Josh Hart is as mild-mannered of a driver as you will find in the NHRA pits. He smiles each time one of the teams expresses to him, “We are so glad you are out here.”

As much as it pains Hart to say it, it doesn’t take long for the smile to turn to a frown. 

He’s got this to say to some of those teams in the pits. 

“Quit trying to poach my crew and sponsors.”

“I was a businessman long before I ever drove a race car,” Hart said. “Last year, I genuinely did just come out here to have some fun. I wanted to race with the best people on the planet, taking it all at face value. I thought that [some] were upstanding, good people. As you enter this arena, you realize very quickly that nothing’s off-limits. “

Hart said he understands it’s no secret the pit area can often appear as shark-infested waters, and for years the experience was understood as nothing personal, just business. It’s not the kind of business Hart will ignore without speaking his peace. 

“People sending crew chief proposals, calling them, trying to get them, and people come into your pits literally trying to steal your crew,” Hart revealed. “So there’s certain people out here that I definitely have learned from in a negative light, and I’ll enjoy nothing more than putting them on the trailer.”

Hart declined to name the offending parties other than to say if you see him smiling extra wide at the end of a race, that can be construed as a clue.  

Hart believes if these teams wanted them so bad, they should have approached them before he hired them. 

“Why did it take our success for people to try to tear it down?” Hart asked. “When you’re doing average, everybody’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re so happy you’re out here.” 

“As soon as you start putting them on the trailer, they obviously don’t want to be friends. But even before that, I thought it was kind of a weird thing when I learned what silly season was, and there’s really no season. Everybody out here is very cutthroat. I’m learning that it’s a business just as much as it is for fun. 

The crew is one thing, but then there comes the attempted sponsor poaching. He reiterates that the process starts with their happiness to see his team in competition. Shortly after that, the sponsors begin receiving calls from those “who can do better.”

“I just don’t do business that way,” Hart said.” My relationships are built on long term, and we started this program self-funded, so if one of the sponsors did choose to leave us, we’ll continue on.”

Hart said he loves drag racing immensely, but this seedy side of the straight-line sport wounds his drag racing soul.  

“It’s extremely painful,” Hart said. “I can’t say it enough, I came out here for fun, and I understand it costs a lot of money out here. There’s a lot of self-made millionaires out here, and they don’t want to run their cars on their own money. I came out here self-made, and I plan to run my own money. It’s nice to have sponsors, but I would never go to somebody else’s team and deliberately steal their sponsors or attempt to steal their crew.”