The No. 1 on the wing of Top Fuel world champion Doug Kalitta’s dragster ensures that it will draw a fair amount of attention at the third stop on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. That’s what popular NHRA sponsor SealMaster is banking on as major league drag racing resumes at Firebird Raceway for the NHRA Arizona Nationals. 

SealMaster is a longtime corporate partner of Kalitta Motorsports. In addition to the primary placement in Phoenix, SealMaster is a full-season associate partner on Kalitta’s dragster and J.R. Todd’s DHL GR Supra Funny Car. 

Eric Latino knows that feeling all too well. It doesn’t matter if you are 16 hours from the track or 16 hours from home; the feeling of being stranded on the side of the road can leave one sick to the stomach. 
 
His job in the emissions industry has convinced him that it’s not a matter of if but when a diesel particulate filter [DPF] will leave a big rig or motorhome stranded. 
 
Before we go any further in this article, what is a DPF, and what does it do?

When it comes to ticketing, the PACnet Annual Star Awards believes NHRA has got it right. 

Drag racing’s largest sanctioning body was recently awarded with “Innovation of the Year” accolades at the PACnet Annual Star Awards in Los Angeles. The award comes from the development of NHRA’s new Team Ticket & Credential Ordering Portal. The PACnet Annual Star Awards honors top performers within the Paciolan community, with NHRA beating out an impressive list of competitors in the category for its new online ticketing page.

Now she knows what to expect. 

This is how it is for Top Alcohol Dragster graduate turned Top Fuel driver Jasmine Salinas as she made her big show debut on Friday at the NHRA Winternationals. 

Tony Stewart said during a break at this past weekend’s Lucas Oil Winternationals at Southern California’s In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip that it’s too early to be an expert on all the nuances of his Top Fuel dragster. And he claims he isn’t partial to one kind of race car, despite his love for dirt cars.

But he is certain that he never will become a Funny Car driver. And he’s adamant that his spin in an 11,000-horsepower, nitro-gulping Top Fuel has a limited run, at least for the immediate future. He stepped in as a substitute this season for wife Leah Pruett, who announced in December she would step from the cockpit to focus on starting a family.

The NHRA has unveiled its plans for the concluding events of the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals and the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge, set to unfold at Firebird Motorsports Park during the 39th NHRA Arizona Nationals from April 5-7. 

Friday’s qualifying session kicks off with the first round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at 4 p.m. PT, with the bonus event finals following on Saturday during the second round of qualifying at 11:30 a.m. PT.

Saturday’s action intensifies with final rounds in Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock as part of the Arizona  final qualifying starting at 2 p.m. The postponed final rounds from Pomona will run at the end category in the final session. 

Ford’s latest iteration of the Super Cobra Jet 1800, with Pat McCue at the wheel, registered a record 7.75-second elapsed time at 180.14 mph on Friday afternoon at the NHRA Winternationals.  

“This is an upgraded car, so it's the same chassis, but we've done some pretty significant upgrades to the old car,” Stephen Johnsen, MLE Race Cars engineer, said. “So it may be the same chassis, but we've got a brand-new battery system in the car. It's about 40 percent lighter. We have a new Liberty five-speed in the car. So we've changed over from the three-speed to the five-speed. We have a new rear tire; new rear tire, bigger rear tire. We've back-halved the car. Essentially, we got to where we could with that initial iteration, and ultimately this is a technology test bed for us at Ford Performance at Ford Motor Company. We had to push it a little farther, so we've upgraded the car.

MLE Race Cars, with electrical engineer Chris Brune serving as motor specialist for the Cobra Jet, has partnered with Ford Performance to produce, modify and fine-tune the car.