Nonetheless, there are still colorful characters today, such as 16-time Funny Car world champion John Force.

His daughter, 2007 Rookie of the Year Ashley Force Hood has made appearances on Good Morning America and The Tonight Show and was voted AOL's Hottest Female Athlete in 2007.

[2] The measure was intended to be temporary while safety solutions were explored; however, the races have remained at 1000 feet since Kalitta's death.

Although unpopular with the fans, the distance remains at 1,000 feet today at the request of the teams as a cost-saving measure, with no indication by NHRA officials of any intent of returning to the full quarter-mile format any time soon.

By late 2012, 1,000 foot racing became globally recognized as the 2012 FIA European title in Top Fuel became 1,000-foot championships, as Santa Pod and Hockenheim (the last two quarter-mile nitro strips) made the switch, and Australian nitro racing switched to the 1,000-foot distance only for selected tracks.

Since 2007, the NHRA implements a playoff system to determine the champion in each class, billed as the Countdown to The Championship.

In 2013, following Coca-Cola's most recent extension of its sponsorship, the title sponsor was changed to its citrus soda brand Mello Yello.

[6] On September 20, 2020, Coca-Cola announced that, even though their most recent agreement with the NHRA was in effect until 2023, they would be immediately pulling their sponsorship from the sport.

Due to scheduling conflicts with other sports properties to which it held rights, ESPN typically broadcast its NHRA coverage in inconsistent and otherwise undesirable timeslots.

[15][16][17] During the first two years of the contract, Fox had achieved an average viewership of 600,000 viewers—a major increase over ESPN's broadcasts.

The association's chief content officer Ken Adelson cited favorable scheduling practices (including better time slots and additional encores, as well as using NASCAR broadcasts as a lead-in), and increased promotion of the event broadcasts as part of FS1 and FS2's programming, as having helped build their audience.

[18] The NHRA renewed its contract with Fox in 2021, and while expanding network television coverage, the contract involves more tape-delayed races during the Fox half of the NASCAR season to not conflict with NASCAR Cup Series events, designed to air after the conclusion of such events from February until June), and a split broadcast race that airs at live at 2 PM ET or delayed at 5 PM depending on market during the NFL season on a Fox NFL single-game weekend.