Chris Graves, the photographer turned Funny Car promoter, laughs at the notion, if his Nitro Chaos event were a dinner, it could be considered a pot luck meal.

"Everybody brought their favorite dish," Graves confirmed.

And they indeed did.

The inaugural Nitro Chaos at Eddyville Raceway Park in Eddyville, Iowa, attracted not only fuel Funny Cars but also dragsters and altereds. The Funny Cars were new and old, while the dragsters had engines in the rear and the front. Some entries had superchargers, and others had injectors. Some were small mom-and-pop teams and at least two Big Show NHRA fuel cars.

The common denominator is they had a measure of "pop" in the tank.

"It went really good for the first time," Graves said. "It was created for that specific reason — anything on nitro. Funny Car Chaos, the format obviously got interest and really the only way to run an all-out, anything-goes run what you brung nitro show is using the Chaos format. So thought we'd give it a shot and got a wide range of entries, which we expected and wanted."

In a day and age when smaller, independent venues seem to be drawing better crowds for the sizes of their venues, Graves said his show had star power, but clearly, the headliner was nitro and flames spewing out the pipes.

"The fans seem to really enjoy it," Graves added.

The most significant storyline was eventual winner and NHRA Top Fuel driver Scott Palmer, who brought out his Top Fuel dragster to compete in the specialty show. He laid down a 3.21 elapsed time at over 265 miles per hour and subsequently erased a 25-year-old performance mark established by Tommy Johnson Jr.

Nitro Chaos had already been planned before the Texas Motorplex 64 Funny Car event Graves promoted transpired, but the success of the March only served to embolden and solidify the brand name's momentum.

"The Motorplex did a lot of things for drag racing in general, gave us all hope again that something like a 64-Funny Car event can happen," Graves said. "I've had this race on paper for like five years and just never really had the time because Chaos was continuously evolving, which it still is."

Graves admitted Eddyville Dragway's Gerald Kramer approached him about pulling off an event he'd envisioned for nearly five decades.

"I said, 'Well, I've got something real close to that already drawn out. You want to take a look at it?" Graves recalled. "So I sent it to him and he said, "let's do that."

Graves said the Nitro Chaos event is a 50/50 event with Kramer. It was sponsored by Twisted Shifterz, Spell Paving Services, Wulff Pumps.

"Eddyville has got a great market for nitro," Graves said. "That's a really strong nitro base fan base up there at Eddyville and it showed. We had a great crowd."

As great of a concept as Nitro Chaos brings, Graves sees the event being complimentary to Funny Car Chaos and not a new direction.

"Probably not, just because unless I find some huge six-figure sponsor to make all that happen, we ain't going to be able to do it," Graves explained. "There's plenty of racers, just the cars that were at this race last weekend, who want to share in that excitement that have nitro cars. The cars that were there, every single car, many of which many people at the track had never seen before. New cars, cars that just got completed cars, that you'll never see unless you're at a match race because they can't compete on a pro level.

"For instance the Frantic Fueler front-engine Top Fuel car. That car qualified number four, won first round, would have won the semis had it not broke. But that car can't go run with the High-Speed car (Mendy Fry) or Jim Murphy. But they can come kick butt at Nitro Chaos. And they did."

"It's just the Chaos formula creates a way where Joe Blow the racer can kick butt. And that's who we're catering to. I'm not catering to Scott Palmer by any means. Scott Palmer wants come run for $10,000; come on. It's open. Run what you brung. Scott Palmer is a perfect guy, entertainment comes to put on a show, not there for his ego; he's there to have fun. And that's what he did, no doubt."

"All the racers they got to line up against him were excited to do it. They weren't upset that they knew they were the underdog. They were like, I can't believe I get to race Scott Palmer. So, that's the vibe that we create at these Chaos races. And that's what we want to cater to for other nitro cars, not just funny cars."

There was no segregation in qualifying or eliminations. Whatever car you lined up against, is the one you ran.

"We ran whoever pulled up to the lanes, that's how we do it," Graves said. "I don't care what lane you're on. I don't care how many whatever. Pull into the lanes and you go when it's your turn; whoever you're against, it doesn't matter."

The only requirement outside of safety is all entries had to run at least 80-percent nitro in the tank. Graves believes the Chaos format levels the playing field.

"The only way to level the playing field at a Chaos race is by the format; with A and the B fields, I Graves said. "When you automatically put eight cars that are closest performing together, you got a pretty close field regardless. So whether it's in Funny Car Chaos, where you got alcohol cars and nitro cars, or if you got Nitro Chaos, where you got dragsters and funny cars.

"The format we use is what makes it work to create close racing. Which we certainly had. I mean, the first round of NITRO CHAOS was nuts; there was like three or four cars that were like within two-hundredths of a second."

Graves is not bashful about confirming there will be two of these events in 2022. The where and when remains to be seen.

The success of the first event has inspired more for next season, but Graves intends to keep the show in check.

"I'm not going to make a point series out of it," Graves explained. "Nothing to go crazy. The Funny Car Chaos is always going to be top priority, but these are also extremely interesting and fun."