When Steve Johnson rolls into the waterbox for his burnout to begin his 500th race at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals today, he likely won’t be reminiscing that he made it this far. Instead, he’ll be amazed that he survived race No. 1. 
Johnson made his professional debut at the 1987 NHRA Summernationals in Gainesville, Fla., and did he ever make a first impression. 

There were rows of high-dollar haulers, pits comprised of rows of toolboxes, and a plethora of crewmen to use them. Then there was Steve Johnson, with his pits tucked away in the corner of Old Bridge Township Raceway, his bike shipped in a crate and tucked away under a flatbed trailer. 

In the second round of qualifying at the recently completed NHRA Northwest Nationals, multi-time Pro Stock champion Matt Smith made a profound statement without uttering a word. 

A session earlier, Angie Smith's Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle laid down the fastest speed in Pacific Raceway's history when she ran 200.62 miles per hour. She could have gone faster in Q2 but never got the chance. Smith held out his bike, his wife's, and the rest of his team. 

Smith said initially in social media posts it was to preserve parts, but later, in a press conference on Wednesday ahead of the NHRA Sonoma Nationals, he pulled no punches. 

Ron Capps racked his brain on Wednesday afternoon, trying to find the answer to a question. Still, he couldn’t as he drove his motorcoach to Sonoma Raceway for this weekend’s Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals. 

Was there another crash he’d experienced, like last week’s mayhem at the Northwest Nationals outside of Seattle?

“Probably the one closest to that was going into the net in Indy was when the ‘chutes failed and went in upside down, but that wasn’t necessarily a hard hit either,” Capps said. “This was the highest speed at which I thought for sure several times it was going to go over and upside down and actually touch both walls. I grazed the right one pretty good and then ended up grazing the left one at the end there. I don’t think I’ve ever had something to that extent. I’ve had some pretty good ones. I’ve had some good blow-ups and some good fires, but that was the first of one of those high-speed sort of incidents.”

Someone has purchased Hartland Motorsports Park. The identity of the buyer remains unrevealed. However, the bid is serious enough that  Heritage Brokers & Auctioneers, the auction house for Heartland Motorsports Park, closed the auction ahead of its 6 p.m. June 24 deadline. 

 
NHRA Northwest Nationals Pro Stock Champion Chase Van Sant had to do a double-take. He said he went through the finish lights after a close battle with the seemingly unbeatable Gaige Herrera, but the win light didn’t shine in his lane. 

‘I was just shaking my head. We were down in the shutdown and Gaige yelled something at me. I don’t know what, but we were side-by-side slowing down, and he was yelling at me, and I looked over, and he pointed, and I was like, man, I don’t know if this is real or not.”

Hererra admits he was yelling at Van Sant, but not out of anger. 

A month after the drag racing world watched in horror as 17-time Funny Car champion John Force exploded an engine and violently impacted the retaining walls at Virginia Motorsports Park, he is going home. 

John Force Racing confirmed today that Force was discharged Tuesday from Barrow Neurological Institute, where he was undergoing rehab for a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury).

Maddi Gordon is in her rookie season as a Top Alcohol Funny Car racer. A funny thing happened to her on the rookie road to keeping the car in the groove, not hitting anything and trying to win rounds; she sealed her place in drag racing history.

Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways outside of Seattle, Wa. 

Gary Burgin. Randy Humphrey. Chase Van Sant.

These are three racers who did the unthinkable. They stopped the unstoppable. 

When Gary Burgin ended Don Prudhomme’s winning streak at Indy in 1976, Van Sant was -21 years old. Randy Humphrey ended Bob Glidden’s incredible calendar year streak when Van Sant was at the unripe age of -18.