NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

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.

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.

Friends and fellow racers remember former Fuel Altered and Funny Car driver and tuner Dale Emery, who passed away last week.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 an NHRA legend and Pro Stock icon, a racer's racer and a champion for all times.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Ford drag racing icon Gas Ronda passed away recently, and is being warmly remembered by his family, friends, and fans.

Gas Ronda, one of Ford's early superstars in the Super Stock ranks in the 1960s and in the early days of Funny Cars, passed away Oct. 25 at 91, but left behind an enduring legacy in the sport.

From forgotten interviews and smashed Happy Meal toys, more notes from one of the most intriguing points battles in NHRA history.

John Force and Cruz Pedregon have raced one another a remarkable 103 times, but 25 years ago this week the duo engaged in one of the weirdest and wildest Funny Car final rounds in the annals of the sport and certainly the craziest of all of their meetings.

East Coast Funny Car racer Joe Jacono was the subject of a memorable drag racing magazine cover in the 1970s, but there was far more to him than that. Also in this week's Dragster Insider ... found: the Durachrome Bug!

Every new club needs a first member, and Ken Howell was just a teenager in Southern California in 1951 when he became NHRA's first official member. More than 60 years later, we found him at the recent Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals. Or, more precisely, he found us.

Legendary drag racer Don "the Snake" Prudhomme looks back on his career and shares his thoughts on topics ranging from his best cars, best seasons, and best pals like Tom McEwen and Roland Leong.

Ed "the Ace" McCulloch has just about done it all. He's been a winner in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, and has become a legend and inspiration to fans and fellow drivers old and new. In this column, McCulloch reflects on some key periods of his hall of fame career.

As hard as it may be to believe – and the fact might change this weekend at Indy – but Ed “the Ace” McCulloch is still the king when it comes to Funny Car victories at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, even 27 years after his fifth and final win there.

Jim Dunn has been racing for more than 60 years, accumulating a series of honor and wins, first as a driver then, for the last 20-plus years, as the owner of a string of perpetually strong Funny Cars. He sat down to talk about some of the cars that have made up his career.