NEWS NUGGETS

FORCE, DIXON, MANZO LEAD NHRA DRIVERS SELECTED FOR AARWBA ALL-AMERICA TEAM: 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series world champions John Force and Larry Dixon headline a list of six NHRA drivers named to the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) All-America teams. Force, a four-time Jerry Titus Award winner and 15-time Funny Car world champion, three-time NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel Champion Dixon and Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Top Alcohol Funny Car world champion Frank Manzo were named to the All American First Team. Two-time Jerry Titus Award winner Tony Schumacher and Funny Car driver Matt Hagan were named to the Second Team, while NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series world champion Von Smith made the Honorable Mention list.

NEW OWNERSHIP: MasterCraft Safety has purchased Impact! Racing from founder and owner Bill Simpson. The brand will now be known as Impact! Racing by MasterCraft Safety.

SILLY SEASON BEGINS! MASSEY JOINS DSR FOR 2011 SEASON: Just three weeks after the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the moving and shifting within the teams of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing series has begun, as Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) announced that Top Fuel pilot Spencer Massey will drive the Prestone/Fram dragster under the DSR banner in 2011. According to Schumacher, the addition of Massey gives his Top Fuel program three legitimate candidates for a championship in the coming season. Massey joins a stellar Top Fuel program that includes seven-time world champion and driver of the U.S. Army dragster, Tony Schumacher, and Matco Tools dragster pilot Antron Brown, who finished in the top five in point standings in 2010. This will be Massey’s second full season racing in the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel category. In his first in 2009, Massey won two national events (Chicago, Las Vegas 2) and went on to finish sixth in the points standings and earn the 2009 Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award, which recognizes the top performing rookie of the season.

DISSOLVED: Andretti Autosport and AFS Racing have ended their successful three-year partnership, but both teams plan to field entries in the Firestone Indy Lights Series next season.

Former Pro Stock world champions Jason Line and Warren Johnson, along with Pro Stock driver Rickie Jones and legendary Bigfoot monster truck driver Dan Runte, have begun a three-day Thanksgiving Week visit of the KaiserSlautern Military Community in Frankfurt, Germany.

Jimmie Johnson came from 15 points behind entering the season finale to claim his record fifth-straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship Sunday afternoon at Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway.

EXTREME SPORT: Travis Pastrana, a multiple X Games gold medal winner and former Rally America champion, will try his hand at NASCAR next year when he enters up to seven NASCAR Nationwide Series events for Pastrana-Waltrip Racing.

POSSIBLE RETURN: General Motors is set to return to the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2012, according to a report by Autoextremeist.com’s Peter De Lorenzo. IndyCar officials have neither confirmed nor denied the report.

A LITTLE EARLY: Kasey Kahne was given his release from Richard Petty Motorsports last week, allowing him to join his 2011 race team, Team Red Bull, last weekend at Martinsville (Virginia) Speedway.

Jeff Byrd, Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway (BMS) president and general manager, passed away Sunday following a lengthy illness. He was 60.