The Hot Rod Story Drag Racing by King Rose Archives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcslCXecPG8

Hot Rods had a bad reputation in the 1950s. What started as a way for young guys to have some fun testing their home made cars on the dry lakes was growing and spilling over into street racing.

The press, preachers and politicians were up in arms and people were getting killed. Something had to be done. Bob Petersen, who ran Hot Rod Magazine, worked with one of his editors Wally Parks, to launch a national effort to get the kids off the streets and on to drag strips. They formed the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and the new sport of drag racing took off.

Necessity is the mother of invention. This traces the path they took from amateurs racing at the dry lakes to professionals competing at the drag strips. What a journey.