NHRA Pro Stock standout Alex Laughlin announced today that he and his Texas-based racing team will forego three of the remaining six Mello Yello Drag Racing Series national events due to a lack of adequate funding.

Laughlin will sit out this weekend’s Dodge NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pennsylvania, along with the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis and the Toyota NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas, and will instead focus his efforts on the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals in Dallas, the NHRA Carolina Nationals in Concord, North Carolina, and The Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona.

Fitzgerald, which has been the primary backer of Laughlin’s team at a number of events this season, has presumably throttled back its involvement as a result of ongoing court injunctions involving the Environmental Protection Agency and emission standards of the glider kit semi trucks the company produces.

Laughlin came up just one spot short of making the Countdown to the Championship; after struggling for much of the season with his Chevrolet Camaro, Laughlin switched to a borrowed Jerry Haas-built Dodge Dart from Deric Kramer, but simply couldn’t make up the difference going into the regular season-ending U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Laughlin and company have acquired a new-to-them Haas-built Camaro that they will campaign for the three remaining races and into the 2019 season.

“I regret to inform you all that I won’t be racing in the Reading event this weekend. We lost funding for several races this year, some of which other sponsors were gracious enough to pick up, but there will be three of these last six events that we won’t be at,” Laughlin shares.

“I speak on behalf of all of my team when I say we appreciate everyone’s support more than you know. It’s been a long and grueling season and we are ready to be back stronger next year. For these last three, I’ll be back in a Camaro. Enough can’t be said about the Kramer family for allowing me to use their spare Dodge Dart to eliminate our performance lull with my current Camaro. We have located a new-to-me Camaro that I’ll be in from here on out. It’s a 2014 chassis but is a very low-run car. The next Pro Stock race for us on the list will be Dallas, Texas. I will also be running the No Mercy race in Georgia in my Radial Tire Corvette at the end of this month.”