{"id":104059,"date":"2026-06-26T00:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/op-ed-jason-harris-has-a-second-shot-at-a-million-dollars-and-i-think-he-can-do-it\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T00:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:44:08","slug":"op-ed-jason-harris-has-a-second-shot-at-a-million-dollars-and-i-think-he-can-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/op-ed-jason-harris-has-a-second-shot-at-a-million-dollars-and-i-think-he-can-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: Jason Harris Has a Second Shot at a Million Dollars \u2013 and I Think He Can Do It"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year ago, if you\u2019d told a Pro Mod racer he might have two legitimate shots at a million dollars inside of six months, he\u2019d have laughed you out of the pits. Not out of disrespect. Out of disbelief. That\u2019s just not the world we\u2019ve lived in.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s the world Jason Harris is living in right now.<\/p>\n

Harris earned his first crack at a million at our Drag Illustrated Winter Series, chasing the Elite Motorsports Million \u2013 a clean-sweep bonus for any driver who could win all three of our races. And now, with the new IHRA Triple Crown, he\u2019s got another seven-figure opportunity sitting right there in front of him. Two swings at life-changing money before the calendar even turns. For a Pro Mod racer. Let that sink in.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t be happier about it. And I\u2019ll tell you exactly why.<\/p>\n

For too long, money was the thing nobody in drag racing wanted to talk about. We whispered about payouts. We were almost embarrassed by them. Meanwhile, the American Cornhole League is handing out eight million dollars a year, a hot dog eating contest is paying six figures on Netflix, and there are rock-paper-scissors tournaments paying out more than some of our professional national events. That\u2019s not a knock on cornhole. It\u2019s a wake-up call for us.<\/p>\n

We all know what these guys and gals are spending. We know what it takes to build one of these cars, to tune it, to haul it across the country and put it on the property week after week. These are the baddest door cars on earth, driven by some of the most talented people in all of motorsports. The idea that the money shouldn\u2019t match the spectacle never made sense to me. So we set out to change the conversation. To make the money something racers and fans were excited to talk about, proud to talk about \u2013 not afraid of, not embarrassed by.<\/p>\n

That was the whole point of the Elite Motorsports Million. We weren\u2019t just putting up a prize. We were planting a flag.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Harris has earned a second shot at $1 million by winning the inaugural IHRA Triple Crown event \u2013 Robert Richard photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And here\u2019s the part I\u2019m most proud of: the conversation is actually changing. When you see another sanctioning body step up and put real money on the table for Pro Mod, that\u2019s not something to be territorial about. That\u2019s the tide coming in. That\u2019s the whole sport getting louder about what these racers are worth. I\u2019ve said it a hundred times and I\u2019ll say it again \u2013 a high tide lifts all boats. More money in Pro Mod means more attention, more media, more sponsors looking at our world and deciding it\u2019s worth investing in. Everybody wins when we start acting like we\u2019re worth it.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s talk about the man himself, because Jason Harris is exactly the kind of racer you want carrying this moment.<\/p>\n

Since his dominating win at the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals late last year, Harris has become arguably the biggest name and the toughest out in Pro Mod. He\u2019s not backing into these opportunities. He\u2019s earning them, round after round, against the deepest fields and the best tuners our class has ever seen. When he rolls into the lights, everybody in the other lane knows they\u2019ve got their work cut out for them. That\u2019s what makes him so much fun to watch, and that\u2019s what makes this whole thing feel real.<\/p>\n

Will it be easy? Hell no. We\u2019re talking about stringing together round win after round win in the most competitive class in the world, where one tenth of hesitation or one bad set of conditions ends your day. That\u2019s what makes it so exciting. If somebody pulls this off, they don\u2019t just win a million dollars. They become an icon. A legend. The way Bill Elliott became \u201cMillion Dollar Bill\u201d and dragged NASCAR into the national conversation. These are the moments that birth superstars and define legacies.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the thing: I genuinely believe Jason Harris can do it. Not as a feel-good line. I mean it. He\u2019s got the car, the team, the focus, and the kind of momentum you can\u2019t manufacture. He\u2019s racing like a man who knows exactly how big these moments are.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m going to be watching every round, pulling for him, and grinning like a kid the whole way.<\/p>\n

A Pro Mod racer with two shots at a million dollars in six months. That\u2019s not a fantasy anymore. That\u2019s where this sport is headed.<\/p>\n

And that, to me, is worth every single dollar.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Drag Illustrated Founder & Editorial Director Wes Buck (left) with Jason Harris \u2013 Luke Nieuwhof photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on June 25, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Op-Ed: Jason Harris Has a Second Shot at a Million Dollars \u2013 and I Think He Can Do It<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year ago, if you\u2019d told a Pro Mod racer he might have two legitimate shots at a million dollars inside of six months, he\u2019d have laughed you out of the pits. Not out of disrespect. Out of disbelief. That\u2019s just not the world we\u2019ve lived in. Well, that\u2019s the world Jason Harris is living […]<\/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-104059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104059","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=104059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}