For the first time in its nearly 50-year history, the largest single-day show in drag racing will be available to a global audience when FloRacing streams the 49th annual Cornwell Tools Night Under Fire on August 1 at Summit Motorsports Park. With the stars of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series’ nitro classes joining forces with a cast of drag racing’s best exhibition entertainers, it’s a lineup that fans won’t want to miss whether they’re in the grandstands or in their living rooms.
The Bader family, now led by second-generation promoter and track operator Bill Bader Jr., have built the Night Under Fire spectacle into one of the most revered events in the sport. It’s a destination race for the world champions who compete in the match race event as much as it is for the 40,000-plus fans who pack Norwalk one summer evening every year. Now, fans around the world can tune in to the one-night show that delivers on entertainment value.
“This is an opportunity to take the very best of what we do and introduce it to the world,” said Bill Bader, Jr., President of Summit Motorsports Park.
Long before Summit Motorsports Park hosted its first NHRA national event in 2007, Funny Car icon John Force made the trip to Norwalk to headline the Night Under Fire lineup. Though Force is now retired as a driver, John Force Racing will be represented this year by Funny Car rookie Jordan Vandergriff, who recently earned his second career win at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals in his Cornwell Tools Funny Car. He’ll be joined by 2025 NHRA Rookie of the Year Spencer Hyde in the Head Racing Funny Car, two-time world champion Cruz Pedregon in the Snap-On Tools Funny Car, and three-time world champion Ron Capps in the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car.
The Top Fuel lineup is just as stacked. Rookie Maddi Gordon, who just a month ago earned her first career win at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk as part of a historic double-up with team owner Ron Capps, will return as a fan favorite in her Carlyle Tools dragster. Clay Millican, whose Norwalk fanbase is massive thanks to his success here in the IHRA days, is also set to compete in his Parts Plus dragster along with two-time and reigning NHRA world champion Doug Kalitta in the Mac Tools dragster and four-time world champion Antron Brown in the Matco Tools dragster.
A guaranteed $430,000 purse is on the line for the nitro burners, with the winner of Funny Car taking on the winner of Top Fuel to decide the “King of Nitro” title.
“If I could leave here saying that I was the King of Nitro, that would be like a ‘make your year’ kind of thing,” said Millican.
Fans of naturally aspirated, gasoline-burning machines will embrace the newly added Mountain Motor Pro Stock Shootout powered by Ross Environmental. It’s a 16-car qualified field paying out $100,000 in prize money, with an entry list that includes reigning NHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock world champion John DeFlorian, NHRA MMPS and PDRA Extreme Pro Stock world champion Johnny Pluchino, and many more names to be announced.
Ohio versus Michigan is a sports rivalry that burns with a passion in this part of the country, and that will continue with a Top Alcohol Dragster match race between Ohio’s Corey Michalek in the Blue Energy Nation nitro-injected A/Fuel dragster and Michigan’s JP Gutierrez in the M1 Concourse blown-alcohol dragster.
A 16-car qualified field in Top Sportsman will draw from the hot bed of fast bracket racers across Ohio and beyond, including Jerry Albert, Glenn Butcher, Dan Ferguson, Tim Molnar, Jeff Melnick, and more.
Other on-track entertainment includes Hayden Proffitt’s “Hot Streak II” 1957 Chevy Jet Truck, four jet dragsters fighting for the North American Jet Car Championship, Rick Ream’s 1950 Studebaker wheelstander, the Scott Rods AA/Gassers, and more.
The Bader family’s signature pageantry will be in full effect as well, with pre-race ceremonies featuring a parade of the evening’s entertainers, a flyover, and skydivers jumping from 4,000 feet in the air. The night will conclude with an expanded $150,000 fireworks show.
The Night Under Fire schedule begins July 31 with Friday night qualifying, including Top Fuel and Funny Car, from 6-9 p.m. On Saturday, August 1, the pre-race parade at 6 p.m. will lead into show time at 7 p.m.
Fans can catch all the action live on FloRacing.com.