Photos by Robert Richard, Tara Bowker
1 – BACK IN FORM – Marcus Butner has spent much of the 2026 season searching for the consistency that carried him to last year’s PDRA Pro Nitrous world championship. Friday at Bristol Dragway, it finally looked like he found it.
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The defending series champion swept all three qualifying sessions at the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown, capping the day with a class-leading 3.659-second pass at 206.51 mph in his Pat Musi-powered, Jay Cox-tuned Butner Construction ’69 Camaro. The performance earned Butner his second No. 1 qualifier of the season and provided his strongest statement yet that his title defense may be gaining momentum.
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The turnaround couldn’t come at a better time.
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After four races, Butner arrived at Bristol fifth in the championship standings, well outside the position he expected after winning the 2025 crown. Testing between events, however, appears to have solved many of the issues that left the team chasing consistency through the opening half of the schedule.
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“It’s on rails right now, there’s no doubt,” Butner said. “We got a hell of a team here, and we’ve worked hard to get this car back in this shape. We really struggled earlier in the year. We had one No. 1 qualifier, but we couldn’t ever get it done. It’s like we was chasing little gremlins. So we tested a good bit, worked on fine tuning everything, trying to get it back in championship form. It’s really shown up this weekend, thank the Lord.”
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Butner believes the car is responding the way a championship-caliber entry should.
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“We’re confident,” he said. “I think it’d go down a dirt road right now and go pretty fast. All this takes a lot of luck. Maybe we’ll get a little lucky, maybe we won’t. We’re gonna do our best either way.”
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The No. 1 qualifier also allows Butner to make up valuable ground in the standings when eliminations begin Saturday.
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Three-time Pro Nitrous world champion Tommy Franklin, the current points leader, qualified second with a 3.665 at 206.20 mph in the Musi-powered “Jungle Rat 3.0” Camaro. Veteran Rickie Smith rounded out the top three with a 3.711 at 204.26 mph in his J&A Service/Parkway Ford Mustang.
2 – GOT IT HANDLED – Ty Tutterow knows exactly where he stands in the PDRA Pro Boost championship race, and that’s exactly where he wants to be.
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The defending world champion drove Justin Smith’s Larry Jeffers-built Quik Fuel ’68 Camaro to the No. 1 qualifying position Friday at the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown, posting a 3.613-second pass at 207.08 mph in the final qualifying session. The run not only secured the top spot but also positioned Tutterow to make up valuable ground in the championship standings when eliminations begin Saturday.
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The qualifying effort didn’t come easily.
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Tutterow aborted what appeared to be a strong opening pass when the car drifted left, then spent the remainder of the day working with his team to find the combination that ultimately delivered the quickest run of the session.
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“We were chasing it all day today,” Tutterow said. “We were running really good off the trailer on the first run, the car was kind of driving to the left, and had to abort that run. That was probably going to be a good .62 or .63 run. Car kind of slowed up a little bit there through the middle, kind of running in the middle of the pack. We thought we’d run a little better than we did. Finally chased it down there in Q3 and it was good.”
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The timing couldn’t be better.
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Tutterow entered the Bristol weekend third in the standings behind points leader Jason Harris, who qualified fifth. With Harris on the opposite side of the elimination ladder until a possible semifinal meeting, Tutterow has a chance to control his own championship outlook.
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“I always love running for it in the middle of a race because that gives you a chance to hold your own destiny,” Tutterow said. “You take and carry your team through to cover that ground when you’re only a round or two behind. You can implement it, and like I said, hold your own destiny. This is probably one of my favorite facilities. This is one of our hometown tracks; we’re only two hours from here. I’d love to be able to get our picture taken here in the winner’s circle.”
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Former Super Bowl champion Fletcher Cox continued his impressive rookie Pro Boost campaign by qualifying second with a 3.616 at 207.02 mph in the KTR Racing “Fixed Income” Camaro. Fellow rookie Paul Gargus remained one of the season’s biggest surprises, taking the third position with a 3.622 at 207.91 mph in the Scott Tidwell Racing entry.
3 – THE UNPLANNED PLAN COMES TOGETHER – Andy Mac wasn’t supposed to be driving Fletcher Cox’s Pro Street Camaro this season. Now he’s becoming one of the class’s biggest stories.
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The longtime grudge racing and no-time standout earned his second No. 1 qualifier of the season Friday at the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown, driving Cox’s nitrous-powered “Training Day” ’69 Camaro to a class-leading 3.951-second pass at 189.55 mph.
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Mac stepped into the seat earlier this season after Cox moved to the Pro Boost ranks, and the partnership clicked almost immediately. He qualified No. 1 and reached the final round in his debut at GALOT Motorsports Park, then backed it up Friday with another qualifying performance that has him in position to chase his first victory with the team.
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For Mac, the chemistry came together after solving problems that surfaced at the previous race.
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“I’m pretty comfortable,” Mac said. “We had some mishaps in Maryland, had some suspension issues. We went and tested, got that straightened out, and I think we got our hot rod back.”
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The confidence behind the wheel extends to the trust he has in tuner Phil Shuler, whose game plan required only one instruction before Mac climbed into the car.
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“I don’t know what we was planning on running,” Mac said. “All Phil told me is he had a bomb in it, and to hold on, and I trusted him. He did his job, and I did mine.”
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Richard Reagan made one of the biggest jumps of the final qualifying session, driving his screw-blown ’91 Mustang into the No. 2 position with a 3.973 at 193.71 mph.
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Mikey Sasina, who carried the provisional No. 1 spot into the final session, settled for third after running 3.986 at 195.99 mph in his Harts Charger-boosted Mustang.
4 – WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES – Last season, the conversation around Bristol Dragway had little to do with who won and everything to do with the surface they were racing on.
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One year later, the talk shifted dramatically as the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown became the first major test of Bristol’s rebuilt racing surface. For competitors and officials alike, the difference was apparent before the weekend was over.
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Last year’s event challenged even the sport’s most accomplished tuners as tire shake and aborted runs became common. During the offseason, Bristol completed the latest phase of its reconstruction project by replacing the aging launch area with a new concrete racing surface, giving racers a track that reacted much more predictably.
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PDRA Director of Racing Operations Tyler Crossnoe said the improvement was obvious almost immediately.
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“Oh yeah, immediate,” Crossnoe said. “I came down a couple of weeks ago just working on parking map really, and walked out, looked at the racetrack, walked back, never even walked to it. I said, ‘We’re in good shape, it’s going to be a completely different race.’ And so far it has been.”
Crossnoe praised Bristol officials for committing to the project instead of trying to extend the life of the old surface.
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“Last season they put the asphalt in from top end to 700 feet, this winter they came in, full concrete racing surface,” Crossnoe said. “Not perfect, but way better than what we had in the past. I know that it needs some time to cure… give it another six months, I know they’ll make the next step, and then it’ll be probably top five racing surface in the country. And let’s be honest, that’s the only thing that Bristol’s been missing for years.”
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The smoother surface also changed how the racetrack responded throughout the weekend.
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“So far it’s been warm, don’t get me wrong, but now the racetrack’s reacting just like another one would,” Crossnoe said. “All the bumps are gone, it’s a lot smoother, the tunnels aren’t near as effecting as they used to be.”
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Bristol Dragway General Manager Jimmy Owen said replacing the worn-out surface had become unavoidable.
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“A year ago we were just, let’s just keep it together long enough to get done with the year and we’ll do something with it,” Owen said. “And that’s what we did.”
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Owen said the previous surface had simply reached the end of its useful life after two decades of racing and weather.
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“It was just the surface was 20 years old and it had been beat on for 20 years and in the weather for 20 years,” Owen said. “Trying to pick a good place on the starting line was kind of, there wasn’t many, is a short story of it.”
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Watching cars make clean, straight passes this weekend was all the confirmation Owen needed.
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“Makes the track operator’s life a lot easier when they go straight down the racetrack,” Owens said.
5 – NOT AFRAID TO COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES – Mark Beatty sees the Professional Drag Racers Association as one of drag racing’s best-kept secrets. His job now is making sure it doesn’t stay one.
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The former Red Line Oil motorsports director joined the PDRA leadership team this season with a different perspective than most around him. While owner Tommy Franklin and series director Tyler Crossnoe built their reputations as racers, Beatty brings a businessman’s eye toward growing the series’ audience, attracting corporate partners and expanding its reach beyond its traditional fan base.
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“Tommy is a racer. Tyler is a racer. In their hearts, they’re racers,” Beatty said. “I’m not. I’m a businessman. I’m a visionary, so I naturally look at things differently.”
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Beatty said he isn’t interested in changing what happens on the racetrack. He believes the PDRA already offers one of the strongest products in eighth-mile drag racing and instead wants to focus on introducing it to more people.
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“Even before I took this role, the PDRA felt a little too much like a good old boy network,” Beatty said. “That’s not an insult. It’s just a vibe. I want everyone to feel included. I want Corporate America to feel like it belongs here because our vision is bigger than what it has been.”
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The series regularly attracts nearly 400 competitors, with strong fields in Pro Modified, Pro Street, Pro 632, Top Sportsman and Top Dragster. Beatty believes those car counts and the quality of competition provide a foundation for future growth.
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“When you look at the competitors we have, it’s breathtaking,” Beatty said. “If you’re looking for the best competition and the best racers on the planet, we have them. We just have to make sure the world knows that.”
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That vision also includes a larger schedule.
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As the PDRA works toward finalizing its 2027 calendar, Beatty said the long-term goal is to race more often than it did in 2026 if the right facilities and markets become available.
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“We’re trying to nail down a basic schedule for 2027,” Beatty said. “Once we have that, we’ll start looking outside. We want more races than we had in 2026.”
6 – LEGENDS IN THE SKY – High above the picturesque Bristol Dragway, there are 23 names on the fascia high above the spectator side of the grandstands. While there are 23 names on the board, most of which are nitro racers, but on this weekend of doorslammer racing, six of those have ties to Pro Modified.Â
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Rickie Smith is proud of his place high inside the iconic Tennessee facility. It’s not so much that he’s there; it’s how he got there.Â
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“What it meant for me mainly was I went up there as the first two drivers, me and Don Garlits,” Smith said. “That was more important to me than anything. When they took me and Garlits, when I went with him as the first two drivers, let’s say to go up there, that’s pretty badass, I thought. That was more impressive than whatever else they’d done. But to be up there with Wally Parks and Larry Carrier, there was only four names that went up there at the original ones for the first couple years. That was Wally Parks, Larry Carrier, Carl Moore, Don Garlits, and me. Those were the first four to go period. And to me, that was awful impressive. To be in that first bunch was a pretty big deal.”
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Scotty Cannon remains Pro Modified’s winningest Pro Modified driver and in a day where rivalries can be intense, he and his former engine builder Gene Fulton are also part of the prestigious group. While Cannon’s name is directly above Fulton’s, he said those rivalries have given way to respect.Â
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“Well, we’re above him, but he’s above us, trust me,” Cannon said. “He’s a smart man.”
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Ironically, Bristol is where both Smith and Cannon won their first Pro Modified events. Cannon won the 1991 IHRA Spring Nationals while Smith scored his first, at the same event in 1997.Â
7 – INTIMIDATING SCOTTY CANNON? – Scotty Cannon owns one of the most impressive Bristol résumés in Pro Modified history, but don’t expect him to tell you the place ever got comfortable.
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Long before he became the winningest Pro Modified driver of the IHRA era at Bristol Dragway, Cannon arrived in Thunder Valley as a rookie Top Sportsman racer in 1987. The stories he’d heard about the Tennessee facility had already built it into something special in his mind, and more than three decades later, he admits those feelings haven’t changed.
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“I don’t know. And I don’t want people to think that just because my name’s on the board up here, I’m saying this, but I was intimidated anytime I went to Bristol,” Cannon said. “I still am to this day. It feels like the first time I rode in it because we got a whole different animal here and I’m trying to play catch up like I was back then with these guys.”
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Cannon’s respect for Bristol has survived championships, race wins and countless passes down one of drag racing’s most recognizable quarter-miles.
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“So I’m intimidated about even qualifying, especially here because mother nature, she can be your worst enemy,” Cannon said. “The storms can brew up. The track’s a lot better than it used to be. Track was pretty bumpy and pretty rough.”
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That first Bristol weekend also produced one of Cannon’s favorite stories.
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His opening qualifying run stopped the clocks at 7.77 seconds and 177 mph, putting three lucky sevens on the scoreboard for one of drag racing’s most superstitious competitors.
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“Yeah, I never did really think about anything like that, but if I had that day to go over with, I’d have went to Vegas,” Cannon said. “If I got all them sevens in Vegas, it would be a different story.”
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While Cannon built a reputation for keeping peanuts, $50 bills and even Coca-Cola away from his race operation during his championship years, he now laughs about many of those traditions.
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“It was a lot of times I should have throw the superstition out, but when you’re doing good and you’re on top, that’s the hardest place to stay,” Cannon said. “I used to not let Coca-Colas in the pits. No peanuts, ain’t no 50s. But I’m 64 now. You bring me all the 50s you want to and a box load of peanuts, I’ll take them.”
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The butterflies, however, never left.
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“No, I don’t know. I guess I’m a kid at heart or something,” Cannon said. “I still get the same old butterflies, but my old body don’t work like it used to, but my mind’s still trying to.”
8 – ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL RADIO COMES ON – Christine has cheated death more than once.
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The famed Pro Modified Plymouth Fury has survived trailer fires, rebuilds and the relentless march of technology. Thanks to Chris Cline, one of drag racing’s most recognizable race cars is still making passes instead of collecting dust.
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Today’s Pro Boost version isn’t the same car Paul Strommen drove during Pro Modified’s inaugural season in 1990, but it isn’t a replica, either. Pieces of the original remain, preserving a direct link to one of the class’s earliest and most recognizable entries.
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“We’re trying to keep it alive,” Cline said. “I’ll tell you, we’re on a little bit of a struggle bus right now, but we’ve made some good runs in testing before we got here. We’re in the little conditions that we’re struggling with right now.”
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Keeping Christine alive has never been about nostalgia alone. Cline has always preferred race cars that stand apart from the crowd.
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“I’ve never been your ordinary Camaro, Corvette guy,” Cline said. “I had a ’38 Chevrolet back in the 1990s, did drive a Camaro in early 2000s, but I’ve always wanted to have something a little different.”
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That thinking eventually led him to partner with Dave Heitz and build a new generation of Christine capable of competing against today’s Pro Modified field.
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The original car had reached the point where updates alone were no longer enough. Instead of retiring one of the sport’s best-known cars, Cline and Heitz started over while making sure its history came along for the ride.
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“I obviously had to build a new car,” Cline said. “We ran the old car until 2021 with a bunch of updates, but this new version has got pretty much all the bells and whistles and new tricks that we need. Now, we just got to get it figured out.”
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History wasn’t enough to make the new car competitive. It needed the engineering to match.
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“So this car here is actually narrowed, six inches narrow and five inches channeled, versus the original body,” Cline said. “That got us down a lot of size dimension down, and that helps on the weight situation where you don’t have as much tubing, but we’re still proportioned more than a Camaro.”
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Even with the redesign, the original Christine never completely disappeared.
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The molds for today’s body were created from the original car before being reshaped for the modern version. Cline also kept the original roof, quarter panels and center section of the chassis in his Waynesville shop.
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“I still got the roof and quarters and the original chassis center section, I still got all that sitting in the shop in Waynesville,” Cline said.
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The center section remains from the same car Strommen drove in 1990, preserving a tangible piece of Pro Modified history.
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Like its movie namesake, the race car has survived more than one resurrection.
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“Yeah, it had a couple resurrections to it there,” Cline said. “It had to get brought back, it burnt up in the trailer and had to be fixed.”
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Asked if the haunted Plymouth ever lives up to its reputation, Cline couldn’t resist the punchline.
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“Bobby, this thing, sometimes I think it’s haunted, but it never fixes itself,” Cline said.
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Then he laughed before delivering the perfect ending.
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“In my head sometimes, this thing’s trying to kill me!”
9 – BEATTIE, VINCENT LEAD QUALIFYING IN PRO 632, SUPER STREET – J.C. Beattie Jr. and Austin Vincent continued their strong 2026 seasons Friday night by securing the No. 1 qualifying positions in Pro 632 and Super Street during the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown at Bristol Dragway.
Beattie, a former NHRA sportsman standout, rebounded from a rare stumble at the previous event in Maryland by putting his nitrous-fed ATI Performance Products ’18 Camaro on top of the Pro 632 field with a 4.177-second pass at 171.69 mph. The performance marked another statement run for the driver who opened the season with victories in the first two races.
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Points leader Jeff Pittman stayed within striking distance, qualifying second with a 4.190 at 169.13 mph in his Hickory Enclosed Trailer Sales ’68 Chevelle. Ryan Altman rounded out the top three, driving his ’68 Camaro to a 4.192 at 169.53 mph.
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Super Street once again featured the season-long duel between Austin Vincent and defending world champion Connor McGee, with the pair separated only by speed after recording identical elapsed times.
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Both drivers clocked 4.628-second runs during the second qualifying session, but Vincent claimed the top spot thanks to a faster 157.98-mph pass in his Vincent Performance ’88 Mustang. McGee settled for the No. 2 position at 150.78 mph in his Fulton-powered Brian’s Heating & Cooling ’90 Mustang, extending his streak of qualifying no lower than second through the first five races of the season.
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Troy Hill made the most of Friday evening’s cooler conditions, driving his ’00 Mustang to the third qualifying position with a 4.633-second run at 157.12 mph.
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10 – THE SPORTSMAN REPORT – Friday’s sportsman action at Bristol Dragway saw Bruce Thrift and Tony Careccia emerge as the top qualifiers in Elite Top Sportsman and Elite Top Dragster, while both 48-car fields also completed the opening round of eliminations ahead of Saturday’s conclusion.
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Thrift powered his nitrous-assisted, PAR-powered ’06 Pontiac GTO to the No. 1 qualifying position in Elite Top Sportsman with a 3.815-second pass at 195.05 mph. Jamie Fowler, who claimed the top spot at the season’s first two events, settled for second after posting a matching 3.831-second elapsed time but a quicker 197.25 mph in his nitrous-fed, Fulton-powered Pee Dee Fleet ’69 Camaro. Points leader Bryan LaFlam lined up third with an identical 3.831 at 191.21 mph in his supercharged BigStuff TPM ’67 Mustang.
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The Top Sportsman 48 field also began eliminations Friday night, completing the opening round before racing resumes Saturday.
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In Elite Top Dragster, Tony Careccia wasted little time making an impression with his brand-new screw-blown ’26 NexGen dragster. The Asheville, North Carolina, racer debuted the new machine with a class-leading 3.669-second pass at 203.98 mph to earn the No. 1 qualifying position.
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KC Ingram qualified second with a 3.682 at 203.19 mph in his ’20 Miller dragster, while Jody Stroud completed the top three after driving his ’18 Horton entry to a 3.725 at 205.16 mph.
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Like Top Sportsman, the 48-car Top Dragster field completed first-round eliminations Friday evening and will finish competition during Saturday’s racing program.
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Saturday’s schedule begins with Jr. Dragster final qualifying at 8:45 a.m. followed by one time trial for Edelbrock Bracket Bash presented by Philadelphia Racing Products. Pro eliminations are scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m.Â
