Josh Hart’s plan for the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series was to run a limited schedule with modest goals.

That didn’t happen.

The Top Fuel rookie sent shock through the class with two wins in Gainesville, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C.’s fall race and four additional semifinal finishes while only competing in 11 of the 18 races this season.

“It has been crazy,” Hart said. “I be lying if I said no (to be surprised about winning races). We didn’t really design to own a Top Fuel team. That was kind of a strange situation by itself. Going from there to here, it has been a whirlwind. I think the craziest thing for me personally has probably been just seeing all the people I looked up to for so long. It is a very cool camaraderie. That has been the craziest thing for me to experience.”

Hart was quick to credit the people around him for this newfound success.

“Definitely my team,” he said. “The team is obviously everything and those guys are very professional. They jelled together immediately and attribute a lot of that success to (crew chief) Ron Douglas. Then, Ron has been super, super supportive of budgets and things like that, and you don’t usually hear those words when you talk about Top Fuel teams.

We weren’t sure when we started this season, we were totally self-funded. We were getting a little bit of help from TechNet, which was on my alcohol dragster. The win in Gainesville (the season-opening race in March), definitely got us some attention right out of the gate and that helped us lure in buymetalbuildingsdirect.com, and then a partnership formed later on with R+L Carriers. It has just been a mixture of karma and a lot of hard work and determination from a lot of people.”

Douglas is thrilled to be a part of Hart’s Top Fuel operation.

“After years in the A Fuel ranks Josh had a solid foundation,” said Douglas, who was the crew chief for 2007 NHRA Rookie of the Year nitro Funny Car driver Ashley Force Hood. “Watching him move into the Top Fuel dragster and being a guy who has been there from day one, he has handled everything incredibly well. He is calm, professional and if something is a little off, we talk about it. We adjust and he moves on. We have never had to talk about the same thing twice. He got acclimated to the race car very quickly which showed when we won the Gatornationals to start the season.”

Hart’s 2021 performance has made him a strong candidate to win the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. Rookie of the Year.

“When we went to Gainesville and we did a couple of test passes and as soon as that car went 3.70 the first time I though that was good,” Hart said. “Then it did it again and again. I thought you know what I can handle this. We acclimated to one another very quickly. It was kind of like Days of Thunder (1990 movie starring Tom Cruise), I still talk to the car. The owner of R+L Carriers who has a very, very strong Christian background he said we should call the car David, like David and Goliath. For short, we call the car Davey.”

Hart would love to add to his name as a recipient of NHRA’s Rookie of the Year honor.

“It would mean the world to me,” Hart said. “It is complete validation that truly anything is possible.

In five Countdown races, he has earned more points than Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon, Antron Brown, Clay Millican and Leah Pruett. 

Hart is the 21st different Top Fuel driver to win a Countdown race and the first rookie to win a Countdown race in one of the fuel categories since Khalid alBalooshi won at Reading in 2012. 

Hart’s meteoric rise has not gone unnoticed by legends and current stars.

“He is having a hell of a season and it ain’t over yet,” said drag racing legend “Big Daddy” Don Garlits. “I hope he gets rookie of the year. I’ll tell you like the guy told his son when he wanted to be an artist. He said either you are an artist, or you are not an artist. You don’t learn how to be an artist. Same thing with being a good driver, you can’t buy it and you can’t learn it. You just got to be it. Josh is a good driver. You can take another guy just like him and put him in the same car and train him and train him, but he won’t ever do nothing.”

Reigning three-time Top Fuel world champ Steve Torrence concurred with Garlits.

“Hands down Josh Hart is the rookie of the year,” Torrence said. “The guy has come out and driven at a championship level each and every time he has been in the car. He is a very respectful and professional young man. I have watched him through the alcohol ranks and I have watched him coming up into the Top Fuel car. The job he does overall is unparalleled compared to any other rookie out here. I will say it again, he is hands down the rookie of the year.”

Hart’s team started the season based in Ocala, Fla., but that evolved.

“Ron (Douglas) was like this is getting really popular and if we are going to add races, we need to look at a shop in Indianapolis,” Hart said. “About the midseason, that is what the lull was. We knew we were going to have to take some time to move everything to Indianapolis. I felt like that was a good testament to our commitment to NHRA. We are renting a shop in Brownsburg (Ind.) and we are looking to build one in the future.”

With two races left in the 2021 season Las Vegas (Oct. 29-31) and Pomona, Calif., (Nov. 11-14), Hart has a simple approach.

“We show up to every race prepared to win,” Hart said. “I don’t want to just get a participation award, that’s not in my blood. I just want to go out there and win. I always wanted to run Top Fuel and I had a lot of people tell me I would never be able to because financially or they didn’t think I was talented enough. I actually dedicated my Top Fuel license to those people when I got it.

“I’m trying to prove to anybody that anything is possible. You really are limitless if you put your mind to. We are going to try and run a full schedule in 2022 and looking forward to the future.”