NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Dale Pulde might be your favorite Funny Car driver’s favorite Funny Car driver. Considered one of the most natural drivers in the Funny Car class, Pulde drove 70 different Funny Cars during his lengthy career, which began in 1966 while he was still in high school.

Of the many Funny Cars that Pulde campaigned, the most iconic is the '77 Pontiac Firebird that he called the War Eagle, which is among the 20 cars that fans have voted on in the list of most important Funny Cars as part of NHRA’s 50th anniversary of Funny Car celebration. He carried the name on his popular cars until receiving a multiyear sponsorship from Miller Brewing Co. in 1983, and in more recent years, he built a nostalgia Funny Car that paid tribute to the War Eagle.

Pulde toured the country throughout the 1970s and through most of the 1980s until selling his operation during the 1988 season and becoming an in-demand driver-for-hire. He spent the rest of his career driving for Billy Meyer, the Over the Hill Gang, Joe Pisano, Whit Bazemore, Freddie Neely, Gene Christensen, and Steve Plueger. With Bazemore, he scored the team’s first national event victory at the Dallas event in 1996 while Bazemore was recovering from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. The crew on that team included crew chief Rob Flynn and future tuners Dickie Venables, Chris Cunningham, and Kurt Elliott.

Pulde has six career national event wins and three IHRA championships.