It might just be drag racing’s version of Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football.
Doug Foley committed to the IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series, stepped out of the cockpit and handed the dragster to Gary Pritchett. The younger driver responded by reaching the final round at every event, and Foley’s team suddenly looked like it had found the combination it had spent years chasing.
Then somebody yanked the football away.
With IHRA’s season apparently coming apart, Foley has parked his Top Fuel operation for the remainder of 2026. Instead of spending much time wondering what happened, he has started reshaping the operation for 2027.
The changes go considerably deeper than changing the name of the team.
Foley Racing will replace the Foley Lewis Racing name beginning in January, Pritchett will return for an eight-race Top Fuel schedule, and Foley’s sons, Doug Jr. and Joe, are being groomed to eventually take over the family operation.
“I would probably say not. It’s been a rough year,” Foley said when asked whether he might drive again. “I’m trying to come to terms with that myself, but I feel like it’s time to turn it over to the younger guys. I was doing okay, but it’s way too much of an investment to have a mediocre driver.”
Foley’s decision to stop driving actually came long before IHRA’s problems forced the team to stop racing.
He made that call over Thanksgiving weekend in 2025 and kept it from his family for weeks. For a racer who finally reached a point in life where he could afford to race Top Fuel on his terms, walking away was hardly the obvious move.
Foley said years of concussions, combined with his accident at GALOT Motorsports Park in 2025, forced him to consider something racers generally don’t enjoy considering: whether he still belonged behind the wheel.
“It was more of a situation of, I think another driver, my kids or Gary in that same situation in GALOT probably wouldn’t have crashed that car,” Foley said. “It was nothing more than a tire smoker that shook and just put me out of sorts for a second or two.
“And you can’t be out of sorts for a second or two in these cars. You just can’t. So it’s been a difficult year on coming to terms with the fact that I now have the financial ability, but probably should be looking at the next generation.”
That next generation started with Pritchett in Top Fuel. Crew chiefs Doug Kuch and Ron Douglas are expected back, along with the entire 2026 crew. Keeping that group intact became a priority because Foley believes the current dragster has been among the most consistent cars his organization has fielded.
The people turning the wrenches aren’t the only ones staying. United Garage Door and Coble Enterprises will return as primary sponsors in 2027, with Insinger, Red Line, BAMR Restoration and TechnoCraft also continuing with Foley Racing.
“Gary’s going to return. Keeping the same two crew chiefs, which is Doug and Ron,” Foley said. “And right now, as far as I can tell is the entire crew’s coming back. And so that’s one thing that we really were concerned about, because we were stopping so early.”
Foley credits Douglas and the people who came with him for raising the level of the operation. What began as a personnel move turned into something Foley believes made the entire team better. The results with Pritchett gave him evidence beyond a good-looking parts inventory.
“We were forced into making some changes, personnel changes that some people retired in the very beginning or late in the fall or whatever of 2025,” Foley said. “And I will say it was not just a great addition of Ron Douglas to help Doug, but he had a lot of talented guys that work with him.
“And to be honest with you, when I brought Ron in, I definitely didn’t bring him in for those reasons. I brought him in for his talent. And then we just started talking and it was like, I got a couple guys and that really took the program up another level, or maybe a couple levels.”
Top Fuel is only part of what Foley is building. The team has purchased an A/Fuel dragster that will be used to develop Doug Jr. and Joe. Shane Conway and Ricky Howell will oversee that program, with testing expected to begin in November and the goal of having both brothers licensed and comfortable enough to compete by the 2027 Gatornationals.
Foley sees the A/Fuel car as a classroom with a parachute attached.
“That’s something I probably want to do for the kids and eventually get them to the Top Fuel level, but right now that’s where I would start,” Foley said. “We just had a couple conversations and he located a car that he worked on and built. So Shane Conway and Ricky Howell are going to come back and run that car for me, just like they ran my car.”
Both sons will drive it. How they divide the schedule is one detail Dad apparently has no intention of refereeing.
“I don’t know where to put both of them in a room and I guess who wins the battle gets to drive,” Foley said. “So we just decided that, hey listen, as brothers, they got to figure out an on-off type of situation of who’s driving what race. They’re both going to drive.”
The sportsman side will also receive a larger share of Foley Racing’s attention.
Doug Jr. and Joe have won well over $1 million combined in big-money bracket racing, according to Foley, and the family has established a relationship with PAR Racing Engines. A new S-10 is also being prepared as Foley builds a larger stable rather than having his sons depend on rides in other people’s cars.
Foley doesn’t view bracket racing as something to keep everybody occupied between Top Fuel races. Around his shop, the sportsman cars get treated with the same seriousness as the nitro car.
“When you’re in the final for 300 grand, you want to make sure that that car repeats,” Foley said. “And I don’t go to those races because those are marathons and I can’t keep my attention that long, but the kids go there, they do a good job.”
The name change carries another piece of emotional ties. Foley Lewis Racing was named in part for the late Tim Lewis, whose involvement helped Foley return to racing and build the operation that exists today.
Foley believes transitioning to Foley Racing is not leaving Lewis behind. In his mind, turning the opportunity over to Pritchett and his sons is probably the most appropriate way to carry forward what Lewis once did for him.
“None of this transition to Foley Racing would have been possible without Tim Lewis,” Foley said. “He was the guy who really was the glue that kept this whole thing together and even gave me an opportunity. But this is something that he would want me to do for sure.
“I think he’d be glad that I got out of the car. I think he would say, ‘Hey, listen, now you give somebody else an opportunity, Gary and my boys.’ And so I think it’s just passing on what he did for me to younger people.”
