Veteran nitro Funny Car racer Justin Schriefer is back to take another swing against NHRA’s best this weekend.

Schriefer will make his 2023 season debut when he competes at the Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK Performance May 19-21 in Chicago.

The track is only 35 minutes from Schriefer’s home in Grant Park, Ill. Chicago is returning to NHRA’s national event schedule for the first time since 2019.

“This track is right in our backyard,” Schriefer said. “I’m really excited to be racing in Chicago. I spent more than $200,000 on my car upgrading things. I have been adding motors, more new clutch equipment and a lot of spare parts. We have a lot of back-up stuff now. I know I can do (Chicago), and Indy and I’m signed up for Norwalk, (Ohio), but I will see how my work pans out and how much more sponsor money I get.

“I do this because of my love for drag racing. I have been a drag racer all my life. The sound. The power. The fans. It is such an honor to be with NHRA and be up there and say that we are part of this pro organization. I love everything about it.”

Schriefer is able to run his limited schedule with backing from his own company – Renzo Excavating – and associate sponsors.

“West Side Tractor has always been on my car and that’s where I get a lot of my heavy equipment from,” Schriefer said. “They are a primary sponsor and I’m a local 150 operating engineer member. Local 150 they are onboard as a primary sponsor and I’m excited to get all the guys to come out from local 150. ARP Automotive Racing Products, they have helped me out a lot this year and they are a heavy hitter for me. I picked up HPL, High Performance Lubricants and they have helped me out a lot and they are great people, and their oil product is unbelievable. I use it now in all my heavy equipment.

“Chris Hardy of Racing Engine Technologies does all the work on the heads on my car at the track and he takes them home and does more work on them. He does an outstanding job on my heads. He’s a perfectionist. He has put me where we have seven sets of heads now ready to run and I can’t thank him enough for all the work he has done.” 

Other sponsors for Schriefer consist of Sollitt Tap in Sollitt, Ill., Radrides by Troy, Stevenson Custom Carts, Stevenson Automotive, Stevenson Crane, Country Inn and Suites, Poly Dyne TX7, Ultra Dyne Performance, NAPA Auto Parts in Momence, Stupid, Fast Racing, Coating Specialties, Hogswipe, 1st Ayde, Briggs Tree Service.

A year ago, Schriefer competed at just one event at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. This season, he plans to go to Chicago and Indy and possibly Norwalk, Ohio.

“Mike Kern, T.J. Zizzo’s (Top Fuel) crew chief, tuned the car at Indy, and we were close to getting in the field,” Schriefer said. “Had we had one more run, we ran 407.90, we would have been able to get after it a little more on the other end of the clutch.”

When Schriefer rolls into Chicago, it will be with a new crew chief – Rip Reynolds. Reynolds was a longtime tuner with crew chief John Collins on Tommy Johnson Jr.’s Funny Car at Don Schumacher Racing.

A year ago, Reynolds was Collins’ assistant crew chief with Cruz Pedregon.

“Rip has been around forever,” Schriefer said. “He retired at the end of last year and I called him and asked him if he would be interested in doing two or three races with me this year and he said he would.”

When a team runs a limited schedule it can’t happen without a loyal crew – which Schiefer has.

Joining him in Chicago will be his wife, Rebecca (cook, backs up car);  Robert Paul (car chief); Dave “Nitro” Miller (left side heads, racks); Brian Stevenson (right side head); Keith Zelhart (tires, raise body, cut discs); Collin Madaquite (bottom end); Rusty Simpson (bottom end assistant, parts cleaner); Bill Stevenson (motor assistant); Wayne Massad (mix fuel, place stickers); Scott Wible (superchargers); Mauricio Cruz (body maintenance); and Cody Boyer (assistant and cook). Outside of the track Schriefer has kept busy as he and his brothers – Greg, Matt, and Brett – are partners in the Sollitt Tap near Beecher, Ill.

“It is a biker bar, and we have some huge functions there,” Schriefer said. “That has been a big part of my life with my brothers right now. We have huge functions on the weekends with like 3,000 people. The bar has been around for 55 years, and we bought it during COVID (in 2020).”

In Chicago this weekend, Schriefer has lofty goals.

“My expectations are we are going for the Wally,” he said. “I have spent a lot of money on the car and with Rip there and Mike Kern still helping we are putting ourselves on the level of all the rest of them. I’m going there to win on hole shots.”

Schriefer always is motivated to succeed for his late daughter, Ericka L. Schriefer. She passed away on Jan. 31, 2010, as a result of a snowboarding accident at Copper Mountain (Colo.) ski area, 75 miles west of Denver.

“I always promised my daughter I would get her a Wally,” Justin said. “I always have her stickers on the car and her picture in my pocket. She’s always with me. I think about her all the time.”