A solid qualifying performance at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals near Charlotte placed Shawn Reed fourth in the final order heading into race day at zMAX Dragway. Like many of his competitors, Reed struggled to put together a clean run in the opening round on Sunday, ending his effort to add more win lights to his 2025 total.
Aboard his Reed Trucking & Excavating Top Fuel dragster, Reed opened the weekend with a great pass, recording a 3.739 E.T. at a career-best speed of 334.40 mph, which held up to be the fourth-quickest run of the session. In round two of qualifying, Reed kept his machine hooked up and barreling straight down the groove to post a 3.703 E.T., which once again stood strong to be the fourth-quickest elapsed time of the round.
On Saturday, Reed participated in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge thanks to his recent outing in Las Vegas where he finished in the top eight, earning him a bid to the specialty race. Unfortunately for the PRO Superstar Shootout winner, Reed’s machine lost traction, and he was not able to advance to the final round of the Mission Foods-backed challenge. More tire smoke followed in the final qualifying session, but Reed’s 3.703 E.T. from Friday night held for fourth out of the 17 Top Fuel dragsters on the property vying for a spot in Sunday’s elimination field.
As the highest qualified driver in his quad, the former multi-time drag boat champion drew No. 5 qualifier Antron Brown, 12th-qualified Doug Foley, and No. 13 seed Clay Millican as his round-one competition. The quad, which was named NHRA’s Top Fuel marquee matchup, was the first group of nitro racers to hit the track on Sunday. Reed suffered an engine explosion early into the run and slowed to a 5.811 E.T. while Foley made a clean pass to advance. Brown’s tire-smoking 4.999 E.T. was enough to propel him through the finish line beams second, allowing him to move onto round two with Foley.
“Well, we get an A for effort, just still have some gremlins in the clutch department and we’re still figuring that out,” Reed said. “This one was kind of spendy, but it is what it is. I always say we win together, and we lose together, and lately, we’ve done a little bit more losing than we’ve wanted to but that will turn around and when it does, we’ll be better for it. Onto Chicago and better days ahead.”
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series has a three-week break on the schedule before returning to action in Joliet, Ill. for the Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway, May 16 – 18.
This story was originally published on April 28, 2025. 
