Team Mopar's Allen Johnson keeps smoking along, notching his fourth straight semifinals appearance and sixth of the season at the rain-delayed O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park in Tennessee yesterday. Johnson has steadily moved up the points standings and sits at seventh, only 14 points away from cracking the top-five.

Johnson grabbed a win in his Team Mopar J & J Racing Dodge Stratus R/T in the first round over Jim Yates, and then went up against three-time Pro Stock champ Greg Anderson in the quarterfinals. Johnson posted the better reaction time (0.016 to .030 for Anderson) and cruised to the win after Anderson had problems with his car. The semis weren't so kind, as AJ headed to the trailer earlier than he planned after losing to event winner Kurt Johnson.

Don Schumacher Racing's Richie Stevens Jr., also had the misfortune of meeting up with Kurt Johnson, as he was unable to drive his Team Mopar/Valspar Dodge Stratus R/T past KJ in the first round. Stevens Jr.'s teammate Erica Enders will also look to rebound next week, after she failed to qualify in the always-tough Pro Stock field.

Next up for the Pro Stock trio is the prestigious U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indiana, scheduled for August 30-September 4. For more info on Mopar or the NHRA, log on to moparspeed.com, mopar.com or nhra.com.

Team Mopar and Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car drivers Ron Capps, Gary Scelzi, Whit Bazemore and Mike Ashley were glad to leave the O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals at Memphis, Tenn., as the rain-delayed event saw none of the four drivers advance past the quarterfinals round.

Capps powered his Brut Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car past Cruz Pedregon in the opening round with a solid 5.058-second elapsed time at 292.08 mph under hot and humid conditions. He faced Tony Pedregon in the quarterfinals, but was unable to pull out the win, losing by .0781 of a second. Capps is now second in the rankings, 17 markers behind event winner John Force.

No. 8 qualifier Scelzi, driver of the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, met up with No. 9 Ashley in the opening stanza under a hot sun, with a track temperature of 140 degrees. Ashley was first at the finish stripe, with a 5.147-second pass at 274.66 mph to Scelzi's losing 5.226/276.18. Ashley went out in the quarterfinals against Robert Hight, with teammate Bazemore also losing in the quarters against Force after beating Tommy Johnson Jr., in the first round. Scelzi is currently seventh in the points battle, with Bazemore eighth and Ashley 15th.

The Team Mopar Funny Car contingent will see action next at the prestigious U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indiana, scheduled for August 30-September 4. For more info on Mopar or the NHRA, log on to moparspeed.com, mopar.com or nhra.com.

Two racing worlds are about to collide, as some of the best professional drifters prepare to take on NASCAR's brightest stars in the "Mopar D1 All-Star Duel presented by ShiftIntoGear." The drifting exhibition is set for August 31, at the "House of Drift," Southern California's Irwindale Speedway.

On one side: drifters such as Team Mopar's Samuel Hubinette, Vaughn Gittin Jr. , Rhys Millen, Tanner Foust, Yasuyuki Kazama and Ken Nomura. On the other: NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Bill Elliott, Greg Biffle, Robby Gordon and Casey Mears. Foust and Kenseth are the latest drivers to join the historic lineup.

"It is absolutely an honor to be involved in the first meeting of NASCAR drivers and drifters on the same track," said Gittin Jr. "I'm looking forward to meeting all the other drivers, competing, having a lot of fun and putting on an exciting show with them."

The NASCAR drivers are prepared to get a crash course in Drifting 101. Driving instructor and professional racer Chris Cook, co-owner along with Pennsylvania businessman Chris Evans of ShiftIntoGear, Inc., will instruct the NASCAR drivers on drifting techniques this week at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C.

The exhibition will provide attendees plenty of action, with eight drivers from each series going head-to-head in tandem battles in the NASCAR vs. D1 Challenge. Drifters will also test their sideways skills against one another in the D1 All-Star match race, and then go at it again with their Nextel Cup counterparts in a NASCAR vs. D1 tire-smoking competition. Fans will not want to miss the D1 All Eight tandem drift, which will showcase all eight D1 drivers drifting simultaneously in an insane full bank formation on the Irwindale track. Fans will also be able to take part in a brief autograph session with the drivers. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Kasey Kahne Foundation, which raises and donates funds to charitable organizations that care for chronically ill children and their families.

The official "Mopar D1 All-Star Duel presented by ShiftIntoGear" Web site, kaseykahne.com/drift, is also now online. The site has up-to-date information on purchasing tickets. Visitors can also find press releases on the event; check out driver information; and view action photos and videos at the site. Gates for the event open at 4 p.m. on Thursday, August 31. Tickets for the event are still available, and can be purchased online at irwindalespeedway.com. For information on Hubinette or Kahne, log on to samuelhubinette.com or kaseykahne.com.

Yet another record fell with the help of Mopar power at the Bonneville Salt Flats during the Bonneville Speedweeks, as hot rod builder George Poteet piloted his 1969 Blowfish Barracuda, powered by a Mopar 4-cylinder Midget engine and a Mopar Performance P5 Hemi head, to a new record in the Blown Fuel Competition Coupe/Sedan Class F with a run of 255.7 mph.

The pass bettered the previous record of 230 mph, set in 1990, by 25 mph. The record-setting run followed on the heels of the performance laid down by Team Mopar's Jorgen Miller, who set his fifth career land speed record at Bonneville earlier in the week with a pass of 221 mph, establishing his Mopar Dodge SRT4 as the fastest four-cylinder production car in the world.

The Blowfish Barracuda project was first conceived during the 2004 Autorama in Detroit by Poteet and fellow car builder Troy Trepanier, who, along with his father Jack, built the car at their shop, Rad Rides by Troy, based in Illinois. Dodge Motorsports engineer Terry Dekoninck worked on aerodynamics with the group, with Mopar Performance engineer Jim Szilagyi also helping on the build in his capacity as designer of the Mopar 4-cylinder Midget engine used in the 1969 Barracuda.

The group, certain the record would fall entering the event, decided to run the car conservatively at about 950 horsepower. The team is confident another 500 horsepower can be added with slight modifications, enabling the Blowfish to run in the 280-plus mph range. Look for the record to fall, courtesy of Mopar power, again later this year.

For more info on Mopar or Rad Rides by Troy, log on to moparspeed.com, mopar.com or radrides.com.