Drag Race Drama at the Sox & Martin HEMI^® Challenge

When you combine human emotion, blood, sweat, long hours and countless days of making your machine the fastest in its class, there’s definitely a chance of drama unfolding. During the running of this year’s Sox & Martin HEMI^® Challenge at the NHRA U.S. Nationals, something occurred that has never happened in the 24 years this specialty race has been contested at ‘The Big GO’. Both winner and runner-up were disqualified due to technical infractions. That’s right, during a post-race technical inspection, the NHRA found that both the winner, Jason Line, and runner-up, Jimmy Daniels, had illegal modifications to their engines.

The modifications, albeit not a true performance enhancement, were an infraction and was clearly stated in the 2025 NHRA Rule Book. While many fans felt NHRA was playing hardball in their ruling to disqualify the winner and runner-up, a rule is still a rule. In Jason Line’s case, four of the eight venturis on the Holley carburetors were out of spec; and for Daniels, a minor modification to the combustion chamber of his cylinder heads was deemed an “illegal external modification”. Did these mods improve the horsepower? Probably not one bit. But when you race SS/AH (and other Super Stock and Stock Eliminator classes), the engine must adhere to strict guidelines as laid out in the NHRA Rule Book and Engine Blueprint Guide. It’s either black or white; there’s no ‘grey area’ in which one could interpret their own version of the rules.

“Obviously, it started out as a super fun weekend until it wasn’t. Racing with these SS/AH guys was awesome, and they’re a great group of folks to hang out with. But, I’m bummed to have brought negative attention to the Sox & Martin HEMI Challenge and SS/AH class because of a carburetor infraction,” said Jason Line, three-time NHRA Pro Stock World Champion, one-time Stock Eliminator champ, and winner of the 2025 Sox & Martin HEMI Challenge prior to post-race tech inspection. “The infraction had no bearing on the car’s performance, but it’s my fault for not checking the carbs, and a rule is a rule. I’ll now work even harder and head to Maple Grove Raceway in October to reset the SS/AH record at the NHRA Dutch Classic.”

“I’m a little a speechless on why we got disqualified. We don’t consider what was done on our cylinder heads to be an external modification. The combustion chambers on the heads were modified to gather data on the engine dyno, but when they got installed on my HEMI Dart prior to Indy, they were returned to the stock configuration and had the correct volume as per the NHRA blueprint specs,” said Jimmy Daniels, four-time consecutive winner of the Sox & Martin HEMI Challenge.

But the rules enforcement began before Jason Line and Jimmy Daniels raced in the final. The NHRA Technical Staff was in full force and conducted spot checks after the first qualifying session. This included measuring the wheelbase, verifying the proper carburetor orientation on the intake manifold, inspecting aftermarket air pans and velocity stacks and examining the inner front fender wells for unauthorized modifications. While NHRA’s intentions to check these items were published on their website prior to the U.S. Nationals, some racers were still caught off guard when confronted with an army of NHRA officials.

“We had some discussions on the wheelbase with one of the NHRA Tech Officials. Some racers got the memo, but we plain just missed it. However, we got it sorted out. We climbed under the car, made some adjustments on the four-link bars and found a local shop to make us a new driveshaft,” said Terry Earwood, who raced Steve Bagwell’s HEMI ‘Cuda to a U.S. Nationals Super Stock victory in 1973. “I even raced a HEMI Challenger for Bill Tanner in Pro Stock during the 1970 NHRA U.S. Nationals, so Indy holds a special place in my heart. We’ve been down this road before with NHRA, but we’re looking forward to next year’s Sox & Martin HEMI Challenge.”  

For Mike McCandless, the man behind the Sox & Martin HEMI Challenge sponsorship and who had the vision to put some serious marketing clout behind this awesome event, he understood NHRA’s decision to disqualify the winner and runner-up. “On my drive home on the Saturday after the event, I received a call from NHRA to update me on the situation that had transpired during the post-race tech inspection and, ultimately, it’s NHRA’s call. My decision was what to do with the prize money, and I felt I made the best decision given the circumstances to distribute the money among the other HEMI Challenge competitors. What I do know is that 2026 will be great and one of the best Sox & Martin HEMI Challenge events. I’ve spoken to many of the SS/AH competitors, and they’re fired up. Many cars have significantly improved their performance, making it the tightest racing ever. I’m forever grateful for the racers who put in so much time, effort and money into making this race the crown jewel for the hardcore race fans,” said Mike McCandless.

Despite the drama, the 2025 Sox & Martin HEMI Challenge still had great side-by-side racing among the fastest Super Stock HEMI Barracudas and Darts on the planet!

Check out these awesome pics from this year’s event and let us know your thoughts on this historic event.