second championship at the season finale at Bradenton . After securing the title , he finished off the weekend with his final win of the season .

Just a day or two after getting home from Bradenton , Martin had to head out to Las Vegas for the SEMA Show for two days of autograph sessions . It was just a warmup for Martin ’ s personal appearance schedule at the PRI Show in Indianapolis a month later , where he signed autographs and took photos with fans at booths for no less than six different manufacturers that support the Fireball Racing team .

During a couple brief breaks on set , Martin sat down with Drag IllustrateD to talk about his recent championship , the competition level in the No Prep Kings series , the show ’ s impact on the sport , and more .

The No Prep Kings scene has grown increasingly competitive , especially over the last year or so . What does it take to perform at that level ?

A lot of dedication , time and money . This series is very time consuming . A lot of series are six or eight races and you go test for those , of course , but that really only takes six or eight weekends depending on how long the series is . This is 15 races and super competitive .

For me to try to stay at the top , I would leave a racetrack from doing pretty good and somebody just too damn close to me and I had to go figure out how to get another two or three numbers . We spent a lot of time on the road . We spent a lot of time testing and trying things . Sometimes , we succeeded , we moved forward , and we got our couple numbers . Sometimes , we went to the next racetrack no better than we were , and sometimes we even went backwards .

It ’ s a very time-consuming series that a lot of people don ’ t understand . It may be nine months long or whatever the schedule is , but it feels like that ’ s the only thing that you can possibly do for that entire schedule .

Martin first met Canales before he got involved in the Street Outlaws scene . Canales worked at his father ’ s body shop , where Martin would bring wrecked cars he was buying and fixing to flip . When the elder Canales decided to close the body shop , Martin jumped at the chance to hire the talented young man .

“ Long story short , I offered him a job and he ’ s been working for me ever since ,” Martin says . “ Javi came to us not knowing anything about race cars , not really knowing what to do to them , not really even knowing that we raced that much . He ’ s turned into the crew guy he is today .”

Canales worked in Martin ’ s shop helping with street cars and hot rods , doing things like putting headers on and installing superchargers . After a couple years of working in the shop , Canales was in the right place at the right time when Martin decided to jump into the Street Outlaws waters . More than that , he had the right skills to help Martin be successful , be it on the street or on the track .

“ In late 2014 or early 2015 , I said ‘ Hey , we ’ re going to go racing and we ’ re going to take it serious ,” Martin remembers . “ Billy Hays was my partner at the time and he jumped in as the crew chief for a while and taught Javi a lot of stuff and how to do what he does today .”

At just 29 years old , Canales is now one of the most respected crew chiefs in the pits at the No Prep Kings races . He ’ s Martin ’ s right-hand man when it comes to the race cars . He ’ s the one standing behind the car backing Martin up , the one bringing him into the beams , and the one jumping the highest when the win light turns on in Martin ’ s lane .

“ Honestly , I don ’ t think there ’ s anybody better ,” Martin says . “ I would put him up against anybody ’ s crew chief out there .” DI

How challenging is it to keep up with such a packed schedule like you ran last year ?

It ’ s extremely challenging . If you tank a motor and you need to get that fixed , you ’ re stuck . Not everybody has spares . I ’ m thankful that I ended up with two motors , and this year in NPK , we ran the same motor and never even pulled the new one out of the wrapper , which is unheard of . That doesn ’ t usually happen , but we were fortunate enough to do that .

I had a pretty good year as far as parts failures go , but that ’ s what will get you : parts failure . Being in the wrong place , having to travel a really long distance to the next racetrack , and not having time between to go rebuild your motor or go to the machine shop or go get your transmissions

January / February 2022 DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 81