Leah Pritchett and Matt Hagan’s crew looking down track at last year’s Winternationals. Hagan is on the FC entry list for this year, but Pritchett currently is missing from the TF list. (Pam Conrad photo)

Well, now we know why the NHRA was perhaps reluctant to post the entry lists for the Winternationals. As of January 30, there were 10 entrants for Top Fuel, 13 for Funny Car, and 14 for Pro Stock. Top Alcohol Dragster only had seven entrants with 12 for TAFC.

Come on teams, there’s only a week to go before the racing starts! [01/30/19]

Officials from IHRA and the race track have postponed the Feb. 1-3 IHRA Summit Sportsman Spectacular event at Louisiana’s State Capitol Raceway because of the forecast for rain. The new date will be March 29-31.

The IHRA Summit Sportsman Spectacular season will now open with double-event weekends on March 22-24 at Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris, TX, and Farmington Dragway in Mocksville, NC.  [01/30/19]

Bob Tasca III and Tim Wilkerson will be driving new Ford Mustang Funny Cars this season, Tasca at the Winternationals.

"There are a lot of improvements to the car structurally," said Tasca. "That’s something we’ve struggled with over the years. If you look at the (old) car in the super slo-mo cameras you’ll see it start to warp and change its shape, which is not what you want. If you think about a bullet, it doesn’t change its shape as it goes through the air and you want a car to do the same thing."

Eric Lane returns as Tasca’s crew chief and former DSR crew chief Mike Green comes on board this year as assistant crew chief.

The 2019 Funny Car body is not only the first new body for a nitro-powered car for Ford in a decade, but also the first Ford racecar to skip the full-size prototype phase of development. It’s the result of a process that has significant cost reduction implications for both road and race vehicle design.

“When our new Mustang Funny Car hits the track in 2019, we fully expect it to validate the motorsport development tools we’ve worked hard to create and refine,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance Motorsports. “When you’re discussing the realm of speeds exceeding 300 miles per hour, tolerances in aerodynamics become minuscule. Even the slightest change can have a massive effect. Working in such a focused space allows us to gain insight to aerodynamic improvements for both our racing and road cars.

“We have the utmost faith in our computational fluid dynamics software and its ability to overcome such small margins for error, which allowed us to create this new racecar without the need for full-scale prototypes.”   [01/30/19]