By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
The Top Fuel-car canopy being developed by Don Schumacher Racing will be at this weekend’s Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., but it will not be on the DSR cars. That’s unfortunate, driver Tony Schumacher said Wednesday.
“I want (it) to be in that car right away,” Schumacher said.
The canopy, designed to protect [...]

RacinToday.com
Mark Lyle, long-time starter in NHRA’s Division 6 and a certified team member of the NHRA Safety Safari presented by AAA, has been named official NHRA Chief Starter, one of drag racing’s most storied positions. There have only been two chief starters in the sport’s 60-plus year history, Buster Couch (1955-1996) and Rick Stewart (1996-2011).
Beginning [...]

By John Sturbin | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
John Force Racing will chase the NHRA Funny Car world championship with a four-car Ford Mustang lineup in 2012, a season featuring Courtney Force’s highly anticipated nitro debut.
But team-owner John Force, a 15-time Funny Car world champion, says as many as two Top Fuel cars – driven by daughters Brittany [...]

RacinToday.com
Former John Force Racing crew chief John Medlen said Tuesday that he will return to JFR in the new capacity of Director of Technology and Safety.
“I found out John Medlen became available over the weekend and I offered him a job to come back to work with us on safety,” team owner John Force said. [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
John Force sounded exactly like a father when he was asked if he thought his 23-year-old daughter, Courtney, has what it takes to be competitive as a nitro-powered Funny Car driver.
“It’s important to her,” the 15-time NHRA champion said during a telephone conversation on Tuesday. “It’s all she thinks about. [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
John Force Racing announced Tuesday that Courtney Force, youngest daughter of team owner John Force, will drive a fuel Funny Car for the team during the upcoming NHRA season.
She will drive a Ford Mustang tuned by veteran Ron Douglas. It will be sponsored by Traxxas, a Texas company which got [...]

RacinToday.com
Brandon Bernstein will drive the MavTV/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster for Morgan Lucas Racing beginning in 2012. He takes the seat of Shawn Langdon, who had driven the car the last three years.
“Brandon Bernstein is the total package,” Lucas said. “He brings an amazing presence, a professional attitude and a tremendous fan following to this [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
It wasn’t so much that Tony Stewart won the 2011 Sprint Cup championship which made his season so remarkable. It was how he did it – with a walk-off victory over second-place Carl Edwards in the final race of the year.
Dramatic much?
For both what and how he won his third [...]

By John Sturbin | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Completely sober when the ball in New York City’s Times Square dropped – and failed to land anywhere close to Lady Gaga – I admit to immediately clicking over to ESPN to watch extreme sports dudes Robbie Maddison and Levi LaVallee ring-in 2012 via record-setting ramp-to-ramp jumps on a motorcycle [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
Some thoughts on a couple of off-season burgers that may have fallen through the grate:
– The SPEED television network’s series of pieces on the drivers who will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January has been very good. They have been of the type of quality that [...]