Tyler Bohannon wins second career‘ million’ at Spring Fling Million By Rob King

For the last two years, he had been running a racetrack and pouring every ounce of himself into TB Promotions, the big-money bracket racing operation he and Brian Whitworth have built into one of the most respected brands in the sportsman world. He was good at it. He liked it. And somewhere along the way, the dream of being the guy in the seat had quietly settled into something smaller.“ I had lost that the last two years. I’ d settled on the fact that this is what life’ s going to be,” Bohannon says.“ And I was happy with it. It didn’ t bother me.”

Then Will Holloman called. There was an extra car available. Two weeks on the road, with Vegas at the end of it for the 2026 Moser Spring Fling Million presented by RAD at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bohannon, who had been head-down on TB Promotions work for months, said yes – the way he has said yes to every opportunity in drag racing he has ever been offered.“ If somebody calls me, I’ m in,” Bohannon says.“ I’ ve always been that way. I’ ll be that way until the day I die.”

What followed was either the worst trip of his career or the best – and depending on which round you ask him about, he might give you a different answer. The truck ran out of diesel pulling into a Texas truck stop. An air compressor line let go in Tucson. He talked enough trash about the East vs. West Shootout at Tucson Dragway to write a book, then lost it. By the time the rig rolled into LVMS, the universe was already winding up.

Then the racing started, and things got even worse. Three fuel pumps went bad. A starter died. A wheel broke off the front of his car at 140 mph and he somehow kept it between the walls. The car caught on fire on a bye run on Thursday and he bailed out with his helmet still on, waving down the safety crew while his ride coasted backward down the Vegas hill. He never missed a round. Not once. Ten rounds, six days, every nightmare a big-money bracket racer keeps shoved to the back of his trailer, all in one weekend.

“ That’ s the part of big-money bracket racing that I think people don’ t understand,” Bohannon says.“ We can all go out there and lay down a 10-total package. But can you keep up with this thing three to four, six, seven weeks on the road and keep it running? That’ s the hardest part.

There’ s 50, 60, 70 thousand dollars’ worth of spare parts before you count a motor or a transmission in the trailer. The type of stuff like a threeeighths left-hand-thread heim joint? Ain’ t nobody got that. Why did we have it? I don’ t know. But we did.”

Fifteen minutes after the fire, he was in the staging lanes in a borrowed Will Holloman dragster, working out a new dial-in on the fly, racing for the next round. Cory Gulitti had a battery. Johnny Ezell and Holloman were already cutting cables off the original car. Bohannon was in the second car getting fitted, the seat pads moving, his helmet hanging on the cage.

“ Then Will comes over and goes,‘ I fixed it. You’ re good.’ I’ m like, dude, I was on fire five minutes ago. There’ s no way.” He laughs.“ Sure enough, it fired up and I drove off to the lanes in it.”

That is the kind of weekend that wins you a million dollars or sends you home in pieces.

Bohannon does not really believe in luck the way other people do, but he will tell you that his luck on this trip was almost suspiciously welltimed. The fire happened at the finish line. The wheel broke off at the finish line. The fuel pump went out unloading the car at 7:15 in the morning. Every disaster waited politely until it could not actually cost him a round.

The disasters brought him through a field that would intimidate anyone with a steering wheel and a brain. By the time he got to the back half of the ladder, he was staring across the lanes at murderer’ s row.

“ I’ ve always drove that way,” he says.“ They always say you drive to win, not scared to lose. But I’ ve always worked the opposite. Like, if I’ m going to prove something, I can’ t lose. If I’ m going to prove this, you do have to go win. But I’ m not always necessarily been scared to lose in a

sense of like, losing is fine for me at this point. But if you lose, you’ re not proving your point. I want to prove my point. Prove that I belong in this conversation.”

He kept proving his point. Past the locals. Past the Gary and Troy Williamses and the Pete Biondos. Past the names that have spent 25 years making other people’ s lives miserable on the bottom bulb. He went to the final against Greg Brotherton, who he defeated by just. 0002. Two ten-thousandths of a second. The kind of margin where the loser is still struggling to believe the win light didn’ t come on his in his lane some three days later.

“ It’ s hard to win a single round at these races, let alone 10 rounds of drag racing,” Bohannon says.“ And you’ re not racing just some local bracket racers, you’ re pulling up beside some absolutely iconic drag racers.”

This is Bohannon’ s second million-dollar drag racing victory. The first came in November 2021 at Capital City Motorsports Park, where he became the second winner of the Great American Guaranteed Million and arrived at his hometown bank the next morning with a check his teller had to physically guarantee for him because he had bills due in 48 hours and three dollars and seventy-seven cents in his account. It was a victory that put him on the map in a way nothing in his career ever had.

This second one means something different to him. He is a man who has spent a lifetime checking boxes. Now he’ s joined a list of seven men who have won the million more than once.

“ Kenny Underwood, Luke Bogacki, Kevin Brannon, Gary Williams, Jeff Verdi,” Bohannon recites.“ And I think there’ s one more. But that’ s something that says I’ m good at this. That’ s what I’ ve chased my entire life – to say that I’ m a good drag racer.” DI

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATT LEVONAS