The annual visit to the NHRA Sonoma Nationals in the wine country near San Francisco means more to 2012 Funny Car world champion Jack Beckman than going for his third Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event title this season with Terry Chandler's Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team.

The race week starts Thursday, July 27, for Beckman when he is the emcee for the 11th annual Eric Medlen Nitro Night Charity Dinner to benefit Speedway Children's Charities. The special event at StoneTree Golf Club in Novato, Calif., is dedicated to the memory of Eric Medlen, the former Funny Car driver who grew up in the San Joaquin Valley not far from his home track.

One of Beckman’s crew chiefs is John Medlen whose son Eric succumbed to injuries sustained from a testing accident in 2007.

"Eric Medlen Nitro Night always has been special for me, but it has meant even more since I started to work with John," said Beckman. "Everybody loved Eric and this night is how we show that, and thanks to Eric we get to help a lot of kids’ programs through Speedway Charities."  (photo courtesy FCA uS)  [07/26/17]

Last weekend in Denver, Tim Wilkerson and the Levi, Ray and Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car went wheels up twice. The unintentional wheel stands caused damage to both of the chassis that the team brought for their Western Swing run. After Denver, Wilkerson's crew had to pick up a new Murf McKinney car in order to continue racing. They will debut that chassis this weekend at the 30th annual NHRA Sonoma Nationals, the 15th race of 24 in NHRA's 2017 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

"We had such a good car last weekend, and with what happened, I learned some things I shouldn't do there. I'll remember that for next year, but right now we're just focused on Sonoma," said Wilkerson.

After the disappointing Denver race, the team – with support from sponsor Jason Curry and Curry's Transportation Services – split duties. Some headed to McKinney's shop in Indiana to exchange the broken chassis for the new, while the other crew members pointed West to get the remainder of the equipment to Sonoma.  [07/26/17]

NHRA officials announced today a special pair of exhibition races this Saturday, July 29, at the 30th annual Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway.

The race will be comprised of eight of the West Coast’s finest big tire race cars and eight small tire race cars. The teams will get a single time trial on Friday to set the field and eliminations will begin on Saturday.

Racers in the small tire field will include George Raygoza, Jermaine Boddie Jr., Billy Hespeler, Scott Ray, Chris Alston, Ryan Jones, Steve Kuhls, and Armen Maghdessian. The racers in the big tire category will include Jermaine Boddie, Cole Dow, Shaun Burr, Troy Baugh, Monti Fitzgerald, Rod Burbage, Chris Dullinger, and Chris Poncia.

The winner of the exhibition will receive a special acrylic Wally produced by NHRA.

Team Boddie Racing, who organized the exhibition race, traces its roots to the 1960’s racing in the Bay View district of San Francisco and has grown with the guidance of the Boddie family. Currently their group hosts events across the West Coast where grudge racers vie to be the best of the best.  [07/26/17]

Rosie Kossuth in the “Lady Max” Dodge will be at Gateway, along with the other racers and Victory NSS series director, Chris Schneider (behind car in yellow shirt).  (Scott Bessee photo)

The August 3-5 speed spectacular at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, IL, combines Mid-West Pro Mods and Street Car Super Nationals (SCSN) with nostalgia drag racing.

SCSN classes include Mid-West Pro Mod Series, Radial vs. the World, Limited Drag Radial, X275, MX235/Outlaw 8.5, 6.0 Index, 7.0 Index and Jr. Dragster.

Nostalgia classes are the Nostalgia Drag Racing League (NDRL) and Victory Nostalgia Super Stocks (NSS).  [07/26/17]

Tulsa’s own Keith Haney (shown) and Todd Martin will be taking part in the Pro Mod competition.  (Marvin T. Smith photo)

The PDRA Summer Drags will return to Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park on Aug. 10-12. The series last was at the track in 2015.

Thursday is open testing, with sportsman qualifying beginning on Friday at 12:30 p.m. and professional qualifying at 3 and 8 p.m. Final qualifying will be Saturday beginning at 11 a.m. Eliminations begin at 4 p.m. for sportsmen and 6 p.m. for the pro classes.

Tickets are available at here.  [07/26/17]

The Agent noted that TV ratings for this year’s Brickyard 400 on NBC scored a rating of 3.3, an unexpected 18 percent increase over last year’s race shown on NBCSN (NBC Sports Network).

The live attendance for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway event was about 35,000 fans, one-fourth of what it was just five years ago.

However, many other NASCAR races are seeing double-digit ratings decreases. Fourteen of NASCAR’s first 16 races this year saw their TV audience shrink, nine of those by 11 percent or more.

Which brings us to the ratings for the last NHRA event in Denver. There were 868,000 viewers with a 0.56 rating, up from Joliet but down from Norwalk.

The TV audiences for NHRA coverage on FS1 this season have ranged from a low of 378,000 viewers (Atlanta) to a high of 1,179,00 (Englishtown). The Winternationals, shown on the big FOX channel, had the highest viewership of 1,224,000.  [07/26/17]