{"id":103705,"date":"2026-05-26T17:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/drag-illustrated-launches-the-di-power-100-recognizing-the-100-most-influential-people-in-drag-racing\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T17:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:44:07","slug":"drag-illustrated-launches-the-di-power-100-recognizing-the-100-most-influential-people-in-drag-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/drag-illustrated-launches-the-di-power-100-recognizing-the-100-most-influential-people-in-drag-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Drag Illustrated Launches the DI Power 100, Recognizing the 100 Most Influential People in Drag Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drag Illustrated, the independent voice of drag racing, today announced the launch of the DI Power 100, an annual editorial franchise recognizing the 100 most influential people in the sport. Nominations are open immediately at DragIllustrated.com and will be accepted through July 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

The DI Power 100 is the most comprehensive recognition program in drag racing history \u2013 spanning every corner of the sport. Racers, builders, engine builders, promoters, track operators, sanctioning body leaders, parts company executives, media figures, sponsors, and anyone else who genuinely moves the needle will be considered. There is no age limit. There is no single category. The only criteria is influence \u2013 and whether drag racing would look noticeably different without this person in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been building in my head for a long time,\u201d said Wes Buck, Founder and Editorial Director of Drag Illustrated. \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing the 30 Under 30 for twelve years, and it\u2019s been one of the most powerful things we\u2019ve ever built \u2013 because recognition matters in this sport. People don\u2019t do what they do out here for the money, God knows. They do it because they love drag racing. And when the sport acknowledges that, it means something. The Power 100 is that concept at full scale. Every corner of this sport \u2013 NHRA, no-prep, bracket, Pro Mod, outlaw, grassroots \u2013 every single one of them has people in it who are making a difference that most folks never see. This program exists to shine a light on all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inaugural DI Power 100 class will be selected by an editorial committee representing the full breadth of drag racing. Nominations will be accepted across eight categories: Racers & Competitors, Builders & Fabricators, Engine & Performance, Promoters & Track Operators, Business & Industry, Sanctioning & Governance, Media & Storytelling, and Rising Power (Under 35). Selection is based on four criteria: impact on the sport, scope of influence, consistency and longevity, and what Drag Illustrated calls the Subtraction Test \u2013 what drag racing looks like without this person in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Power 100 is exactly the kind of editorial project that separates Drag Illustrated from anyone else covering this sport,\u201d said Nate Van Wagnen, Editor-in-Chief of Drag Illustrated. \u201cWe have two decades of relationships and credibility across every corner of drag racing. Nobody else can look at this sport the way we do \u2013 from the nitro cars to the no-prep strips to the bracket programs \u2013 and make a list that the sport actually respects. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do. The editorial standards on this are high, and they have to be. The credibility of the program is the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DI Power 100 will be published in DI Issue 202 \u2013 the State of Drag Special Issue \u2013 which launches September 1, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Wes first laid this out, it was immediately obvious that this is what DI has been building toward,\u201d said Mike Carpenter, Chief Operating Officer of Drag Illustrated. \u201cTwenty years of being in every corner of this sport \u2013 the relationships, the credibility, the reach \u2013 all of it makes DI uniquely positioned to do this right. The Power 100 is going to be a franchise that this sport talks about for years. We don\u2019t take that lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nominations for the DI Power 100 are open to anyone and free to submit. Nominators are encouraged to submit entries for multiple nominees across different categories. The nomination form \u2013 available now at DragIllustrated.com\/Power100<\/a> \u2013 asks nominators to describe what makes their nominee influential and to answer what drag racing looks like without them. Nominations close Friday, July 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to hear from everyone,\u201d Buck added. \u201cThe engine builder who\u2019s been putting championships together for thirty years and never got a headline. The track owner who spent his life savings to keep a drag strip open in a town that would have lost it otherwise. The promoter who built an event from nothing and made it something this sport depends on. Those are the people this list was made for. If you know someone like that, nominate them. We\u2019re listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Submit nominations here: DragIllustrated.com\/Power100<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published on May 26, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Drag Illustrated Launches the DI Power 100, Recognizing the 100 Most Influential People in Drag Racing<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drag Illustrated, the independent voice of drag racing, today announced the launch of the DI Power 100, an annual editorial franchise recognizing the 100 most influential people in the sport. Nominations are open immediately at DragIllustrated.com and will be accepted through July 3, 2026. The DI Power 100 is the most comprehensive recognition program in […]<\/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-103705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103705","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=103705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}