NHRA® Team Report
NHRA® Northwest Nationals – Seattle
Pre-Race Report

Cruz Pedregon and team made a couple of notable stops on the way to Seattle and are refreshed and ready for the Northwest Nationals. “It’s good for the team as a whole and for me as a driver to take a deep breath, do something fun off the track and prepare for the important races ahead,” Cruz says. “We’re so close to the Countdown Top 10, and these fun side trips got us even more revved to push the car and qualify better this weekend.”

Before heading to Washington, Cruz took time to watch the first full-pads practice of Cruz’s favorite football team, the Oakland Raiders. This is the last season they’ll play as Oakland’s team before relocating to Las Vegas, so Cruz’s team members took full advantage of their proximity to the Napa practice location, getting autographs and interacting with some of the players.

Crew chief Glen Huszar and assistant crew chief Nick Casertano stayed behind to focus on tuning for the race ahead. Huszar says, “The plan is to tune the car to the good air in Seattle. Look for a lot of power out of the Snap-on Dodge this weekend.”

“Seattle is known for some really fast, record-setting elapsed times, and we plan to be among the teams with good numbers this weekend,” Cruz says. “It’s the middle of the season, and we are just as pumped as we were at the start of the season. I’m focused on getting to that Top 10 spot and so is the team.”

On the side of Cruz’s car –
Check out Cruz’s car this week and you’ll see the name of area Snap-on Nitro Franchisee Eric Garside. Eric has had his franchise for four-and-a-half years now after working in sales support for an athletic supply company. He says he has a lot of common interests with his customers and loves equipping them with the tools they need to be successful. One of the success stories along his Snap-on route is a high-end custom hot rod shop. This will be Eric’s inaugural NHRA race, and he’ll be bringing some customers and another Snap-on franchisee with him this weekend to meet Cruz for the first time.

Follow Cruz

GENDER-BLIND RACETRACK DRAMA TO UNFOLD AT FIA FINALS

FIA/FIM European Finals

Santa Pod Raceway

Thu.5 – Sun.8 September 2019

Santa Pod Raceway’s European Finals meeting fast approaches, promising a dramatic finish to 2019’s FIA/FIM European Drag Racing Championships. Owing to a quirk in the calendar, the first half of the six-race season takes place in monthly instalments, completed last month, but the second half takes place in a flurry, with three races crammed into four weeks – at Hockenheim (Germany) and Tierp (Sweden) on the last two weekends of August, then at Santa Pod a fortnight later. Thus championship outcomes are hard to predict. Continue reading GENDER-BLIND RACETRACK DRAMA TO UNFOLD AT FIA FINALS →

JOHN FORCE OPTIMISTIC
AS MELLO YELLO TOUR MOVES TO SEATTLE
KENT, Wash. (July 31, 2019) — John Force resumes his pursuit of an unprecedented 150th Mello Yello tour victory this week when he drives his PEAK Coolant and Motor Oil Chevrolet Camaro SS after the Funny Car championship in the Magic Dry Organic Absorbent NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

After posting the quickest time during eliminations at the Sonoma Nationals, Force was left to ponder what might have been after a mechanical failure locked his PEAK Camaro in reverse as he prepared for a semifinal match with Matt Hagan. Unable to rectify the issue and compelled to abort the run, the 16-time champion could do nothing but watch while his rival made a solo into the final.
Continue reading JOHN FORCE OPTIMISTIC AS MELLO YELLO TOUR MOVES TO SEATTLE →

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
GO BOWLING AT THE GLEN
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
WATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK
AUGUST 4, 2019

BOWTIE BULLETS:
CHEVROLET LEADS THE WAY:
Chevrolet has 18 wins in 36 Monster Energy NASCR Cup Series races on the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International road course – more than any other manufacturer. Chevrolet drivers have been successful on the two road courses currently on the MENCS schedule with a combined 29 wins at Watkins Glen International and Sonoma Raceway.

DRIVE THROUGH HISTORY:
Chevrolet earned the victory at the inaugural NASCAR Grand National Series-sanctioned race at Watkins Glen International when Buck Baker drove his ’57 Chevy – nicknamed the “Black Widow” — to Victory Lane from the pole in the 100-miler on August 4, 1957. Baker went on to win the championship with 10 wins and six poles in 40 races. His season race earnings totaled $30,763.

REMEMBERING BIG WIN A YEAR AGO:
Chase Elliott notched his first career MENCS win on August 5, 2018, at The Glen after starting third. “It’s something I’ll never forget,” said Elliott, who delivered the 250th win for Hendrick Motorsports. It was a long time coming for Elliott, who won in his 99th start after recording eight runner-up finishes. At 22 years, 8 months, 8 days old, Elliott is the youngest MENCS winner at the track. His father, Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, also earned his first Cup win on a road course (Riverside in 1983).

NEARING ANOTHER MILESTONE:
This weekend, Chevrolet is aiming to surpass 4,000 top-five finishes dating to 1949. The Bowtie brand has 3,997 top fives heading to Watkins Glen. It added two to the total at Pocono Raceway.

TUNE-IN:
NBCSN will telecast the 90-lap/221-mile Go Bowling at The Glen live at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, August 4. The NBCSports Gold app will stream the race and live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Watkins Glen Advance →

Brother/sister duo of Troy Jr. and Paige Coughlin anxious for Atco weekend
ATCO, N.J. (July 31) — The midway point of the NHRA’s Northeast Division seven-race schedule arrives this weekend with the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series points meet at Atco Dragway and Team JEGS racers Troy Coughlin Jr. and his sister Paige Coughlin will be doing all they can to leave a yellow-and-black mark on the event. Continue reading Brother/sister duo of Troy Jr. and Paige Coughlin anxious for Atco weekend →