The Chevrolet Performance US Nationals are next week, the NHRA Countdown is getting ready to start, and the race in Brainerd was awesome. Those are three solid facts from the last few weeks of drag racing and other solid facts are that Matt Hartford is going to be a championship contender in pro stock and Mike Kloeber should be in the running for the crew chief of the year after what he’s done with Clay Millican’s car. Hot takes? Not really as the numbers prove them to ring true.

Matt and Mike are the two guests on this week’s NHRA Insider podcast and both men shed a lot of light on their philosophies, on their successes, and on what drives them to show up at the track and race as hard as they do, week in and week out.

For Matt Hartford, horsepower changed his program. Always known as a solid driver, his cars were always just a tick slow to hang with the big dogs. Now he is beating them and is in a top five points position.

For Mike Kloeber, many pundits doubted that the experienced crew chief would step back into the sport and help Clay Millican’s program. While they have not won a race this year, five final round appearances mean that these guys are a top level operations, running on a small budget as compared to the competition.

This isa fun show with two great guests!

Hit the image below to give this baby a listen – good stuff here!