NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The Top 25 Alcohol Drivers list, the third in a list of celebratory anointments saluting NHRA’s best competitors over its first 75 years, was completed Aug. 10 with the release of the final five names. It was preceded by the Top 75 Drivers and Top 50 Sportsman Racers lists, which debuted earlier this year.

A voting panel comprised of NHRA National Dragster Editor Phil Burgess, Senior Editor Kevin McKenna, NHRA Sportsman Manager and Spokesperson Jason Galvin, Sportsman-racing expert Kelly Wade, second-generation Top Alcohol racers Brad Littlefield and Todd Veney, and drag racing historians Bill Pratt and Bret Kepner helped create the list with their expertise and votes.

Here’s the final list:

With more than 50 years of Top Alcohol racing, it's no surprise that the voting was tough and many, many qualified drivers didn't make the final 25, and the panel showed its reach with many nominated drivers stretching back to alcohol racing's earliest years. In all, 49 drivers received at least one vote, including past world champs Darrell Gwynn, Jonnie Lindberg, Megan Meyer, Mitch Myers, Fred Mandoline, Julie Nataas, Dave Settles, Don Woosley, Billy Williams, and Al DaPozzo; frequent winners like Brian Hough, Brian Raymer, Bruce McDowell, Keith Stark, Bill Barney, and Randy Meyer; and class veterans such as Steve Gasparrelli, Dale Hall, Kenny Cook, and Don Enriquez.

 THE TUNERS

One of the primary distinctions of the NHRA Top 25 Alcohol Drivers list was what the pilots accomplished while behind the wheel of their cars during the respective era they competed in. Though that sounds simple enough, it really downplays the accomplishments of some of the most influential figures in the history of the categories and outright leaves many of them off the list that deserve recognition, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t also salute some of the tuners who helped them make history.

Obviously, champions like Manzo, Newberry, Brad Anderson, Veney, and many others tuned their own cars. Here's a look at some of the dedicated wrenchsmiths who help make it happen for the others.

2026 International Drag Racing Hall of Fame inductee Steve Boggs would certainly have made the Top 25 list if it included tuners. He has eight championships between current driver Sean Bellemeur (five), Tony Bartone, Joe Penland Jr., and Mitch Myers. 

Walt Austin was the brains behind four-time world champ Pat Austin's 70 career wins in Top Alcohol Funny Car. He was a quiet genius who never spent time bragging about his successes, as he was always thinking about the next run, the next win, the next championship, the next innovation. He and Pat were inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame for that dedication.

Norm Grimes’ accomplishments being divvied among Rick Santos, Jim Whiteley, Joey Severance, and Shawn Cowie puts him in different spots of the list but certainly affects the type of ranking he’d earn with their titles pooled together. Grimes also had his hand in many winner's circle celebrations and championship coronations and, most notably, tuned Rick Santos to five straight Top Alcohol Dragster world championships.

Randy Meyer was a successful Top Alcohol Dragster pilot in his own right with eight career victories, but his bigger contribution was guiding the careers of other drivers, including daughters Megan and Rachel, who combined to win three straight world championships, Megan in 2019 and 2020 and Rachel in 2021, and then Julie Nataas, whom Meyer guided to the 2023 crown. Matt Sackman, McKenna Bold, Hunter Green, Gary Pritchett, Alan Bradshaw, Gary Ormsby Jr., Kate and Diana Harker, Doug Foley, Justin Ashley, and many others have all saddled up in cars owned or tuned by Meyer.

Some of the prominent tuners in the category have accolades as drivers as well, though their driving accomplishments alone didn’t qualify them for this list despite having bodies of work as tuners and owners that would easily have them ranked highly, including experts like Jerry Darien, Les Davenport, and Rich McPhillips. Jonnie Lindberg also deserves some credit as a tuner for being the first to move the performance benchmarks forward since Manzo retired, then having success tuning Hough and building Doug Gordon's championship-winning cars.

Darien built one of the most successful and influential Top Alcohol Dragster operations in NHRA history through his long-running partnership with Ken Meadows, which began in 1991. Over the next 26 seasons, Darien & Meadows fielded cars for 20 different drivers, many of whom used the team as a launching pad to standout professional careers, including Ashley Force, Courtney Force, Brittany Force, Brandon Bernstein, Morgan Lucas, Melanie Troxel, Gary Scelzi, and Frank Pedregon. The team amassed 20 NHRA national event victories in 36 final-round appearances and 20 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series wins in 42 finals. Their accomplishments also included five divisional championships, highlighted by titles in Divisions 4, 6, and 7, plus the 2003 JEGS NHRA Allstars championship with Morgan Lucas. Renowned for developing talent and building consistently competitive race cars, Darien's operation became one of the premier steppingstones for future NHRA stars while compiling a record of excellence that spanned more than two decades.

Davenport, who did drive but has a far more lasting impact as a tuner, might be worth bearing mention among that group as well. All of Cy Chesterman's wins should be credited to him, as well as many others, including John Lombardo Jr. (pictured), Jirka Kaplan, Stan Sipos, and Phil Esz, who hired him to turn their programs around. He was way ahead of the game on using computers to create tune-up software. At one point, any serious team in the alcohol pits was using his JetSize program to figure out their main jets and nozzling.

After tuning former partner Peter Gallen to an Alcohol Funny Car win back in the 1980s and driving to a handful of wins himself in Top Alcohol Dragster, McPhillips was Tony Stewart’s handpicked guide into the world of NHRA Drag Racing and is one of today’s top rental tuners, also having directed the recent careers of Anthony Troyer, Troy Coughlin Jr., Matt Cummings, Mike Coughlin, Jasmine Salinas, Melanie Johnson, Skip Gladstone, Bill Litton, and even his son, Rich Jr., almost all of whom have visited the winner’s circle.