![]() Like every racer on-site this weekend, Ashley knows that it’s important to come off the trailer prepared. Leah Pruett is hoping to double up in the Valley of the Sun – Anne Proffit photoĪs Ashley put it, “Every race is equally as important, but this one has added significance,” due to the closure of the facility, about 20 minutes from downtown Phoenix. Those three will have to be looking over their shoulders at three-time Top Fuel titleholder Antron Brown – a three-time winner at this track – a surging Austin Prock, four-time champ and Gainesville runner-up Steve Torrence, Pep Boys Top Fuel Callout victor Josh Hart, the Kalitta Motorsports duo of Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta, perennial competitor Clay Millican, Buddy Hull (with new sponsorship from Go Lithium batteries), eight-time Top Fuel titleholder and five-time event winner Tony Schumacher, Rob Passey, third-generation driver Krista Baldwin, James Maroney and Tony Stewart Racing’s Leah Pruett. Brittany Force will be looking to avenge her loss in Gainesville and get her championship hopes back on a winning pace, as is Justin Ashley, who came so close to winning last year’s title only to fall in the final two contests. Of course, with 54th Amalie Motor Oils Gatornationals winner Mike Salinas looking to take a second straight and final Phoenix win, everyone else is gunning for the Scrappers Racing patriarch. Top Fuel shows 16 entries for this final Arizona race, so everyone on the entry list gets to play on Sunday in eliminations. She won’t be competing but Sampey will be talking up the added points/money challenge. Mission just announced that Angelle Sampey, the most successful woman racer in straight-line competition, with three Pro Stock Motorcycle championships, is the company’s ambassador for this new challenge. The first round of Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge for Pro Stock, Funny Car and Top Fuel is set to take place directly following each class’ second qualifying session, with finals following each class’ second Saturday appearance on the race track. The 35th and final NHRA Arizona Nationals are set for Friday through Sunday in the Valley of the Sun, with a single late afternoon Friday qualifying and two time trials on Saturday. Those tracks were part and parcel of NHRA’s history and rise in popularity and participation. It’s sad to see another race track closing, after losing Houston last year, Atlanta and Englishtown several years ago. Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock will be in the pits and in the lanes, together with a grouping of Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series classes. The track once known as Firebird is slated for demolition following this event, which encompasses three of four categories in Camping World competition. This weekend the NHRA’s Camping World Drag Racing Series alights at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park outside Phoenix, AZ for the final time. In this conversation, we talk drag racing, Shumake’s journey to the circuit after being around the sport his whole life and how a convention bureau is looking to change perceptions by going all in on a sports sponsorship deal that it hopes will attract new visitors to the Kansas destination.The 35th NHRA Arizona Nationals is, sadly, the final race at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. ![]() It’s a play for new visitors and an effort to promote the city as welcoming to the LGBTQIA+ community. For Visit Topeka, backing Shumake isn’t just a sports sponsorship play. As you’ll hear from Visit Topeka president Sean Dixon, who joins the conversation, the convention bureau is looking to promote itself as open to all visitors and will be using the sponsorship to promote the upcoming and inaugural Pride Kansas, a statewide pride festival that will be held in Topeka, September 17–24. Shumake’s car, a 24-foot, 4,000-horsepower nitromethane-burning, rainbow-colored drag racer, will be sponsored by and feature the branding of Visit Topeka, the city’s convention and visitors bureau. ![]() To listen to more episodes of the SportsTravel Podcast, click here.
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