Shawn Reed Racing Post-Race Recap: Charlotte 2

NHRA 4-Wide Carolina Nationals

Event 16 of 20

zMAX Dragway

Concord, N.C.

Sept. 19 – 21, 2025

Last Week’s NHRA Top Fuel Event Champ Out Early at Charlotte 4-Wide Nationals

CONCORD, N.C. (Sept. 21, 2025) – One week after powering to his career-first NHRA Top Fuel victory, privateer team owner/driver Shawn Reed was eliminated early on Sunday at the NHRA 4-Wide Carolina Nationals. Since making his return to NHRA competition following an on-track incident over the summer, Reed and his Reed Trucking & Excavating team have been on point, posting run after consistent run down the racetrack. Their impressive string of recording full pulls continued into Sunday at zMAX Dragway during the second of six NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoff events, but despite their efforts, the team narrowly missed out on continuing their streak of setting off win lights.

Reed’s weekend in Charlotte began by clocking a 3.810 E.T., the fifth-quickest run of the opening qualifying session. He made his quickest pass of qualifying – a 3.754 E.T. at 330.72 mph – on Friday night under the lights and then followed that up with two more solid runs on Saturday, including his 3.767 pass during the third session, which held up to be the third-quickest run of the round and earned him three bonus points.

Starting from the No. 8 position, Reed faced No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force and No. 9 qualifier Tony Stewart on Sunday morning. Against his opponents, Reed recorded a 0.72-second reaction time and took his machine on its 13th consecutive clean pass, powering to a 3.787 E.T. at 327.66 mph. He just missed out on the opportunity to make 14 good runs in a row as Force was able to edge past Reed as they approached the finish line beams, securing the win by one-thousandth-of-a-second in a nail-biter of a race. Stewart also finished ahead of Reed to advance into the next round.

“Our car is great, and despite the loss, we should be holding our heads high right now,” Reed said. “We’re disappointed because we just had a couple of good weeks, but we’ll get to St. Louis, and this car will go down the track. We’ll lean on it a little bit more and I’ll press on it a bit more as a driver. One-thou is hard to swallow. It would be different if we got beat by five-hundredths or something, or we just did something wrong, or I had a bad light, but we did what we needed to do; it just wasn’t good enough. So, congrats to Brittany and Tony Stewart for getting that win. We’ll regroup in St. Louis, push it a bit more, and hopefully get some more round wins there.”

Reed, who also won the IHRA Nitro Outlaw Series race in Hebron, Ohio earlier this month and the PRO Superstar Shootout pre-season event in February, entered the weekend tied for fifth in points. He departs zMAX Dragway ranked seventh but won’t have to wait long to continue his climb in the standings as the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads straight to World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis for the NHRA Midwest Nationals, Sept. 26 – 28.

Qualified: No. 8 (3.754 E.T. at 330.72 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:

E1: 3.787 E.T. at 327.66 MPH defeated by Tony Stewart 3.766 E.T. at 326.79 MPH, Brittany Force 3.758 E.T. at 338.34 MPH

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial):

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial):

1	Doug Kalitta		2287
2	Justin Ashley		2249
3	Shawn Langdon		2228
4	Tony Stewart		2219
5	Clay Millican		2192
6	Brittany Force		2179
7	Shawn Reed		2156
8	Steve Torrence		2151
9	Antron Brown		2128
10	Josh Hart		2085