the creation of Lil Gangstas. Looking to draw in True Street cars and small-tire cars, they created the ruleset that still exists today. Seventy-seven cars showed up for the second Lil Gangstas race, and Gunner and Poland knew they were on to something.
The Jimmy Dale and Poland Show
While they focused on growing Lil Gangstas, Gunner and Poland competed in the class as well with Gunner driving and Poland as his right-hand man. When Lil Gangstas took the big stage at the 2025 Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod at Bradenton Motorsports Park, Gunner wheeled the nitrous-assisted“ 50 Shades of Brown” Mustang to the inaugural victory, earning a then-record $ 30,000 payday. This was also his first Lil Gangstas win ever.
Gunner and“ Fifty” have grown synonymous with each other, with Gunner racing it in events all over the country, but the car was built by Stefan Slisz of Stefco Performance in Fort Worth, Texas, and is actually owned by John Herring, who Poland credits as being a major part of their operation.
“ We needed a car, he let us borrow‘ 50 Shades,’ and we’ ve had it ever since,” Poland says.“ Me and Tom have tried to buy that car on multiple occasions, offered ridiculous amounts of money for it – basically double its value – and John’ s told us,‘ There’ s not a dollar amount you could give me.’ He just wants to be a part of this story. He’ s told us it’ s our car, we can do whatever we want to with it – and stands behind us more like a brother than a car owner.”
While Gunner went to work behind the wheel, Poland went to work behind the scenes. Like a sports agent with the hottest new draft pick
Built by Stefan Slisz and owned by John Herring, the“ Fifty Shades of Brown " Mustang Gunner drives has become one of the cars most associated with Lil Gangstas.
on his roster, Poland started ringing phones trying to find Gunner progressively quicker and faster rides. His efforts started to pan out late last year when Gunner signed a deal to drive Rob Kohler’ s screw-blown“ Stick Weld” Camaro in the FuelTech Radial Outlaws Racing Series’ Limited Drag Radial class. Gunner and the team struggled in his debut at the U. S. Street Nationals with countless mechanical failures at Bradenton in January, but they made a statement a month later at Donald Long’ s Lights Out at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
“ Rob believed in us and fixed the car and then we came back to Lights Out and we beat the world-record-holding Tommy Youmans,” Gunner says.“ Then we go all the way to the semifinals to get beat by Brett LaSala, with his 3.80 flat to my. 83. But what happened in that race is I went. 008 on the tree and he went. 020 on the tree, showing I’ m a competent driver.”
That turned out to be the shot Gunner needed to reach a broader audience, just as predicted by Lyle Barnett, who previously drove“ Stick
July / August 2026 DragIllustrated. com | Drag Illustrated | 97