From Grudge Racing to NHRA World Championships

Article Image by: Jim Dyas

Something that seems to be seriously overlooked in todays world is looking back at where some drivers come from. Over the weekend this really struck me as something to highlight.

The 2025 NHRA Pro Mod season has come to a close with the completion of the Vegas race, where J.R. Gray defeated Billy Banaka in the finals and took home not only the win, but also secured the 2025 NHRA Pro Mod World Championship. In beating Billy in the finals, J.R. took home the championship by one single point. To put that into perspective, that one singular point is the difference in a qualifying position sometime during the season. The points battle was as close as you can possibly get and says a lot for the men and women of the sport that battle it out event after event.

The thing that stuck me about this weekend was something else though. As someone who didn’t grow up in the south, where grudge racing is, was, and always will be a way of life, I came into that aspect much later in life and fell in love with the action of it. Sitting here today I look at two NHRA World Champions that have almost mirroring careers that most people would have said was impossible a decade ago.

In the world of drag racing, grudge racing would seem to most as a niche group of hardcore, off the radar, misunderstood racers that get zero respect outside of the grudge world. Unlike radial racing, bracket racing, etc. the grudge world isn’t the type of racing that seems to get all the national media attention. You aren’t going to typically see grudge racing on the cover of magazines, or really anywhere outside of the grudge world. For that exactly reason it is often misunderstood and mislabeled by outsiders.

First it was Steve Jackson, better known to some as Stevie Fast that conquered the NHRA World by captured multiple NHRA Pro Mod World Championships, and now it is J.R. Gray that has accomplished that feat. Looking back, I know both of these drivers from grudge racing and radial racing much more than their time as Pro Mod drivers though.

For years I watched and photographed both Stevie and J.R. as they raced grudge and radial racing. Watched as they both became household names in those worlds long before the bright lights of NHRA became their calling. I know you might be asking yourself what the hell my point to all of this is though and I’ll get there.

A lot of racers come up through the ranks of juniors, then brackets, and so on before becoming major stars on the world stage that is NHRA. Who would have thought that a couple of guys from the south that raced in these grudge races would ever become NHRA World Champions? Honestly, it came as no surprise to me when Stevie won his championships, and it comes as no surprise to me that J.R. has now carried that grudge racing torch and won a World Championship in the biggest drag racing organization in the history of the sport.

The two of them are proof positive that it doesn’t matter what background you have in this sport, you have the ability to succeed. Grudge racing has laid the foundation for two great NHRA Pro Mod World Champions and I don’t think we’ve seen the end to that streak. I also believe that you’d better put some much warranted respect on the grudge game and it’s racers, as it is pretty damn apparent that some of them can race with the best in the world and come out victorious!

Just remember this, next time you go to a Mike Hill race, a Big Jake race, or any other grudge race, you might be witnessing future NHRA championship drivers behind the wheel of those cars. Ten years ago you would have laughed at me for saying that, now look at where we are!!

Much respect to both Stevie and J.R. for getting it done, as well as a huge congratulations to JR Gray for showing the world that grudge racers are real racers too!!