Top Fuel veteran Shawn Reed is set to return to the track this weekend at the NHRA New England Nationals, aiming to carry recent gains into a pivotal four-race stretch of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
Reed, driver of the Reed Trucking & Excavating Top Fuel Dragster, currently sits just outside the top 10 in the standings. He’ll look to use this weekend’s event at New England Dragway to spark a run back into the top tier of the class as the summer schedule heats up.
“We’re looking forward to heading up to Epping,” said Reed. “We tested at Indy before the Chicago race and found some things there that we were able to apply during the race weekend and the car responded well. We smoked the tires against Tony Stewart in E2, but it could have just as easily gone the other way, and we could have found ourselves in the semifinals at that event. So, looking forward to more continued progress on the race track this weekend, and a nice dinner on the coast.”
At the most recent event in Chicago, Reed qualified seventh and picked up a round win over Dan Mercier before bowing out to eventual race winner Tony Stewart in the quarterfinals. That weekend marked a noticeable step forward for the team following a productive test session in Indianapolis.
Last year in Epping, Reed qualified 13th and suffered a first-round loss to Shawn Langdon. He’ll look to improve on that result this weekend as he opens a demanding stretch of four races over five weeks, beginning in New Hampshire.
With continued tuning progress and growing on-track confidence, Reed and his team enter the New England Nationals focused on building consistency and climbing the standings one round at a time.
This story was originally published on May 28, 2025. 
