In the final hours of his fifth season as an NHRA Pro Stock competitor, third generation drag racer Mason McGaha is enjoying the intensity in a class where the top and bottom of the 16-car field are separated by the slimmest of margins. He’s been holding his own in the battle to secure a top 10 finish in this season’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, reaching a final round in Brainerd, posting two semifinals finishes, and qualifying a season-high third in Seattle.
[Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #191, the 30 Under 30 Issue, in November / December of 2024.]
The driver of the bold blue Harlow Sammons Racing Chevrolet Camaro is known for his efficiency at the tree and cool demeanor behind the wheel – tall orders in a class so challenging – and he is inching closer and closer to his first win.
“The competition is so tough and fierce, and everybody is so good,” says the 22-year-old who hails from Odessa, Texas. “It’s really tight out there, but that’s what makes it really satisfying when you do good.”
Although he comes by drag racing naturally – dad Chris is his Pro Stock teammate and a multi-time winner in the category (including the 2016 U.S. Nationals), and grandfather Lester sowed his own oats in Competition Eliminator. Both dad and grandfather build the engines that beat in the heart of their factory hot rods, and young McGaha is right alongside them, learning the family business from every angle.
His road to Pro Stock wasn’t paved for him from birth. McGaha was heavily invested in baseball and played into his freshman year of high school, when a sparkling piece of machinery caught his eye.
“We had a COPO sitting there, and we took it a couple of times and ran it, and I was hooked,” recalls McGaha. “It wasn’t a Pro Stock car, but it was way more addicting than the Jr. Dragster that I had driven before. It was fun being little and getting to go down the track, but when you get in a big car – well, let’s just say it was a little more spunky than the Jr., and I was like, ‘I like this.’”
McGaha was aiming at Pro Stock early, but at the time, the rule was that a driver had to be 18 years old within the season in which they made their debut. With a December birthday, his dip into Pro Stock would not come until 2020, which came with an uncertain and oft-changed schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. McGaha’s first start was at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in the summer, and that first season, he raced eight events highlighted by a semifinal finish at the fourth Indy event.
“We were planning to run Pomona [the season-opening Winternationals], but I was not ready,” explained McGaha. “We had no idea when we were going to be able to get me ready because races are so back-to-back in the normal season – but when COVID hit, we had all this free time. That gave me the opportunity to just go test, test, test.”
In addition to testing the Pro Stock car, McGaha had the opportunity to run the COPO in No Box at a local track. The real kick into gear, though, came behind the wheel of his family’s Firebird that is outfitted like a Stock Eliminator entry.
“It was like a No Box car, but this one had a two-step, and the COPO was off a footbrake,” says McGaha. “The Firebird was more like a Pro Stock, where you could have both feet down and simulate waiting on the tree. That was my biggest hurdle trying to drive a Pro Stock car, waiting on the tree. This Firebird, I was able to sit there and be on the brake and the gas and do like the clutch pedal in a Pro Stock car. I had to do numerous runs until I finally got it right, but that’s what finally put me over the edge to where I could drive a Pro Stock car. It’s kind of funny, a little ol’ Firebird Stocker got me to figure out how to drive a really nice Pro Stock car.”
With three two-lane final rounds on his scorecard, McGaha has found a home in Pro Stock and is eager to put his first win in the books. He knows it’s coming, and although the class isn’t without enormous challenge, it is most certainly where he wants to be.
“I feel like I keep ’em honest,” says McGaha. “There are two big teams, and then there’s us [racing full time]. As long as the funds are there and NHRA keeps letting us in the gate, we’re going to be in the mix. I want to drive for as long as I can. I love doing it so much, and this is all I’ve ever known. There is nothing else I’d rather do.”
This story was originally published on February 7, 2025. 
