Canadian Rob Flynn, the NHRA nitro tuner who helped Mike Salinas become the first NHRA Top Fuel driver to 300mph in the eighth-mile, has a new home for the 2026 season. The veteran will tune Maddi Gordon as she begins her first professional season in Top Fuel, racing for Ron Capps Motorsports. Gordon was named to the seat in April of this year and her sponsorship with Carlyle Tools took center stage at this month’s SEMA show.
Now some of the larger checks on the new team’s checklist have found their way to reality. Gordon, a sophomore in the Top Alcohol Funny Car ranks during the 2025 season is a third-generation driver in that class. She’s running for 2026 Rookie of the Year as she embarks on her professional career in the dragster class. “It really feels like everything is starting to come together now,” Capps revealed in naming Flynn as crew chief. “We have the driver, we recently announced the sponsor, we’ve started acquiring assets – and now with the addition of Rob, it feels like we’ve got all the major items in place and can start to fill in the blanks, really proceeding full speed ahead with our 2026 plans.”
As the 21-year-old Gordon begins this next, giant step in her straight-line career, she’ll have an experienced nitro crew chief who owns 36 visits to the Winners Circle, but what likely closed the deal for Capps and his Funny Car crew chief, Dean “Guido” Antonelli, who will be working alongside Flynn, is that the veteran was working most recently with Scrappers Racing, as crew chief for Jasmine Salinas’ Top Fuel dragster. She made her dragster debut in 2024 with Flynn at the helm and, this past season, Flynn tuned Salinas to back-to-back semifinal results in the first two 2025 contests. She advanced to the quarterfinals at the third event and raced in the final quad at the Las Vegas Four-Wide NHRA Nevada National before funding issues sidelined her team.
Going from tuning Mike Salinas to working with his daughter, Flynn’s work ethic and his ability to enhance a driver’s capabilities were key to this hiring. HIs outwardly calm demeanor didn’t hurt, either. As Capps explained, “I’ve known Rob and his family for quite a long time. We worked together at Don Prudhomme’s years ago when I drove for ‘Snake.’ I’ve always admired him and his style of leading a team: his professionalism on and off the track. He’s got a great record and we feel he will be a great fit with our organization.”
Ultimately, the choice went to both Capps and Antonelli. “Since we first decided to expand the team and add a dragster,” Capps said, “I’ve always said it was his [Antonelli’s] decision, because even though they’ll be running two completely different cars, they’ll be working together. Rob has always been at the top of our list, and I’m so happy that it all worked out.”
In addition to working with the Salinas family, Flynn’s experience includes such stars as Brandon Bernstein, “Hot” Rod Fuller, Leah Pruett and past world champs Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon and eight-time Top Fuel titleholder Tony Schumacher. “I’m looking forward to working with Maddi next year,” Rob Flynn stated. “I learned a lot working with Jasmine these last two years, and it was a pretty similar situation, where she came to the team with driving experience, but was new to nitro which, as we all know, is a whole different beast. You could really see this past year that she felt comfortable in the car and had grown confident in her abilities. That really translated on the track.
“Definitely one of the biggest things I learned,” Flynn explained, “was not to rush things and push too hard. Early on that first year, I think I pushed too hard when I should have been focusing on getting the car to go down the track, A to B. I want to give Maddi lots of straight, smooth runs down the track and build some confidence that the car is going to go to the finish line every time.
“Of course,” he added, “there will be times where there’s some tire shake or tire smoke, but I think Maddi feels confident that we’re going to give her a car that will go down the track and not put her in a position where she’s behind it, that will help make her feel more comfortable and at ease. Most drivers say it takes 50-60 runs to get comfortable, and I think that tracks. So, my plan is to spend that time getting Maddi used to making runs, and then we can step it up from there,” Flynn concluded.
Gordon closed out her second Top Alcohol Funny Car season with three national events wins and a third-place overall result for the year. She will begin her Top Fuel licensing process this winter. Gordon intends to make her professional debut in the Carlyle Tools Top Fuel dragster at NHRA’s 75th anniversary season-opener, the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, FL, March 6-8. “I feel so lucky we were able to lock Rob in as my crew chief,” she said. “It’s comforting, knowing that he has experience with first-year drivers. Jasmine and Rob were off to a great start last year, and it was a bummer they weren’t able to keep that going. But I’m glad when the opportunity became available, we were able to scoop him up!”
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