Full schedule of events for the O'Reilly Nationals at zMax Dragway

The weather is cooling, which coincides nicely with the start of the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship this weekend at the O’Reilly Nationals at Concord’s zMax Dragway.

The National Hot Rod Association’s Countdown to the Championship has arrived and it gets underway this weekend with the O’Reilly Nationals at Concord’s zMax Dragway.

There’s no hotter driver on the National Hot Rod Association’s Full Throttle series than Erica Enders. Entering this weekend’s rain-postponed Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Enders had won three of six events in the NHRA’s Pro Stock car division.

Schedule for zMax Dragway qualifying and races.

The annual Summer Shootout Series will go out with a bang Tuesday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway with fireworks and appearances by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and former Legend Car racer Kyle Busch, as well as NHRA driver and B.R.A.K.E.S. founder Doug Herbert.

Erica Enders became to the first female driver to win an NHRA Pro Stock race, beating four-time series champion Greg Anderson on Sunday in the final of the Route 66 NHRA Nationals.

Greg Anderson of Mooresville is the winningest driver in the short history of the zMax Dragway. And to hear him tell it, the most unexpected.

There’s room for only 16 drivers in the NHRA's bracket-style elimination championship finals. And that often means a March Madness-style finality to the last day of qualifying.

John Force is the National Hot Rod Association’s force of nature.