NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Horsepower is different here.

In Michigan, horsepower isn't something that arrived from somewhere else. It was designed here. Engineered here. Manufactured here. And for generations, Detroit has taken the American obsession with going faster and figured out how to build it at scale.

Look around the pits this weekend at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park and the connection is everywhere. The cars, engines, manufacturers, and performance philosophies represented by the race cars on the property trace their lineage to Detroit and the automakers, engineers and suppliers who surrounded it. The Hemi, the small-block and big-block Chevrolet, and Ford V-8s—the components racers learned to modify, strengthen and ultimately transform into dedicated racing hardware. 

In fact, every single 12,000hp Top Fuel and Funny Car engine and every Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown motor that will race here this weekend owes their architecture to ideas developed for automobiles conceived and engineered here.

Hot rodding found the advantage. Racing proved it. Detroit weaponized it by building it at scale.

And today, it all comes home.

After a 66-year absence, NHRA national-event Drag Racing returns to Michigan as the inaugural Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by Mopar gets underway at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park. The historic weekend also opens the six-race NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship.

There may be no more appropriate place for the return of nitro Hemi engines.

As fans pour into the gorgeous U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, they'll experience something Michigan hasn't seen at an NHRA national event since 1960: nitro-burning machines accelerating beyond 300 mph, header flames reaching into the air and the unmistakable concussion of Top Fuel and Funny Car engines at full throttle.

But listen beyond the nitro cars and another distinctly Michigan soundtrack emerges.

Supercharged late-model engines. Factory Stock Showdown machines. Pro Stock engines turning  10,000 rpm. Big-block combinations in Top Sportsman. Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet power everywhere you look.

The anticipation has been building all week.

On Tuesday, Tony Stewart Racing drivers Matt Hagan and Leah Pruett joined team owner Tony Stewart at Stellantis North America headquarters in Auburn Hills to unveil special Dodge Charger Super Bee and Purple Haze-themed liveries for the weekend.

Then, on Thursday, enthusiasts joined the inaugural NHRA Dodge Tour de Michigan, traveling from Stellantis headquarters in Auburn Hills through Hell, Lansing and Grand Rapids before arriving at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park — physically connecting Detroit and the state's automotive heritage with the dragstrip hosting this historic return.

Today, the talking stops.

Pro Stock Motorcycle and Pro Stock qualifying will set the stage for the moment Michigan race fans have waited more than six decades to experience: NHRA Mission Foods nitro qualifying at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park.

When the first pair of Funny Cars or Top Fuel dragsters fires, the sound will be unmistakable. Because the story of American horsepower and the story of Detroit have always been intertwined. The machines racing this weekend have evolved almost beyond recognition from their production-car ancestors, but their mechanical family tree still leads back here.

Friday opens the NHRA Countdown to the Championship. Following the points reset after the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals, every qualifying position, bonus point and elimination round now carries championship implications as Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle begin their six-race run toward world championships.

For Michigan race fans, though, Friday represents something even simpler. The transporters are here. The pits are alive. The grandstands are filling. Nitro is in the air. After 66 years, NHRA national-event Drag Racing is back in Michigan. And now that we're back, we're staying.