NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

It has been nearly six months since Tripp Tatum last put his throttle foot down on his Top Fuel dragster at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals, but the second-generation racer will finally be back on the track at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals in his quick black dragster.

Tatum qualified a career-best second at that event with a 3.685 that matched the e.t. of low qualifier Antron Brown, who got the top spot based on a superior speed, 334.24 to Tatum’s 326.56.

“I actually shut it off a touch early, which probably cost me a few thousandths or I could have been No. 1,” he lamented. “When this car gets in a little bit drier air, it really runs good, so I wasn’t surprised it ran that good."

What did surprise Tatum was what happened when he planted his foot in the final pair of round one against Dan Mercier. Tatum noticeably left first and put down a strong .831 60-foot time. Those were the last things that went right.

The car shook, Tatum pedaled the throttle, but the car got out of the groove and, in the blink of an eye, turned hard left. Tatum was out of the gas quickly, but the momentum carried him into the guardwall, which punctured the left rear slick and sent him careening across the centerline and nose-first into the other guardwall before sliding to a stop crossways on the track.

“When it left, it shook, and it knocked my foot off the throttle,” he remembered. “I couldn't get my foot back [into the throttle-pedal loop], so I just put my foot on top, but when it smoked the tires out there, it was like being on brand-new, fresh asphalt and doing a burnout. It zings up and does not come back down. I'm like, ‘OK, that's enough,’ but just kept going and kind of skipped sideways. In a short wheelbase bar, you can get in trouble quicker, but you’ve got more room to save it. When you get in trouble in one of these cars, you run out of room in a hurry.

”I’ve had some people tell me I should have gotten out of it earlier, but things happen in milliseconds, and it's just what it was. I knew I had to move on, block it out, and just go back to doing what we all know how to do.”

It was a stunning turn of events for Tatum, who three years earlier had won his first and still only NHRA national event Top Fuel title at the 2022 event, but there was a bright spot on the horizon.

“I was nervous about the damage; we didn't see anything around this cockpit area, but you just don't know what you put on the jig,” he said. “Surprisingly, the car was not hurt as badly as it looked. Everything in the back of the car was straight because the tire and the wheel took all of it. Remarkably, the only thing in the back of the car that got hurt was the wing stand and the stay rod, only because the tire got them, not the impact. When we put it on that jig, the only thing that was bent was the first bay and a half of the front half, and it was fixed in a couple of weeks. I had most all of the parts. I had a completely new spare body and spare wings.

“I wanted to come back earlier, but with the financials and everything else, I couldn’t make it. I'm 100% self-funded and trying to be smart and not bury myself financially. If I could have found a little help, I was looking at Norwalk, but it just didn't work out."

Tatum has not had a chance to test the car since the repair, but he has no qualms about putting his foot down on his first run.

“If you're not a little nervous about any time you get in there, you probably shouldn't be in one in the first place, but we’re just going to do what we know how to do. If the track is good — and we expect it to be — I don’t see why we can’t go right back into the 3.60s in qualifying," he said. "I don't like to get ahead of myself — I tend to fly under the radar; just work on my stuff and do what I can control — but realistically, it could run pretty good.

"I’ve had a few people step up since then to help me, which has definitely made it a little easier, including Skull Paving. We’re just looking forward to getting out there again and running fast.”