NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

NHRA Drag Racing changed immensely between 1982 and '87, with game-changing changes in all four Pro classes. Don Garlits made a celebrated comeback to "save" Top Fuel, John Force became a winner, and new "stadium-style" tracks like the Texas Motorplex helped reshape the fan experience.

As we approach this Memorial Day weekend, here's a look back at some of the many armed forces sponsorships we’ve seen on the NHRA dragstrip over the last 50 years.

If you had to guess how many different Top Fuel drivers have competed in an NHRA national event, what would your guess be? From Johnny Abbott to T.J. Zizzo, we have the list, thanks to research by NHRA historian Bob Frey.

If you were a nitro-racing fan back in the 1970s, the term “Think Pink” was probably familiar to you, and it was omnipresent in the Top Fuel and Funny Car ranks on the fleet of race cars whose prowess began with an Ed Pink powerplant. We lost Ed last Sunday, April 27, at age 94, and a lot of us are Thinking Pink this week.

It has been more than 13 years and 300-plus events since Matt Hagan made the first three-second Funny Car pass, and despite recent near-misses, the all-three-second Funny Car continues to elude us, an oddity that did not happen with previous class barriers.

In a few weeks, we’ll be celebrating an incredible milestone in the history of our sport, the 1,000th Top Fuel race, which will take place during the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte in late April. Here's a look at the drivers and milestones that got us there.

Wherever he went and for whomever he tuned, the world was a better place with Bernie Fedderly in it. The multi-world championship-winning crew chief passed away March 15 and is remembered by his friends and family.

NHRA National Dragster Editor Phil Burgess was among 10 people recently inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, an honor he never expected would come his way. Enjoy his descent into madness ...

Bill Shrewsberry didn’t stand in many winner’s circles and never climbed the stage to be celebrated as a world champion, but “Wild Bill” is still remembered as one of the sport’s best wheelstander drivers and as a beloved member of our drag racing world.

When Austin Prock or Jack Beckman next reaches the winner’s circle, it will mark the 300th Funny Car win for John Force Racing, an incredible accomplishment in such a competitive class. Here's a look at the drivers and wins that have carried them to the edge of this milestone.

It’s one thing to make an impression in one form of drag racing and quite another to make it in two distinctly different areas, as was the case with Al Hanna of Eastern Raider nitro and jet Funny Car fame, who passed away Feb. 8 at age 82.

In the long history of Funny Cars, there have been plenty that became world-famous and well-renowned, and then there are those that toiled sometimes outside the national limelight, but are still fondly remembered. Here's Part 2 of our collection.

In the sport’s earlier years, Funny Cars were everywhere, and some of them were seldom seen outside of their region. Here’s a look back at a collection of Funny Cars from our archives that you might only have seen at your local track.

It’s time for our annual deep dive into the drag racing season 50 years ago, a semi-tradition we started a few years ago that gives us all a chance to either remember what it was like or, for our younger fans, to get a glimpse of the roads we traveled to get to today.

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.