Tommy Johnson Jr. celebrated his 30th year driving a Funny Car with not one but two explosions in a row at Phoenix! Here is his second boomer in the second round against J.R. Todd.  (Ron Lewis photo)

Concentrating only on the nitro classes, the NHRA produced a two-hour telecast on FS1 for the Arizona Nationals on Sunday. There was full coverage of the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes (and just the final round of Top Fuel Harley), but no mention of the Pro Stocks. That class will have its own stand-alone one-hour broadcast of Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 9 p.m. (ET).  [Spoiler alert: Jeg Coughlin Jr. won.]

The Agent will be interested to see the numbers on both the nitro and PS shows. And do us a favor: if you watch the Pro Stock show, please let us know what you think of it. Email editor@racingnetsource.com and reference “Pro Stock.”

The Agent must say that the new format moved along briskly with no “filler” pieces. The two explosions by Tommy Johnson Jr. showed why a live broadcast of drag racing may not be a good idea as they would certainly have eaten up much air-time; with tape-delay, the action kept going and the fans had no reason to leave the broadcast. Old copy-editing habits die hard and the Agent must point out a few names mis-spelled on the show, but superimposing the drivers’ names on the lanes before a run was a good idea and helpful for the fans.   [02/25/19]

The NMCA has added the Arrington Performance HEMI Quick 8 presented by Red Line Oil at all six national events this year. The top eight finishers in the Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout at each event will be entered into a head-up competition on Sunday with the winner getting $800 c ash and an NMCA Victor award.

Each NMCA Muscle Car National event will have 75 free entries to the HEMI Shootout courtesy of Dodge // Mopar. It’s a program designed for late-model vehicles that are powered by the Gen III Hemi engine. Entries can be found here.    [02/25/19]

The Funny Car Chaos event scheduled for July 5-6 will be moved from San Antonio, TX, to Pine Valley Raceway in Lufkin, TX. No explanation was given..    [02/25/19]

From left, Rick Lindner, Allen Carpenter and Tyler Crossnoe. Crossnoe has also signed on as series director of the PDRA.

Allen Carpenter, GM of Virginia Motorsports Park, will retire effective March 1 and current track manager Tyler Crossnoe and assistant GM Rick Lindner will take over the day-to-day reins of the track. Carpenter had been with VMP since 2011.

Crossnoe will be VP of Racing Operations and Lindner will be VP of Business Operations. Lindner joined VMP in July 2018 and Crossnoe last December.  [02/25/19]

Last fall GM announced that it would end production of the Chevrolet Impala, but this week the automaker said it will continue to build the classic car and the 2019 Cadillac CT6 until January 2020.

That means that about 800 salaried and hourly workers will keep their jobs at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant. It is one of three new-car assembly plants in North America slated to be idled indefinitely.  [02/25/19]

Cometic has added to their lineup of Ford gaskets. MLS (Multi-Layer Steel) Head Gaskets are ideal for both aluminum heads to aluminum blocks and aluminum heads to cast iron blocks. The 2018 5.0L Ford Coyote Head Gaskets have a 94.5mm bore and are .030” thick. Right hand and left hand side. Manufactured to order. [02/25/19]