Standing on the top end of Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on a sunny Labor Day afternoon, Scott Taylor held up his second career Wally, fulfilling a lifelong dream – he was officially an NHRA U.S. Nationals champion.
Taylor ran a 3.703-second elapsed time at 205.47 mph in the final round of Right Trailers Outlaw Street presented by Quick Performance to defeat No. 1 qualifier Kyle Canion, who went -.016 red, giving away his own 3.705 at 204.08 mph. It was Taylor’s second consecutive Outlaw Street event win and secured the season championship for him as well.
His success is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention over the past year. Taylor debuted “Lil Goldie,” the ProCharger-equipped ’69 Camaro that is a tribute to his late father, in May of 2025 with an event win at Dragfest at Gulfport Dragway. He hasn’t slowed down since, winning two out of three NHRA Outlaw Street events this season on big tires.
Even more impressive is that Taylor routinely switches the car over to smaller 28×10.5 slicks with equal success. So far in 2026, he is undefeated in the Outlaw Syndicate Small Tire Series, with five event wins and new track records for 28-inch slicks at three of the events.
Shortly after his monumental U.S. Nationals victory, Taylor sat down with Drag Illustrated to discuss living out a dream season, the debut season of Right Trailers Outlaw Street, carrying on his father’s legacy, and why his car works so well no matter how he has it set up.
While the win is still fresh in your mind, has it really sunk in yet that you’re a U.S. Nationals champion?
Man, it’s insane. I’m sitting here at my desk with two Wally’s on my desk with me as I’m working. It definitely is still a high; it’s a rush for sure. It doesn’t feel real that these two Wally’s are in my possession.
You’ve been racing for a long time. Looking back five years, 10 years, or even further – is this something you ever would have imagined?
Honestly, it’s a dream come true. It’s stuff I’ve thought about my whole life, you know, from the first time I seen a drag car until now. All I do is eat, breathe, and sleep drag racing. It’s a miracle that I didn’t think was totally possible, yet I’ve worked towards this direction my whole life.
Looking at the big picture, what’s been the overall experience with the Outlaw Street series since you, Shawn Ellington, and Ryan Martin made the announcement at PRI last winter?
It took a lot of work on the backside of this thing. And I’ll tell you, NHRA has come through and really been nice to deal with. They have welcomed us with open arms, and the fans have…just the atmosphere, especially at the U.S. Nationals. It was an experience of a lifetime – win, lose, or draw. Just rolling into that burnout box at the U.S. Nationals is a feeling that I’ve never experienced before.
Talk a little bit about the competition. The series is set at just 10 cars for this year, and fans are clamoring for more, but it appears every driver involved has really stepped up their game from the days of No Prep Kings.
Right now, nine out of the 10 cars that we have involved could win at any moment. The 10th car is one I’m working on right now in the shop. I’m trying to make the 10th car more competitive. We brought it out that first week in Brainerd, Minnesota, and even though we got zero testing, I still wasn’t happy with the performance. So I’m working on it to make it competitive, but really 10 out of 10 cars could win the event on any given day. That’s what’s so incredible. The competition is unreal between all these teams. Chris Rankin has taken the MH5 and done some special things with it. He is very impressive. His whole team has impressed me. Clay Cole, Kyle Canion, obviously unbelievable. I picked Kyle to be this year’s champion from the very first race. When he told me what he went in testing before we ran the first race, I said there’s a car that we’re going to have trouble with, and he has been exactly that. He has been a threat all season and has been No. 1 qualifier several times.
Aside from NHRA Outlaw Street, you’ve also been running ‘Lil Goldie’ on 28×10.5 small tires in the Outlaw Syndicate Small Tire series and are undefeated this season. What’s been your experience with the new series Ryan and Shawn started?
It’s an incredible thing to go that many rounds without getting beat, whether it’s a parts failure, getting outrun, or spinning the tire. On a 28-inch tire, it’s anybody’s game. On any given day, a different driver can win on 28’s. That’s what makes it so interesting. It’s unpredictable. We secured the points championship at the last race as well. But their series has been amazing. The people we’ve met along the way, the racetracks, the track records…and being undefeated doesn’t hurt either.
But again, going that many rounds without losing is just pure luck. I don’t care how good you are. And that showed even this weekend at the U.S. Nationals. I had two rounds in qualifying that I didn’t make the trip. I didn’t even get the stage lights on. Those (mistakes) came at the right time. I mean, a parachute fitting and a line lock. That’s two things we don’t service on my race car. We service every moving part it has, but those two things don’t move. Even if we would have looked directly at those two things, we would have never seen the problem. They both sort of broke internally. But that’s the kind of luck it takes to have a season like we’ve had.
We have been extremely blessed. The good Lord has been looking over us. I had a pretty rough year the year before losing my brother, and obviously my parents are always on my mind. We built this as a tribute car to my dad. Every pass I make is an emotional roller coaster, win or lose. I just feel like my whole family is in there riding with me.
You mentioned building this car as a tribute to your father. The car will obviously always have special meaning for you, but to have this much of success with it, how much more does that mean on a personal level?
It’s insane. This would be the toughest car that I’ve ever had to get rid of if I ever decide to sell it. It’s a part of my life now. I’ve already had people trying to buy the car and I told them I would help them build another one just like it, but at the moment, this car is not for sale. Not saying never, but I would have to have another one sitting there just like it, and move the tribute and the name right over to another car before I did it. I’m a real sentimental person, and I’m sort of superstitious as well, and this car, with all the meanings and memories…it’s at home. It’s part of the family now.
It’s no secret that you run Lil Goldie on both big and small tires. We’ve seen others do it as well, but not with such success. What makes this particular car run so flawlessly, no matter how you have it set up?
A lot of the cars we’ve had…we’ve had three cars built in my whole life, and the first car didn’t necessarily get built the way I wanted it. The second car got built pretty much 90% how I wanted it, and that’s the one Chris Rankin has and the car works really well. This car, Bad Habitz Fabrication left no stone unturned. They set me in the car and they put the steering wheel where I wanted it, the brake pedals where I wanted it, the parachute handle where I wanted it, the 4-link where I wanted it. Throughout the whole car, he didn’t skip anything. He did it just how we wanted it and made sure it was how we wanted it before he finished welding it. He was very thorough. Bad Habitz Fabrication, in my personal opinion, is the best chassis builder in the world.
We’ve got one more NHRA Outlaw Street race this year and a couple more Outlaw Syndicate events, but after that, what does the future look like for Scott Taylor Motorsports?
The biggest thing on my agenda right now is growing NHRA Outlaw Street. That’s what’s on my radar. I think we found a home of the NHRA, and I’m looking forward to putting in work all winter long and getting as many people involved in this series as NHRA will let us have. That’s what I’ll be putting work into. As far as racing, obviously we’re gonna do our best to go to the World Series of Pro Mod. That’s another race, sort of like the U.S. Nationals, where you just get a different feel when you stage. The World Series of Pro Mod is our goal to try to go and perform on that stage as well as we have been all year long. That’s our goal. We want to run up front in everything we do, and we’re going to put in the work until we can get up front.
Finally, is there anyone involved with your program that you’d like to thank?
First and foremost, I want to thank God for the opportunities and people he has put in my life. I also want to thank my wife, Heather; my crew; and everyone that has supported us along the way.
A big shout-out goes to the following companies for making this series possible: Quick Performance, Right Trailers, Isky Racing Cams, ProCharger, ProLine, Mark Micke at M&M Transmissions, MTX Audio, and SP Tools. I also want to thank the NHRA for believing in us enough to give us a shot on the big stage.
This story was originally published on September 11, 2026. 
The post DI Interview: Scott Taylor Talks NHRA U.S. Nationals Win, Dominant 2026 Season, and Honoring His Father first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
