As a three-time No Prep Kings points champion and winningest driver ever in the series, Ryan Martin is no stranger to success. His stoic nature is one of a driver that never appears to be too high or too low. But standing at the top end of zMAX Dragway after winning the first-ever event in the Right Trailers Outlaw Street class at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, not even Martin could reign in his emotions.
“Honestly, it’s pretty surreal,” says Martin. “I thank God that I’ve been very fortunate – I’ve won races for $100,000 and I’ve won championships back-to-back, and that is all fantastic. But you still go, ‘Hey, NHRA is the big stage, NHRA gives away Wally’s, and I don’t have one of those.’ This class gave us the ability to go get a Wally – a 75th anniversary Diamond Wally. That was just icing on the cake.”
The final round was decided right at the starting line. Martin’s opponent, Scott Taylor, went -.002 red, throwing away a 3.702-second pass at 195.65. A timing malfunction in Martin’s lane caused him to not receive a time, and despite seeing the win light come on in his lane, it took a couple minutes until he knew for sure.
“It was a very odd moment,” Martin says. “I could clearly tell he got out in front of me, so the first thing I do is look up to see if he went red. He didn’t have a red light when I looked up, but I had a win light. I make my pass and no time comes up. I’m on my radio going, ‘What happened? What happened?’ waiting for somebody to say something. They’d already kicked their headphones off celebrating. Until I parked the car next to Scott, then looked over at the guy walking up to me with the Wally…that’s the first time I knew.”
The weekend wasn’t without its challenges. Martin’s team struggled throughout qualifying, with a 3.889 at 177.84 mph being his best pass, narrowly making the field in the No. 8 position. His reward for getting in the show was a first-round matchup with No. 1 qualifier Kyle Canion, who posted a 3.667 elapsed time at an incredible 218.58 mph. Martin admits there was no specific moment that turned things around.
“I hate to say this, but I think we just had a lot of bad luck,” says Martin. “We tested at Rockingham on the way here, and we couldn’t do no wrong. This car’s been a 3.64 before, and we were dipping close to that. When we left the test session, I thought we were gonna be in good shape.
“We showed up for Q1 and I honestly believed we were going to go down and set the bar, but we busted the bypass valve off the hose. In Q2 it was a tuneup malfunction, and Q3 the thing smoked the tires out of nowhere. Sometimes you get bad luck and sometimes you get good luck – we just had a string of bad luck.”
Martin’s luck changed quickly in eliminations. He used a slight starting line advantage and a 3.724 e.t. at 210.57 mph to get around Canion in Saturday afternoon’s first round, who slowed to a 3.807 at 175.94. From there, he knew he had his hot rod back headed into Sunday.
“We knew you can only suck so many times, right?” Martin says with a laugh. “We knew Kyle was the car to beat, but we also knew the sun was out. The track was 125 degrees. That’s where [tuner] Jamie [Miller] came in and really helped us out. He said, ‘Let’s calm it down, make a fast run in the heat of the day.’ That’s why we won, because he made the right tuning call on race day.”
In the semifinals, Martin faced his teammate Carson Baker in his orange “Speedo Cheeto” Camaro. Like Taylor would do later in the final round, Baker also went red, handing Martin a free ticket to the final round. While some might argue that Martin got lucky being on the receiving end of two red lights in three rounds, it’s also an example of how widely respected Martin is – opponents know they have to cut a great light to beat him.
“I guess you could call it an intimidation factor,” says Martin. “For me to be able to go up there and they be worried about racing me, I like that. Carson’s my teammate, so I don’t like to have that on him. He had a bunch of family members here, and he was on a big stage. It was easier for me to just breathe and make a pass than it was for him. “Scott, that’s a different story. He’s a veteran driver. Him and I have been battling it out back and forth for 10-plus years now. We know how to deal with each other, and he was getting in my head as much as I was getting in his. You could say he had a consistent car and I didn’t, but at the end of the day, we got the W.”
This story was originally published on May 1, 2026. 
The post Ryan Martin Savors “Surreal” Moment, Earns First Career Wally in NHRA’s Outlaw Street Debut first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
