NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

This weekend, the eyes of the drag racing world once again fall on Bakersfield, Calif., for the continuation of the rebirth of the fabled March Meet. This year, the event celebrates its 52nd birthday, and while we all realize it will never be the…

Great American humorist Will Rogers once wrote, "We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by." That would be me, clapping on the curb to a parade of drag racing stars, past and present, and, from all…

It has been a busy two weeks with Pomona and Phoenix back to back, especially with Phoenix's drawn-out semi-conclusion. Don’t cry for me, Argentina, but it's going to be another busy week as we wrap up our Full Throttle coverage, prepare for Friday'…

Jan. 18, 1961, at Golden Triangle strip in Florida, according to the caption Welcome back, my friends, to the nostalgia that never ends, at least…

The news of the passing of "Smokey Joe" Lee earlier this week and the loss this morning of 1974 NHRA Funny Car world champ Shirl Greer was a double tough blow to longtime fans like me and many of you who remember these guys in the nostalgic heyday…

Racers love competing at the Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline for a lot of reasons. Eastern-based competitors love to head to SoCal for sun and fun. And the facility is conveniently accessible from several major freeways,…

Way back in early January, I asked the readers of this column to submit their list of racing heroes. (You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?) Response to my request was a bit overwhelming, so I'm going to parcel these out in two columns. I have…

Long before there were nitro Funny Cars and even what we know as Top Fuel dragsters, door cars and roadsters often attracted the same fanatic love to which we now assign the nitro cars. I know that I have a fuel-racing mentality – particularly for…

Reactions to Monday's column about Russell Long and yesterday's about Dick Wells came by the bucketful, kind of like the rain we're getting here this week in SoCal. We're getting absolutely drenched, and the biggest storms…

A few years ago, Dick Wells sent me this great photo of him, left, with DRAGSTER's first photo editor, the late Rich Joy, standing next to a nice sedan delivery with DRAGSTER signage. Wells said the photo was taken by Wally…

Former Funny Car racer Russell Long  with orphans in Haiti "240 Gordie" Bonin and others tipped me off to a great story about former nitro Funny Car racer Russell Long, driver…

The continuation of my diary from the Lucas Oil Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge presented by Whelen Engineering in chilly Lake Placid, N.Y. Now in its fifth year, the event helps raise funds to build quality bobsleds for the U.S. Olympic team,…

Yeah, sure is cold and snowy out there. Recapping my trip to Lake Placid, N.Y., for the Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge with Jeg Coughlin Jr. 3:50 p.m.: After an…

Merry Christmas to the Insider Nation! In the spirit of the season, I worked with National DRAGSTER staff to create the list below (which also appears in ND's year-end issue, in my Staging Light column), which represents our Christmas…

If you've read drag racing magazines for any amount of time, the name Cliff Morgan should be familiar to you as a regular contributor to various "letters to the editor" columns, including in National DRAGSTER. A…

Longevity in any field of work is a dual-edged sword. On the positive, the longer you’re around, the more people you meet, and the friendships you make can last a lifetime. The downside is that the more people you meet, your…

Hey, I'm back. Sorry about missing my usual Friday update, but I got ambushed Wednesday night by the stomach flu and was out of action pretty much the rest of the week -- kind of hard to be creative and do research when you’re subsisting on a…

Hello from Pomona, where I'm ringside for the second day of the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, and welcome to Part 2 of my reprint of my Fun with Fotos column, which originally ran on the Insider last December and has been…

It's probably every writer's dream to come up with something so cool or so original that it is handed down from generation to generation or becomes so widely distributed to the masses that it takes on a life of its own. Whether it's an oft-quoted…

 I wanted to share what has become a pretty typical thing with this column, and one of the things of which I am most proud. In Tuesday's Fan Fotos edition from Mark Collins, we had a shot of Bennie "the…

For many NHRA fans, Jay Howell may be among the most unsung drag racing heroes they never knew about. Regular readers of this column may be familiar with him from occasional mentions, but those old-time racers we all know…

Welcome back, race fans, to another installment of Fan Fotos. We're going to take you back a few more years than past installments today, thanks to reader Joe Kerr, who sent me a bunch of photos from his late-1960s Southern…

Former Funny Car racer Bobby Rowe, who died late last week at age 64, left behind not just a legacy as one of the many great Funny Car drivers to come out of the early 1970s, but also a story of hard work and perseverance.…

You would have thought it was Christmas around the National DRAGSTER office yesterday when the week's new issue arrived from the printer. Staffers were running around to one another's offices and cubicles like…

The response to my Fan Fotos offer has been overwhelmingly positive, and I already have a good stock of photos that, combined with other subjects I am working on and the culmination of the Misc. Files (thought I…

For as long as I can remember, "Low e.t. can cure cancer" has been a popular saying in the pits, but after yesterday's Miracle Monday in Memphis, I wonder if a win can cure a broken heart. Jeff Arend's Funny Car win was…

During a typical workweek, I am bombarded with interesting stuff, either by phone or e-mail. Whether it's feedback or additional info from a previous Insider column or just a helpful racer or fan directing me to an interesting Web site or passing on…

Sunday's four-abreast extravaganza at zMax Dragway was a sight to behold, even on TV, my vantage point for the weekend. National DRAGSTER Associate Editor Candida Benson, who was covering the event for…

Tony Pedregon and John Force, 2003 .. happier times. The John Force-Tony Pedregon top-end tempest at Indy got me to thinking about great rivalries in our sport. Rivalries can be created and…

There's no doubt that  Fred von Sholly's photos, which I showcased here a few months ago, struck a nostalgic vein, as did Al Kean's photos from Seattle. Though von Sholly was a credentialed pro shooter (in fact, NHRA's official Division 1…