Tom McEwen, in his own words
More 'Mongoose' memories
Remembering "the Mongoose"
Chicago's Hometown Fuelers
Late-night finishes
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Remembering "The Tentmaker"
Carol Cox: NHRA's first class winner
The Super Mustang
Mustang Funny Cars through the years
Long-standing 'Dragster' video game Guinness world record invalidated
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Remembering Steve Plueger
April Fools 1998: Nitro trucks, twin-engine Top Fuelers, and rear-engined Pro Stockers
Remembering Dale Emery
Memorable Gatornationals final rounds
Unwinding the sidewinder story
Don Garlits' sidewinder Top Fueler
Phoenix: A Top Fuel wonderland
Find the heroes
Remembering dragster pioneer Dode Martin
Virginia is for winners
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A history of our sport, one story at a time
Another farewell to friends
Remembering Raymond Godman
Remembering Bob Glidden
A bayou bash at Southland Dragway reunion
Rethinking the Top 50 Racers List
Drag racing history at your fingertips
Eddie Hill's last ride
Dramatic 2007 Auto Club NHRA Finals set the bar for tight points finishes
It's a Gas, Gas, Gas ... more memories of Gas Ronda
The Time Machine: 1988
Thirty years ago this season, direct-drive came back to the nitro classes, supercharger burst panels were mandated, the speed trap was cut in half, Sonoma and Houston entered the schedule, Bruce Larson finally won, and much more.
The old hippie saying “Never trust anybody over 30” was attributed in 1964 to environmental activist Jack Weinberg (who today is 78) in an article about the Free Speech Movement that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle. I bring up this bit…
Tom McEwen, in his own words
One final nod to the great "Mongoose," from a National Dragster interview a few years ago where he opines on everything from his "legend" status to his rivalry with Don Prudhomme, his favorite cars, and his legacy in the sport.
In mourning the passing of Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen, I mentioned I couple of weeks ago the last official interview I did with him for National Dragster, which took place several years ago, and that I should share it someday, and many of…
More 'Mongoose' memories
Week two of “the Mongoose” watch goes on as fans and friends continue to try to reconcile that he’s really gone. This week: No race cars, just photos of “the Mongoose” smiling and doing his thing.
Week two of “the Mongoose” watch goes on as fans and friends continue to try to reconcile that he’s really gone. It’s been interesting to watch and listen to the reactions of his close racing buddies. They’ve been checking in on one another and…
Remembering "the Mongoose"
Some of his best racing friends remember Tom "the Mongoose" McEwen in a touching and funny retrospect to one of the most popular drivers in the sport's history.
Stunned. Crushed. Heartbroken. Really, really sad. Teary-eyed. Despondent.
Those are pretty much my first six stages of grieving over just the two hours after I got the call Monday morning that we’d lost “the Mongoose.”
I know I’m not…
Chicago's Hometown Fuelers
With a nod to this weekend’s JEGS Route 66 NHRA Nationals, let’s take a look at drivers from drag racing’s past who called Chicago home.
With a nod to this weekend’s JEGS Route 66 NHRA Nationals, let’s take a look at drivers from drag racing’s past who called Chicago home. Even though the event itself isn’t in Chicago but nearby Joliet, because the number of quality drivers and…
Late-night finishes
It almost happened in Topeka last weekend, but late-night eliminations finishes are a rarity in NHRA national events. The most famous came in a post-1 a.m. Tuesday morning finish in Englishtown in 1975, where "Jungle Jim" Liberman won his first Funny Car crown.
So there we were, me and K-Mac, eyes glued to the starting line, eliminations ladders in hand, pens at the ready, keyboards awaiting an onslaught of fast fingerwork that would make Elton John envious. Brittany Force and Richie Crampton, in position…
Remembering "The Tentmaker"
I got word earlier this week of the passing of 1970s Funny Car racer Omer "the Tentmaker" Carrothers. I’ve seen lots of photos of his cars (all two of them) over the years and heard anecdotal stories about him, but never anything solid.
(…
Carol Cox: NHRA's first class winner
As NHRA continues to celebrate its "Women of Power," take a trip back to 1962 when NHRA first allowed women to compete at its national events and Southern California homemaker Carol Cox made history when she became NHRA's first female class winner at the Winternationals.
The names are familiar to most hardcore drag racing fans. Shirley Shahan: first female national event winner. Shirley Muldowney: first female Pro winner and champion. Amy Faulk: first female Sportsman world champ. Angelle Sampey: winningest female…
The Super Mustang
Not really a dragster and certainly not a Funny Car, the Tom McEwen-driven Super Mustang was a super oddity that certainly was not one of Ford's "better ideas," but remains a car well remembered by many drag racing fans.
Several of you, tongues firmly planted in cheek, chastised me for not including the “other” Super Mustang in last week’s homage to Mustang Funny Car bodies. I did include Ron Pellegrini’s Super Mustang early Funny Car but – purposely -- not the…
Mustang Funny Cars through the years
Ford’s announcement earlier this week of an all-new Mustang Funny Car body for the 2019 season was no doubt met with great enthusiasm by the Blue Oval fan contingent. The Ford Mustang may be the class’ hardest-working model, and certainly it’s longest running.
Ford’s announcement earlier this week of an all-new Mustang Funny Car body for the 2019 season was no doubt met with great enthusiasm by the Blue Oval…
Long-standing 'Dragster' video game Guinness world record invalidated
Some light reading for a non-racing weekend about how modern technology led the Guinness Book of World Records to remove a legendary, 35-year-old record for performance in a 1980s drag racing video game. And what could we learn from this?
Imagine, all these years later, someone trying to disqualify Don Garlits’ mind-blowing 5.63-second run from the 1975 World Finals –- a record that stood for seven years -– because it just doesn’t seem technically feasible. That’s not about to happen…
Remembering Steve Plueger
Any way you slice it, Steve Plueger was a walking history book for the Funny Car class, past and present, before we lost him suddenly on March 22.
Steve Plueger’s name may be familiar to longtime race fans as one half of the Plueger & Gyger Funny Car team that raced in the 1970s or, if you’re a little newer fan maybe you remember him as a prolific chassis builder and crew chief, including…
April Fools 1998: Nitro trucks, twin-engine Top Fuelers, and rear-engined Pro Stockers
In case you forgot, Sunday is April 1, or April Fool’s Day. From the late 1990s through the mid-2000s, NHRA.com annually presented a special April Fools section, the first of which was published 20 years ago this week and featured some radical (but not-so-real) rides.
In case you forgot, Sunday is April 1, or April Fool’s Day, which around these parts used to be a pretty big deal. From the late 1990s through the mid-2000s, NHRA.com annually presented a special April Fools section with funny (yet often plausible)…
Remembering Dale Emery
Friends and fellow racers remember former Fuel Altered and Funny Car driver and tuner Dale Emery, who passed away last week.
“Obits have next to nothing to do with death and absolutely everything to do with life.” -- Margalit Fox, staff writer on the Obituaries desk of The New York Times since 2004.
Well said, Margalit and, with that sentiment as a motto…
Memorable Gatornationals final rounds
From the inaugural event in 1970, which featured the first all-team Funny Car final, up until modern times, final rounds at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals have had a knack for being memorable, historic, or both.
The NHRA Gatornationals is one of NHRA’s “original seven” events, launched in the ground-breaking 1970 “Super Season” that also included the introduction of Pro Stock and the first Funny Car championship. The event will celebrate its 50th…
Unwinding the sidewinder story
A behind-the-scenes look at the circumstances leading to the creation of Don Garlits' sidewinder Top Fueler, and other wild machines created by the brothers Sage, as well as a farewell to influential chassis builder Roy Fjastad.
Reaction to last week’s column on the Swamp Rat 27 sidewinder was, quite predictably, strong and loud. “Big Daddy” is such a seminal figure in our sport and in our lives…
Don Garlits' sidewinder Top Fueler
In 1982, "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, always the innovator, experimented with a sideways-mounted nitro engine in his Swamp Rat 27. Although the engineering marvel didn't pan out, it was still vintage Garlits to even try it.
Last week’s column mentioned Don Garlits’ ambitious but short-lived sidewinder Top Fueler (Swamp Rat 27) and led to quite a few requests for more information about one of the wildest machines to come out of the fertile mind of “Big Daddy,” and…
Phoenix: A Top Fuel wonderland
In its more than 30 years of existence, Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park (née Firebird Int'l Raceway) has been the site of some amazing Top Fuel moments that spotlight some of the classes biggest names, including Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney.
By the time that most of you read this, I’ll be sitting trackside in Phoenix, at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park for the start of the NHRA Arizona Nationals. It’s always fun heading to this track because a) it’s just an hour’s plane flight from my…
Find the heroes
In 1975, iconic drag racing artist Pete Millar drew a rogue’s gallery of NHRA heroes positioned on the starting line of the Winternationals that ran on the cover of the “new” CARtoons magazine. How many legends can you identify?
Drag racing has been blessed with a number of talented artists over the years, from the ever-creative themed pieces of Kenny Youngblood to the photo-realistic recreations on James Ibusuki and so many more, but Pete Millar was the king of caricatures…
Remembering dragster pioneer Dode Martin
The drag racing world lost another legend with the passing last week of Dode Martin, who ran one of the sport's first dragsters. He is remembered in this week's Dragster Insider, where we also mourn the passing of Gary "Mr. C" Cochran and Steve Hodkinson.
The drag racing world lost another legend with the passing last week of Dode Martin, who with partner Jim Nelson were early pioneers in drag racing and were among the first to create a business to sell chassis to other racers. Martin died last…
Virginia is for winners
Tuesday's announcement about NHRA’s exciting national event return to Virginia this June got us thinking about the region and all of the great racers that have come from “the Old Dominion” over the years.
Tuesday's announcement about NHRA’s exciting national event return to Virginia this June got me to thinking about the region and all of the great racers that have come from “the…
A history of our sport, one story at a time
For more than 10 years, the Dragster Insider has been sharing "the stories behind the stories" that make up the history of our sport, offering an unparalleled and in-depth look at the heroes and machines who were and are the stars of our sport.
You have arrived at your destination.
Whew, thank goodness. With a sigh of relief and a final mouse-click earlier this week, I completed the long and arduous process of manually recreating all of the stories in…
Another farewell to friends
Longtime NHRA fans lost two more greats from the past, with the passings of 1970s Top Fuel racer Paul Longenecker and 1960s gasser great Jack Merkel, both of whom are remembered in this week's Dragster Insider column.
Another week, another serving of sad news for veteran fans of our sport with the passing of two more drivers from the earlier years of our sport (and don’t even get me started on Englishtown; maybe next week).
Longtime Top Fuel fans might…
Remembering Raymond Godman
Raymond Godman didn't let being paralyzed by sniper's bullet in service of his country get in the way of an amazing career in drag racing. We lost the legendary owner of the Tennessee Bo-Weevil New Year's Day, but remember him here.
Remembering Bob Glidden
Remembering an NHRA legend and Pro Stock icon, a racer's racer and a champion for all times.
Although Bob Glidden’s declining health had been known to many of us for a few months, and that he was, as his son Billy eloquently told us not long ago, “on the road” to the end, the shock, even five days later, is no less palpable or painful.
I…
A bayou bash at Southland Dragway reunion
An all-star cast that included Antron Brown, Angelle Sampey, Mark Oswald, Leonard Hughes, and more turned out in Houma, La., to celebrate Southland Dragways, at a reunion event to remember one of Louisiana's great dragstrips of the 1970s.
The holidays are all about family and gathering everyone together to enjoy one another’s company, to share great memories, and laugh a lot, and that was spirit of the celebration that took place down in Louisiana Dec. 1-2 at the Southland Dragway…
Rethinking the Top 50 Racers List
In 2000, a panel of experts picked the Top 50 racers of NHRA's first 50 years. Considering that many of today's stars had not yet even begun, or were just beginning, their careers at the time, who would be added to a Top 50 list today?
Perhaps one of the toughest yet most satisfying projects in my life here at Planet NHRA was the creation, in 2000, of the Top 50 Racers list as part of the following year’s NHRA 50th Anniversary celebration. I assembled…
Drag racing history at your fingertips
Can't remember which car Don Prudhomme drove in 1978? Which years Bob Glidden actually (gasp!) drove a Chevy? Who was the crew chief on Tony Schumacher's dragster in 1999? One site makes it easy to answer all of your drag racing history questions.
Being an historian means having a near-encyclopedic recall and knowledge of your subject, and while I like to think of myself among the top 10 or so in that category when it comes to drag racing, everyone needs a good wingman. Sometimes it’s not…
Eddie Hill's last ride
Eddie Hill was one of the most popular Top Fuel drivers of the 1980s and 1990s, but went out with a bang -- literally -- on an explosive final run in late 1999, a moment memorialized by a Kenny Youngblood painting and remembered in this week's Dragster Insider by Hill himself.
It started innocently enough, with an email from longtime Insider reader/contributor Andy Perreault (“the railroad guy up near Pacific Raceways,” as he always unnecessarily reminds me), asking me if I could tell the story behind the photo…
Dramatic 2007 Auto Club NHRA Finals set the bar for tight points finishes
A decade ago, the 2007 Auto Club Finals was a true barnburner and crowned four champions on the final day of the season with the average winning points margin of less than a round's worth of racing.
When it comes to the Auto Club NHRA Finals, it’s easy for people to remember the bigger moments in championship drama. A lot of people will invoke the 1990 Top Fuel final, a winner-take-all battle between Joe Amato and Gary Ormsby decided on G.O.’s…