The NHRA's premier professional series has operated under various title-sponsor names since Winston cigarettes took over sponsorship in 1975. Winston held naming rights through 2001, when the terms of the tobacco industry's Master Settlement Agreement required Winston to exit either NHRA or NASCAR sponsorship; the brand chose to remain with NASCAR. Coca-Cola stepped in as title sponsor in 2002, initially branding the series under the Powerade name through 2008, then rebranding it as the Full Throttle series from 2009 to 2012. When Coca-Cola extended its agreement again in 2013, the branding shifted to the Mello Yello citrus soda, and a refreshed series logo was introduced in January 2016 alongside a broader "My NHRA" marketing campaign.
The series contested four professional categories throughout its history. Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars are the headline nitro-burning classes, running on a fuel blend of approximately 90% nitromethane and 10% methanol, capable of exceeding 300 mph (480 km/h). A significant rule change in 2008 — implemented following the death of Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta — reduced the race distance for both nitro classes from the traditional quarter-mile (1,320 feet / 402 m) to 1,000 feet (300 m). Though initially described as a temporary safety measure, the shorter distance became permanent at the request of the teams, largely as a cost-control measure, and remains in force today. Pro Stock cars set records around 214 mph (344 km/h) in the 6.4–6.7 second range, while Pro Stock Motorcycles run above 190 mph (310 km/h) in the low-7 to high-6-second bracket.
Top Fuel was the first professional class introduced, in 1965, with Funny Cars added in 1966, Pro Stock in 1970, and Pro Stock Motorcycles in 1987.
Since 2007, the NHRA has used a playoff format to determine class champions, known as the Countdown to the Championship. The season's bulk of events make up a regular season, after which the top ten drivers in each class advance to a final playoff segment with points reset to a compressed range. Drivers outside the top ten are eliminated from title contention but continue to compete. The format was suspended for the 2020 season due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which removed five events from the calendar, before returning the following year.
During the Mello Yello era, the series transitioned between two major broadcast partners. From 2001 through 2015 the NHRA had an exclusive arrangement with ESPN, but the relationship became strained due to unfavorable scheduling and inconsistent time slots. In July 2015, ESPN and the NHRA agreed to terminate the deal one year early. Starting with the 2016 season, Fox Sports became the exclusive broadcast partner, with the majority of coverage carried on FS1 and FS2 and four events per season aired on the Fox broadcast network. The flagship U.S. Nationals was among the events guaranteed a network broadcast slot. Fox committed to live Sunday-final coverage for at least 16 events per season. In the first two years of the Fox deal, average viewership reached approximately 600,000 viewers per event, a marked improvement over the ESPN era, with some events exceeding 1 million viewers.
On September 20, 2020, Coca-Cola announced it was immediately withdrawing its sponsorship despite a contract running through 2023. The NHRA responded by filing a lawsuit. On October 4, 2020, a replacement deal was announced with Camping World, rebranding the series as the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series from the 2021 season onward.
Notable figures who shaped the series during and before the Mello Yello years include Don Garlits, Don Prudhomme, and Shirley Muldowney, who brought the NHRA to wide public attention from the 1960s through the 1970s. John Force, with sixteen Funny Car world championships, remained the series' most prominent active personality into the Mello Yello era. The series continued to attract new talent, with the NHRA Rookie of the Year award — presented annually since 1990 — recognizing first-year standouts in the professional classes.