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Krista Baldwin is set to make her return to the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series<\/span><\/span> Top Fuel ranks this weekend at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals<\/span><\/span> at Route 66 Raceway<\/span><\/span>, bringing with her a special tribute to one of drag racing\u2019s most legendary names \u2014 her grandfather, Chris Karamesines<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n Backed by Red Line Oil<\/a>, Composite Specialties<\/a>, and Seefried Ranch<\/a>, Baldwin\u2019s return to Top Fuel competition also doubles as a celebration of the Karamesines family legacy in NHRA drag racing.<\/p>\n Karamesines, known throughout the sport as \u201cThe Greek,\u201d will serve as the honorary legend of the weekend during the Joliet event. To honor his decades-long impact on Top Fuel racing, Baldwin\u2019s dragster will debut a special tribute livery featuring Karamesines\u2019 signature branding. The design is scheduled to be unveiled during Friday\u2019s opening qualifying session on the starting line.<\/p>\n \u201cThis weekend means so much to me personally and professionally,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cTo return to Top Fuel competition while also celebrating my grandfather and everything he\u2019s meant to the sport is incredibly special. He paved the way for generations of racers, including me, and I\u2019m proud to honor him on our race car this weekend.\u201d The weekend will also mark the beginning of a new partnership between Baldwin and veteran crew chief Ron Douglas. Douglas, who brings decades of nitro and Top Fuel experience to the team, has spent recent weeks helping prepare the operation for competition at one of NHRA\u2019s most historic stops.<\/p>\n \u201cRon has worked tirelessly to help get this program prepared,\u201d Baldwin added. \u201cHis experience and leadership have already made a huge impact, and I\u2019m excited to work alongside him this weekend.\u201d The Route 66 Nationals will be Baldwin\u2019s first Top Fuel appearance of the 2026 season and comes at a track with deep roots tied to the Karamesines family racing history.<\/p>\n Qualifying begins Friday at Route 66 Raceway, with eliminations scheduled for Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Krista Baldwin is set to make her return to the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel ranks this weekend at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway, bringing with her a special tribute to one of drag racing\u2019s most legendary names \u2014 her grandfather, Chris Karamesines.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":105933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,3470,8427,8393],"tags":[13281,4047,12150,13282,41,7,1632],"class_list":["post-105932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-column","category-news","category-partner-news","category-press-releases","tag-drag-racinf","tag-krista-baldwin","tag-krista-baldwin-racing","tag-legend","tag-news","tag-nhra","tag-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ouwnbL5Q-e1778546914475.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-ryA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105934,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105932\/revisions\/105934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}