ver the course of nearly 50 years, the Bader family has built the Cornwell Tools Night Under Fire into the largest single-day show in drag racing. Tens of thousands of fans from across Ohio, throughout the Midwest, and beyond have made it a summer tradition to pile into Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, to witness a concise, action-packaged show brimming with nitro flames and pyrotechnics.

This year’ s lineup featured the stars of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series’ nitro classes joining forces with a cast of drag racing’ s best exhibition entertainers. Though ominous forecasts predicted a near-guaranteed rainout, track president and event promoter Bill Bader Jr. pushed through with the planned festivities. The fans who turned out- and the ones who watched on FloRacing’ s first-ever livestream of the event- were rewarded with one of the most memorable shows in recent history.

Nitro-burning Funny Cars have been a part of the Night Under Fire show for decades, and Top Fuel dragsters joined the mix at various points, but this year’ s headlining nitro lineup featured a new“ King of Nitro” format. The Top Fuel and Funny Car invitees ran a pair of four-car shootouts, with the winner in each advancing to the overall final round to crown the King of Nitro.

The stacked King of Nitro roster includ-

Nearly everyone expected a Top Fuel driver to win the inaugural King of Nitro crown, but three-time Funny Car world champion Ron Capps got the last laugh.

Hayden Proffitt II continued the Night Under Fire tradition that Bob Motz started and made famous: burning down the head-of-staging sign behind the water box at the end of the night.

Even Top Sportsman racers like Glenn Butcher signed autographs for the fans, as shown here by FloRacing’ s Courtney Enders-Hyde.

Two-time and defending NHRA Top Fuel world champion Doug Kalitta was one of numerous first-time Night Under Fire participants.

Whether Funny Cars or local bracket hitters were on track, fans filled the stands named in honor of track heroes like John

Force and Mark Thomas.

130 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 202