Seeking to repeat as an event champion from a year ago, Pro Stock point leader Dallas Glenn and the KB Titan NHRA team entered the 42nd running of the Brainerd Nationals with two victories of the 2024 season and his last coming in Chicago at the Route 66 Nationals earlier this year. Needless to say, the team was hungry for another race victory. 

Glenn qualified No. 7 with a  6.628 second elapsed time at 205.47 mph and opened the first round against teammate, Eric Latino. The win not only produced a victory but also stood as low elapsed time of the event. The success aside, the win over Latino eliminated one of the KB Titan entries, who all lost in the first rounds.

Glenn was indeed the last man standing for KB Titan. 

Glenn did his part by taking out Erica Enders and Aaron Stanfield to help him advance in the final round. In beating the red-hot Stanfield, he also ended a red-hot Elite Performance streak which has won six consecutive events. 

The taking down of the Elite frontrunners opened the door for Mason McGaha to reach his first career final in 75 starts. While McGaha got off the line first with a .011 reaction, Glenn’s 0.066 light was supplemented with the fact that McGaha spun the tires, and Glenn drove to the stripe with a 6.613 second elapsed time at 206.95 mph. The victory marked Glenn’s third of the year and the 11th of his career. 

“It feels really good because I went to three finals in that six-race streak where [Elite] kept winning,” Glenn said. “It was definitely good to finally seal the deal. We made a really nice run there in the final, even though I got caught with my pants down on the tree. But, I kept flickering it all day and had really long trees, and then all of a sudden I get a quick one and it caught me off guard. 

“Everybody on the crew did an awesome job. After the first round, I was like the last man standing for the whole team, and I’m like, ‘Well, time to put everything towards it.” 

“When you go up to the second round against Erica, you know she’s going to be tough. And then you follow it up with Aaron Stanfield, who’s won three out of the last four. Yeah, it was definitely a tough day.”

Glenn’s Brainerd win only solidified just how special Brainerd is to the now 11-time winner. 

“This is a big Pro Stock area between Greg [Anderson] and Jason [Line] and everybody who came from up here,” Glenn explained. “The zoo is always a good time, and the people around here, they definitely show up for this race, and they support it. Really great seeing the stands packed and everybody up against the fence cheering every run that you go up and down. So it’s a lot of fun to race here, and it’s a great facility.”

The Brainerd victory was one Glenn had an inkling was coming. He got the same vibes in Chicago, a race he had also won the previous season. 

“My last win was in Chicago, which happened to be a race I’d won the previous year,” Glenn confirmed. “So I was looking forward to this one, especially after the three final round losses that I had, and I was like, ‘Okay, now this is a track that I won last year. It’s a good luck charm to try to capitalize on that.” 

“Fortunately, looking forward is, I haven’t won any of the next races coming up, so I will have to try to change my luck for those races. But last year was so crazy that I was just riding the wave.

“I went to nine final rounds last year, and it was just a crazy season. I was in the semis or the finals for almost every race. We’ve been trying hard this year, and I think we’ve done it. My only disappointment so far was that I had a little mess up there in Sonoma, and it kept me from being in the 2Fast2Tasty Challenge here. That’ll be the one 2Fast2Tasty Challenge that I missed this year, but we get to go out at Indy and go for another 2Fast2Tasty win there.”

Likely, Glenn, who has a 186-point lead heading into the NHRA U.S. Nationals, will retain the top seed rolling into the Countdown to the Championship despite the event’s point-and-a-half format.

By already having won three races this season and gaining momentum at the right time with the Countdown to the Championship approaching, Glenn could likely enter the playoffs as the championship points leader for a second consecutive year. The driver gave his thoughts on his process. 

“I think that was some of why we decided to swap cars. Last year, we had an awesome car through the middle of the year, and then it was like everybody started catching up and passing me,” Glenn said. “And right when we ended the Countdown, five drivers leapfrogged. And it definitely made for a really tough Countdown. I think I lost the first round five times last year, and four of them were in the Countdown. It was definitely pretty tough racing there. Everybody got really fast. So that was somewhere why we went to the new car and I feel like we’re in a better position this year and. I don’t feel like I’m quite as good as far as the driver on the tree in this car yet, but that’s something I’ve proven to myself that I can do now and then.

“So if I can just try to increase those and cut better lights in it, I think they’re getting a way better handle on the car. I think we will definitely have something for them this year. But we’ll see when Reading comes.”