As drag racers and drag racing fans, we certainly wish there was more national television programming that revolved around the sport we love, not only for our own entertainment, but as a means of spreading the message and helping our sport prosper. And while it’s certainly in no way on par with major league stick-and-ball sports, drag racing has kept a fairly consistent presence on “the tube” over the decades, from the early days when the major networks (which were, in fact, the only networks) aired big time races weeks and months after the fact, to the high-def broadcasts and reality programing we enjoy today.

What we want to know is, what do you feel has been the best drag racing-centered television programming ever? What show has kept you glued to your seat, shifting priorities and family duties to ensure you’re hunkered down on the couch ready to watch with time to spare each week?

Of course the list is long. ABC’s Wide World of Sports was among the earliest of consistent drag racing programming, while TNN’s American Sports Cavalcade and their NHRA coverage with the late, great Steve Evans and Dave McLelland that ushered in the era of live drag racing coverage and weekly “magazine” shows highlighted the 1980’s and 90’s. Since that time, the drag racing world has enjoyed Masters Entertainments’ Inside Drag Racing on Fox Sports, PINKS and PINKS: All Out, Passtime, Drag Race High, and the long-forgotten IHRA national event coverage on the Speed Channel, along with the new Won and Done Show on MAVTV, as well as, of course, the NHRA on ESPN and ESPN2, which has been the exclusive home of the series since 2001. The most recent drag racing-esque programming, Street Outlaws, despite its controversial motive, has already gone a long way to giving individuals in our sport some well-deserved notoriety, making it worthy of mention in this list. 

Like many things in life, most of us probably took a lot of this programming for granted when it was still being produced, not realizing what we had until it was gone. If you’re like us, looking back, it’s hard to believe that at one time you could watch midwest UDRA events, or the Mopar Hemi Shootout, or the TRW/JEG’S Allstars sportsman racing on cable television. But we did.

So tell us — what was/is the best television programming that our sport has ever enjoyed…not based on sheer viewership numbers or at what hour it aired, but what it did for the sport, how it got you interested or kept you entrenched, and the content that it aired?