I’ve grown up around blown alcohol dragsters. The raw, mechanical symphony of a supercharged methanol engine screaming down the track has always defined the heart and soul of Top Alcohol Dragster for me. There’s just something about that noise, the visceral rumble, the launch off the line – that an injected nitro car simply can’t match. So when I heard about NHRA’s decision to introduce a supercharged nitromethane combination to the Top Alcohol ranks in 2026, I had mixed emotions.
On paper, I get it. NHRA is hoping this move will increase car counts and provide a more natural stepping stone to the nitro classes. But to me, this feels more like a band-aid on a bullet wound. The real issue isn’t engine configuration – it’s visibility, scheduling and investment.
The hard truth is this: even if this new combo pulls more cars into the lanes, many of them are likely to be the “cast-offs” from the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. Maybe these are the nitro cars that can’t cut it at the top level – cars that are prone to oil downs, costly explosions and inconsistent performance. Anyone who has spent time at the track knows what that means – more downtime, more delays and more headaches. That’s the exact opposite of what this class needs if it wants to appeal to fans and track operators.
And let’s not pretend we don’t see where this is going. If the supercharged nitro combo takes off, it’s only a matter of time before the blown alcohol cars – the ones many of us grew up watching – are quietly phased out. That’s not progress. That’s erasure.
In fact, we’re on a slippery slope toward what’s essentially a two-tiered Funny Car Chaos model. The “real” nitro show runs in the big leagues, while the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series becomes a dumping ground for second-tier nitro combos. Is that really the future NHRA envisions for its premier sportsman categories?
Even worse, I fear these Top Alcohol classes are still going to run at 8 a.m. or 10 p.m. when the stands are empty. No engine combo – no matter how exciting or “stepping stone” it may be – will fix the fact that these cars are being hidden in plain sight.
Even championship tuner Steve Boggs and four-time TAFC world champion Sean Bellemeur addressed this issue in the DI #193 cover story.
“It’s no secret that Top Alcohol Funny Car needs something,” said Bellemeur. “The car counts have been dwindling.”
Boggs stated,” They’ve let the class get boring.
“Up until 1998, we were part of the show. We run before the fuel cars, behind the fuel cars. Our final rounds were on TV,” said Boggs. “We had three big races a year that paid us $10,00 to $15,000.
“You know what else happened that was going on in 1998? Those stands were full, and people loved drag racing, and they didn’t go nearly as fast as they do now, but they didn’t care. There was noise, there were flames, there was everything they wanted. Fast forward today, they [NHRA] keep telling us the cars are going away. I said, you’re running them off. ‘We’re not running them off,’ they answer. You treat us like crap. You cancel our runs and you run us early in the morning.
“We run maybe one or two rounds at a national event in front of the crowd, and you don’t do anything with us. We spend 15 hours a day at the race track. We’ve got to be the first ones out there and the last ones to leave at night and the first ones to come back the next morning. I said, You know what they’ve gotten themselves into? They’ve got so many categories that they physically cannot run them,” continued Boggs.
The problem is the schedule. The problem is the lack of promotion. The problem is that NHRA isn’t investing in the class where it counts – eyeballs, exposure, and meaningful marketing.
For the record, not everyone running in Top Alcohol is chasing a nitro dream. For many, this is the dream. This is where they want to be. They’re not looking to graduate into Top Fuel or Funny Car. They’re racers in their prime, not prospects in waiting.
Let’s also talk money. Sponsorship in drag racing is already like trying to squeeze blood from a stone. Is NHRA going to sweeten the purse? Will there be financial incentives for teams to adopt this new combo, or is it just another way to shift costs onto racers who are already strapped? Until there’s a real plan to promote this class and provide sustainable support, it’s hard to see this as anything more than another experiment in wishful thinking.
The blown alcohol cars – their sound, their roots, their legacy – deserve more than to be quietly replaced by a trend. They deserve a schedule slot fans can see, a purse that’s worthwhile racing for and a sanctioning body that sees their value not just as feeder cars, but as a vital part of the drag racing ecosystem.
This new combo might open a few doors, but it doesn’t fix the foundation. And unless NHRA is willing to address the real problems, all they’re doing is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
This story was originally published on June 6, 2025.
The post OPINION: NHRA’s New TAD/TAFC Combo Isn’t the Fix It Thinks It Is first appeared on Drag Illustrated.