NHRA DRAG RACING: KEEPS GOING ON YELLO

Have you felt the power of two 8,000-horsepower, nitromethaneburning engines as they thunder down a dragstrip side by side, accelerating from zero to more than 300 mph in less than four seconds? The earth-shaking, body-pumping rush that the nitrobreathing monsters produce is unlike anything else on the planet.

That is the power of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing. NHRA fans and competitors know that the only way to function in this sport is to "Go on Yello," and it's what makes NHRA Drag Racing the most intense, quickest, and loudest form of motorsports.

Power is one of the key ingredients to success in NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing, but it isn't the only one. Reaction and technology are both as important in this adrenaline-pumping sport.

Technology is what transforms the parts and pieces of nitroburning engines into high-powered race cars on the starting line. A driver's reaction is what gets the vehicle out of the gate first, and the power is what it takes to get the win light at the top end. Add desire and consistency, and you have all of the ingredients to create an NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world champion.

The four categories in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will be full of young, freshfaced competitors as well as seasoned veterans in 2014, and they will battle all season long to qualify for the Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship in hopes of winning NHRA world championships.

Since it was founded by Wally Parks in 1951, NHRA has been dedicated to safety while providing millions of racing fans with the fastest and most spectacular form of entertainment on wheels. Parks initially started NHRA as a means of getting hot rodders offthe streets and onto legal dragstrips. In the 1950s, NHRA formed the Safety Safari to educate competitors at small dragstrips across the United States. A fourman crew made up the original Drag Safari, as it was known.

As NHRA enjoys its 63rd season, the Safety Safari continues to be recognized as one of the leading reasons that the drag racing sanctioning body has thrived for so many years at such a high level of excellence. That crew used a station wagon to pull one small camper-style trailer containing all of the gear needed to stage a drag race. While the grassroots racing organization has come a long way in its more than 60 years of operation, some things will never change.

It's easy to see why fans are so committed to NHRA Drag Racing. They continue to have the best access to the behind-the-scenes action of racing. NHRA's open-pits policy allows fans to get an up-close-and-personal view of the way teams rebuild engines. Drivers are often found in their pit areas, signing autographs and chatting with fans who have the rare opportunity to get behind the wheel themselves in a variety of racing simulators in the Nitro Alley Fan Zone. Those are just a few reasons why NHRA fans continue to be some of the most loyal in any sport.

In 2014, Mello Yello enters its second season as NHRA series sponsor. For the 13th consecutive season, NHRA and The Coca-Cola Company will celebrate a partnership that brings the world's fastest motorsport to race fans 24 times a year at tracks across the country as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series returns for another season.

The NHRA and The Coca-Cola Company began their partnership in 2002 and following three successful seasons agreed to a new, long-term sponsorship that extended into the next decade. Coca-Cola has created numerous consumer programs since the sponsorship began in 2002, and many are unlike NHRA has seen in its 63-year existence. All of these programs have elevated NHRA's awareness among a broad audience across the country. Promotions in event markets, commemorative packaging featured on a national level, and point-of-purchase displays highlighting the brand's association with the world's fastest motorsport are just a few of the many exciting initiatives that The Coca-Cola Company has brought to fans of NHRA racing.

Since 2002, NHRA's marquee touring series has been sponsored by three Coca-Cola brands, including POWERade, Full Throttle, and Mello Yello.

The latest series sponsorship extension, which runs through 2018 with Mello Yello, also continues to designate Mello Yello as the official softdrink of NHRA and Dasani as the official water of NHRA. Full Throttle continues to remain involved in the sport.

This year, the total payout to competitors in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will be more than $3 million, including the NHRA Mello Yello championship points fund and the NHRA Mello Yello Top 10 bonus program.

NHRA Professional drivers will compete for a champion's purse of more than $1 million in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series in 2014. That total includes the following bonuses for the four champions of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series: $500,000 each to the NHRA Mello Yello world champions in Top Fuel and Funny Car, $250,000 to the NHRA Mello Yello world champion in Pro Stock, and $75,000 to the NHRA Mello Yello champion in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

An additional $799,600 will be split among drivers in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle who finish in the top 10 in the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. Top Fuel and Funny Car top-10 finishers will receive bonuses ranging from $100,000 for finishing second to $15,000 for finishing 10th. In Pro Stock, the second-place driver will earn $50,000, and the secondplace finisher in Pro Stock Motorcycle will claim $15,000.

Season-long bonuses totaling $1,242,500 will be paid to drivers who are in the NHRA Mello Yello top 10 in their respective Pro categories entering each event in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The NHRA Mello Yello top 10 in Top Fuel and Funny Car receive $2,000 each, and the top-10 drivers in Pro Stock earn $1,000 each. Another $2,500 is paid at each of the 16 races that feature the Pro Stock Motorcycle category.

This program brings the Mello Yello Series' total payout to NHRA competitors to $3,367,100 per season, as Mello Yello pays yearend bonuses totaling more than $2.1 million to leading drivers in four categories.

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series crisscrosses the U.S., making 24 stops in 21 cities over the course of 10 months. Historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, where the season begins and ends, is just one of four tracks on the schedule that is owned and operated by NHRA. Atlanta Dragway, Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville in Florida, and Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis are all part of the NHRA family of tracks.

Information about NHRA is available in various forms, including National Dragster, NationalDragster.net, and highly acclaimed NHRA.com. Awardwinning National Dragster and NationalDragster.net cover every race, from the first Sportsman run to the final Mello Yello Series blast to the winner's circle. NHRA.com has won several awards for its innovative, interactive coverage of all forms of NHRA Drag Racing and provides daily results, feature stories, and breaking news at the click of a mouse.

NHRA has the most loyal fans who are committed to the sport they love, and it's easy to see why. With thousands of members and a strong network of member tracks, a myriad of events are sanctioned by NHRA throughout the nation.

Keeping with Parks' original philosophy, NHRA President Tom Compton guides the sport and assures that safety and technological improvements will remain a top priority in 2014. Progressive changes will help NHRA continue to fulfill its leadership role in the motorsports world well into the future. NHRA will protect and further the best interests of the sport, constantly lobbying for beneficial safety and insurance legislation for auto enthusiasts. One of the most important events in drag racing history occurred in March 1993, when the Federation Internationale de I'Automobile (FIA) officially recognized the sport. That opened the doors to drag racing and afforded it a more solidified role in the world's motorsports community.

NHRA, the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world, also is an active member of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) and actively works with the SFI Foundation to promote safety in competition and the high-performance aftermarket industry. NHRA also is drag racing's representative in international motorsports through its membership in the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States (ACCUS). Participation on and offthe track has made the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series one of the most popular forms of racing, reaching thousands of fans, members, and sponsors at 300 mph.

Class-by-class previews for 2014 and a synopsis of each of NHRA's other series and programs follows.