Highlighting 2021 ’ s most outstanding racers , tuners , promoters , moments and more

BY NATE VAN WAGNEN & JOSH HACHAT

’ ve labored over this for a long time and spoken about it a lot , but it ’ s worth repeating : drag racing is hard . This is an extremely competitive sport with some of the highest of highs and lowest of lows – sometimes coming in the same weekend . You don ’ t see “ undefeated ” drag racers . This is a sport where losing is simply part of the game , it ’ s part of the journey , and , honestly , I think that is why this community is full of such incredible human beings ... because that ’ s what this sport , this level of competition , oftentimes produces .

All that said , the hustle-and-grind of drag racing being such a well-known thing , we felt it was important that we do everything we can to honor and validate that effort . That ’ s what the Drag IllustrateD Awards are all about .

The drag racing community deserves this . That ’ s the bottom line . The Drag

IllustrateD Awards , the coveted Racer of the Year award , our new Hall of Fame , these are things we believe drag racing needs and , again , deserves to have .

This is another case of refusing to wait . We ’ re not waiting for someone else to do this . We ’ re not waiting on ESPN , we ’ re not waiting on some mainstream news outlet to do this . We ’ re taking matters into our own hands .

The DI editorial team came up with over two dozen different award themes and worked them down to the selection on the following pages . Each member of our team suggested nominees for each category , and after hours of deliberating , we narrowed the nominees down to one winner in each category . We did not take the decisions lightly , and we truly believe the list of winners represents the best of the best drag racing had to offer in 2021 . – WES BUCK

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