NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The Chevrolet Monza of the mid-1970s remains one of the immortal early Funny Car body designs in drag racing history with a rich legacy of performance and famous owners, including Don Prudhomme, “Jungle Jim” Liberman, Roland Leong, and some guy named John Force. 

It’s the season of mindfulness and thankfulness and, despite a turkey tryptophan hangover, National Dragster Editor Phil Burgess carved out these succulent heapings of thankfulness for the year.

A few weeks ago, we mused about which four racers would occupy the places of honor on a Top Fuel Mount Rushmore monument. Now it's Funny Car's turn. Which drivers or owners over the class' 60 years deserve to be immortalized? Caution: This is not as easy as it seems.

In just a few weeks, we’ll be crowning 2024's Top Fuel world champion in Pomona, so here's a look back at the champions from 1964, ’74, ’84, ’94, ’04, and ’14, which, as it turns out, provided not only some very interesting title tales but also pocket glimpses of those eras. 

In recent years, we’ve seen a flood of articles across different sports all asking the same question: Who's on your [fill in the blank] Mount Rushmore? We got to wondering: Who would be on Top Fuel's Mount Rushmore? Garlits? Muldowney? Schumacher? Brown? Dixon? Kalitta? Torrence?

Before Shirley Muldowney ever turned a tire in Top Fuel and nearly 20 years before Brittany Force was even born, the First Lady of Top Fuel was Alison Lee, whose tuning prowess made her a legend in the sport. We lost Alison Aug. 29 at age 84, but her legacy will long survive her.

Beginning with Shirley Muldowney in 1974 through Ida Zetterström's debut last weekend in Brainerd, 24 women have raced in NHRA national event Top Fuel competition. Here’s a quick look at those two dozen nitro-fueled females.

Ask any Funny Car fan from the 1970s what he or she misses most about Funny Car racing today, and I’ll bet you that the answer is those cool pre-run “dry hops" from the 1970s and '80s. Count among them one of the guys who mastered them, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme.

For nearly 15 years, Neil Britt led the NHRA Publications department, carrying it to new heights, as he had at every publication before that. Britt passed away July14, and is remembered fondly by his friends and former colleagues in the motorsports world.

In 1966, Shirley Shahan became the first woman to win an NHRA national event; nearly six decades later, Maddi Gordon became the 100th winner with her victory in Top Alcohol Funny Car in Seattle. Here's a historic look back at the road to 100 female winners.

Today it hosts the Northwest Nationals, but for six years in the late 1970s, Pacific Raceways (then known as Seattle International Raceway) was home to the Fallnationals, an exciting and often pivotal event in the season championship battles.

Don Garlits scored the first of eight NHRA U.S. Nationals Top Fuel wins in 1964, the first year that the class was contested in Indy. It was the end of a wild year and a wild race for "Big Daddy."

“Big Daddy” Don Garlits is a legend in the drag racing world and even though he long ago hung up his famous black racing helmet, the 92-year-old icon still has plenty to talk about.

Most of us can’t get enough of drag racing photos in general and historic photos in specific. Here's a look at some interesting images from our sport's past and the stories behind them.

NHRA national event racing returned to Louisiana last weekend with the running of the Laris Motorsports Insurance NHRA Cajun SPORTSnationals at No Problem Raceway, but for 15 years in the 1970s and '80s, the NHRA Cajun Nationals was the state's biggest drag race.

Tony Schumacher. Don Prudhomme. Bob Glidden. Dave Schultz. Four legendary NHRA racers who hold four legendary winning streaks, marks that are being challenged in 2024 by Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Gaige Herrera. Here's a look at how those streaks were assembled.

From Southern California street-racing legend to early-dragster hero to Winternationals-winning Top Fuel driver, Larry Dixon Sr. led a charmed life surrounded by fast cars. This is his story.

On the Thursday before the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals, nearly 500 friends, family, and hot-rodding compatriots of legendary car owner and tuner Roland Leong gathered at the Lions Automobilia Foundation and Museum in Southern California for a celebration of his life.

The Chrisman family has been a part of the Southern California landscape since before the Winternationals were a thing. The family has opened its scrapbook for us to take a look back at the incredible legacy that continues to this day.

Ten years before the Gatornationals brought NHRA national event racing to Florida, NHRA partnered with NASCAR to create a test event, dubbed "the Winter Nationals," during NASCAR Speedweek in Daytona in 1960.

Fifty years ago, there were only seven national events on the schedule, but fans across the country saw great action on the divisional level where Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock competed at 28 additional events. Here’s a look back at some of those 1974 heroes.

Three weeks from now we’ll be at Gainesville Raceway for the kickoff of the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series as we celebrate the 55th anniversary of the famed Gatornationals. Here’s a look back at the ever-changing face of Gainesville Raceway over the years.

Gary Southern, who will be posthumously inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame next month, could drive anything. In a racing career that spanned nearly 30 years, he drove what he estimated was more than 70 cars in many of the sport's top classes.

Step into the Dragster Insider Wayback Machine, set the dials for 50 years ago, and return to the 1974 NHRA season for a look back at how things were, including the schedule, performance markers, and big moments on and off the track.

With the recent demolition of the famed Parks Tower at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, the NHRA U.S. Nationals lost a part of a four-decade landscape, but the memories will remain.

Over the course of a long career as an NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car team owner, Roland Leong was one of the sport’s most successful car owners, but he also hired, fired, replaced, or lost more than 20 drivers over that span. Here's the stories behind each.

We lost Roland Leong, the irrepressible owner of the “Hawaiian” line of Top Fuelers and Funny Cars, last week, and his friends, former drivers, and more shared their thoughts about the man and their experiences with him.

Reimagining a Christmas staple, with a little help from the legends.

The front-engined Top Fuel dragster is such an iconic piece of drag racing lore and still romanticized by those who drove them and continue to drive them, and a way to never forget our past.