I met Irene Shirley from Raleigh, North Carolina. At the Charlotte NHRA event, I spotted her Jack Beckman attire from when he drove the Infinite Hero car. She told me that she had been watching the NASCAR races with her dad and she started watching drag racing with her husband 35 years ago. They went to the U. S. Nationals for their honeymoon in 1991, where they saw Kenny Bernstein win in Top Fuel, and she has been a fan ever since.

“ My husband will go to 5-6 races a year, and if I can tag along I will,” she says.“ My favorite driver was always Kenny Bernstein, and after he retired, I followed Doug Herbert and Scott Kalitta. We were in attendance at Raceway Park in Englishtown

, New Jersey, when Scott was killed. I will never forget that sadness that you could feel for the rest of the event.”

I sat with Irene and her husband, Don, in the grandstands and asked her if she could spend time with one person involved in drag racing’ s past or present, who would she choose and why? Her answer surprised me, as she picked Eric Medlen. She said it was because she never was able to meet him, but he is highly regarded as one of the bright lights in the sport that was taken way too soon.

When I inquired about her favorite class, she told me she loved the Funny Cars because they were loud and unpredictable. I asked her favorite part of coming to a race besides what happens on track and she told me she enjoyed people watching and visiting the pits.

Everyone has a spot they like to spectate from, and Irene told me they always sit at the top of the grandstands at about half-track. She always tries to visit the winner’ s

circle or the winning pit to say congratulations to the crews. She told me that she likes to chat with the crew guys because they have the hard jobs taking the engines apart and putting it all back together. It is more common these days to find female fans of drag racing, and Shirley says she will be following drag racing until she goes in the ground.

While Irene was my“ fan in the stands,” Scott Palmer is my favorite fan interaction for the month. I’ m lucky enough to call Scott a friend, and one of the biggest highlights of my drag racing fandom is from 2025 when we were at U. S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, for an event and Scott had me come over and sit in his Top Fuel dragster during warmup. Just to sit in a Top Fuel car while it was running has always been a wish for me and Scott made that happen. Scott is one of the guys in Top Fuel that loves to interact with the fans not only in the pits, but he’ s also been known

to sit in the stands and spectate himself when possible.

Scott was at the IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series race in November, I was there with the Pro Mod teams, and our friends Casey and Nicole Catoe were competing in Pro Mod with the supercharged“ Chemical Imbalance”’ 41 Willys. Their driver, Brandon Plyler, brought his family to the event and his 10-year-old son, Gage, asked me if he could meet Scott Palmer. Well, Scott, had already inquired about the Willys because he loves Pro Mods and likes to see diversity in the body styles, so I texted Scott and he came over to the pit, where he sat in the Willys. I jokingly said,“ Now we get to come see the Top Fuel car,” and Gage’ s eyes lit up as Scott asked him if he wanted to sit in the car. So over to the Palmer pits we went and Scott spent time showing Gage the car while he sat in it.

I believe that this is what fans want: interaction with the teams. It makes people fall in love with our sport. I know several drivers that regularly go above and beyond for the fans because they understand that we need to celebrate the fans. DI