Author: Mike Haag

BAYTOWN, Texas – Troy Buff came as close as he ever has to winning his first Top Fuel race at the most recent event in Las Vegas. Buff eventually lost in the final round to defending world champion Antron Brown, but the Houston-area native was overwhelmed by the support he received by his first career Top Fuel runner-up finish. “My phone is still ringing off the hook,” Buff said. “I’ve gotten nonstop texts and phone calls. I really thought we were going to win. I’ve definitely had a good feeling the last couple years. (A win) hasn’t happened yet but…

BAYTOWN, Texas – Bo Butner has been fortunate enough to drive a number of different successful cars throughout his time racing in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series sportsman ranks. Now in his second season racing in Pro Stock in the NHRA’s marquee Mello Yello Series, Butner may have found the best situation yet in his racing career. Butner is part of the three-car KB Racing team with standouts and world champions Greg Anderson and Jason Line, and the 15-time sportsman winner has quickly taken advantage of the opportunity. Butner has one final round appearance in four races, one…

BAYTOWN, Texas — The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series rockets into Space City, April 29-May 1, for the 29th annual NHRA SpringNationals, the sixth of 24 events on the season, at Royal Purple Raceway. The best in Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock will go head-to-head at one of the circuit’s quickest and fastest tracks, located just minutes east of downtown Houston. Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car) and Erica Enders (Pro Stock) were last year’s winners of the event that will be televised on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), with qualifying highlights on Friday, April 29…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.  – Simon Pagenaud’s dominance in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama was interrupted briefly by a late charge from Graham Rahal, but it didn’t last long. Rahal stole the lead from Pagenaud with a pass on Lap 82 of the 90-lap event that involved contact between the two Verizon IndyCar Series drivers’ cars, only to see Pagenaud return the favor four laps later and drive on to victory. It gave the Team Penske driver his second straight win of 2016 and sixth of his Indy car career, continuing the impressive start to the season that has seen…

CONCORD, N.C. – Brittany Force raced to her second victory of the season Sunday at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods, and became the first female driver to win the unique event. Tim Wilkerson (Funny Car), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were winners at the distinctive NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event where teams compete in a four-lane format. Force held off the two-time defending winner of the race, Antron Brown, along with class veterans Doug Kalitta and Clay Millican to take the historic win at zMAX Dragway. Force powered her…

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – The honeymoon at Joe Gibbs Racing may be over. Yes, on Sunday at Richmond International Raceway, Carl Edwards won his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in the Toyota Owners 400 and the fourth in a row for JGR, but he did so with a last-lap bump-and-run on teammate Kyle Busch, who was seeking his third victory in four events. “We did everything right – be smart,” Busch was told on his radio, after Edwards moved the No. 18 Toyota up the track in Turns 3 and 4 and beat…

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service RICHMOND, Va. – After a massive late-race wreck scrambled the running order in Saturday’s ToyotaCare 250, Dale Earnhardt Jr. survived a two-lap dash in overtime to win his first NASCAR XFINITY Series race since 2010 and the first in his own JR Motorsports equipment. Earnhardt held off Ty Dillon by .266 seconds in a main event that ran nine laps past its scheduled distance of 140 laps, but Dillon collected the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus available to the two highest finishes among XFINITY Series regulars from each of the two heats that preceded…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud continued his 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series hot streak at Barber Motorsports Park, winning the Verizon P1 Award for Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama with a lap of 1 minute, 6.7262 seconds (124.089 mph). (Click HERE to view the official qualifying results for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.) Pagenaud, who won last weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and leads the championship, has finished in the top two at each of the season’s first three races and holds a 14-point edge over Scott Dixon heading into race weekend.…

CONCORD, N.C. – Alexis DeJoria raced to the No. 1 qualifying position in Funny Car in front of a sold-out zMAX Dragway crowd Saturday at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods. Steve Torrence (Top Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also will lead their respective categories into Sunday’s noon eliminations as No. 1 qualifiers at the unique event that features NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series teams racing in a four-lane configuration. DeJoria, who won the circuit’s most recent event in Las Vegas, continued her early season momentum by claiming her first No.…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.  – AJ Foyt Racing made a strong statement in practice for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, with drivers Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth clocking the fastest laps of the day to top the speed chart. Sato, in the No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda, set the pace with a lap of 1 minute, 7.2157 seconds (123.186 mph) at Barber Motorsports Park that’s less than a half-second off the track record set in 2013 by Scott Dixon. Hawksworth, in the No. 41 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda, was second at 1:07.2197 (123.178 mph). CLICK…