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<\/p>\nVeteran nitro crew chief Ron Douglas will join Doug Foley\u2019s Foley Lewis Racing Top Fuel team as a consultant for the 2026 season, the team announced today. Douglas joins a proven group led by longtime Foley Lewis Racing crew chief Doug Kuch as the team prepares for what Foley describes as a \u201crebuilding year\u201d beginning at the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season opener, the NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Douglas brings to the table years of experience leading championship-contending teams in both Top Fuel and Funny Car. He\u2019ll support the existing efforts of Kuch, who tuned for Foley early in his Top Fuel career and returned to the team at the end of the 2023 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always admired what Ron has accomplished in his career,\u201d Foley said. \u201cWe\u2019ve always been looking for somebody who could come in and put their eyes on the computer and their hands on the parts and see something through a different lens. We were fortunate that Ron was available. He\u2019s a little bit different than some of the other crew chiefs in that he\u2019s very hands-on. That\u2019s only going to enhance what happens under the awning here and help the team continue to get better at what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The addition of Douglas comes at a pivotal time for Foley Lewis Racing as the team looks to bounce back from a 2025 season that dealt multiple blows, from the loss of team co-owner Tim Lewis early in the year to a crash at the end of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really felt like we were getting there over the last couple of years, and I felt like we may have taken a step back in 2025,\u201d Foley said. \u201cThere were opportunities that were missed. I don\u2019t feel like I drove even close to my best, and it was a tough year overall. It started with losing Tim and never got better. This year is a fresh beginning. We\u2019re going to put our heads down, focus on what our new goals are, and forget about 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foley\u2019s 2026 schedule will begin at the NHRA Gatornationals and will include a mix of NHRA national events and IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series races. A part of Foley\u2019s new strategy for the season involves choosing when to race and when to test and refine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we\u2019re putting a bigger focus on quality over quantity,\u201d Foley said. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for smaller teams like ours to get quality runs in, so if we need to go testing instead of going to the next race, that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do. If we feel like we\u2019re getting behind, we\u2019re going to take a timeout and figure out where we\u2019re weak and how we can get better. We\u2019re looking at it as a rebuilding year.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Foley fires up his 11,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster at the Gatornationals, returning partner Authority Garage Supply Inc. will be bannered on the side as the primary sponsor. United Garage Door Company, LiftMaster, C.H.I. Overhead Doors, Coble Enterprises, Red Line Oil, and The BAMR Company are also returning as partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on February 3, 2026. <\/p>\n
The post Doug Foley Announces Addition of Ron Douglas as Consultant to Foley Lewis Racing Top Fuel Team<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Veteran nitro crew chief Ron Douglas will join Doug Foley\u2019s Foley Lewis Racing Top Fuel team as a consultant for the 2026 season, the team announced today. Douglas joins a proven group led by longtime Foley Lewis Racing crew chief Doug Kuch as the team prepares for what Foley describes as a \u201crebuilding year\u201d beginning […]<\/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-102967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102967","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=102967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}