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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nToday\u2019s drag racing landscape is about more than just reaction times and win lights; it\u2019s a dynamic blend of strategy, business acumen, innovation, and passion. Success is now just as dependent on partnerships, planning, and promotion as it is on raw horsepower.<\/p>\n
As the sport\u2019s audience grows at a record pace, some of the biggest influencers in drag racing aren\u2019t found behind the wheel. So who are the visionaries guiding the sport into its next era? Read the full story below on Rich Sr. and Rich Jr., written by Phil Burgess for\u00a0National Dragster.<\/a><\/p>\n Rich McPhillips, Top Alcohol Dragster car owner and instructor<\/strong><\/p>\n For Rich McPhillips Sr. and his son, Richie Jr., drag racing isn\u2019t just a career \u2013 it\u2019s a calling \u2013 and they have quickly become the go-to guys for turnkey A\/Fuel Dragster operations. Their A-list clientele is highlighted by motorsports legend Tony Stewart, who handpicked the McPhillips team to help guide his entrance to drag racing in late 2022.<\/p>\n The McPhillips family has carved out a niche in the NHRA that\u2019s all about making other people\u2019s dreams come true, providing those dreams come with hard work and humility.<\/p>\n From his own humble beginnings as a racer and even a national event-winning driver in Top Alcohol Dragster, the senior McPhillips knew he\u2019d have to be resourceful to keep his racing dreams alive.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m an old gas station guy, and I pretty much came to the realization that if we were going to continue at a high level, I had to get creative. Skip Gladstone was my first rental deal in 1998, and we went down to Gainesville for his first [divisional] race, won that, and almost set the national record.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, the McPhillips team has guided a string of successful racers to wins in their cars, including Troy Coughlin Jr., Matt Cummings, and Mike Coughlin, and, most recently, Anthony Troyer stood in the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals winner\u2019s circle, powered by McPhillips horsepower and guidance. Jasmine Salinas won the 2022 NHRA Gatornationals in her own car, but with the McPhillips family calling the tuning shots.<\/p>\n \u201cWe like to fulfill dreams,\u201d Rich Sr. said. \u201cThere are a lot of people who are fortunate enough financially to have that part covered, but they don\u2019t have the time or the desire for the aggravation of driving, pit crews, and servicing, so they show up with a helmet in one hand and a check in the other \u2013 and that\u2019s what we\u2019re about.\u201d<\/p>\n The ideal client? Someone with prior experience at speed \u2013 Super Comp, Top Dragster, even Top Sportsman \u2013 and a racer\u2019s mindset. But a checkbook alone won\u2019t get you in the car.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to deal with racers. We\u2019re out here to win races, too,\u201d he emphasized. \u201cSome show up with high expectations and low willingness to learn, thinking it\u2019s easy. Others think they\u2019ll jump in, win, and be done. Neither is reality. We prefer someone that\u2019s all-in for 16, 17, 18 events, but it\u2019s all a handshake deal. If someone wakes up and don\u2019t like the way we parted our hair that morning, they can leave; no hard feelings. And if they have dreams of going Top Fuel, like Tony [Stewart], this is the obvious next step.\u201d<\/p>\n Their approach isn\u2019t just methodical \u2013 it\u2019s personal. Rich Sr. and Jr. adjust the car to fit each driver \u2013 pedals, steering, seat pours, head pours \u2013 and then they observe. Their program is straightforward but built on discipline, and Richie Jr. vets each new driver carefully in advance and provides what amounts to a drivers\u2019 manual.<\/p>\n \u201cI send them a rundown of exactly how our program works, from how we tow the car, start it, what to do in the water box, even the turnoff,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ones who come back with it memorized or with good questions, that\u2019s how you know they care. Tony Stewart memorized it forward, backward, and upside down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the Cliff\u2019s Notes version of how to be successful, and it\u2019s very simple to follow,\u201d Rich Sr. added. \u201cI tell them all, \u2018By your sixth or seventh run, everything on this list will hopefully come natural and muscle memory will kick in,\u2019 and it usually does. The ones who are still making mistakes four or five runs in, you just say, \u2018Have a nice day.\u2019 I don\u2019t care how much money you got, you\u2019re going to end up wadding up a car and embarrassing yourself and the team.\u201d<\/p>\n Drivers who treat the program seriously earn the McPhillips\u2019 respect. Those who don\u2019t \u2026 well, they don\u2019t last.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have some personal thing to prove to yourself, your wife, or your girlfriend, we\u2019re not the team for you,\u201d said Rich Sr. \u201cIf you show up with an entourage and GoPro cameras, we\u2019re not the team for you. We keep a low profile, we keep our heads down, and we work. People say the McPhillips\u2019 don\u2019t have any fun because we\u2019re working all the time, but we have plenty of fun in the winner\u2019s circle.\u201d<\/p>\n Also new to the McPhillips team this year is Melanie Johnson, daughter of nitro-tuning legend Alan Johnson. Unfortunately, she and Troyer had to race in the first round at the Winternationals.<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter who is driving our cars, we race heads-up every run,\u201d said Rich Jr. \u201cIt\u2019s not the most strategic way if you\u2019re chasing a championship \u2013 and we know we could have already won a championship if we didn\u2019t \u2013 but it\u2019s the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n With four complete cars in the shop and two usually operating at most events, the McPhillips outfit runs like a well-oiled machine \u2013 literally and figuratively. They know the cost of high-level performance, and every lap counts.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you stick everything in a bag at the end of the year \u2013 fuel, flights, wages, tires \u2013 you\u2019re talking $2,000-$2,200 a lap, and we don\u2019t break a lot of parts,\u201d said Rich Sr. \u201cBut still, when someone signs up [for] five, 16, or 17 events and we do six or seven laps per race, the money they pay is almost a wash, but it lets us stay competitive and do some R&D or build new cars.\u201d<\/p>\n The family is currently building a new shop and home on 10 acres in Indy to better support their East Coast and Midwest operations, though their hearts \u2013 and sports allegiances \u2013 remain in Pennsylvania. \u201cI\u2019m still gonna be a Phillies and an Eagles fan,\u201d Rich Sr. professed, \u201cand even though it\u2019s only 12 hours from Pa., at home, it\u2019s very convenient to be there.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were home for Christmas and slept in our own bed for the 24th time in four years,\u201d Sr. laughed. \u201cPeople think we\u2019re crazy. But this is what Richie and I love to do. This is where the passion lies.\u201d<\/p>\n Rich Sr.\u2019s passion began in 1969 when, at just 15, his high school shop teacher let him drive an A\/Altered. That same chain of opportunity and mentorship is what the McPhillips team now extends to others \u2013 if they\u2019re willing to listen, learn, and commit. \u201cHe was crazy as a coot to let me in there, but that was the opportunity I was given, and I feel like I\u2019m giving that back now.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published on April 21, 2025. The post McPhillips Racing Duo Rich Sr. and Rich Jr. Named to \u2018Movers, Shakers, and Deal Makers\u2019 List<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rich McPhillips Sr. and Rich McPhillips Jr. from McPhillips Racing have been named to the National Dragster\u2019s 2025 \u2018Movers, Shakers, and Deal Makers\u2019 List. The magazine\u2019s third annual list highlights 18 individuals that are recognized for their work behind-the-scenes in the National Hod Rod Association (NHRA). Hailing from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, Rich McPhillips Sr. formed McPhillips […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\")
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