NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

In addition to the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series action at Brainerd International Raceway, nine Lucas Oil Series winners were also crowned in competition at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals.

 Shawn Cowie, who like many Canadian racers had problems getting across the border due to pandemic restrictions in 2021, got his first Top Alcohol Dragster win since the 2021 Winternationals, defeating Matt Cummings with a stout 5.21 from his Norm Grimes-tuned Mundie’s Towing dragster. The victory, the 23rd of Cowie’s career and his second in Brainerd (2019), upped his final-round record to an impressive 23-8 mark. [video]

Topeka Top Alcohol Funny Car winner Shane Westerfield continues his hot streak, winning his second straight national event title for sidelined car owner Rick Jackson, scoring with an easy final-round victory over Bob McCosh, whose car bogged just off the line. The win is the third of the season for the 2017 world champ, who took the points lead from Doug Gordon, who crashed alongside Westerfield in a losing round-one bout but was unhurt. [video]

Brett Speer, who lives less than a half-mile down Highway 371 from Brainerd International Raceway, again used his local knowledge to his advantage, winning the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals for the third straight time and fifth overall. Speer, who also has won in Super Stock and Stock, got his first Comp win by defeating world champ Bruno Massel Jr. by just .004-second in a match in which both ran .62 under their indexes. [video]

A year after losing the final round of the Lucas Oil Nationals. Mike Mans returned to earn the fifth win of his career in Super Stock. Mans ran right on his 8.80 dial in the final round to stop former Division 5 champ Wyatt Wagner, who broke out by two hundredths. Despite the loss, Wagner was able to move to third in the championship standings. [video]

Appearing in his first career final, Tracy Fairchild scored his first win when he drove his D/SA ’70 AMX past Ron Feist in the Stock final. Fairchild also became the first driver of an American Motors vehicle to win an NHRA event in more than a decade after Feist fouled in the final. [video]

Super Comp champ Tony Leonard was one of six Minnesota drivers to collect a Sportsman victory at their homestate event, capturing his first NHRA national event Wally in his first final-round appearance, defeating Texan Craig Anderson with a near-perfect 8.903 in the Super Comp final. [video]

Trevor Larson, whose wife. Kendra, won in Top Dragster at last year’s event, kept the family win streak alive with his third Brainerd victory when he defeated Kevin Dyck in the Super Gas final. Larson powered Chris Hess’ ’68 Camaro to a 9.890 to win a double-breakout bout in the final against Dyck, who was further under with a 9.881. [video]

More than a decade after scoring his first national event win in Brainerd, Brian Antony, near lane, grabbed another Wally at his home track. Antony drove his Dodge Avenger to a 6.90 on his 6.87 prediction to stop Michael Chitty, who was just a hundredth of a second behind at the finish line in the Top Sportsman presented by Vortech Superchargers final. [video]

Two weeks after winning the Super Comp title in Seattle, Dylan Hough scored again in Top Dragster presented by Vortech Superchargers. Hough, the son of Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Brian Hough, used a .019 light and a 6.823 on his 6.81 dial to stop two-time world champ Anthony Bertozzi in the final round. [video]