NHRA is doing a lot to make its 75th anniversary season for the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series as special as this diamond year could possibly be. As teams prep for the 20-race season to begin at Gainesville Raceway less than a month away, they’re anticipating the more than $27 million in purse and payouts about to be awarded. This eight-figure amount increases purses from 2025 and includes event purses for drivers in the Mission Foods and Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series on the national event tour, as well as the year-end title purses, payouts for the All-Star Callout races in all four Mission Foods classes: Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle. It also includes the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and other incentive programs.
Included in this payout is a Wally Parks 75th Anniversary Appreciation Fund, a special initiative that will disburse $500,000 over the course of the 20-race campaign, recognizing teams that continue to carry forward Parks’ legacy in straight-line racing.
The uprated, multi-million dollar payouts for this year are part of the increased payouts for the regular season championship introduced in 2025 for the four pro Mission Foods classes. That will continue in this diamond anniversary season.
The Wally Parks 75th Anniversary Appreciation Fund is part of the total purse and payout, only available during this very special season. The campaign honors the vision of Wally Parks, who founded NHRA in 1951. This special fund awards teams and is incentivized for promoting each race during the 2026 season, displaying a 75th anniversary decal on their car – or motorcycle- and flying the 75th anniversary flag on their race trailers at all events.
“Supporting and rewarding our racers at every level has always been a priority for NHRA,” declared Glen Cromwell, NHRA president. “During our Milestone, 75th anniversary season, we’re excited and proud to take that commitment further. The introduction of the Wally Parks 75th Anniversary Appreciation Fund is a fitting way to honor Wally and NHRA’s legacy, while directly giving back to the competitors who are currently part of it,” he said.
“With a total purse of more than $27 million for 2026, we’re thrilled to award the incredible drivers and teams who compete at the highest level in our sport, and deliver an amazing show for NHRA fans across the country,” Cromwell continued. “With programs like the regular-season championship, specialty races and more, we’re excited about what will be a truly remarkable and historic 2026 season.”
NHRA’s 14-race “regular” season begins with the 57th annual Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway and continues through to the U.S. Nationals, before the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs begin. In 2025, regular season titles went to Tony Stewart (Top Fuel), Austin Prock in Funny Car, Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) and Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Richard Gadson.
Doug Kalitta earned his second Top Fuel championship last season, as did Austin Prock in Funny Car, who took back-to-back titles. Dallas Glenn’s and Richard Gadson’s 2025 titles were their first in Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle, respectively.
While NHRA’s Mission Foods and Lucas Oil competitors are busy in Florida, one of the oldest regular operating dragstrips in the country will hold its March Meet in Bakersfield, California the same weekend. Famoso Dragstrip, located about 20 minutes northeast of Bakersfield proper, opened in 1954; it was a former airstrip and became the spot where hot rudders could work on their tuning skills and for racers to establish bragging rights.
In 1959, the Smokers March Meet was contested for the first time at Famoso, and drag racers have returned to this locale every winter to place their names in the track’s history books. In three years, this dragstrip will have its 70th anniversary! The track still uses a quarter-mile configuration and welcomes nitro-burning racers. There was a time, in 1957, that nitromethane was banned due to safety concerns – engine explosions and high speeds caused tracks to ban the propellant but Famoso continued to push the envelop, ignoring the ban that ended in 1964!
The March Meet has launched drag racing careers: in 1962, then only 20 years old, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme won the March Meet, which turned out to be the launching pad for his career as one of the most significant drag racing drivers and owners of all time. The four-time Funny Car champion said his early days at Famoso Dragstrip were pivotal to his success.
Prudhomme recalled the significance of the March Meet and Famoso Dragstrip: “The first time I was there was 1959, and then in 1962 I was driving a fuel car for Zeuschel and Fuller, and won the race. That was a big deal, and people got to know me. You have to remember: NHRA was not running nitro back then, so everybody wanted to run nitro and you had to go to Bakersfield,” because of the ban.
“It was a different time and the sport was a whole different deal than what it is today. Bakersfield really put us on the map. That was a great race to win,” he emphasized. “It’s great for people that have an interest in drag racing to go there and see what really happened in the early days. Cars,” Prudhomme reminded, “are so much different now. Front-engine dragsters and stuff that’s really the backbone of drag racing – you can see that at the March Meet.”
While he’ll be in Florida driving the John Force Racing Chevrolet SS for the second, full-time year in 2026, 2012 Funny Car champion Jack Beckman, a true historian of the sport, has roots at the March meet. “For as long as I have known, the March Meet was a ig deal. It was a big deal in 1959, when one of my idols (and friend) Art Chrisman outran another legend and friend, Tony Waters, to win the inaugural race. It was a big deal when Bob Muravez came out of 20-year driving retirement to win Nostalgia Top Fuel, and it was a big deal the first time I participated. A lot has changed in the past 67 years, but a victory at Bakersfield today, holding that March Meet trophy in the Winners Circle, is still a big deal!”
Another NHRA champion, three-time Funny Car titleholder Ron Capps is also a March Meet champion. His family has watched and raced the famed event since he was a kid and this is where his passion for drag racing began – even before he was born! “I was in my mom’s belly at the march Meet. It means everything. And as a fan, it’s so many great memories, from my brother and I and our family,” Capps reminisced. “Going up to that track later, and competing there… and competing in a Fuel Altered! To go back there, compete and then win the event and have one of the March Meet trophies, it’s right in the middle of all my trophies, right in the middle of all 77 of them. It means the world to me.”
Neither Beckman nor Capps will be on-site for this year’s Good Vibrations March Meet. They’ll be in Florida competing in the first of 20 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season starter. What will they miss? Four days of qualifying and racing for one of the most historic trophies in drag racing.
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