Lucas Oil Products has renewed its multi-year agreement for title
sponsorship of the NHRA national event at Brainerd International
Raceway, it was announced recently by NHRA officials.

The Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals will be held Aug. 13-16 in the popular
resort area of Brainerd in central Minnesota. The $1.5 million race,
which will be televised by ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD, is the 16th of 24 events
in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series for 2009.

Lucas Oil has sponsored the popular race since 2003.

Joe Baker is more than pleased with his rookie season in the 2008 JEGS
Pro Mod Challenge.  After winning the first two series' events,
competitors and fans then knew that he would be a force to recon with
and a front-runner of Rookie of the Year.

After qualifying strong at the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals, Baker
managed to finish seventh in the series' points, despite his first
round loss against Joshua Hernandez.

Veteran NHRA Top Fuel drag racer Bob Vandergriff Jr. saluted a special milestone for one of the performance aftermarket industry’s
founding manufacturers. Trans-Dapt Performance Products of Whittier,
California is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary. Founded in 1959, the
company and it's owner, Willie Garner, were a major force behind the
formation of the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association, better
known as SEMA. Bob Vandergriff Jr. commemorated this historic event by
running a special 50th Anniversary Trans-Dapt Logo on his UPS sponsored
dragster at the the AC Delco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, and will
continue the salute at the season finale Automobile Club of Southern
California NHRA Finals in Pomona, CA..

On Tuesday Doug Herbert Racing announced that Keith Stewart will take
the role of crew chief of the SnaponFranchise.com Top Fuel dragster
beginning with the 2008 World Finals in Pomona.

“Keith and Kevin [Poynter] had been co-crew chiefs on the car all
season,” said Herbert.  “Kevin has other opportunities that he has been
actively pursuing and I wish him the best of luck in all his
endeavors.  Keith has been instrumental in leading the team this season
and in making a lot of decisions with the car.  I’m confident that he
will do a great job in Pomona and throughout 2009.”

For a man of faith, Chris Rivas didn’t have much confidence in his chances of contending for a championship
after his bike failed to start in the first round of the NHRA Carolinas
Nationals in Concord, N.C., the first race in the 2008 Countdown to the
Championship.

Then he won the next national event.

He kept on winning and in Las Vegas, scored his third national victory
of 2008 – effectively pulling him within 39 points of point leader Matt
Smith.

“Charlotte was so disappointing,” Rivas recalled. “That’s why we had
that turn of events in Dallas. It was so disappointing in Charlotte,
that’s when we really thought we were out of it. I told them the only
way we’re going to do this is if we make drastic changes. We have to
start winning events back to back and we have to keep winning events. I
don’t know if I can answer why we have been able to do this but I just
feel like my season has been blessed. I just feel blessed; I don’t know
how to explain it I just feel like God has had his hand on me.

Jim Yates describes 400 races as an amazing run.

“We’ve been here for 18 years, almost 19 years straight running NHRA
Pro Stock,” Yates said, following qualifying at the NHRA ACDelco Las
Vegas Nationals. “We’ve attempted to qualify every race in a
Pontiac car. No one has ever done that; no one has ever done that with
one professional car. To try and stay in one class and try and qualify
one brand of car for 400 years is unbelievable. That’s a pretty amazing
thing.”

Yates, of Alexandria, Va., is a two-time NHRA Pro Stock champion with 25 career national event victories to his credit.

Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.

Newly christened NHRA Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher granted
defending event champion and hometown favorite Hot Rod Fuller his wish
in the Las Vegas final round, well – part of it.

Fuller emphatically stated he wanted to race Schumacher one more time
before his tuner Alan Johnson departs to begin his own team. He didn’t
want Fuller to run off to the Funny Car division without an opportunity
for them to race.

Schumacher told the media he isn’t planning to run Funny Car anymore.

What do you get when you cross a venomous snake, a wild horse and a jet?

The answer is something that makes the Director Ford Racing Technology Brian Wolfe smile.

Wolfe along with a score of Ford Racing executives unveiled the new
Cobra Jet racing package to be introduced to AA/Stock or Super Stock/D
if they convert.

It’s been 14 years since Cruz Pedregon has won back-to-back Funny Car races.

It’s been even longer since he’s entered the final race of the season leading the points standings.

Pedregon pulled off the feat in the final round of Las Vegas as he
knocked off the No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight en route to unseating
previous leader Tim Wilkerson, who suffered a first round loss.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. likes the idea of being the only Pro Stock driver to ever win every NHRA Countdown to the Championship program contested.

Coughlin defeated a red-lighting Greg Stanfield to score his 41st career national event victory and third of the season