Bartone Bros. Racing claimed another Top Alcohol Funny Car victory at the Cleetus McFarland and Cars event, featuring the NHRA North Central Division 3 Regional at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Despite being handed a reduced nitro percentage heading into the weekend, driver Sean Bellemeur and the “Killer B’s” delivered again, guiding Tony Bartone’s Nitro Injected Top Alcohol Funny Car to another Wally.
In the final against Chris Foster, Bellemeur cut a 0.065 light and ran a 5.52 at 264 mph to capture the team’s third Wally in just seven days. The run wasn’t without drama—after the burnout, the car wouldn’t go into reverse. Thanks to the quick work of the team, including Tony Bartone backing up the car himself, Bellemeur was staged and ready. The four-time Top Alcohol Funny Car Champion wasn’t fazed and drove straight to the win.
“That is what this team is all about,” said Bellemeur. “Nothing like adding some drama to a finals run. These injected nitro cars have a neutral. After the burnout, I tried to shift into reverse, and it went into neutral and wouldn’t come out. I got on the radio and said, ‘Killer B’s, we’ve got a problem.’ Nick Stoms got under there, made eye contact with me, and smiled—he knew exactly what to do. He got it out of neutral, Tony backed me up, I jammed it into forward, they dropped the body, and off we went. That’s a true testament to this team. We had a big meeting last night and decided to go piss all of them off—and that’s exactly what we did today.”
Bellemeur continued, “This was a full team win. With the starting line drama and Steve Boggs tuning this thing on reduced nitro, it made the victory even more special. Tony gives us the drive to win, and the crew—Troy Green, Nick Stoms, Justin Taylor, Garrett Bateman, Brian Gawlik, Lauren McMaster, and Matt Krebs—gets us to those win lights.”
A huge thank you to our incredible team sponsors: Red Line Synthetic Oil, Roger Dean Chevrolet, Talon Air, LLC, NGK Spark Plugs, and Mastercam, along with our valued product supporters, Simpson Performance Products and Taylor Motorsports Products.
For more information on Bartone Bros Racing, including race recaps and photos, please visit the team site at www.BartoneBrosRacing.com.
This story was originally published on May 5, 2025. 
