NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Lyle Barnett capped off his rookie season in the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by J&A Service in impressive fashion, taking his second victory in three races as part of this weekend’s Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The event was the last of 11 events during the 2021 E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series season.

Barnett finished off a stellar season in his first year in the class, knocking off fellow first-year driver J.R. Gray in the final round with a run of 5.814-seconds at 253.56 mph in his turbocharger-powered Elite HP Camaro. That gave Barnett the holeshot victory over Gray, who ran 5.796 at 248.66 in a matchup of what was the previous two event winners. 

Barnett won his first career race in Dallas earlier this month, while Gray came through with his first victory in the class at the most recent event in Bristol. Barnett had the advantage on Sunday thanks to a .011 reaction time, capping off a memorable day that also included round wins against Justin Bond and Dmitry Samorukov.

“We stuck with it all year, through all the struggles and trials and tribulations, and got it done,” Barnett said. “We decided to bring the turbo car out late in the year, and the first race we stuck it in the winner’s circle. We came back in Vegas and got another one and the team just worked hard. It was a big weekend for us to close it out with a win and I can’t thank everybody enough. We won two out of the last three races to close out my rookie season and that’s a heck of a way to end the year.”

Gray reached his second straight final round with victories against Khalid AlBalooshi, No. 1 qualifier Mike Castellana and Mike Salinas. Gray finishes the season fifth in points, while Barnett took sixth in his rookie year.