Photos courtesy NHRA, Tasca Racing
Veteran NHRA crew chief Aaron Brooks confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com that he is now exploring new job opportunities.
Brooks was a co-crew chief with Bob Tasca III’s Funny Car team beginning in February 2023, working alongside fellow co-crew chief Todd Okuhara to tune the Ford Mustang Funny Car.
Brooks and Okuhara were both recently released from Tasca’s team.
So what is he doing right now?
“That’s a good question. At the moment, not a thing. We’re still trying to let the dust settle from this whole transfer of power,” Brooks said about what recently transpired.
In 2023, the Brooks-Okuhara duo guided Tasca to three wins and a third-place finish in the points standings. In 2024, the duo led Tasca to three more wins and a fifth-place finish in the points.
Then, in 2025, Tasca was 10th in the points – highlighted by three semifinal efforts.
“I kind of put all my eggs in that basket when I made this career path. That’s the plan (to land another job as a crew chief),” Brooks said. “But, as you know, there’s not that many teams out there, so it’s kind of a slim market.”
Brooks has served as a crew chief for both Funny Car and Top Fuel teams since 2009. He spent the 2022 campaign in Top Fuel tuning for Doug Foley. Brooks got his start on Don Prudhomme’s team and spent many years with Don Schumacher Racing as well.
“I like them both equally, really,” Brooks said about tuning a Funny Car and a dragster. “I used to prefer one, and then I used to prefer the other. It’s all kind of the same at the end of the day.”
Brooks is now looking for another opportunity to showcase his skills.
“Oh, yeah, that’s the plan — kind of just waiting to see how things shake out around the pits,” Brooks said.
Brooks acknowledged that being a crew chief in the nitro ranks these days is no easy task.
“It’s tough. There are alliances, and you don’t have as many teams. It’s a good day to be a crew guy because there’s a shortage of crew guys, but there’s probably an excessive amount of crew chiefs,” Brooks said. “Every time you see the Top Fuel fields, when you’re getting 12 cars showing up, that means there’s not that many cars, so that means fewer jobs.”
“I mean, I have some fabrication stuff. I’ve mounted bodies and built chassis. I don’t know if I’ll continue that. Actually, we were gearing up at Tasca’s fabrication shop to start building stuff, so I put a lot of effort into that. We’ll see how the rest of this all kind of shakes out. You can pay some bills doing that stuff.”
Brooks did say he is completing some things he had started with Tasca.
“I’m just kind of helping wrap up a bunch of loose ends with all these guys coming in,” Brooks said. “Essentially, I’m just here helping out because I don’t have another job lined up at the moment. I’m just kind of trying to make it.
“I’m sticking around… I’m here temporarily during the transition, I guess you could say. The whole new team came over.”
