Keith Haney is no stranger to Pro Modified success. The co-owner of Tulsa Raceway Park is a two-time Midwest Drag Racing Series points champion, and has qualified each of the past two years at the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod presented by Red Line Oil – cementing his place among the elite drivers in the class.
Haney entered 2026 with high hopes and a brand-new car – “Black Widow,” a Jerry Bickel Race Cars 2025 C7 Corvette with a giant Pat Musi motor and a whole lot of nitrous. The car is already one of a kind (for the moment), featuring the very first redesigned Cynergy Composites C7 body.
Unfortunately, with the car not ready until the last minute, the team entered the U.S. Street Nationals presented by M&M Transmission – the second race of the 2025/2026 Drag Illustrated Winter Series presented by J&A Service – completely untested. Under normal circumstances, Haney might have brought his tried-and-true ‘Black Mamba’ nitrous Camaro to Bradenton Motorsports Park. But parts breakage at the first race of the Winter Series, the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals presented by Motion Raceworks, took that option away.
“We made the decision to come to U.S. Street with the new car because we didn’t really have a choice,” Haney said. “The Mamba was broken pretty good – the whole back end –forcing us to bring the new car out. We normally go test for a week or two before the race with nobody even seeing us, but we didn’t have that opportunity for this one. The car didn’t get finished until the week of the race, and it just takes time to learn.”
With nitrous guru Brandon Switzer doing the tuning, Haney managed a best run of 3.710 at 203.16 mph – a respectable pass under most circumstances, but not enough when trying to get into the quickest field in Pro Mod history, where five drivers ran 3.59 and still didn’t qualify.
“You can’t be one run behind. Not at this level,” admitted Haney. “This is the best of the best. This is like a heavyweight boxing match, the world championship – but instead of two guys going at it, you got freaking 80 guys going at it, just to get into that one spot.”
The new C7 Corvette body featured on ‘Black Widow’ is also imperative to the testing process. While Haney is excited about its potential – citing Derek Menholt’s consistently smooth runs en route to a runner-up finish at the U.S. Street Nationals with the same body style – it’s simply a matter of getting more passes with it.
“The difference in this car and all the others is Brandon Switzer has a lot of data on Camaro bodies,” Haney said. “You take a look at my ‘Black Mamba’, look at Jim Halsey, Mike Achenbach, he has a lot of data on all those cars. But this body drives better on the big end; it drives way better than my Camaro. There is definitely promise in the car.”
Haney also remains one of the biggest supporters of nitrous cars in Pro Mod. At a time when many other drivers are opting for alternative power adders, Haney remains committed to – and firmly believes in – keeping the nitrous combination competitive. He’s quick to note that 2024 WSOPM runner-up Jim Halsey has consistently shown its potential, and Haney has two of the best nitrous minds in the sport in Switzer and renowned engine builder Pat Musi.
“This is the only thing I’ve ever driven, the only thing I’ve ever known,” said Haney. “My best friend is Brandon Switzer, and Pat Musi and I have become very close friends. When you build a friendship, it’s not…I don’t do this for a living. Do I want to compete? Yes. Do I want to be on the top? Yes. I think the rules are there for us. Everybody’s seen Halsey’s car. He’s proven that he can compete. But it’s not always about winning. I’m winning every day that I get to get in the race car, because a lot of people don’t have that opportunity.”
With that comes the challenge and opportunity of trying new things, experimenting, pushing the envelope of what the combo can do. Haney admits the reduced minimum weights for nitrous cars at the Winter Series are already lower than he can get to, so performance will have to come in other areas – something he and Switzer are working hard at.
“We’ve learned a lot at U.S. Street, but we gotta keep working with different things,” Haney said. “Shocks, tires, air pressure, nitrous kit changes, tune-ups, timing – I can name a million different things. You just gotta play with them. It’s there, we’ve just got to work on it.
“There’ll be some developmental stuff down the road that allows us to compete even more,” he added. “People just got to put some money there to do it. You’ve got to develop new things. It’s no different than the 500-inch motors I own with KB Titan Racing. They’re trying to find hundreds of thousandths, or two horsepower, five horsepower. We’re trying to manage the power that we have down the track at the weight we’re at too.”
With Switzer busy at South Georgia Motorsports Park for Lights Out 17 the week prior to the World Series of Pro Mod, Haney will once again have limited testing opportunities. Despite that, the team knows they’re close – and just one strong pass might be all they need to showcase what the ‘Black Widow’ can do.
“We just need that one good pass,” said Haney. “At the end of the day, if I go a 3.60, .61, .62, we can move on from there. When Brandon finds that one good pass, everything’s going to fall in line after that just like it did with the ‘Black Mamba’. It took us a bit, but we got her done and she won championships, won a lot of racing, and everybody knew when we pulled up that she was going to go down the track.”
This story was originally published on February 25, 2026. 
