will prove to be beneficial to our
organization as we look to further distinguish ourselves in the
marketplace.”

NHRA president Tom Compton’s assertion that this month’s four abreast
exhibition at Bruton Smith’s zMAX Dragway will mark “the first time that fans can witness modern Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars running four-wide” depends on his definition of “modern.”
 
That’s because Hall of Fame crew chief Austin Coil can recall at least
two past occasions when the ChiTown Hustler, the Funny Car with which
he first rose to prominence before directing John Force to 14
championships for Castrol GTX, was involved in four-across racing.  In
fact, he actually drove the “Hustler” in a four-wide race at Rockford,
Ill., in 1969.
 
“We had both our new car and our old car out there because we were
testing the new car to make sure it was all right,” Coil said. 
“Somebody didn’t show up who was supposed to be there, so they made us
an offer to run both cars.  I drove the new one and Pat Minick drove
the old one.  I think we made three runs (in the four across
configuration).

The downturn in the economy has left several high-profile NHRA drivers out of work this season.

Drivers like Top Fuel Funny Car pilot Tommy Johnson Jr. who raced
full-time in the Funny Car ranks from 2001-2008, was 18th in the points
standings a year ago. Today, he's not even in the points standings.

“It’s frustrating if you look at only drag racing and think that’s just
drag racing right now,” Johnson said. “But, if you step back and look
at the whole thing, we’re no different than any other thing in the
world right now, everything is struggling with the economy the way that
it is. All forms of racing are struggling to some degree and it’s kind
of a double-edge sword. You think boy, I hate that our sport is
struggling so bad and you look at it and you see that you’re not the
only one who is having these problems. When you look at the quality of
people who are unemployed this season in drag racing, you can’t be too
disappointed.”

Teenage rider L.E. Tonglet will be a member of Matt Smith’s MSR Racing
Pro Stock Motorcycle team for NHRA’s premier event, the Mac Tools U.S.
Nationals, Friday through Monday at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

Smith announced Tuesday his plan to add the 19-year-old Tonglet as a
teammate of Angie McBride.  Tonglet will be aboard the Frameworksmg.com
Buell Smith rode to the 2007 NHRA Full Throttle championship.

Oona Elmore, owner of Frameworks Marketing Group, said she was pleased
to help Tonglet – the youngest son of former rider Gary Tonglet and the
brother of GT Tonglet – gets his first Pro Stock Motorcycle ride at the
U.S. Nationals.  “L.E. is a talented rider and we are looking forward
to watching him race this weekend,” said Elmore.

John Force, the 14-time NHRA Funny Car Champion, will be featured
Sunday on SPEED TV’s Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain in the first segment
of a multi-part interview focusing on drag racing safety and the
changes his team has made in the wake of the death of promising young
driver Eric Medlen in a testing accident and a subsequent competitive
crash that left Force with life-threatening injuries of his own.  The
show will air at a special time – 10 p.m., Eastern.
 
The undeniable face of American drag racing for the last quarter
century, Force will take Despain and SPEED viewers behind the scenes of
The Eric Medlen Project, housed in his Brownsburg racing complex and
explain all that has happened since Medlen lost his life in March, 2007.

If you want to know what’s going on in the pits at the NHRA U.S.
Nationals, it’s possible to keep abreast of the action from the comforts of your home.

CompetitionPlus.com will provide extensive same day coverage from the
55th annual NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis thanks to an event
coverage sponsorship from Bill Miller Engineering, a leading piston and
rod manufacturer based in Carson City, Nev.

CompetitionPlus.com’s Indy Same Day coverage presented by BME will
feature individual pit notebooks from the four Full Throttle
professional divisions as well as the Get Screened America Pro Modified
Challenge and Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series sportsman action. The
notebooks will be updated multiple times daily.

Jim
Cunningham plans to debut two of the new 2010 Mustangs this weekend at
the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. The new cars will not be
equipped with the new Ford Hemi engines but the sleeker bodies and
newer chassis should make a significant improvement as well as a few
new parts from Ford. These shots were taken outside of Jerry Haas Race
Cars in Fenton, Mo.

The Mustang driven by Cunningham was built by Haas while Enders'
Mustang was started by Don Ness and completed by Dennie Burnevik at
Sinned Customs. The cars are twins but not identical.