Reigning PDRA Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous presented by Jerry Bickel Race Cars world champion Marcus Butner hasn’t had the 2026 season he’d envisioned entering the Thunder Valley Throwdown, sitting fifth in points. He made a massive push to defend his title Saturday night in Bristol, however, pacing the field nearly the entire weekend en route to his first event win of the year.
Butner used a .025 to .061 holeshot in the final round to take the win over points leader and reigning event champion Tommy Franklin. Butner went 3.688 at 204.32 mph in his Pat Musi-powered, Jay Cox-tuned “Heartbreaker” ’69 Camaro, which was just enough to hold off Franklin’s 3.655 at 205.98 in his Musi-powered “Jungle Rat 3.0” ’69 Camaro.
The win not only shot Butner up the points standings, but earning the victory on the starting line was especially meaningful after the team had to thrash after fire erupted from the hood scoop in his semifinal-round win against Tim Paap and his ’16 Corvette.
“In the semifinals, we got up on the wheelie bars really hard. It ended up in high gear and it wasn’t supposed to be, and it just struck the motor down, hurt it a little bit,” said Butner. “We ended up swinging the motor back in it that we had in it all weekend. That was a challenge, you know, ‘cause we were in a time crunch in the semifinals, didn’t even get to clean our tools up. Here we are, ‘Where is everything?’ We just did everything we could.
“My team’s worked so hard; they work hard all the time,” Butner added. “We do a lot of testing, and they’re always willing to put in the extra step and double check things. They’ll stay up late at night working on it. They got my back 100%, so it’s very rewarding to be able to give it back to them.”
Butner qualified No. 1 with a 3.659 e.t., earning him a bye run in the first round where he ran 3.696 at 204.76 mph. In the quarterfinals, he ran 3.695 at 204.91 to defeat Amber Denton in the “OG Jungle rat,” as Denton went -.060 red. Butner’s backfire slowed him down to 3.833 in the semifinals, but it was still enough to stay ahead of Paap, who suffered his own issues in a 4.702-second pass, setting up the titanic matchup in the finals against Franklin.
Franklin, meanwhile, qualified No. 2 with a 3.665, less than a hundredth of a second behind Butner. He defeated Jimmy Cowan in the opening round, earning himself a bye in the quarterfinals. Franklin then outran Chesapeake, Virginia’s Dane Wood and his Ryan McCain-tuned, ’12 Mustang in the semifinals, running 3.646 to Wood’s 3.708 to earn lane choice in the final-round pairing with Butner.
Now, with just two races remaining in the 2026 season, Butner has suddenly found himself in prime position to defend his points title – something that may have seemed out of reach earlier this year.
“It’s just God’s blessings, I think,” Butner said. “We were pretty far out (in points). We’ve had a bunch of bad luck. We’ve had a fast car pretty much all year other than Maryland. We put in the work to come here to try and accomplish this. We’ll see what happens.”
The next race on the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series tour will be Drag Wars presented by Big Stuff Total Power Management on August 27-29. It will be the PDRA’s second stop of the season at Galot Motorsports Park in Benson, North Carolina.
The post Marcus Butner Grabs First Pro Nitrous Win of 2026 at PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown, Set to Defend Points Title first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
