Derek Schultz: Access granted

Anyone who has traveled to the far-west side of Marion County, near the edge of Brownsburg, over the past few days has gotten an auditory reminder that the drag racers are back at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The 2024 Toyota U.S. Nationals, widely regarded as the crown jewel event of the National Hot Rod Association season, are underway while you’re reading this article.

If you have never been to the historic strip before, the experience watching these rocket ships on wheels—at over 330 miles per hour, they’re the fastest race cars on the planet—is unique to anything else in sports. The roar of these tremendous engines sending racers hurtling down the straightaway at vertebra-rattling speeds is a sight and sound to behold. With runs lasting just a few seconds, the slightest driver hesitation or vehicle waggle can make the difference in one-on-one races that are routinely won by hundredths and thousandths of a second.

Running all the way through Labor Day weekend, fans in attendance will see all four NHRA divisions—Top Fuel dragsters, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycles—crown champions in drag racing’s pinnacle event, but they’ll do far more than just see the action.

No, you can’t climb into the cockpit of these 10,000-plus horsepower cars, but you can darn near do just about anything else while enjoying a day at the drags.

“People come up to us and go, ‘Oh my god, I’ve never been to something like this before,’” said Antron Brown, three-time NHRA champion and the two-time defending U.S. Nationals champ in the Top Fuel division. “They’re able to walk right up in the pit and see the car, see the guys who work on it, and talk to the drivers. Fans want to reach out and touch sports, and that’s what makes our experience so special.”

“You can’t go to the dugout of a baseball game and chat with the [players and coaches], you know?” said Tony Schumacher, who has triumphed in Indianapolis 10 times, a record for all NHRA professional categories. “If you like a certain driver, you can go right up to them and talk with them. It’s just an entirely different business than what you see in other sports.”

Full-body experience

With its “every ticket’s a pit pass” tagline, the NHRA markets directly to this fact. While an NBA or NFL game might stimulate only two or three of your senses, The Big Go hammers virtually all of them. The NHRA knows that to truly experience its brand of motorsports, fans need the freedom not only to get their hands dirty … they need to include eyes, ears and nostrils, too. The calling card for drag racing is not these fearless athletes, their incomparable vehicles or the distinctive scent of burnt nitro-methane and rubber filling the air, but the NHRA’s insistence on giving a blanket pass for those in attendance to fully engage, interact and immerse themselves in all of it.

Brown, now 48 years old, remembers his own immersion at his first NHRA event in 1986. Don “Big Daddy” Garlits, one of the sport’s true icons and the reigning Top Fuel champion at the time, surprised a 10-year-old Brown by welcoming him into his pit during the Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey.

“He actually gave me the hope and drive that I could be there someday,” Brown said. “If you just give people a little bit of time, it can be an experience that they’ll never forget.”

In an era where the velvet rope between fans and athletes at events has felt more like a velvet Berlin Wall, the NHRA is unique in how it welcomes its patrons. For a $30 general admission ticket during the preliminary rounds of the U.S. Nationals, you get what most sports would consider a top-shelf, VIP-level experience—and that’s without the threat of burly stadium security or a crusty yellow shirt shooing you away. This weekend at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, you can see it, hear it, smell it and feel it without having to ask anyone’s permission.

“I enjoy hearing fans walk away and say, ‘We bought a ticket, but we feel like we owe more money because this is incredible,’” Schumacher said.

An engine just blew up? Sprint from your seat over to the pits and stand 10 feet away from the team of mechanics furiously working to get things back in order. Most fans will be able to score a one-on-one conversation in-person—not through a social media account or a laptop screen—with any competitor. Failing that, you’re at least likely to snap a quick photo with or nab an autograph from your favorite driver at the “Super Bowl” of the NHRA, an opportunity that is a near impossibility at the actual Super Bowl.

Relatable

Besides being approachable, the stars of the NHRA are relatable, too. While it’s difficult for the common sports fan to connect on a personal level with Formula One world champion Max Verstappen, who lives in Monaco and owns his own jet, or basketball legend LeBron James, a global icon with a personal net worth over $1 billion, that isn’t a challenge with these drivers.

Even though the men and women in these NHRA pits are the absolute best in the world at what they do, the actual act they perform when the light turns green is something anyone who has ever owned a car has done at some point in their lives. Chances are you haven’t wound through the streets of Monaco at over 150 miles per hour or dunked a basketball in the NBA Finals, but everyone has slammed the gas pedal down in their own vehicle.

And the drivers’ personalities fit the same relatability vibe, especially for fans here in the Midwest.

Before Brown, who resides in Pittsboro, became an NHRA superstar, his family name was more known for a multi-generation septic tank business. Schumacher, an eight-time world champ, owns a Harley and paused an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” to do this interview. Four-time Funny Car champion Matt Hagan and his family raise cattle and sell their own beef jerky in Virginia. Top Fuel championship four-peat (2018-2021) Steve Torrence has been working for a pipeline contracting company in Texas.

These are normal guys and gals who strap themselves into abnormal machines 20 weeks a year.

“Some people still see us like we’re [big stars] or something, and it cracks me up,” joked Brown. “I want people to come away and say, ‘Hey, he’s just like a normal dude.’ I have never changed from day one, no matter what I’ve done.”

“We’re not stars—we just drive cool-ass cars,” Schumacher said. “You have just as good of a chance at seeing me out at dinner with everyone else, whereas other drivers in different motorsports seem to be a little more elite.

“And I’m OK with that.”•

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From Peyton Manning’s peak with the Colts to the Pacers’ most recent roster makeover, Schultz has talked about it all as a sports personality in Indianapolis for more than 15 years. Besides his written work with IBJ, he’s active in podcasting and show hosting. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @Schultz975.