![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\")
<\/p>\nDoug Kruse of nearby Rockford, Illinois captured the $10,000 warm-up race Thursday to open the weekend at the Autoland\u00a0Door Car Challenge at Byron Dragway.<\/p>\n
Nick Engler of Becker, Minnesota earned a $1,500 payout as the warm-up race runner-up. Engler, who is the reigning NHRA West Central Division Champion, competes as a no box, bottom-bulb entry.<\/p>\n
In the final, Kruse had an .029 reaction-time and ran a 6.539 elapsed-time on his 6.49 dial-in. Engler\u2019s had an .048 reaction-time and ran a 6.181 elapsed-time on his 6.15 dial-in.<\/p>\n
This final round captured a special sentiment that is unique to door car bracket racing as the cars themselves are a critical part of the story. A \u201clate bloomer\u201d to being behind the wheel of a race car, Kruse only assumed the driving duties of his Chevrolet Camaro in memory of his late-brother Ken \u201cThe Duz\u201d Kruse, whom the car belonged to. And Engler\u2019s Dodge R\/T belonged to his late-grandfather and has been in the Engler family since it was new in 1969.<\/p>\n
These are the meaningful and deeply personal stories that make door car bracket racing extra special.<\/p>\n
The racing continues Friday with a $15,000 to race. Saturday is highlighted by a $50,000 to win main event. Sunday will conclude with another $15,000 finale.<\/p>\n
The Autoland Door Car Challenge is at Byron Dragway in Byron, Illinois May 14-17, 2026.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on May 15, 2026. <\/p>\n
The post Kruse Captures $10,000 Warm-Up Race Win to Open The Autoland Door Car Challenge at Byron Dragway<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Doug Kruse of nearby Rockford, Illinois captured the $10,000 warm-up race Thursday to open the weekend at the Autoland\u00a0Door Car Challenge at Byron Dragway. Nick Engler of Becker, Minnesota earned a $1,500 payout as the warm-up race runner-up. Engler, who is the reigning NHRA West Central Division Champion, competes as a no box, bottom-bulb entry. […]<\/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-103620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103620","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=103620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}