Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most commonly 1⁄4 mi, with a shorter, 1,000 ft distance becoming increasingly popular, as it has become the standard for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, where some major bracket races and other sanctioning bodies have adopted it as the standard. The 1⁄8 mi is also popular in some circles. Electronic timing and speed sensing systems have been used to record race results since the 1960s.
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is a governing body which sets rules in drag racing and hosts events all over the United States and Canada. With over 40,000 drivers in its rosters, the NHRA claims to be the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world.
Kenneth Dale Bernstein is an American drag racer and former NASCAR and IndyCar team owner. He is nicknamed the "Bud King" for his success in the Budweiser King funny car and dragster. He has also been nicknamed the "King of Speed," because he was the first driver to break 300 miles per hour in the standing-start quarter mile. Bernstein owned King Racing, which he drove for in the NHRA and fielded various cars in other racing series such as IndyCar and NASCAR. Bernstein retired from full-time competition in 2002 and moved his son Brandon into the Bud King Top Fuel dragster, but returned to finish the season in place of his son after Brandon suffered a severe injury. With the exception of a brief return to Funny Car in 2007, Bernstein did not return to the car and instead continued to run his team until the end of the 2011 season when he left drag racing altogether.
Erica Lee Enders is an American drag racing driver. Enders has won six world championships in the Pro Stock class of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series and she continues to drive full-time in that class. For the 2024 season, Enders will defend her 6 NHRA Pro Stock World Championships.
Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, originally known as Madison Township Raceway Park, is an American auto racing facility located in Old Bridge Township, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States.
Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP) is a 1/4 mile dragstrip in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, just outside of Petersburg. It opened in 1994 and originally hosted the NHRA's Virginia NHRA Nationals. It has a seating capacity of 23,000 spectators. After a brief time with IHRA beginning in 2010, the track returned to NHRA in 2012.
Tom McEwen was an American drag racer who was a winner of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) U.S. Nationals. His racing career spanned 45 years. He is ranked at number 16 on a list of the 50 most significant drivers of NHRA’s first 50 years.
Cruz Pedregon is a 2-time NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car Champion from Torrance, California. He is the brother of Tony Pedregon, also a two-time Funny Car Champion & Frank Pedregon Jr. who has won multiple NHRA National Events. He currently races for his own team, Cruz Pedregon Racing, Inc.
The Fremont Dragstrip was a racing venue for dragster automobiles that was located in Fremont, California in the San Francisco Bay Area, operating from 1959 until the end of 1988. In its final years, it was part of Baylands Raceway Park. The site lies in the quadrant just south of the intersection of Interstate 880 and Auto Mall Parkway(formerly "Durham road").
The NHRA Winternationals are an annual drag racing event held by the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Pomona, California.
Alexis DeJoria is an American drag racer who competes in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Funny Car category. She previously drove a Toyota Camry for Kalitta Motorsports, sponsored by Patrón Spirits Company. She will return to competitive racing in 2020 with a new team led by crew chiefs Del Worsham and Nicky Boninfante. As of 2019, she was the third richest female athlete in the World, and as of 2022 the second richest with a net worth of $100 million.
Shirley Shahan is a pioneering American woman drag racer.
The 2018 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Season was announced on June 6, 2017.
The 1978 NHRA Summernationals were a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing event, held at Englishtown, New Jersey, on 16 July.
Lew Russell Robinson, nicknamed "Sneaky Pete", was an American drag racer.
Gaspar Ronda, better known as Gas Ronda, was an American drag racer. He was also a restaurateur. In 2016, Ronda was made a member of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
Jim Warren is an American Top Fuel Dragster driver. He won two National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and two American Hot Rod Association (AHRA) national events.
Doug Thorley was an American Funny Car drag racer, hot rodder and businessman. In 1967, he won the NHRA Nationals' first Funny Car Eliminator title, and was given Car Craft's All-Star Drag Racing Team Funny Car Driver of the Year Award in 1968. Hot Rod magazine describes him as "one of drag racing's most famous early era drivers."
The 2020 NHRA Drag Racing Series was announced on May 14, 2019.
Steve Reyes is an American photographer and storyteller from Oakland, California. Reyes has been included in Don Garlits' International Drag Racing Hall of Fame (2002), NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion Honorees (2009), and the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame (2011).