Randy Meyer reached for his phone this week and, in a five-minute Facebook video, unloaded his unvarnished view of NHRA’s newest rules shake-up—a 2026 option that will let Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car teams run supercharged engines on 85 percent nitro.
“So there’s been a new rule to allow old, I guess, lack of better words, worn out, used up Top Fuel dragsters and Top Fuel Funny Cars in our class.”
Meyer said the announcement has “the phone…ringing off the wall,” mostly from racers wondering if mothballed nitro equipment now has a second life. NHRA bills the combination as a natural bridge to the professional ranks, mirroring Top Fuel and Funny Car architecture while capping blower overdrive and clutch tech to keep performance in check.
“I’m not sure what the real thinking or reasoning behind this is, because I think part of the problem that we all have is that we race for little to no money.”
NHRA’s pitch leans heavily on legacy: tuners like Del Worsham once climbed from alcohol classes to nitro without replacing every part in the trailer. Worsham believes the new blend restores that ladder.
“We just don’t have enough teams coming up through the alcohol ranks, which is how my dad and I and [Richard] Hartman and Dale Armstrong all got started,” Worsham said. “With this new option, you’re going to get teams that can and will transfer classes…which should create a lot more people who suddenly can do this or want to do this.”
Meyer measures the idea against today’s economics. National-event purses are modest, and TV windows are fleeting—realities that make sponsorship elusive.
“And I don’t think a lot of these people take in consideration how little money that you race for compared to what you can do a low end or low buck…on the Top Fuel side, and be able to be parked with the pros and be treated like a pro and everything else.”
“I don’t think these people realize…where we have to park and what time we run in the morning and what time we run at night, stuff like that.”
From Meyer’s seat, the proposal creates as many questions as answers. Can tech officials effectively police three disparate engine-and-fuel combinations? Will retired nitro cars truly fill thin TAFC fields, or will sticker shock keep them in storage?
“It’s a lot different than it used to be in the old days. So I don’t see that it’s really going to go anywhere. I mean, it’d be great if they could get some more cars, but they’re going to have their hands full trying to police it with the rules and everything.”
“Again, I don’t see—you still have to have a shop. You still have to have a truck, a trailer, and it’s just going to cost a lot of money to go out and run one of these cars. And unless you’ve got a lot of money to burn up, there’s no return on your investment at the end of the day.”
“And in our class, it’s hard to find sponsorship because we don’t get any kind of prime time and we don’t get great TV time or nothing like that.”
With 18 months before the rules take effect, teams will weigh whether a blown-nitro setup is a bargain or a budget-buster. For now, Meyer’s candid assessment underscores a simple truth: beefing up car counts might hinge less on new combinations and more on the dollars—and daylight—available to the racers already in the lanes.
This story was originally published on June 2, 2025.
The post Top Alcohol Legend Randy Meyer Gets Candid on NHRA’s Blown-Nitro Plan for 2026 TAD/TAFC first appeared on Drag Illustrated.