NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster World Champion Julie Nataas is set to make her nitro Funny Car debut at this weekend’s Super Grip Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee, June 6–8. With nearly three dozen NHRA Wallys to her name, the Norwegian racing and reality television star is ready to take on what she’s openly described as her toughest challenge yet – strapping into the 12,000-horsepower Airmine Toyota GR Supra powered by DC Motorsports.

After three months of testing, Nataas finished her Nitro Funny Car license requirements in early May under the guidance of team owner and tuner Del Worsham. With standout runs in Gainesville, Phoenix, and Indianapolis, she now takes the next step in her career, backed once again by longtime sponsor Airmine. The Norwegian climate tech company also supported her 2024 Top Fuel debut, making this return a meaningful continuation of their partnership.

“This is a huge moment, and having a hometown brand with global reach like Airmine alongside me again makes it even more special,” said Nataas. “They’re based just down the road from where I grew up in Norway and are changing the way people understand their allergies. They use satellite data to track air quality and pollen levels around the world, and are launching a US app coming up, so the timing is perfect. 

The debut marks Nataas’s entry into one of NHRA’s most explosive and demanding categories, nitro Funny Car, where she becomes the first Norwegian driver to compete in the class. She also joins a very short list of female drivers to hold active NHRA licenses in both nitro categories: Top Fuel and Funny Car. With additional credentials in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car, Nataas stands as one of the most versatile and credentialed female drivers in the sport today.

The DC Motorsports Toyota GR Supra has already turned heads this season, with Bobby Bode III driving it to career-best runs and a spot inside the top 10 before returning to his family team for the summer. Now, with another standout like Nataas in the seat, Del and Connie Worsham continue to do what few in the sport are positioned to do – give deserving, talented drivers a real shot in a competitive Funny Car. In a transitional season for DC Motorsports, the Worshams remain committed to building winners and chasing Wallys. Their goal isn’t just getting Julie in the show—it’s putting her in a position to win.

“Julie is smart, focused, and fearless,” said Worsham. “She’s alarmingly self-aware and understands the car. She shares feedback from the run like a seasoned veteran.”

The Thunder Valley Nationals, held at the historic Bristol Dragway and nationally televised on FOX, offers the perfect stage for Nataas’s high-profile debut.

This story was originally published on June 4, 2025.

Admittedly, Ryan Blaney considered his victory at Nashville Superspeedway Sunday night almost as much a sigh of relief as it was a rush of celebration. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion has led races and been ranked among the top-10 in the championship points standings all season only to have strange circumstances and just plain bad luck derail his chance at a trophy hoist.

He’s had five DNFs through the opening 14 races – including three consecutively in March. It’s double the number of any other competitor in the top-15 in the points standings. No one has more in the series.

At Homestead-Miami Speedway, Blaney led 124 of the first 207 laps – more than half the race – when his No. 12 Team Penske Ford suffered an engine problem and he had to retire. At Talladega, Ala. and Charlotte he was collected in a crash not of his own doing.

Yet, he’s had top-five finishes – TOP-FIVE FINISHES – in all but two of the nine other races that he was able to finish. Sunday night at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway he was finally given the karmic-green flag to make good on the good effort he gave.

And it all bodes well for Blaney and Team Penske as the NASCAR Cup Series moves to Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s Firekeeper’s Casino 400 (2 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“It means a lot because it’s just been pretty rocky this year and had a lot of misfortune and a lot of down times, just crappy things happening to us, and it’s like, man, what do we got to do to just finish these races or close one out and just kind of things go our way,” Blaney said Sunday night.

“So, I think that was more — it’s kind of like, I don’t want to say relief, but just like, okay, finally nothing crazy happened and we were able to just run our own race and bring the speed and execute and do our job very, very well.

“It was nice to finally get in Victory Lane tonight after a rocky start to the year.”

Blaney’s work was obviously a personal triumph – marking his eighth season with at least one win in NASCAR’s big leagues – but it also boldly reminded the field that the reigning NASCAR Cup Series championship Penske organization is on top of things. Again.

The storied team has won the last three NASCAR Cup Series titles with Logano in 2022, Blaney in 2023 and Logano scoring his third in 2024.

And now with the regular season just halfway complete, all three Penske drivers, Blaney, Logano (Texas) and Austin Cindric (Talladega, Ala.) already have victories and therefore Playoff berths – as does Penske’s affiliated team, Wood Brothers Racing with driver Josh Berry (Las Vegas). No other multi-car team has qualified its entire lineup yet.

“I’ve been really proud of Team Penske and the Wood Brothers speed this year so far through the first dozen races,” Blaney said. “For the last couple years, we’ve struggled a little bit kind of getting going before the summer months, and I think we’ve figured it out come the fall and things like that or late summer.

“But I thought we just fired off this year with tons of speed, and was really proud of their efforts over the winter for that and carrying over what we accomplished at the end of last year and bringing it bigger and better at the start of this year.

“So, it’s great to have everybody with a win and everybody locked in there, and hopefully we can just continue to rack it up. It’s nice that we have all the speed and all the teams are working very well together right now. Between myself and the 22, 2, 21, we’re all really in sync right now, and that’s tough to get when all four teams are really communicating great and we’re all playing off each other. That’s a really great thing that we have going on at our race shop.”

The encouraging news for Blaney is that the next races on tap have been good venues for the 31-year old. This week the series moves to the Michigan two-miler, where Blaney won in 2021. The following week the sport holds its first international points-paying event on the famed Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez road course in Mexico City, Mexico. And Blaney has positive history at road course debuts, winning the first race at the Charlotte ROVAL in 2018.

The sport returns to the U.S. the following week for its annual stop at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, where Blaney earned his career first victory in 2017.

“Michigan is kind of a unique place, but I feel really good about how our kind of mile-and-a-half program has been this year,” Blaney said. “It’s bigger than a mile-and-a-half, but a lot of the same tendencies as some of the mile-and-a-halves that we go to. So, I’m curious to see where we’re going to be at next weekend. The run that we had at Pocono last year was definitely good, getting to Victory Lane there. So, you just hope to keep building off those things. It definitely makes me look forward to next week.

“I always try to look forward to the next week, no matter if we win the race or run 35th,” Blaney continued. “I always try to close the book Monday morning and move on to next week and look forward to having a shot at winning, running well.

“I think it bodes well. Like I said earlier, I think our speed is really good, and that is kind of across short tracks and speedways and mile-and-a-halfs and two miles. So hopefully we can have a good run — big weekend next weekend for Ford and RP [team owner Roger Penske] being in their backyard.”

Over a million fewer viewers tuned in for last Sunday’s NASCAR race at Nashville Superspeedway than did for the previous year, after the telecast was switched from NBC to Prime, which requires a paid subscription.

The Cracker Barrel 400 drew 2.06 million viewers, down from the 3.24 million that watched last year’s Superspeedway Cup race, making it the nation’s most-watched sports event of the week.

The plunge was not unexpected; TV viewership likewise dropped by over a million for the previous race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the first one carried on Prime.

The industry tried to put a positive spin on the drastic drop-off by noting that viewership increased among the younger demographic, a statistic that appeals to sponsors.

Three races remain on Prime this season: Sunday at Michigan, followed by the inaugural Cup race in Mexico City and Pocono.

The five races launch a seven-year NASCAR contract with Prime. It is not known if the same races will be on Prime next season, or moved around.

The Superspeedway’s fan turnout remained robust. Last Sunday’s Cup race drew a capacity crowd announced at 38,000 – the fourth sellout of the track’s five Cup races – and the companion truck and Xfinity races drew average or above crowds for those series.

Mark Collie heads Hall of Fame class

Actor/singer Mark Collie headlines the list of inductees for the 2025 Fairgrounds Speedway Hall of Fame.

Collie is joined by two-time track champion Jeff Green; former champion and Alabama Gang charter member Jimmy “Smut” Means; famed car builder Wayne Day; crew chief Bubba Frances; and retired racer P.B. Crowell III.

Collie, a Robertson County native, founded and oversaw the annual Mark Collie Celebrity Race at Fairgrounds Speedway. For years it attracted entertainers ranging from Paul Newman to Loretta Lynn, generating approximately $250,000 per event for the Vanderbilt Hospital’s Diabetes Center for research and treatment.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony date and ticket information will be announced later.

Sutton back in action

Lebanon’s Dawson Sutton, coming off his second-best finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series finish (11^th) in last week’s Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, plunges back into action Saturday at Michigan Speedway.

The 11 a.m. race on Fox Sports is the 13^th of the 25-race truck schedule. Sutton has shown steady improvement as he advances through his rookie season.

Red Bull pinpointed the Spanish GP as a potential Championship-defining moment, with the Austrian team optimistic the new flexi-wing directive would turn the tide in the favour.

Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, to varying degrees, were vocal about their optimism heading into Barcelona.

Ultimately, this conviction was misplaced – as McLaren maintained an advantage over the rest of the field.

Thanks to a crafty three-stop strategy, Red Bull managed to put the papaya duo under pressure.

This hard work was undone after the Safety Car, which triggered a sequence of events that culminated in a 10-second penalty for Verstappen after intentionally hitting into George Russell.

Helmut Marko admits he does not have an explanation for the Dutchman’s decision-making.

Helmut Marko cannot understand Max Verstappen “thought process” during Russell clash

There are few people with greater confidence in the abilities of Max Verstappen than Helmut Marko.

The 81-year-old was instrumental in the 4-time Champion’s progression into Formula 1 and later ascension to Red Bull.

Because of this, Marko is typically one of the most vocal to praise and, in other cases, defend Verstappen from race to race.

Last weekend was an exception, though, with the Austrian offering no defence for his driver’s incident with George Russell.

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Marko has provided some insight into why Red Bull initially asked Verstappen to give Russell the place back – and his reaction to the collision:

“The internal discussion was that it was 50-50,” he told ServusTV, per motorsport.com.

“Since it happened right after the Safety Car period, the impact of a 10-second penalty it much greater than if it happens mid-race.

“So, that was one thing.

“Max didn’t want to give the position back, but he was instructed to do so. He did it under protest.

“Max lifted off the throttle, so we all assumed he was letting Russell through.

“And then suddenly he accelerated again. I don’t know what kind of misjudgement or thought process was going on inside him.

“And then, as they say, all hell broke loose.”

A pivotal moment in the Championship

For all the emphasis on the flexi-wing regulations, the impact of these changes was minimal.

To some extent, it could be argued that Red Bull were competitive enough to put McLaren under pressure throughout the race.

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Even taking into account their bold strategy, Verstappen was still contending for the victory until the final stages.

At the same time, there is no evidence to suggest this was directly because of the FIA’s clampdown on front wings.

The reigning Champion has already claimed two race victories in 2025.

Regardless of the technical directive’s impact, Spain was still host to a pivotal moment in this season’s title race.

Max Verstappen dropped from 3rd at the restart to 10th after his penalty was applied – a significant 14 point loss.

This has allowed both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to create a sizable buffer in the Championship.

Even if the Red Bull driver had managed to cling into the podium, the task of defending his title would have been difficult.

After losing so many points, however, this challenge is far more unlikely.

Unless additional upgrades to the RB21 can arrive quickly and deliver instant performance, Red Bull will be reliant on Verstappen producing some heroics (alongside some blunders from McLaren) to reassert themselves in the title race.

Main photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images (via Red Bull content pool)

Carson Hocevar continues to make a ton of noise on the racetrack. After his latest on-track incident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. during Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway, FOX Sports analyst Kevin Harvick questions Hocevar’s place within the garage.

“I don’t think he has the respect of the garage right now, personally,” Harvick said on Tuesday’s Happy Hour podcast.

Hocevar has ruffled the feathers of several drivers in the garage throughout his brief NASCAR tenure. Sunday, it was Stenhouse who took issue with Hocevar. Stenhouse went for a spin through Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 106 in Stage 2. Hocevar, riding behind Stenhouse in the corner, clearly got in the back of Stenhouse’s No. 47 Chevrolet. 

The interesting part of this is that Hocevar, to this point, has avoided extreme trouble coming back his way. On top of that, he’s fast. He finished P2 at Nashville, his second runner-up finish of the season. The more Hocevar runs with the Cup Series’ best, the more he’s going to continue ruffling feathers, Harvick said.

“They’re going to like him less because he’s faster than them and that sometimes in itself without running over people, pisses people off because he’s going to take someone’s spot. He’s not going anywhere because he’s going faster than they are,” Harvick said. “His ability to drive the car fast and apparently, relate that to his team guys, is making those cars faster. Having that cornerstone in a company is important, but companies also look for the fastest guys.

“The fastest guys will learn how to manage all that stuff. Now, the competitors will stir it all up and say he’s a hack or whatever it is, but in the end, he’s faster than most of you.”

Kevin Harvick reacts to Carson Hocevar controversy at Nashville, future payback

This is hardly the first time Hocevar has been involved in conflict with another driver. He’s not the first driver to go through this. But Harvick is blown away by Hocevar’s ability to block out the noise and keep pushing.

“Here’s the thing about Carson: Carson’s fast and is, to me, he’s able to keep making these mistakes and not let it mentally bother him. Not all people are like that way. When Ross Chastain — we saw everything that happened with Rick Hendrick — it slowed him down for a while,” Harvick said. “It has not slowed down Hocevar up until this point. And he’s got the speed to be able to back up what he does on the racetrack, and he’s got the speed to overcome these types of scenarios.

“But he’s got the mental ability to just let it go. It didn’t bother him the rest of the race. It isn’t the first time that this has happened this year or last year and it is going to ruffle some feathers along the way.”

In this episode of The Creative Drive, host Taro Koki sits down with the one and only Larry Chen.

Larry is one of the most iconic and influential automotive photographers and content creators in the world today. Known for his unmistakable style, relentless work ethic, and deep love for car culture, Larry has become the go-to visual storyteller for some of the biggest names in motorsports and the aftermarket world.

Starting from humble beginnings shooting cars on the streets of Los Angeles, Larry turned his passion into a career by mastering the craft of automotive photography — capturing not just cars, but the spirit behind them. His work spans every corner of the car world: from grassroots drift events to the global stage of Formula Drift, from SEMA builds to Pikes Peak, from classic JDM icons to electric hypercars.

He is the official photographer for Formula Drift, a Canon Explorer of Light (one of the most prestigious honors in the photography world), and a creative force behind brands and countless OEM and aftermarket brands. If you’ve seen a jaw-dropping rolling shot, an epic drift angle frozen in time, or a SEMA build immortalized before it hit the floor, chances are, Larry Chen was behind the lens.