Bobby Lagana Jr. and his brother Domenick scored an incredible Father's Day present for Dad. (Roger Richards)

Top Fuel racer Bobby Lagana Jr., grabbed a microphone in the winner’s
circle and let out an ear-piercing scream of elation. Then he smiled.

“I don’t know whose ears that’s gonna hurt or a computer gigabyte or megabyte, I don’t care,” Lagana said with a smile.

He celebrated some more.

“If my head was strong enough I’d break it over my head!” Lagana
exclaimed as he brandished a champion’s bottle of champagne. “That’s
what we’ve been doing our whole lives.”

Pro Stock veteran scores monumental victory in Maryland

Frank Gugliotta drove his way to the Pro Stock winner's circle  (Roger Richards)

Frank Gugliotta had won eight IHRA Pro Stock titles in his career and
though he’s grateful for the triumphs, he’s had an empty feeling of
sorts. He’d never won at his home track.

Gugliotta will never experience that feeling again as he and the Bob
Yoak team scored a convincing victory during the IHRA Torco President’s
Cup Nationals hosted by Maryland International Raceway in Budds Creek,
Md.

Gugliotta of Mr. Airy, Md., also scored his first victory for Yoak, the
team owner who gave him his first taste of Pro Stock racing earlier in
the decade.

Busy summer schedules will keep two of the top 10 and four of the top 20 racers
in the JEGS ProMod Challenge out of the field at this weekend's 39th annual
Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

The
most notable driver out of the mix is Eddie Ware, the Disturbed Motorsports
racer who won the Atlanta national event on April 27th in his 1967 Pontiac
Firebird. Ware is currently third in the JEGS rankings, just 46 points behind
leader Tony Pontieri.

Last week, two-time series champion Mike Ashley
announced he was removing himself from all competition for the remainder of the
year to concentrate on his mortgage business, Lend America, which is the
presenting sponsor of this JEGS event. Ninth in the points, Ashley was winless
on the tour this year but raced to a runner-up result at the last Pro Mod stop
in Bristol, Tenn. He was also the Ohio Crankshaft No. 1 qualifier in
Gainesville, Fla., in his ProCare Rx hot rod.

The whisperings and murmuring floated throughout the pits at Pro
Modified events. At the traditional Pro Modified settings the consensus
amongst those naysayers was the nitrous combination couldn’t compete.
The spoken but unwritten memo made its rounds.

Mike Castellana heard the talk but never subscribed to the belief.

If last month’s firestorm of nitrous potential in Milan, Mich., didn’t
send a message to the competition, his victory at the IHRA President’s
Cup Nationals in Budds Creek, Md., made the point crystal clear.

He not only won his seventh national event to pull into a tie for the
ninth position amongst all-time winners in Pro Modified, he also laid
down the fastest speed amongst nitrous-injected racers in the class
with a 239.14 mph blast.

Hillary Will, the world’s fastest female and driver of the 8,000-horsepower KB
Racing, LLC Top Fuel dragster, will join other NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
stars Wednesday, June 18, in Brooklyn, New York at Metro Ministries / Chances
for Children in their inaugural NHRA-themed event for underprivileged children.
Will along with Jack Beckman, Mike Edwards, Tom Hammonds and others will visit
with over 500 children and young adults with a full day of interaction.

CompetitionPlus.com's rendering artist Greg Russell has fired off an artist conception of the new 2009 Camaro Funny Car body.

Going Straight, Collecting Points Connolly’s Primary Mission at E-Town

The math is simple. 

Dave
Connolly continues his bid for a top ten ranking despite missing the first five events of the season. (Roger Richards)  

Dave Connolly currently trails 10th place Warren
Johnson by 130 points as they challenge for the final Pro Stock position in the
coveted Countdown to One six-race championship playoff.  Eight races remain in
the regular season. And they aren’t the only ones with designs on a top 10
finish.
 
Connolly has been impressive since his personal 19-race NHRA
POWERade Series campaign began five races behind the other contenders.  He
signaled his return with a runner-up finish in his second race and a victory at
Bristol, Tenn., in the third event.  The victory pushed him all the way up to
12th, where he remains after disappointing outings in recent back-to-back races
at Topeka, Kan., and Joliet, Ill.
 

While his rivals rested over Father's Day weekend in anticipation of the
upcoming 39th Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals, reigning Pro Stock champion Jeg
Coughlin Jr. was at Indianapolis Raceway Park winning $25,000 at the JEGS U.S.
Open Bracket Championships.

Coughlin logged more than a dozen rounds of
cutthroat competition against 350 of the best sportsman racers in the country --
including the nine straight he needed Saturday to claim the top prize -- to tune
up for his next Pro Stock race.

"It was a tough-fought battle every
round," Coughlin said. "I went through more household names in one race then you
see in a year. It was brutal, but a lot of fun.

"It definitely doesn’t
hurt to race in a deal like this. The cars are different, sure, but the
discipline you need, the lights you need to cut every round, the focus you have
to maintain, the need to basically perform flawlessly in the cockpit, all of
that helps."

While Michael Waltrip is battling it out with 42 other NASCAR drivers nearly
every weekend in the NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota, his NAPA teammate Ron Capps is
vying for a win against his opponents side-by-side down the quarter-mile of an
NHRA event, driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge.

Last Saturday, Waltrip
showed his support of his "little buddy" (Waltrip is 6'5", Capps is 5'8") by
sporting Capps' NAPA tee shirt and cap at the NASCAR event at Michigan
International Speedway.

The two are becoming famous for their creative
and funny NAPA commercials which have been airing during both NASCAR and NHRA
events.

Top Fuel racer Doug Foley will do his best to represent New Jersey this coming
weekend at the 39th annual Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals when the Sewell, N.J.,
resident returns to action at his home track of Old Bridge Township Raceway
Park.

The former IHRA Rookie of the Year rose to national prominence
during a part-time NHRA campaign in 2007 when the media dubbed him "Giant
Killer" for his numerous upsets of top-ranked racers like Tony Schumacher,
Brandon Bernstein, and Rod Fuller. Now, with the continued corporate backing of
Fx Caprara Car Companies of Watertown, N.Y., Foley will try to earn his first
NHRA Wally at Old Bridge.

"This is our third race of the year with Billy
Caprara and we're really happy to be back in action, even if it's just for one
more weekend," Foley said. "We're continuing our search for full-time funding
and it helps tremendously to compete at some of the races so we can show our
potential sponsors what we do in person.