2025 Hot Rod Drag Week champion Ned Dunphy came out of nowhere on Saturday night at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tennessee, capturing his very first PDRA 660 Man by defeating Lyle Barnett in the final round of WS Construction Pro Boost presented by P2 Contracting and Ty-Drive at the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown presented by Larry Jeffers Race Cars. After a three-and-a-half-hour rain delay pushed eliminations into the evening hours, the Roswell, Georgia native was .013 on the tree in his orange screw-blown ’24 Camaro, allowing his 3.632-second pass at 207.08 mph to hold off Barnett’s slightly quicker 3.627 at 208.42.
“This is just like drag and drive – those last couple days, when you get a pass that works and it all sticks,” said Dunphy immediately following his win. “You know, E2, E3, we made it, E4. It was the anticipation of it. That final pass there, I couldn’t believe when I saw the win light come on, because I could hear Lyle screaming along next to me, and I’m thinking, ‘It’s so close.’ It’s got that same feel of jubilation.”
Heading into Saturday’s eliminations, it looked like it would be a massive day for a points shakeup, with points leader and two-time PDRA Pro Boost world champion Jason Harris on a collision course with reigning Pro Boost champ and No. 1 qualifier Ty Tutterow. Instead, it was two drivers playing spoiler that stole the show on race day.
Best known for piloting his record-setting drag and drive Dodge Viper, Dunphy qualified sixth with a 3.650, then looked like a bracket car throughout eliminations, running either 3.63 or 3.64 in every round, thanks to the tuning prowess of Robbie Kellerhals and additional advice from ProLine’s Steve Petty. Dunphy paired that consistency with a masterful driving job, earning two holeshot victories, including a perfect .000 reaction time in the quarterfinals.
In round one, Dunphy used a 3.641 at 206.51 mph to defeat Raymond Matos, who went 3.676. He followed that up in round two with a perfect .000 reaction time and a 3.636 at 206.26 mph to earn a holeshot win over Scott Tidwell Racing’s Paul Gargus and his quicker 3.625. In the semifinals, Dunphy battled against former Super Bowl champion and Pro Mod rookie Fletcher Cox in his screw-blown, Killin’ Time Racing “Fixed Income” ’69 Camaro. Dunphy duplicated his 3.636 from the previous round, while Cox threw away a quicker 3.620 by going -.021 red on the tree, setting up the final round against Barnett.
Once again, Dunphy was up to the challenge, using an .013 reaction time to pull off another holeshot win against the former U.S. Nationals champion. It was a case of the relative Pro Mod newcomer flipping the script against one of the most feared leavers in the sport, allowing Dunphy to pull off the victory with a slower 3.632-second pass at 207.08 mph. Barnett, driving the Tommy Youmans-owned, Lee White-tuned “Clean Title” ’18 Camaro, put down a slightly quicker 3.627 at 208.42.
“I’m betting Lyle’s mad at his light because he’s so, so good at the light all the time,” Dunphy said. “We had a really good weekend on our light too, though. We were hovering around that double O mark the whole entire time with one trip zip, so just the stars aligned this weekend. I’m super happy with it.”
Barnett was making his first PDRA appearance since the season-opener at Darlington Dragway and looked like he’d never left. He qualified in the No. 8 position and immediately had an .004 reaction time and 3.669 in round one to defeat Randy Weatherford, who turned on the red light.
From there, Barnett singlehandedly threw a wrench in the points championship. In the quarterfinals, he went .001 on the tree and ran 3.619 at 208.91 mph to stay ahead of reigning PDRA Pro Boost world champion and No. 1 qualifier Ty Tutterow, who went a slightly quicker 3.615 at 207.11. Barnett then took out points leader Jason Harris in his Harts Charger-equipped, “Party Time” ’69 Camaro in the semifinals, with Barnett’s 3.613 at 209.01 outrunning the two-time Pro Boost world champion’s 3.627 at 209.20.
With much of the talk surrounding Pro Mod this year revolving around the parity between screw blower and centrifugal combinations, the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown featured some of the closest racing of the season. Two representatives of each combination reached the semifinals, with a screw vs. centrifugal matchup in the final round. For one night, at least, the screw blower came out on top.
“We’re always wondering how the screw’s gonna hold up against some of the centrifugals, but we feel like we’re right there with them,” said Dunphy. “We’re out here having fun. The crew and I, we laugh all the time. We’ve been eating steaks and chicken. We eat better here at the track if we do at home. Just making our way through – we don’t do the trash talk, we don’t do the drama, but now we’ve made some noise, so my guess is, we’re gonna get a little bit more attention and have to be a little more outspoken.”
Dunphy says he and his team are full of confidence heading into PDRA Drag Wars in two weeks, but admits the team will miss the season finale at Virginia Motorsports Park, as he is already committed to participating in Hot Rod Drag Week during the same time. Dunphy also spent the Sunday following his win testing his Viper at Bristol in preparation for Drag Week.
The next stop 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.
This story was originally published on August 12, 2026. 
The post Ned Dunphy Earns First Career PDRA 660 Man at Thunder Valley Throwdown first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
