As recently as a few years ago, people would've been shocked to hear about diesels on the dragstrip-they're too big, too heavy, and don't have enough power. Now, with the Big Three all offering diesel trucks making over 300 hp and 600 lb-ft of torque, diesel drag racing is on the rise. If you want in, we're going to show you how.
When you first get to the drags, there might be a different entrance for race cars, so make sure you enter that one. After paying an entry fee of usually $20-$50, you'll find a line of cars waiting to be inspected for safety-also known as tech inspection. You'll have to fill out a tech card with the make and model of your diesel as well as other questions like your name, whether you will be running nitrous, and so on. If the tech line is long, drivers can usually start filling the card out before the tech inspector gets to the vehicle.
Most diesels running at the drags are newer models and should have no problem passing the tech inspection. After receiving a thumbs-up from the safety guys, it's on to the staging lanes where drivers wait for their turn to race. There are usually five or six lanes, so make sure you go to the correct ones-some are only for cars running drag slicks.
The first stop is for tech inspection, where a track official will assign your vehicle a number and inspect it for safety. | 
The staging lanes usually involve a lot of waiting. Take the time to chat with fellow racers. | 
Greg Hogue, in Project X, demonstrates the proper way to begin a burnout-start it a few feet in front of the water box with plenty of water on the tires. |
Lane assignments are usually announced, but ask someone if you're unsure. Whether it's a track official or fellow racer, they'll most likely be helpful-and may even be curious as to why you're bringing a big ol' truck to the drag races. Once you're near the starting line, track officials will signal you forward or use a closed fist, telling you to stop.
Burnout
There will be an area, known as the water box, where the track is sprayed down with water right in front of you. This is where cars pull in and do burnouts to heat up the tires for better traction. Burnouts do little in the way of traction for normal radial tires, so if your truck is 4WD (unless you have on slicks), you're probably better off skipping the burnout unless you want to show off. Either way, drive around the water. Driving through with radial tires will track water up to the starting line, making it problematic for other racers. If you're going to do a burnout, back into the water and then roll out a few feet. Usually, the starter will motion you how to do this.
Starting Line
Our Super Duty was given the number 155. You might also see things like an "X" for nitrous, "deep" (meaning deep staging), "no time" for racers who don't like anyone knowing what they ran, and times like "12.0" or "10.90" for bracket racing, where the goal is to run as close to the time on your window without going under.
The next step is staging the truck. There are two beams of light, 12 inches apart, that constitute the starting line. When you roll into the first one of these beams, the top prestage light will come on. Rolling just a few more inches will turn on both lights, and you will be fully staged. It's better to roll in slowly if you have never done this before; either that, or wait until the other person is staged and use his or her vehicle as a vantage point. Don't worry if you mess up by rolling too far or going too slow on your first attempt. It takes a couple of tries to get used to staging.
If you haven't been spooling up your turbo(s) at this point, you should start now so you'll be at boost when you launch. You can start spooling up earlier, but it's hard on transmissions, so make sure you just give enough throttle for the turbo(s) to start spinning-not necessarily full throttle. For 4WD vehicles, you can usually leave with as much boost as you can make at the line. Two-wheel-drive vehicles should try part-throttle and partial-boost launches to see what will get the best results without spinning the tires.