NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

For every Patrick Mahomes, LeBron James, or Ken Griffey Jr. who went from first-round draft pick to superstardom, there’s a Ryan Leaf, a Greg Oden, or a Brien Taylor. You just never know. Sometimes it's like inviting everyone for filet mignon and ending up with microwave meatloaf. For every fine meal cooked and eaten, there’s bound to be a fallen soufflé.

NHRA doesn’t have a draft system, but it has been handing out NHRA Rookie of the Year honors for 35 years, starting in 1990, and while the vast, vast majority of them lived up to their first-season hype and went on to become world champions, there also have been some who simply fell off the radar.

Of the 36 NHRA Rookies of the Year, 13 of them went on to become world champions (and eight of them multitime world champions), while 18 others went on to win national events after their first season. Impressively, only a handful of our rookies of the year ended up being what the sports world might call “draft busts.”

While it’s possible to be the best rookie of any season and have a sophomore (and beyond) slump, that shouldn’t take away from a rookie’s accomplishment in that first season, but this exercise is to see who built on that first-year success (and, of course, to enjoy/giggle at how they all looked back then).

CREAM OF THE CROP

With five Pro Stock championships after his 1998 rookie campaign, the guy they call “the Natural,” Jeg Coughlin Jr., is the poster child for NHRA Rookie of the Year success. 

Coughlin was already an established Sportsman racing star with the 1992 Super Gas world championship and 11 national event wins spread across four Sportsman classes already on his résumé before turning Pro at the fall Dallas event in 1997 in the JEGS Olds Cutlass. He ran the final three races of that year and won his first Pro Stock Wally in the middle race of that trio, at the fall Houston event.

His four-win 1998 rookie campaign gave him a distant second-place finish behind Warren Johnson (who won nine times that season). Two seasons later, Coughlin would win his first of five Pro Stock championships. After his rookie season, he’d go on to win 69 more times in Pro Stock (and counting).

For a body of work, it would be hard to ignore John Force Racing, which has created six rookies of the year — Robert Hight (2005), Ashley Force Hood (2007), Mike Neff (2008), Courtney Force (2012), Brittany Force (2013), and Austin Prock (2019) — who have won a combined six world championships and 126 Pro-class wins.

Sure, the drivers all had the best of equipment, sponsors, and personnel, but they have all lived up to the promise they showed in their first years. In fact, 121 of those 126 wins came in seasons after their rookie years; all 18 of Brittany’s wins and both of her championships came after her first season, which, after all, should be one of the true judges of whether a pick as top rookie panned out, along with longevity, which is where Hight shined, winning 63 of his 65 titles (and all three championships) in the nearly 20 years that followed.

Gary Scelzi (1997, Top Fuel) and L.E. Tonglet (2010, Pro Stock Motorcycle) are the only rookies of the year to win world championships in their debut seasons. Both won a rookie-record five times in their first season, a total matched by Tanner Gray in his very short Pro Stock career. Gray did not win the championship in his 2017 rookie year but won it the next season, then retired on that mic drop.

Here’s a look at the NHRA Rookies of the Year who went on to win world championships, ranked by their post-rookie win totals.

THE ROAD TO CONFUSION

But wait a minute, Phil, I can hear you say: Where are Tony Pedregon, Antron Brown, Doug Kalitta, and Ron Capps on that list? They were all recognized for their early achievements, and they turned out pretty darned good. 

Good question, and I guess a little housecleaning is in order. Between 1996 and 2001, two separate awards were given to recognize rising stars, the NHRA Rookie of the Year award and the Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award. The NHRA Rookie of the Year was given to a driver who fit the criteria of not having competed in more than five events before their declared rookie season. The Road to the Future was awarded to someone who had exceeded that limit but still showed superstar potential. After 2001, it became one award — the Road to the Future — limited to true rookies. Beginning in 2020, the award name reverted to NHRA Rookie of the Year.

1996: Mike Edwards (three wins) and Matt Hines (two wins) shared the NHRA Rookie of the Year crown while new John Force Racing driver Tony Pedregon, who had run in 23 races (1992-95), was the Road to the Future winner after a lone win. Pedregon went on to win 41 races and two world championships after that, so if it was viewed in any way as a NHRA Rookie of the Year consolation prize, it certainly was a prescient one.

1997: Gary Scelzi deservedly won the NHRA Rookie of the Year award after winning the Top Fuel world championship in his first year after taking over from the late Blaine Johnson in the Johnson family’s dragster. Capps, who had already run 20 races in Top Fuel in 1995-96 before saddling up in Don Prudhomme’s Funny Car, won Road to the Future.

1998: As previously mentioned, Coughlin was the 1998 NHRA Rookie of the Year, and Doug Kalitta won Road to the Future. Like Pedregon, it proved to be a sage call. Kalitta only won once in his rookie 1998 season, so you can understand him not sharing NHRA Rookie of the Year with Coughlin, but he’s gone on to win 56 more times and the 2023 world championship and was a three-time championship runner-up in his first nine years.

1999: Had he not run seven races in 1998, Antron Brown certainly would have been the 1999 NHRA Rookie of the Year after a three-win/third-place season in Pro Stock Motorcycle, but instead he got the Road to the Future honors while the rookie award went to Funny Car newcomer Scotty Cannon, who reached no final rounds and didn’t finish in the Top 10. Timing is everything, right? AB, of course, had the last laugh with 78 future national event wins and four Top Fuel world championships. Cannon went on to reach three Funny Car finals and two Top 10 finishes (high of sixth in 2000).

2000: Here’s one that I think they got wrong. Don Lampus was awarded the NHRA Rookie of the Year for finishing in 11th place in Top Fuel, while Melanie Troxel, who finished 13th, got what seems like the consolation prize of Road to the Future. Lampus did finish higher in the standings, but he also ran more events (18 to her 10), yet scored fewer round-wins (seven to her 10), and pretty much outpointed her due to first-round loser points. Troxel went to the final round in Dallas (lost to Cory McClenatha) and to the semi’s in Indy and set Top Speed at both. Lampus’ best finish was a semifinal in Denver, where he also set top speed. Troxel went on to win nine events over the next 11 seasons, while Lampus’ final four seasons did not include a final round.

2001: Both Top Fuel racer Darrell Russell and Pro Stock Motorcycle rider GT Tonglet both finished sixth this season, but it was the late Russell who was named top rookie, and Tonglet got Road to the Future. In his first year as Joe Amato’s first hired driver, Russell won the NHRA Winternationals in his debut and also won the fall Las Vegas race and notched four runner-ups. Tonglet had one win (Topeka) and two runner-ups.

As you can see, four of the Road to the Future winners — Pedregon, Capps, Brown, and Kalitta — indeed embodied the award's name and followed bright paths that led to championships. Here's their ranking by success.

BEST OF THE REST

Eighteen NHRA Rookie of the Year winners followed up on the promise shown that first year with at least one more win (including the six who did not have a rookie-year win). Second-generation Pro Stock star Kurt Johnson is clearly the superstar that never went supernova, with 37 wins following a trio in his 1993 rookie campaign, but never won a championship despite four second-place finishes, including his rookie season, where he finished behind his famous father, Warren.

2020 NHRA Rookie of the Year Justin Ashley leads a quartet with 16 post-rookie wins, joined by still-active Spencer Massey (Top Fuel) and Hector Arana Jr. ( Pro Stock Motorcycle) and retired Top Fuel driver Brandon Bernstein.

2021 winner Dallas Glenn, with 14-post rookie wins, undoubtedly will probably claw past all of them and someday approach Johnson, but will probably add his name to the championship list before then.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO …

Only five NHRA Rookies of the Year — Dannielle DePorter (1992 Top Fuel), Scotty Cannon (1999, Funny Car), Don Lampus (2000, Top Fuel), Gene Wilson (2002, Pro Stock), and Bill Litton (2018, Top Fuel) — failed to win a race in either their rookie season or any season afterwards.

After her 10th-place finish in 1992, Deporter only ran a handful of events combined in 1993 and 1994 before being replaced in the new Luxor Top Fueler by Rachelle Splatt. Scotty Cannon raced for five more seasons, including as part of the Don Schumacher Racing empire, and finished sixth in 2000 and eighth in 2002, and went winless in three final-round appearances. As discussed earlier, Lampus never made a final round in any of his seven seasons, and budding Mopar Pro Stock star Wilson never returned to a final over the next four seasons after three runner-ups in his rookie campaign. 

Litton may be the most confounding of them all. After outlasting a large but light-on-success field of fellow nominees that included Kelly Clontz (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Steve Graham (Pro Stock), Kebin Kinsley (Top Fuel), Jim Maroney (Top Fuel), Ryan Oehler (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Mark Paquette (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Wally Stroupe (Pro Stock), Ron Tornow (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Terry Totten (Top Fuel), Richard Townsend (Funny Car), and Audrey Worm (Top Fuel) — on the strength of just three round-wins, Litton never turned another tire on the track.

HOW FAR THEY'VE COME ....

How about a look at some pretty successful drivers who did not win NHRA Rookie of the Year (and why they didn't win)?

Greg Anderson: The six-time world champ and 110-time national event winner's rookie season in 1998 was a forgettable one with nine DNQs and just one round-win in 12 starts.

Tony Schumacher: Before he won eight Top Fuel world championships and 88 national event Wallys, Schumacher scored two runner-ups in his 1997 rookie season and finished 19th in points, far below that year's fellow rookie Top Fuel sensation, Gary Scelzi. Two years later, Schumacher was a world champion.

Steve Torrence: The talented Texan was already a world champ in Top Alcohol Dragster (2005) before turning Pro the next year, but didn't have enough starts for a ROY-eligible season until 2008, which wasn't his best. He won just four rounds in nine starts and finished 15th in points. ROY winner Mike Neff also didn't win a race that year but ran them all and finished ninth. Since then, Steve-o has racked up four world championships and 56 national event wins.

Andrew Hines: The second-generation two-wheeler also has 56 wins but six world championships, all of which came after a seven-race 2002 rookie season in which he won just five rounds and reached one semifinal and finished in 14th place in the standings and in ROY balloting behind Pro Stock's Gene Wilson, who finished ninth after three runner-ups. Boy, those careers sure turned out differently ...

Matt Hagan: The four-time Funny Car world champ and 53-time national event winner's rookie year was 2009, where he scored two runner-ups and finished 11th in points, which didn't earn him enough votes to better Spencer Massey, who won twice in his rookie season in Don Prudhomme's U.S. Smokeless Top Fueler.

Erica Enders: The six-time Pro Stock world champ and 49-time national event winner's rookie season was 2005. She failed to qualify in her debut at the Winternationals and DNQ’d at nine of her first 12 events in Victor Cagnazzi’s Cavalier. She may have had a slow start, but she certainly has made up for it since.

Angelle Sampey: The queen of the two-wheeled world scored a win and runner-up and finished seventh in her six-race 1996 rookie campaign, which normally would have earned her NHRA Rookie of the Year honors, but she lost out to budding rival Matt Hines and Mike Edwards, who were slightly better. She went on to win three world championships and 45 more Pro Stock Motorcycle wins since then, far outstripping Hines and Edwards.

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING

What if NHRA had handed out Rookie of the Year awards before 1990? The eligibility rules would have had to have been much different as national events were few and far between in the early years (although divisional/regional events did count for points).

You would think Don Prudhomme would have been the 1965 NHRA Rookie of the Year with wins at the NHRA Winternationals and NHRA U.S. Nationals, two of the four events on the schedule then, but Maynard Rupp won the other two, which included the NHRA World Finals, which made him the world champ. Although Prudhomme had only run one national event before his win in Roland Leong's Hawaiian at the 1965 Winternationals (he ran the .64 Winternats in the Greer-Black-Prudhomme car), he was anything but a rookie if you know the history of the G-B-P monster.

With an Indy win and two runner-ups in an eight-race season, I'm pretty sure that Bob Glidden would have been NHRA Rookie of the Year in 1973, but only because that year's world champion, Wayne Gapp, ran five races the year before.

Although he was already a bit of a match-race veteran by then, with countless appearances in the Chi-Town Hustler (over which he had taken the controls in 1979), Frank Hawley only had two previous national event appearances (both in 1981) before he and Austin Coil ran roughshod over the Funny Car crowd and won the 1982 world championship. That year's other future-star rookie? Joe Amato. Amato ran nine events and reached a pair of semifinals, but that was it until he caught fire the next year on.

And what about 1985? My first thought was Darrell Gwynn, who notched a pair of Top Fuel runner-ups that year — losing both times to Don Garlits, including in the final in Indy — until I remembered the amazing Bruce Allen, who took over the wheel of the Reher-Morrison-Shepherd Camaro after Lee Shepherd's early-season death in a testing accident. Despite not having run a national event before that season, Allen somehow overcame the pressure of taking over the four-time world championship Chevy and won three races, had four runner-ups, and finished third.

Who will win the 2025 NHRA Rookie of the Year award? There's a good selection to pick from, currently favoring Spencer Hyde at this point, but there are at least three other drivers with their hats in the ring and more to potentially come.

OK, there's your Friday Food For Thought with enough rookie cookies to satisfy your hunger. Thanks for reading.

Phil Burgess can be reached at pburgess@nhra.com

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