Race vehicles representing every major series that will compete at Lowe's Motor Speedway, zMAX Dragway and The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway will parade north on Tryon Street between Third and Trade Streets in Charlotte, N.C., to announce the speedway's fall Season of Speed including the NHRA Carolinas Nationals, Sept. 17 – 20. Led by Lug Nut, the world's fastest mascot, in his Legends Car, the parade will include Top Fuel racer Doug Herbert and Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Matt Smith. Also included in the parade will be the Chevrolet Cobalt of Jeg Coughlin Jr.

Auto racing’s version of “Decision 2009” is in full swing, but the
polls will close soon for the Ford Customer Service Division’s Second
Annual Funny Car Design Contest to Support Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

The candidates  - in this case, JDRF kids - are campaigning for your
vote in the final week to be featured on the Motorcraft/Quick Lane
Shelby Mustang driven by Bob Tasca III.  The Funny Car Design Contest
voting started on July 2, and runs through August 14, 2009.

Until August 14, the public is invited to visit www.jdrf.org/ford, view
more than 300 paint scheme designs, and vote for their favorite
children’s design by making a monetary donation to JDRF.

One of Salem, Oregon’s hottest summer events returns Friday Night, August 21 as the 10th annual Night of Fire Benefit Car Show will
light up the sky. The main feature of this years’ event will be a jet
car fire show as the War Hawk funny car throws out a spectacular 30
foot-long flame.

This year’s Night of Fire benefits 10-year old
Daisy Keiffer of Salem who is battling Ewing’s Sarcoma, an aggressive
form of cancer. The general public can help Daisy by attending this
family event that includes dragster fire-ups by the Capitol Auto Group racing team, hot rods, street rods, customs, low riders, muscle cars along with some antique vehicles.

Mopar®, Chrysler Group LLC’s Parts division, has announced that the
world’s fastest super stockers will once again face off during the 2009
season. The ground-pounding 800 horsepower HEMI®-powered 1968 Dodge
Darts and Plymouth Barracudas continue their 40-year domination of
NHRA’s top stock class beginning this Labor Day Weekend in Indianapolis.

The three-event 2009 Mopar HEMI® Challenge Race Series schedule will
blast off at the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis,
Ind., Sept. 2–7.

After
scoring a surprise runner-up finish in Top Alcohol Dragster at last
year’s Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, Mike Lewis
will again drive the Conway Automotive A/Fuel Dragster when the
national event returns to Reading Aug. 20-23.
 
The team will be sponsored at Maple Grove by Kemper Equipment of Honey
Brook, Pa., a family owned company that manufactures aggregate and
mining equipment for producers in the Mid-Atlantic region. Albrecht’s
Fast Track Motorcycles of Chicago is also on board as an associate
sponsor.
 

Dennis Burnevik doesn’t expect to enjoy many spare moments in the near future. The chassis builder from Minneapolis, Minn., has branched out on his own after 21 years of working alongside legendary chassis builder Don Ness.

Burnevik is taking over a portion of the chassis business once held by
Ness, as the famed chassis builder enters semi-retirement.

“For the meantime I have,” Burnevik confirmed when asked about the
move. “I have my own new business and Don is still helping me out. I’ll
be finishing up a couple of his cars with my name badge on there.”

National Guard American Drag Racing League (ADRL) Executive Vice President of Competition Bert Corzine today announced the traditional
testing-qualifying-racing schedule will remain intact Aug. 7-8, for the
ADRL Hardee’s® Gateway Drags II at Madison, Illinois, near St. Louis.

On-track action will begin with testing for all five professional
classes at noon on Friday, continuing to 6 p.m. and followed by a
mandatory driver’s meeting at 6:15 p.m. A single round of qualifying
for all classes beginning at 7 p.m. will be completed Friday night. On
Saturday, round two of qualifying will open at 10 a.m., with the third
and final chance to qualify scheduled for 1 p.m. and elimination rounds
starting at 4 p.m.

There's no question that Doug Herbert wants to be racing full-time on the NHRA's Top Fuel Dragster circuit.

Outside of the 2006 season, Herbert has finished in the Top 10 in the season points standings every year since 1999.

However, he has only run in one event this year - the Thunder Valley
Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., in May, losing to Doug Kalitta in the
first round.

It is difficult to argue the fact that John Zappia and his Striker
Crushing and Screening Monaro were unbeatable last season – with the West Australian undefeated on his way to his second consecutive National Top Doorslammer Title.

Ask the man however, and he wouldn’t use the term ‘unbeatable’ – instead, he says it simply comes down to consistency.

“We aren’t unbeatable – what we are is consistent, and focused, with
good planning and also some good luck, and that is what allows us to
win,” said Zappia.

Pro Nitrous driver Tim Savell looked out at close to 200 National Guard
ADRL fans waiting in line during the recently completed ADRL NATIONALGUARD.com
U.S. Drags II at Virginia Motorsports Park and it warmed his heart. Not
because the thermometer was reading above 95 degrees, but because
knowing those fans would wait in that heat for his autograph helped
ease the sting of not qualifying to race in eliminations.

“The
DNQ kind of bummed me out,” Savell admitted following his first
appearance in the new National Guard ADRL Autograph Zone. “But I went
over there and it really perked me up.”