The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is welcoming a new Top Fuel team to its 2024 roster, as veteran Top Fuel and drag boat racer Shawn Reed returns to full-time competition as the owner/driver of the Shawn Reed Racing (SRR) Reed Truck & Excavating Top Fuel dragster. Reed made the announcement during the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis the first week of December.
Reed entered the first two races of the 2020 season, one that was protracted when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the world.
The racer is going about his entry in a most professional manner, having hired Rob Wendland as his crew chief, together with assistant crew chief Ryan Elliott. The crew for SRR most recently worked with Cruz Pedregon Racing and were, before then, in charge of Tommy Johnson Jr.’s successful Funny Car team at Don Schumacher Racing (DSR).
This new team will have a technical and advancement alliance with Antron Brown’s AB Motorsports; three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Brown and his team will work closely with Wendland and Elliott, with the tuning duo of Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, who have led 56 of Brown’s 58 Top Fuel victories assisting the crew as they start their journey.
The SRR team will have its workshops within the large, Brownsburg, IN building that, at one time solely housed Don Schumacher Racing. They’ve taken delivery of a new Morgan Lucas Racing chassis, constructed at Lucas’ Brownsburg fabrication shop near DSR’s facility and secured a race trailer from Pegasus Trailers in Ohio. A second trailer is scheduled for spring delivery.
Shawn Reed Racing will be using many of the same race car components as AB Motorsports, which earned three 2023 Top Fuel victories, including the prestigious U.S. Nationals, arguably the biggest drag race of the year. The two teams will share developmental data, they said.
Reed grew up in the Pacific Northwest, not far from Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA. He has won five International Hot Boat Association (IHBA) championships prior to securing his NHRA Top Fuel license in 2014 at Frank Hawley’s drag racing school. He made his NHRA Top Fuel debut at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, FL in 2015 and, three years later, advanced to the final round of the 2018 Gainesville event.
“I love to compete, especially at the highest level, against the best racers in the world. There isn’t a more competitive class in the NHRA than Top Fuel,” Reed attested. “The need for speed is what really drives and motivates me. I’m not getting younger, and I want to live this dream. It’s truly a YOLO moment for me,” to be announcing his presence on a full-time basis. “My ultimate goal is to make this a business and give others the opportunity to be successful in the NHRA.
“Thank you to Barbara and Floyd Hughes of Hughes Oilfield and Transportation. I wouldn’t have this opportunity without their funding and friendship. They have inspired me to live my dream and pursue driving full time,” Reed said.
The new SRR team has a busy winter ahead of it before the season begins the second weekend of March at the 55th Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. They’ll be building their car and establishing an inventory go new parts and components before testing in February and March.
“I want to learn from Antron like he did from Don Schumacher all of those years, before becoming an owner/driver,” Reed allowed. “Rob (Wendland) talked to Antron about a second car. He didn’t want to expand ABM that quickly, so we continued to talk and develop a friendship. He’s been a great mentor,” Reed said, “providing good counsel these past few years. We’ll run identical parts and work closely with Brian, Mark and Brad Mason at ABM. Rob and that team work together very well, and I’m super stoked to get started. I wish it was next March already!”
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