Photos by Robert Richard, Tara Bowker
FINAL NOTEBOOK – RAIN DOES LITTLE TO COOL DOWN HOT PERFORMANCES
1 – REWRITING THE SCRIPT – The marquee storyline entering Saturday’s Pro Boost eliminations centered on a potential showdown between points leader Jason Harris and reigning world champion Ty Tutterow. Instead, Ned Dunphy and Lyle Barnett rewrote the script before the title contenders ever had a chance to settle it themselves.
Driving his screw-blown 2024 Camaro, Dunphy continued his rapid rise in Pro Mod competition by racing to the final round with a string of reaction-time victories. The Drag & Drive standout, best known for his record-setting Dodge Viper, proved he could win in a different arena by consistently leaving first and forcing quicker opponents to chase him.
His biggest moment came in the final against former U.S. Nationals champion Lyle Barnett. Dunphy left with a .013 reaction time and held on for a holeshot victory, winning with a 3.632-second pass at 207.08 mph over Barnett’s quicker 3.627 at 208.42.
“That final pass there, I couldn’t believe when I saw the win light come on, because I could hear Lyle screaming along next to me, and I’m thinking, ‘It’s so close,'” Dunphy said. “I’m betting Lyle’s mad at his light because he’s so, so good at the light all the time. We had a really good weekend on our light too, though. We were hovering around that double-O mark the whole entire time with one trip zip, so just the stars aligned this weekend. I’m super happy with it.”
Dunphy didn’t overpower the field as much as he outlasted it. Every round seemed to come down to execution, beginning with a win over Raymond Matos, followed by a perfect .000 light that neutralized Paul Gargus’ quicker race car. The semifinal ended before it really started when Fletcher Cox fouled away the round with a red light.
“We’re out here having fun,” Dunphy said. “The crew and I, we laugh all the time. We don’t do the trash talk, we don’t do the drama, but now we’ve made some noise.”
2 – LIVE BY THE SWORD – Barnett made his first PDRA appearance since the season opener at Darlington and immediately reminded the field why he’s considered one of the sport’s toughest opponents. After qualifying eighth, he posted reaction times of .004 and .001 in his first two rounds, eliminating Randy Weatherford before knocking off No. 1 qualifier Ty Tutterow with a 3.619 at 208.91 mph. Barnett followed by eliminating points leader Jason Harris in the semifinals with a 3.613 at 209.01 before Dunphy denied him the victory in one of the weekend’s closest races.
As Barnett sees it, anything quicker than .005 on the starting line usually means somebody came dangerously close to throwing the race away.
“I consider anything better than 005 a bad job at red light,” Barnett said. “Nobody means to do that. I don’t care what they tell you on this thing.”
Barnett said the car rolled a few inches when he went to the throttle, putting him closer to the tree than expected.
“And when you’re as close to the tree as I tend to be most of the time, that can get you too close.”
That willingness to live near the edge was developed long before Barnett became a regular in Pro Boost competition. Years of small-tire grudge racing taught him that giving away anything at the starting line can be expensive.
“When you come from the small tire grudge style scene back home, you got to take everything you can get,” Barnett said.
That mentality doesn’t change because the driver in the other lane is a friend.
Barnett also pushed back against critics of eighth-mile racing, saying the format demands a different level of aggression from both driver and car.
“There ain’t nothing better than taking an NHRA legal pro-modified car to the quarter and running 250 mile an hour, but I’ll take one of these outlaw eighth-mile cars any day,” Barnett said.
Oddly, Barnett had remained unbeaten in completed PDRA elimination rounds this season despite having never won a race. Darlington was where he reached the semifinals before the event was postponed and later could not return.
3 – JUST WHAT HE NEEDED – Marcus Butner arrived at Bristol Dragway looking for a turning point. He left with one.
After spending much of the season chasing the frontrunners, the reigning PDRA Pro Nitrous world champion reminded everyone why he’s still the man to beat, using a holeshot victory over points leader Tommy Franklin in the final round to collect his first win of the 2026 season.
Butner left first in his Pat Musi-powered, Jay Cox-tuned “Heartbreaker” ’69 Camaro and made it stand up, posting a 3.688 at 204.32 mph to edge Franklin’s quicker 3.655 at 205.98 in the Musi-powered “Jungle Rat 3.0” Camaro.
The victory carried extra weight because it nearly slipped away one round earlier.
An engine issue and fire from the hood scoop erupted during Butner’s semifinal victory over Tim Paap, forcing the team into a frantic turnaround before the final. Crew members swapped engines and had the Camaro ready in time, setting the stage for the race-winning run.
“In the semifinals, we got up on the wheelie bars really hard,” Butner said. “It ended up in high gear and it wasn’t supposed to be, and it just struck the motor down, hurt it a little bit. We ended up swinging the motor back in it that we had in it all weekend. My team’s worked so hard. They got my back 100%, so it’s very rewarding to be able to give it back to them.”
Butner had controlled the class from qualifying, securing the No. 1 position with a 3.659 before opening eliminations with a 3.696 on a first-round bye. He followed with a 3.695 to advance past Amber Denton after her red-light start, then survived mechanical trouble in the semifinals when Paap encountered problems of his own.
The Bristol victory vaulted Butner back into championship contention with two races remaining, a much different outlook than when he arrived sitting fifth in the standings.
“It’s just God’s blessings, I think,” Butner said. “We was pretty far out (in points). We’ve had a bunch of bad luck. We’ve had a fast car pretty much all year other than Maryland. We put in the work to come here to try and accomplish this. We’ll see what happens.”
Franklin’s march to the final included an opening-round victory over Jimmy Cowan, a quarterfinal bye, and a semifinal win over Dane Wood before coming up just short in the championship round.
4 – REVITALIZED REAGAN – Richard Reagan arrived at Bristol Dragway fourth in the PDRA Pro Street standings. He left with a trophy and a renewed shot at the championship.
Reagan capped a steady weekend by recording his quickest pass of eliminations in the final, driving his screw-blown ’91 Mustang to a 3.951-second run at 193.24 mph to defeat veteran Tim Essick, who posted a 3.986 at 191.00 in the “Brown Sugar” ’18 Mustang.
“I just kept picking away at it, trying to make it leave harder and make it run as hard through the middle as we could, and just try to do a little more each round,” Reagan said. “I think it’s a great class. The competition has just gotten…it’s just anybody’s race, you know? You just gotta do your job. I don’t know, maybe we can win the next two. Just have do the best we can.”
Reagan qualified second with a 3.973 at 193.71 mph before receiving a first-round bye when Tommy Youmans was sidelined by engine failure suffered in qualifying. Reagan answered with a 4.030 on the single, then found his rhythm with a 3.965 victory over Jerry Morgano before eliminating third qualifier Mikey Sasina in the semifinals with a 3.964.
Essick pieced together his own impressive day after qualifying eighth with a 4.030. He knocked off the tour’s most recent winner, Joel Wensley Jr., in the opening round, then added victories over Andy Mac in Fletcher Cox’s “Training Day” Camaro and Scott Kincaid to reach the final.
5 – MAKING THE MOST OF THE OPPORTUNITY – Ryan Altman had been behind the wheel of the Greenbrier Excavating & Paving Camaro for barely a week, but that didn’t stop him from driving it straight to the winner’s circle at Bristol Dragway.
The young grudge and radial racer earned his first PDRA Pro 632 victory by defeating two-time 2026 winner J.C. Beattie Jr. in a side-by-side final. Altman’s 4.185-second pass at 168.49 mph narrowly held off Beattie’s 4.191 at 172.25.
Altman qualified third with a 4.192 before opening eliminations with a victory over Jason Ventura. The semifinals paired him with points leader and Greenbrier teammate Jeff Pittman, where Altman prevailed in one of the closest races of the day, using a 4.190 to edge Pittman’s 4.199.
The weekend marked a whirlwind introduction to the Patrick Barnhill-tuned Camaro.
“My first time sitting in the car was last week on Wednesday,” Altman said. “In Q1, Q2, we didn’t run the best. We wound up going back to what we knew, because they’ve been running the car for a while and won a couple championships in the past. I got put in with some good people in a good car, so that set me up nice.”
Even after collecting the trophy, Altman was already thinking ahead to the next stop on the PDRA schedule.
“The brake pedal is a little far for me, so I can’t hold the car in the lights,” Altman said. “I double bulbed my teammate, Jeff Pittman, and then Beattie I accidentally did the same thing. I couldn’t hold the car enough in the lights. I told him I’d get that fixed for the next race. Hopefully in the next race, we don’t run into Jeff and we can help him win the championship. That’s the goal.”
6 – GIANT KILLER STILL HAS A FEW TRICKS LEFT – Sitting between the towering race haulers at Bristol Dragway, Dale Brinsfield’s dually pickup and enclosed trailer looked almost out of place.
It has looked that way for years. The veteran from the Greensboro, North Carolina, area has built a career proving the smallest operation in the pits can still produce some of the biggest upsets on the racetrack.
Saturday, the latest victim was Rickie Smith.
Brinsfield drove around the former world champion in the opening round of the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown, adding another chapter to a rivalry that dates to the Quick Eight days at Farmington and Piedmont dragstrips.
His first reaction wasn’t about beating one of drag racing’s biggest names.
“Well, man, we are just thankful for making a good run,” Brinsfield said. “The crew just did a heck of a job. We struggled all weekend, but they got it right when they needed to.”
Instead, Brinsfield credited Carson Perry and crew members Nick, Landon, Charlie and Donna for helping get the combination sorted out before eliminations.
“Carson Perry helped us on that run, to get everything straightened out, and all my crew, Nick, and Landon, and Charlie, Donna,” Brinsfield said. “Everybody just did a great job. Just real thankful.”
Brinsfield has never tried to compete with the biggest budgets. His philosophy has remained simple throughout a career built on consistency rather than flash.
“That’s right,” Brinsfield said when asked if he’d rather let the race car do the talking than the presentation in the pits. “Yeah. Let the car do the talking.”
His showdown with Smith carried decades of history. The two spent years racing one another across the Carolinas and Virginia, creating a rivalry rooted in respect.
“You know, Rickie and I have got a lot of history,” Brinsfield said. “We’ve raced each other for a lot of years, and that’s why they call him Trickie Rickie, but Dale’s got some tricks up his sleeve too. I just don’t pull them out until I need to.”
Brinsfield smiled when talking about the victory, but his admiration for Smith never changed.
“And I thought Rickie was going to play the game up there, so I was ready,” Brinsfield said. “But I got a lot of admiration for Rickie, a lot of respect. That dude’s, he’s the goat, you know?”
Brinsfield’s day ended in the second round against Dane Wood imn the second round.
7 – MUSI KEEPS DOING MUSI THINGS – There was a time when finding Pat Musi at a drag race wasn’t difficult. If he wasn’t driving, he was wearing a headset, leaning into an engine compartment or hustling between trailers to help one of the many racers relying on his horsepower.
These days, the scene looks different, but the pace hasn’t changed.
Musi was at Bristol Dragway during the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown promoting the new Edelbrock Musi 555 crate engine, the latest collaboration between the Hall of Fame engine builder and one of his longest-standing partners. While the product line has expanded into the growing restomod market, Musi says retirement isn’t part of the conversation.
“Just, it ain’t laid back,” Musi said. “I’m wide open because I took on this whole restomod deal and we do a lot with Edelbrock. So, besides the Pro Nitrous, we are just slam busy. But, I love it. That’s what I do, so I ain’t going to quit now.”
The move into crate engines is another example of how Musi has continually adapted throughout a career that has helped shape modern Pro Nitrous racing.
Long before electronic fuel injection became the standard, Musi believed it offered advantages many racers refused to accept.
“So, I was the first EFI car to win an NHRA national event,” Musi said. “At that point, if you had a nitrous engine, you didn’t put fuel injection, you were just prepping the track for the rest of it.”
Musi said years of testing convinced him that reducing weight while improving fuel control would eventually change the class, even if few competitors agreed.
“We had a lot of data,” Musi said. “The nitrous guys that were running, ‘The weight don’t make a difference.’ Bullshit, it don’t make a difference. Weigh, horsepower, that’s it.”
His confidence came from information gathered through dozens of customer combinations, something he believes still separates his engine program today.
“We’ve worked hard on our nitrous program,” Musi said. “We got data from 20 guys out here on our engines. We’re going to be tough to beat. You get yourself to that position, but, hey, this is what I tell them, old school. The water’s fine. Go ahead, jump in.”
8 – VINCENT CAPITALIZES – Austin Vincent made the most of an opportunity Saturday at Bristol Dragway, turning a final-round victory into the Super Street points lead with two races remaining on the PDRA schedule.
Vincent earned his second win of the season when Troy Hill was forced to shut off early in the championship round. Vincent drove his Vincent Performance ’88 Mustang to a 4.583-second pass, while Hill coasted to a 6.484 at 73.95 mph in his ’00 Mustang.
The victory came after reigning world champion Connor McGee exited in the second round, allowing Vincent to swing the championship battle in his favor.
“It’s definitely a big move for us,” Vincent said. “They did that big wheelie and lost second round, and we were able to capitalize on it. Now we’re 98 points ahead, a little less than a round. This should definitely make for an interesting rest of the season. All the other combos are right there with us. It’s just gonna take the same dedication we’ve had the whole season.”
Vincent controlled qualifying with a 4.628 at 157.98 mph and never looked back. He received a first-round bye when Eric Osteen was unable to make the call, then defeated Super Street newcomer Jackson Henderson in the second round with a 4.618. Another competition bye sent Vincent directly to the final, where he sealed the weekend with his second victory of the year.
McGee’s title defense took a hit in the second round when his Fulton-powered Brian’s Heating & Cooling Mustang carried the front wheels high enough to force him out of the throttle. Scott Marshall capitalized, driving past the reigning champion with a 4.654 at 156.05 mph while McGee recovered for a 4.915 at 147.44.
The result handed Vincent a 98-point advantage entering the final two races of the season, though the Super Street title fight remains far from settled with multiple combinations now proving capable of winning under the class’s updated rules.
9 – THE SPORTSMEN WERE SPECTACULAR – The PDRA Sportsman Spectacular produced a full slate of winners Saturday at Bristol Dragway, with Nick Meloni, Joe Roubicek, Jody Stroud and Matt Sackman each leaving Thunder Valley with trophies after surviving competitive fields.
Brentwood, New Hampshire’s Meloni turned an 11th-place qualifying effort into the biggest payday of the weekend, claiming the PDRA 660 Man title and the $7,500 winner’s purse. Driving his black, centrifugally supercharged ’69 Camaro, Meloni ran 4.042 on a 4.03 dial-in in the final round to defeat sixth qualifier Zach Houser, whose ’00 Firebird got sideways almost immediately after the launch.
Roubicek added a Top Sportsman 48 victory to his weekend, guiding his ’68 Camaro to a winning 4.286 on a 4.27 dial-in. The Niceville, Florida, racer earned the victory when Orlando’s J.C. Garcia broke out, running 4.647 on his 4.65 dial-in in his ’08 Pontiac GTO.
Elite Top Dragster featured an all-blown final after Stroud knocked off two-time world champion Steve Furr in the semifinals. Stroud, driving the screw-blown “Zombie” Horton dragster, lined up against Inman, South Carolina’s Josh Duggins, but the outcome was decided almost instantly when Duggins left .003-second too soon. His red light erased a 3.799 on a 3.78 dial-in, handing Stroud the $7,500 winner’s check despite a conservative 3.870 on a 3.71 dial.
Matt Sackman continued his success at Bristol by capturing the Top Dragster 48 title. A two-time NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals Top Dragster winner, the Knoxville, Tennessee, driver used a starting-line advantage in his 2010 Spitzer dragster to defeat South Carolina’s Joe Gary. Sackman crossed the finish line with a 3.898 on his 3.88 dial-in, while Gary’s dead-on 4.420 pass on a 4.42 dial wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit at the tree.
10 – UP NEXT – The next race on the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series tour will be Drag Wars presented by Big Stuff Total Power Management on August 27-29. It will be the PDRA’s second stop of the season at Galot Motorsports Park in Benson, North Carolina.
QUALIFYING NOTEBOOK – THE STARS ARE BACK IN BRISTOL, AND LINE UP PERFECTLY
