Marion Stephenson has been competing at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) for decades, and rolling through the gates for this season’s 72nd running of the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals is extra special for the Indiana-native. Not only does this race provide both Marion and daughter Nichole the opportunity to race for NHRA’s coveted 75th Anniversary Diamond Wallys, but it also marks a return to the esteemed facility where Stephenson Family Motorsports brought four generations of racers to the starting line for the first time earlier this month.
Just a few weeks ago, at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series NHRA North Central Division event in Indianapolis, Marion entered Stock and was joined on the Super Stock entry list by wife Lisa for the first time since 2020, while daughter Nichole raced Super Comp and Super Gas as she normally does. But the limbs of the family tree branched deeper than ever before as the Stock Eliminator category was rounded out by Marion’s 81-year-old father and 1991 Topeka Stock finalist James (J.B.); nephew Wayne; and 16-year-old grandson Dylan Cioe (J.B.’s great grandson and the son of Marion’s daughter, Lori).
It was a momentous event for the family made even more meaningful as Marion was able to prepare his own original racecar for his father to drive, a 1972 Buick GS 455 that James built in 1983.
“It was something we’d been talking about for a long time, and it was a lot of work to get all of the racecars ready, but it was worth it,” said Marion from his race shop in Williamsport, Ind. “My dad drove really well, and when he tested it in Bowling Green, he was just having fun and smiling. We all had fun with it.”
Although the potential for different last names makes it impossible to definitively state that four generations have not raced an NHRA divisional event prior to this, respected statisticians within the sport — including longtime NHRA stats tracker Bob Frey — were unable to confirm a previous happening. Taking the ages involved into consideration (James at 81 and Dylan at 16), it is unlikely to have occurred prior to the Stephenson family’s quartet of entries at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Aside from the potential to make NHRA history, the race was historic for the Stephenson family and marked a moment that Marion hopes they will be able to repeat at the national level in the very near future. Yes, it was a tremendous amount of work to prepare all of the cars ahead of the event, but Marion was emphatic in stating that the hours put in were “for a good cause,” and he looks forward to the next opportunity.
All hands on deck
Dylan, the youngest of the racing clan, pulled his share of the weight in preparing for the Indy division race, fully comprehending the value of digging in and working hard. Alongside his family, including mom Lori and aunts Nichole and Natasha, Dylan has helped his grandparents for years with things related to their very active business, Stephenson Family Concessions.
“I never paid him to work in the business because I always thought he’d squander his money, get to 16, and not have anything – so I told him I’d buy him a car for his 16th birthday instead,” said Marion, who cut the same deal with his other grandchildren, Matthew and Kylee. “He’s here a lot. If I need to switch racecars because I changed my mind, he’ll be here at 11:30 at night to help me swap trailers. I’m not in there alone wiring his shifter, he’s in there with me. He’s not sitting in the house playing on a computer; Dylan is hands on. It’s pretty cool that he’s actually involved.”
It’s all about family in every way, from top to bottom, for Marion and the Stephenson brood.
“My dad was here yesterday when I was pulling my rig out of the barn and moving racecars around because I needed an extra eyeball,” said Marion. “We do things together if anybody needs anything. We’re all pretty tight.”
The family is together often, but so far, Nichole is probably the one bitten the deepest by the racing bug. She’s very much a part of the family business, and she’s just as active in racing, pulling her own weight and traveling to NHRA divisional and national events in pursuit of win lights and Wallys.
“I think I was just always going to do it. My grandpa and grandma both raced, my mom and dad both raced. I worked in the garage with my dad for as long as I can remember,” said Nichole, who thrives on the mechanical side of racing and can pull an engine or transmission, dial the racecars, and drive truck and trailer without issue.
Her very first car was a 1993 Z28 Camaro. It was a cool daily driver that she took to IRP for the first time when she was 16, the weekend the racetrack opened for the season, before transitioning to the front-wheel drive Delta 88 known as ‘The Giant Killer’ that her mom had driven to a multitude of class trophies. Nichole earned several class wins in the car, too, and set several national records.
To date, she’s raced 15 different cars, but in recent years, Nichole has found her home in both Super Comp and Super Gas. She’s running both classes at this week’s Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals.
And now: The U.S. Nationals
A two-time winner at the division level in Super Gas and twice a runner-up in Super Comp at national events, Nichole is under no illusion that competing at the biggest and most prestigious race on the tour holds its fair share of challenges. But she isn’t going just for the sake of showing off a new pair of Corral Boots – an integral part of her signature look when not wearing racing attire.
“I semi-finaled there one year, and I was so close I could taste it,” Nichole recalled. “I’m not going into it with an expectation, I just want to try to have fun and turn on some win lights, help dad win. But Indy is our home track, and I can’t even explain the pride that would come with lifting that diamond trophy and it being my first national event win.
“Really, the best part is having everybody together. It will only be my dad and I racing the U.S. Nationals, but most of our family should be there. At the divisional, with four generations racing for the first time, that was exciting, and seeing the smile on my nephew’s face reminded me of when I first started racing. You can’t explain to that someone who hasn’t raced how exhilarating it is, the highs and lows. It was also exciting to see my mom back in the racecar, and to see my grandfather win a round. The whole experience was pretty cool.”
At this year’s U.S. Nationals, Marion entered both Comp Eliminator and Super Stock to race again for a trophy he nearly earned there in 2017; he was runner-up in Super Stock that year to former world champion Kevin Helms. Marion, the 2019 NHRA Division 2 Super Stock champion, has won at IRP at the division level, and he’s got eight NHRA national event wins on his scorecard earned at different racetracks. There isn’t a thing in the world, though, that holds the weight of a U.S. Nationals victory.
“It was a tough one, losing Indy in the final. You run that one through your head a few times,” he admitted. “This racetrack is where I started. It’s where I grew up, where Nichole and Dylan started racing, and all my friends are here. As you make that first turn, you think about a lot of that stuff. When Nichole got down to four cars that year, I told her, ‘It’s just another race,’ but it’s kind of not. It may be for somebody else, but not for this family. It would definitely be something to win.”
Stephenson Family Motorsports is powered by Jeff Taylor Performance; uses products from DENSO, Weldon High Performance, and ARP; and proudly rides on Mickey Thompson tires. Follow their racing adventures on the Stephenson Family Motorsports page on Facebook.
This story was originally published on September 5, 2026.
The post Historic first: Four generations of Stephenson Family Motorsports race NHRA Indy divisional; father and daughter working to carry momentum at U.S. Nationals first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
