“Big Daddy” Don Garlits to Return to NHRA Drag Racing in a Dodge Challenger Drag Pak

Don Garlits

“Big Daddy” Don Garlits is making a comeback to NHRA competition for the first time since 2003, driving his Dodge Challenger Drag Pak into the heat of NHRA Stock eliminations at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend. His historic first run in the Drag Pak will be on Wednesday, September 2, in A/Stock Automatic qualifying at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. The full U.S. Nationals event is scheduled to begin Sept. 2 with final eliminations on Monday, Sept. 7.

["MoDawg" pointed out that Don Garlits made a pass in his Drag Pak Challenger during the weekend of August 29 at Cordova Dragway Park in Cordova, IL during the 56th World Series of Drag Racing. Darren Jacobs of Team Mopar P.R. replied that the Cordova passes were test runs, and that the upcoming race will be Garlits' first competition run.]

Garlits hung up his helmet after Top Fuel qualifying at the U.S. Nationals exactly six years ago in 2003. He last ran a stock class car in 1963 when he competed in a 1963 Dodge Max Wedge drag package car. His new Dodge Challenger Drag Pak by Mopar has the same lettering emblazoned on its sides, along with the same Mopar graphics from his historic run last year in Drag Pak prototypes at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals.

“I like my Dodge Challenger Drag Pak much better than a dragster,” said Garlits, referring to the current way Top Fuel dragsters are campaigned. ”It takes 25 people to get a dragster to the line these days. All I have to do with the Dodge Challenger is turn the key and take it there. When the light turns green I have a ten-second ride – which is almost three times what I used to get – and I even have time to look at the tach and shift gears.”

Garlits’ 2009 Dodge Challenger is the first Drag Pak by Mopar ever made. He took delivery at the Performance Racing Industry show in December 2008, receiving the keys along with a certificate of authenticity from Mopar. Garlits put the Drag Pak by Mopar through test and exhibition runs at the World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova Dragway Park in Cordova, Ill., last weekend.

Garlits retired for the first time in 1987, but returned for one race at Atlanta in 1992 and made a 300-mph run at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis in 2001. He then ran a limited schedule of four NHRA National events each year in 2002 and 2003 before he stepped out of Top Fuel at the request of his wife, Pat.

Garlits statistics

• 17 World Championship Titles and 144 National event wins
• Voted #1 Drag Racer for the past 50 years by the NHRA in 2001
• Won the prestigious U.S. Nationals eight times
• Car Craft Magazine Top Fuel Driver of the Year: 1969-70, 1972-73, 1975-78 & 1986
• Car Craft Magazine “Man of the Year”: 1969, 1971-73
• American Hot Rod Association “Fuel Driver of the Year”: 1971-74