Josh Hart entered the offseason with a different kind of calendar than he had carried for most of his professional drag racing career. Instead of balancing the demands of ownership, logistics, and personnel, Hart now prepares for the 2026 NHRA season as the sole Top Fuel driver for John Force Racing.
Hart joined the organization in October 2025, a decision that reshaped both his professional and personal life. After the season-ending race at Pomona, he sold all of his racing assets, closing the chapter on team ownership that began in 2020.
The move eliminated the layers of responsibility that had followed him since he elected to build and operate his own Top Fuel program. For the first time since earning his Top Fuel license in 2020 and debuting a year later, Hart’s role is defined by driving alone.
“Just a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It’s absolutely unexplainable,” Hart said. “I’m so excited to just be able to show up, do the best job that I can on that light, chop the tree down, and win some rounds.”
Preseason nitro testing is scheduled to begin in less than a month, yet Hart has not treated the offseason as a pause. Instead, the shift away from ownership has created space to address priorities that were previously compressed by racing’s constant demands.
That adjustment has carried into his life away from the racetrack. Hart said the additional time has been reinvested in areas that often compete with professional racing at the highest level.
“I focus very, very much so on my primary business, which is Burnyzz Speed Shop,” Hart said. “I’m really focusing on my family, my fitness, and just trying to get my priorities straight.”
The business Hart referenced, Burnyzz Speed Shop, has grown alongside his racing career. What began as a modest investment has evolved into a nationally recognized operation tied closely to high-performance and collectible automobiles.
That trajectory remains difficult for Hart to fully comprehend. When asked whether he could have imagined how far a relatively small early investment would take him, his response reflected a perspective shaped by experience rather than ambition alone.
“God’s been good to me,” Hart said. “Very much so blessed me and he’s opened up doors that I never thought was possible. So just, like I said, God is good, focus, family finances, fitness, and really excited about the 2026 race season.”
The offseason also became a period of simplification for the Hart family. Rather than adding commitments, Hart said he and his wife focused on reducing them.
“We’ve really been, let’s say, decluttering our life,” Hart said. “So selling the car collection at Mecum, selling some real estate, selling some interests in other businesses, just trying to focus on what’s important to us. So I have been very busy, but everything is falling into place.”
The reference to Mecum underscored the scope of the changes. Selling prized assets through Mecum Auctions signaled a deliberate narrowing of focus rather than a retreat from involvement.
With those responsibilities removed, Hart acknowledged that his attention is now singular. Racing, once one part of a crowded list, has become the primary professional obligation.
“That is correct,” Hart said when asked whether racing is now his sole focus.
For Hart, the shift aligns with lessons learned by observing the sport’s most enduring figures. He pointed to the longevity of those who built careers around delegation and trust rather than personal control.
“I mean, yeah, it’s a true testament to all of the greatest players that have sustained the test of time in NHRA,” Hart said. “Obviously, John Force and Connie Kalitta, all those guys that have been doing this longer than I’ve been alive, I don’t even know.”
Hart referenced John Force and Connie Kalitta not as abstractions, but as models shaped by decades in the sport. His own experience as an owner, he said, remains invaluable despite the relief that comes with leaving it behind.
“I mean, I guess they just had such great people surrounding them all the time to handle them, but I think the undertaking is priceless,” Hart said. “And the experience that I’ve gained my own and my own team, I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I’m very grateful to not have that weight on me and just be a driver.”
The transition also produced an unexpected position within the team. As testing approaches, Hart finds himself second in seniority at John Force Racing, a circumstance he did not anticipate when he triggered one of the most consequential driver-market shifts of the offseason.
“That was definitely incomprehensible, that I was the one who hit the nuclear button on the silly season,” Hart said. “But it’s the way it all shook you out. I think there’s a lot of people that are going to be hungry to win, and I’m one of them.”
The competitive framing is familiar within Top Fuel, where opportunity and pressure often arrive together. Hart’s hunger, however, is now paired with stability, infrastructure, and a championship-caliber organization.
Branding plays a role in that alignment. Burnyzz returns to the Top Fuel stage on a car positioned to compete at the front of the field, reconnecting Hart’s business identity with his driving role.
“For me, it’s about resetting this chapter,” Hart said. “The only time we debuted the Burnyzz car in Top Fuel, we went out and won our first race.”
That memory shapes expectations but does not define them. Hart described the upcoming season as a continuation rather than a recreation, grounded in opportunity rather than assumption.
“So to me, this is the resetting of a chapter,” he said. “I hope that the success follows the reset, and hey, putting Burnyzz Speed Shop on the fastest car in the world, that’s just something nobody gets to say.”
The claim carries both pride and accountability. Hart acknowledged the magnitude of representing his company at the sport’s highest level.
“I can proudly say it, and I’m hoping I can say I’m going to be the driver of that fastest car in the world,” he said.
The synergy between business and racing is not incidental. Hart views the overlap as natural, rooted in shared values rather than marketing convenience.
“Yep. Everybody that’s in drag racing obviously loves cars,” Hart said. “Burnyzz is second to none when it comes to supplying awesome iconic cars. So very, very excited.”
As the 2026 season approaches, Hart’s situation reflects a rare recalibration within professional drag racing. Ownership has given way to focus, and responsibility has narrowed to performance.
“God’s been good to me. Very much so blessed me and he’s opened up doors that I never thought was possible,” Hart said. “I think there’s a lot of people that are going to be hungry to win, and I’m one of them.”
