'The pressure is off' Glenn after first Pro Stock world title

The NHRA Pro Stock world championship reign of Dallas Glenn has thus far felt kind of strange.

“I get little bits that hit me time to time,” Glenn told RACER. “Like every now and then when I come home and I’ve got the trophy in the living room, or putting the No. 1 on the car. There are small things.”

But as far as thinking about racing through the 2026 season as the champion, it doesn’t bring any feelings of things being different. Glenn, who triumphed in 2025 with his KB Titan Racing team over teammate Greg Anderson, always felt he could reach the top of the class. He knew he had the equipment and felt he was capable as a driver, and that confidence carried him through four seasons before the championships became a reality in the fifth year.

And it was an incredible run toward claiming the trophy.

Glenn won eight of the 17 events and had an overall win/loss record of 50-9. He was the No. 1 qualifier for six events. In other words, only four times last season did Glenn fail to make the final round.

“I feel like there is a little bit of weight lifted because once you’ve done it, the pressure is off,” Glenn said. “You know you can do it. But as far as the full weight of realization [of being the champion], I don’t know. It just kind of comes in little bits and pieces.”

Glenn never sat lower than second in the point standings throughout the year, including the last nine straight races, but it wasn’t until halfway through the Countdown that Glenn felt the championship was within grasp. The fact that he’d had good cars in previous years and lost in the Countdown kept Glenn honest.

It ended anticlimactically in the final weekend of the season, as three days of rain washed out Pomona weekend. Glenn was officially crowned the champion in his hauler when NHRA officials began circulating to inform the teams they would not be competing that weekend. But because it hadn’t been publicly announced yet, Glenn had to sit still.

“Waiting that hour to tell everyone was the longest hour of our lives!” was the caption Glenn posted on social media recently of the behind-the-scenes photo of the moment.

It was right back to work when returning to the East Coast and the Mooresville, North Carolina home base. Glenn is still an everyday worker for KB Titan Racing, which includes driving his hauler. He was doing so to Gainesville for the Gatornationals while doing this interview.

Working for KB Titan is how Glenn got his start on the other side of the ropes in drag racing. After standing in the Pro Stock pits as a kid, he knew the best place to start was to work for a race team and learn all he could. Eventually, the time came to go through the process of getting his license.

“I almost feel like that moment,” said Glenn, “might have been more exciting than the moment of winning the championship because you realize that you actually get to drive these things. Especially because I had been working on them for seven years at that point, and I felt like I had a really good handle on knowing the car inside and out.”

Glenn took to the class like a duck to water. In his debut season, 2021, he won three races, made five final rounds, had a No. 1 qualifier, and was named Rookie of the Year. He finished third in points.

“Right from the start, I knew I was capable and what I wanted to do and it was basically just go right for it,” Glenn said. “I’m going to go in here, and I’m going to show everybody what I can do and do everything the best I can, and learn how to stay in that zone. The car changes so much throughout the year, from weather and track conditions, and especially with a new driver and how comfortable you are. So, it was about trying to find that sweet spot so I could have good reaction times, learn to shift consistency, stage consistency, and do burnouts.

“The only thing that felt like an outsider was the fact that I’m probably the only driver that continues to service the clutch and transmission between runs.”

But the first year still felt like beginner’s luck to Glenn. The second year, in his opinion, brought him down a few steps with one victory and finishing seventh in the championship.

The following two years, however, in 2023 and 2024, Glenn added nine wins and finished sixth and then second in the championship. It was Anderson who beat him in a winner-take-all finale in 2024.

“I started sportsman racing and worked my way up. I didn’t come in and slap a big check on the table and say I want to drive,” said Glenn about what would be the most unbelievable part of his story. “I got hired onto the team, truck driver, tire guy, back half, then moved to clutch, car chief, built all the rear gears and transmissions, clutches and continued to keep working forward and learning more about the car. It shows that if you really love something enough, put your mind to it, and focus all your attention on it, people notice, and doors can open.

“It’s not just a world full of rich kids.”

Glenn begins his title defense in Gainesville, which he won a year ago. And it’ll bring yet another reminder of his standing.

“One of the things that I think about and feel is going to be strange,” said Glenn, “is when I get to go up onstage for driver intros, they’re going to introduce me as the defending champion or the world champion. That’s something that’s going to take a lot of getting used to.

“Honestly, I hope I don’t ever get used to it.”