NHRA’s Cromwell believes sport has never been stronger as it enters 75th anniversary season

Glen Cromwell has been with the NHRA for almost 30 years and, as the person leading it into the sanctioning body's 75th anniversary season, believes there is plenty of excitement and momentum to go around.

“It really gives us a chance to honor the history of the sport and Wally Parks and what he started in 1951,” Cromwell, the series president, told RACER. “But along with that, be able to push the sport forward with fresh energy and innovation and do new things. We’re excited.”

Gainesville Raceway kicks off the season and the celebratory festivities. There will be many, including NHRA legends at every event, anniversary merchandise, new midway activations, a new mobile game, and a Diamond Wally handed out to all weekend winners.

Cromwell believes the sport has never been stronger than it is right now.

The pro schedule will contest 20 events in 19 markets and includes four new venues in Georgia, Maryland, Michigan and North Carolina. The chance to bring the drivers to new markets hasn’t happened “in a long, long time.” When it comes to attendance, the first six races, per Cromwell, are seeing double-digit increases in advance tickets.

Off the track, Misson Foods begins its third season as the NHRA entitlement partner. The NHRA has also launched a 75th anniversary fund that will pay out $500,000 over the year to the pro classes. The sport is expected to award more than $27 million in purse money and payouts throughout the season.

“Our on-track performance has never been better,” Cromwell said. “Our cars are going fast.”

The depth of competition in each class continues to impress, and the sport has never seen as much offseason driver movement as it did between 2025 and '26. Included in the extensive list are two-time Funny Car champion Austin Prock, his family, and much of the team he had at John Force Racing, moving to Tasca Racing. Force, meanwhile, has a new stable of drivers, except for Jack Beckman.

Ron Capps expanded his operation. Leah Pruett is back in Top Fuel and her husband, Tony Stewart, is now with the new Elite Motorsports dragster team. And those are just to name a few.

“I think we’re all chomping at the bit to get the season started,” said Cromwell. “Competition parity is at an all-time high, and it’s going to be a dogfight.”

On the flip side, there is no one from the Force family in the field. John Force officially retired last season after his nasty 2024 crash in Virginia, and Brittany Force has stepped out of the seat to start a family. Not having them in the mix will be weird, admitted Cromwell, although he noted there will be opportunities for new names to shine too.

“John and his daughter obviously have a huge impact on the sport," he said. "I think we all know that they’re going to be around. So, to me, the door opens for new emerging stars and we have them. I’ve seen it in all sports: Wayne Gretzky leaves [NHL hockey], and people say there is no way he’s ever going to be replaced and Sidney Crosby comes in. Mario Lemieux. Every sport has superstars, and they leave or retire, and a new star steps up, and we have multiple of those who are going to step up and fill those shoes.

“I’m excited about it. We are going to celebrate John and his family in 2027 with ‘50 Years of Force,’ and we’ve already got a ton of plans for that, even though we’re a year out.”

But for all the fun and excitement ahead, and the excitement around a milestone season, there is a major piece of business that NHRA will be handling. It’s a television contract season. FOX Sports has been the broadcast partner for the last 11 years.

“They’ve done a tremendous job,” Cromwell said. “Our hope is to have FOX continue. But to take a step back, about six months ago we hired a company, Octagon, a media rights marketing agency out of New York, to help us on negotiations and things are going extremely well. We have a lot of networks that are interested in NHRA – obviously, one of them being FOX.

“I think this is going to be – when we finalized it and hopefully, we can get that out in the coming months – the best media rights deal that we’ve had in the history of the sport, and I’m extremely bullish around it.”