It’s been disheartening to see depleted Top Fuel fields at many 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series events. We all know the class, along with Funny Car, runs on money and that substance is not always available in the large quantities necessary to keep these cars on the road for the 20 races that comprise the season.
Well, changes are afoot to adjust the number of dragsters competing in NHRA’s 75th anniversary season upwards next year. In April, three-time Funny Car champion and four-year team owner Ron Capps announced the expansion of his team from a single Flopper to one Funny Car and one Top Fuel entry, with Maddi Gordon as his dragster driver.
Shortly after the 25th annual Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Capps took the stage at the annual SEMA show to announce that Gordon’s TF entry will be funded by Carlyle Tools, which is part of NAPA Auto Parts. Capps is a 31-year veteran of NHRA drag racing and has had sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts for 19 of those years.
“This is definitely a pinch-me moment,” said Maddi Gordon, a third generation drag racer who became the 100th woman in NHRA history to win a national event, when she earned her first victory aboard her family’s Top Alcohol Funny Car (TAFC) last season. As she prepares to step into the closed cockpit of her 12,000-horsepower black and venom green dragster, “I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that I get to drive a dragster for Ron next year, and to do that with such an innovative and dynamic brand like Carlyle Tools is a dream.”
Capps set up Gordon’s family-operated Flopper with a product agreement earlier in the season. “It was so cool to be able to represent them on a smaller scale this year,” she said, “but the fact that it has evolved beyond that, and I’ll get to be ‘the Carlyle driver’ competing in NHRA’s pro ranks, is not something I could have ever imagined.” The Carlyle Tools brand is geared towards reaching young techs and students of the sport. At 21 years old, Gordon embodies the demographic that Carlyle Tools is intending to attract in the sport.
“Maddi represents everything we’re working toward with the Carlyle Tools transformation,” acknowledged Katherine Wooten, NAPA director of partnerships strategy and activation. “She’s young, she’s incredibly talented and she knows her way around an auto shop.” Gordon regularly works with her family’s TAFC entry, performing chores like working the clutch and pulling a cylinder head, Capps reminded. “When we reimagined the Carlyle band,” Wooten confirmed, “we had the next generation in mind and we were looking for someone who could authentically connect with young technicians.”
Capps will stand by Gordon as she completes the 2025 season with her family’s race car and then assist her to complete all licensing processes to compete in Top Fuel. At this time Gordon, who earned her Top Alcohol Funny Car license in 2023, owns three National event wins, four regional victories and currently holds third place in the class’ points tally.
In other Top Fuel news, Rick Ware Racing (RWR), which expanded to a two-car team at the 71st Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals when eight-time class champion Tony Schumacher joined Clay Millican as a new teammate, has decided to shuffle its crew chief duties for the season finale of NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season next week on the In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip. The team is moving Jim Oberhofer to Schumacher’s car and has assigned Nicky Boninfante as crew chief for Millican.
When Schumacher’s return was announced, Rob Flynn was named his crew chief, a chore the Canadian has undertaken ever since. There was no mention, in the social media announcement of these changes, regarding Flynn’s status in the operation. At the same time, bringing together Oberhofer and Boninfante is a positive move for RWR. Oberhofer worked most of his career with Kalitta Motorsports, where he got his start in the class; Boninfante, has worked in both nitro classes, Top Fuel and Funny Car, and is known as a crafty tuner with infinite knowledge of the nitro classes.
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