Daily Driver

On last week’s show, I detailed what I believe to be our responsibility as racers: to our sport, and more directly to a successful day at the track.

This week, I want look at where do our responsibilities as a racer end and the responsibilities of the race track, race director, track operator, or race promotor begin.

I’ve been a racer for more than 30 years. In a perfect union, racer and race track work together in a sort of harmonious partnership. As a racer, what is our responsibility at the track?

This week's Daily Driver episode is taken from our Question of the Week segment over on the ThisIsBracketRacing Facebook page. The question is "How to balance the rear of my car?".

For this episode of the Daily Driver, I am joined by one of our regular guest instructors in ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE and accomplished driver, Kris Whitfield. The question I asked him was how his experience and background with racing in his area of the country, one of the toughest to dial and run a consistent car in, has helped to shape his approach and progression as a driver.

On today's Daily Driver I'm pumped to talk about our new FREE program, Day 1. If you're a racer, you almost certainly remember your first trip down the track. That holds true whether that maiden voyage occurred at age 6 or age 46! Day 1 is a brief (and fun) course will make their first day on the track safer and more enjoyable!

Click for drivers and parents
Click for tracks

This week's Daily Driver is featuring a Question of the Week from over on the ThisIsBracketRacing Facebook page. How do I calm down my wheelies with regular guest instructor in ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE Mike Mans.

This week on the Daily Driver, I wanted to talk about the origins of Big Buck Footbrake Racing and my own memories of it starting. 

This week on the Daily Driver, I am joined again by regular ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE guest instructor, Kris Whitfield. Kris talks about his battles with anxiety and the ways he has worked with it in his racing. 

A common question I’m frequently asked is, what’s the best way to prepare for racing after the offseason break? I can tell you one relatively simple thing that I still do, 30 years into my racing career. 

On this week's Daily Driver, I'm joined by regular ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE guest instructor and highly accomplished big dollar bracket racer Matt Dadas and we jump right to the burning question...staging. 

I've been asked repeatedly: Vega or Corvette? What's better? I could make an argument for either but the question should be which has made me better? That answer is easy. 

This week's Daily Driver is featured from ThisIsBracketRacing's question of the week: How do I get more comfortable driving the finish line as the slower car (w/ Kris Whitfield)?

In this week's Daily Driver, I wanted to share my latest piece from the Science of Winning column in National Dragster in which I talked about my experience in detail from last season's championship chase. 

On this week's Daily Driver I am joined by one of our regular guest instructors in ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE, a very successful racer and all things mechanical guru: Mike Mans. Our topic today is how to balance tuning with driving. 

As part of our 3-week binge here on the Daily Driver (one episode released EVERY day), we'd like to "Play the hits." Each Friday, we'll recast a prior episode. Today's discussion, "Making the finish line simple" is one of our most downloaded shows in Daily Driver history.

Today is the final day of ELITE open enrollment. If you have enjoyed this 3 week binge, ELITE may just be for you! Find out more over at thisisbracketracing.com/elite.

Today's world is full of information. This podcast is one of dozens of resources you choose to listen to each day. "Listening" is great, but in today's episode, Luke shares why the best racers are the ones that prioritize "doing" over "listening". Learn more about ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE at thisisbracketracing.com/elite (Enrollment closes Friday).

Regular ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE guest instructor Kris Whitfield can do just about anything in a race car, and has proven as much. He's been to SIX Spring Fling final rounds. He's won TWENTY-TWO track championships. And yet, he spends the bulk of his time and energy pursuing the NHRA Lucas Oil Series. Why? What is it about the NHRA tour, and specifically the 8.90 and 9.90 categories that Kris finds so appealing?

Each Friday, we post a featured Question of the Week on the ThisIsBracketRacing Facebook page. This week, we're giving YOU, the Daily Driver listener an early look, releasing the Question of the Week here two days in advance! For this week's question, we reached out to ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE instructor (and our resident tech expert), Justin Lamb. The question: "How do I select the best torque converter for my application?"

Regular ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE guest instructor Mikie Sturgill has found himself in the position that every bracket racer dreams of, competing in the 3-round runoff for the NHRA Summit National Championship at season's end. In fact, Mikie has been in that position not once, but twice (ultimately winning the national championship in 2019)! We asked Mikie the obvious question: what's one thing about that experience that you could not possibly fully prepare for?

We all take in advice from a variety of sources. When someone like Peter Biondo speaks, I tend to listen! In today's "Daily Driver" I pass along my favorite piece of advice from "The Terminator."

Open enrollment for ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE ends this week, visit thisisbracketracing.com/elite for more information.

As part of our 3-week binge here on the Daily Driver (one episode released EVERY day), we'd like to "Play the hits." Each Friday, we'll recast a prior episode. Today the focus in on weather... What weather conditions make our cars perform differently, and how can we best track them and predict their impact?

What's the biggest factor to making a bracket door car "nasty" in the first 60 feet? In today's Daily Driver, we reach out to regular ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE guest instructor Mike Mans to address that very question.

Each Friday, we post a featured Question of the Week on the ThisIsBracketRacing Facebook page. This week, we're giving YOU, the Daily Driver listener an early look, releasing the Question of the Week here two days in advance! For this week's question, we reached out to regular ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE guest instructor, Matt Dadas! The question: "Who (or what) is your most feared opponent?"

You'd be hard pressed to find any driver in sportsman drag racing who has staged for more high-stakes rounds in pressure situations than Kris Whitfield. He's been in the final round of multiple big dollar bracket races - including the Spring Fling Million. He's won multiple division titles, and has competed down the stretch for national championships. He's won twenty-two (that's not a typo)... Twenty-two track championships! In today's Daily Driver, Kris talks about how he tries to approach those pressure packed rounds.

I get asked a lot about the complexity of my typical strategy. From a strategic standpoint, it can at times be fairly advanced. But in terms of execution, I keep it simpler than you might think. In today's episode, I detail how and why...

thisisbracketracing.com/elite

As part of our 3-week binge here on the Daily Driver (one episode released EVERY day), we'd like to "Play the hits." Each Friday, we'll recast a prior episode. This one, "Driving well is not the key to having fun," has proven to be one of your favorites!

For today's episode, we're joined by 5-time NHRA World Champion and ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE instructor Justin Lamb to discuss the value of mentorship in racing.

We're in one of two open enrollment periods here in ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE. Find out more over at thisisbracketracing.com/elite.

Each Friday, we post a featured Question of the Week on the ThisIsBracketRacing Facebook page. This week, we're giving YOU, the Daily Driver listener an early look, releasing the Question of the Week here two days in advance! This week's question: When do you know to adjust jetting?

Matt Dadas joins this week's episode! Not only is Matt one of the most successful (and versatile) big dollar bracket racers in the country, he's also a regular guest instructor on ThisIsBracketRacing ELITE. Today, we leaned on Matt to answer the question: Are door cars at a disadvantage in today's world of big buck bracket racing?

If you enjoy this type of content, it just scratches the surface in what we do in ELITE. Find out more at thisisbracketracing.com/elite

In today's Daily Driver, we focus on the one round of competition we all agree we can't screw up: Bye runs! Even though we can't lose, there are ways to maximize the value of our solo runs and some things to consider before, during, and after each bye we receive! This episode kicks off three full weeks in which we'll drop a new episode EVERY WEEKDAY. Enjoy!

In this Daily Driver, we continue on with our limited series to commemorate the launch of Let Go Like A Pro. To this point we’ve discussed routine, we’ve discussed staging, confidence, and physical mechanics. Today, we talk about Practice.

As we continue on with this limited series within the Daily Driver on Let Go Like A Pro, we look at physical mechanics. In my opinion, the physical mechanics of releasing the transbrake button is extremely overrated. My argument? Take a listen to find out. 

In this limited series commemorating the launch of ThisIsBracketRacing's new course Let Go Like A Pro, we have discussed routine and staging. Today we talk confidence, or I think more accurately, belief. 

Last week, I mentioned that we were going to dedicate the next few episodes of the Daily Driver to starting line performance to commemorate the launch of the new course on ThisIsBracketRacing.com called “Let Go like a Pro”. In the last episode we talked about routine, this week I want to talk about staging. 

We recently released a new course on ThisIsBracketRacing.com called “Let Go like a Pro”. To commemorate the launch of that course, we’re also going to dedicate the next few episodes of the DD to starting line performance. Today's episode is focused on routine. 

I’m less than a week removed from Pomona and I wanted to take this episode to recap and talk about my experience in this years Championship chase. 

Continuing on in this episode, I'm recapping the NHRA Championship chase that we had in Competition Eliminator, Top Sportsman, and Super Stock when we landed in Pomona. 

The NHRA Championships are in the books and I wanted to start by recapping what happened at the end of the Championship chase. This week, I'm starting with Super Gas and not because I was involved but because I think it's the most compelling story line.

I don't think I have ever felt more pressure than I have over the past few weeks out here on west coast. This week in the Daily Driver I wanted to share how I have been dealing with this pressure. 

Over the past few days we have discussed the 3 categories that have clinched and the 2 categories that are in a 2 driver race in the 2024 NHRA Championship race. Today, we discuss the categories that are 4 wide!