NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The No Mercy Funny Car team will make its NHRA national event debut at the NHRA Toyota Nationals in Las Vegas. 

Tim Gibbons will drive the NMR Dodge Charger this weekend as regular driver Chris Bennett will continue pursuing his license upgrade during the Monday test session following the event.  Veteran crew chief Johnny West will be making the tuning calls, as well as advising the crew and overseeing the operation. 

Tim Gibbons

“It has always been my lifelong dream and ambition to own and drive a professional NHRA Nitro Funny Car,” said Bennett, an accomplished Nostalgia Funny Car and Fuel Altered driver who is just two runs shy of obtaining his long awaited professional license. “We bought this car two years ago and in that time we have put together a quality race program that has exceeded all of our expectations. 

“We sold all of our Nostalgia Funny Car equipment to build this new car but, as a self-funded team, it has taken us much longer than any of us would have liked to ensure we were ready for a national event. We’ve done some private testing with Johnny getting familiar with our combination and I’m confident we are very close to having a competitive nitro coupe.” 

According to Bennett, the No Mercy Racing team harkens back to a simpler time of NHRA Drag Racing when a group of guys with a common vision could pull together to race a competitive machine. 

“This team is an all-volunteer crew of guys, a bunch of friends really, that invest countless hours into making this a reality”, he expounded. “It takes sponsorship dollars to make these things run, and we have some amazing support from several folks that believe in our vision. They like our family atmosphere and how we really show our appreciation for their support, regardless of their contribution amount. Our team is the small business specialist because we believe in giving them the exposure and personal attention they could never get from a corporate race team.” 

The team is owned by Bennett, his father Jeff, and Brad Miner. Jeff Bennett, the team’s assistant crew chief, is a three-time winner of the AHRA Nitro Funny Car World Championship and is the seventh quickest and fastest Fuel Altered driver of all time. Chris Bennett, devoted 20 years of his life to military service and retired in 2015 with honors as a U.S. Air Force pilot. NMR Team Chief Miner is a long-time crewman who previously raced with Jeff on his Funny Car/Fuel Altered efforts, in addition to holding crew positions on several nitro teams over the years.