43 Fun Facts About NHRA Drag Racing

What is the nickname of the trophy given to NHRA national event winners?

The Wally is named in honour of NHRA founder Wally Parks, and national event winners have been handed one since the 1969 season.

Where was the first NHRA Nationals held in 1955?

Great Bend, Kansas hosted it at an airport, and the Nationals then toured other cities before finding a permanent home in 1961.

Which NASCAR champion raced Top Fuel against his wife in 2026?

Tony Stewart brought his own team into the NHRA in 2022 with Leah Pruett, his wife since late 2021, as its Top Fuel driver.

Which TV network took over NHRA race coverage in 2016, ending the series' long run on ESPN?

Fox promised far more live racing: ESPN often aired NHRA races on tape delay, bumped by college football, while Fox committed to at least 16 live Sunday shows.

Which track has hosted the NHRA U.S. Nationals every year since 1961?

Lucas Oil Raceway, Brownsburg got the race in 1961 after a handshake deal, the story goes, between the NHRA's founder and the track's owners.

What is the U.S. Nationals' nickname?

It is traditionally run over Labor Day weekend with eliminations on the Monday.

What fuel powers Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars?

Nitromethane carries its own oxygen, so the more of it crews feed the engine, the more power it makes; the NHRA caps the mix at 90 percent nitro.

What do Top Fuel teams call the Kevlar blanket wrapped around the engine's oil pan?

The diaper, required in Top Fuel and Funny Car, catches oil and parts when an engine explodes, keeping the oil off the racing surface.

Which part of a Top Fuel engine takes hundreds of horsepower just to drive?

The supercharger soaks up about 900 to 1,000 horsepower, and because fuel and air pass through it, a flame that gets back inside can make it explode.

Which Chrysler engine design is the basis for Top Fuel engines?

The Hemi supplies only the layout: a Top Fuel block and heads are machined from solid aluminium billets, and every part is purpose-built.

Which woman first won an NHRA Funny Car event?

Ashley Force did it at Atlanta Dragway in April 2008, and the driver she beat in the final was her own father, John Force.

Which 1983 film told Shirley Muldowney's story, with Bonnie Bedelia in the lead?

Heart Like a Wheel did not capture her life very well, Muldowney said, but she thought it was very, very good for the sport.

What is Don Garlits's famous nickname?

Big Daddy helped make the smoky pre-run burnout a ritual after seeing a rival's burnout at Riverside's 1969 Hot Rod Championships.

What name did Garlits give each generation of his dragsters?

He had been dismissed as "the Floridian" by California racers before adopting the name.

What injury prompted Garlits to perfect the rear-engine dragster?

Losing part of his foot in a 1970 transmission explosion led Garlits to put the engine behind the driver, and that car won the 1971 Winternationals.

At 82, drag racing pioneer Don Garlits set a 184 mph record in what kind of dragster?

Battery electric: four lithium-polymer packs fed six motors, and Garlits said he wanted to be the first to hit 200 mph on a drag strip in an electric car.

What part of a Top Fuel dragster pushes down about 12,000 pounds?

The rear wing's downforce keeps the rear wheels pressed to the track, so the car stays stable and keeps its grip as speeds climb past 300 mph.

Which Force daughter set a 343 mph Top Fuel record?

Brittany Force, a two-time Top Fuel champion, stepped away from full-time racing after 2025 to focus on starting a family.

Which oil brand sponsored John Force from 1985 to 2014?

Castrol and Ford both left Force's team after the 2014 season, so he switched to Chevrolet and raced on with new backing from Peak.

What is Don Prudhomme's nickname?

The Snake's match-race rivalry with 'the Mongoose' later became the 2013 film Snake & Mongoose.

Who was Don Prudhomme's match-race rival, known as the Mongoose?

Tom McEwen beat Prudhomme in the 1978 U.S. Nationals Funny Car final, a win that came just after the death of his teenage son.

Which toy company sponsored Don Prudhomme and his match-race rival, 'the Mongoose'?

Mattel sold toy versions of their cars, and kids who had never heard of drag racing became fans as they raced the tiny replicas at home.

Which sponsor gave Tony Schumacher the nickname "the Sarge"?

The nickname first applied to the dragster, then stuck to the buzz-cut driver himself.

Who became the first African American champion in NHRA history, in 2012?

Antron Brown was a college sprinter when NFL star Troy Vincent, who was starting a racing team, gave him a ride and became his first team owner.

Who became the first woman to win an NHRA Pro Stock race, in 2012?

Erica Enders's junior dragster days with her sister became the 2003 Disney Channel movie Right on Track.

Angelle Sampey won three straight championships from 2000 to 2002 in which class?

Pro Stock Motorcycle titles made Angelle Sampey a champion on two wheels, and in 2023 she earned a Top Alcohol Dragster license to race on four.

Which Ford loyalist won ten Pro Stock championships, including five in a row from 1985?

Bob Glidden was a line mechanic at an Indiana Ford dealership, Ed Martin Ford, before quitting the job to race full time.

Who won four straight Top Fuel championships from 2018 to 2021?

Steve Torrence overcame Hodgkin's lymphoma as a teenager, then climbed from Top Alcohol Dragster into the Top Fuel seat of his family's team.

Why is Pro Stock described as "all motor"?

No forced induction or nitrous is allowed, so Pro Stock teams chase power through ported cylinder heads, the most sophisticated in drag racing.

What replaced Pro Stock's hood scoops and twin four-barrel carburettors in 2016?

Electronic fuel injection was meant to make Pro Stock relevant to showroom technology, and the NHRA paired it with a 10,500 rpm limiter to cut costs.

Who is credited with coining the term "funny car"?

Fran Hernandez, head of Mercury's racing program, is credited as first to call them 'funny', perhaps as in 'We need to beat those funny cars.'

What modification gave the first Funny Cars their odd look?

Altered wheelbases made these cars look funny next to ordinary door cars, and that odd look is how the class came to be called Funny Car.

What nickname did flip-top-bodied Funny Cars earn in the late 1960s?

Don Nicholson's flip-top, tube-chassis Comet arrived in 1966 and changed everything.

What is the starting-light system at a drag strip called?

The Christmas tree replaced human flag starters at the 1963 Nationals; one reason was that a flagman's starts were not uniformly accurate.

In NHRA's top classes, how do the amber starting lights come on?

All three at once, a start the NHRA adopted in 1986; one reason was that hood scoops kept hiding the bottom bulb, then the only one lit.

What does a red light cost a driver in qualifying?

Nothing, the time counts; in eliminations, though, a red light ends a driver's day unless the opponent commits a worse foul.

What is it called when a slower car wins because of a better reaction time?

Reaction time and elapsed time are measured separately, so leaving first can beat running quicker.

What does E.T. stand for in drag racing?

Elapsed time can cost a win: in some classes, a driver who runs quicker than the elapsed time they predicted loses the round.

What replaced bleach in the "bleach box" after flame burnouts proved too dangerous?

Water: bleach had given way to flammable traction compound, whose flame burnouts proved so dangerous that by the early 1970s the NHRA mandated water only.

What are the long struts at the back of a dragster that stop it flipping on launch called?

Wheelie bars can backfire: pressed too hard into the track, they take weight off the driving tires and cost them grip.

Whose 2008 death led the NHRA to double the length and depth of the sand traps?

The traps went from 40 to 80 feet long and from three to six feet deep, backed by padded walls.

Where is the NHRA Winternationals held?

Pomona, California's strip exists because a car club, backed by the city's police chief, got a stretch of the fairgrounds paved for racing.

Which NHRA event hosted drag racing's first 300 mph Top Fuel pass, in 1992?

The Gatornationals, in Gainesville, Florida, saw that barrier fall, and the pass earned its driver the nickname 'King of Speed'.