Six-time Super Stock A/Hemi Challenge champion and esteemed sportsman drag racing engine builder Charlie Westcott, Jr. has confirmed his long-awaited return to the NHRA’s fabled U.S. Nationals this upcoming Labor Day weekend.

The Parma, Michigan native won the race-within-a-race HEMI Challenge, once a part of the Super Stock class eliminations program at the NHRA’s most prestigious drag race before Mopar’s backing elevated its status, six times, including the 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2014 editions. He remains the event’s winningest driver.

The 2014 victory was he and his iconic camouflaged  “Warfish” 1968 Plymouth Barracuda’s last appearance in the HEMI Challenge at Indy. But his fingerprints have been all over the event in the years since, with his Militia Racing Products engines powering Steve Comella and Stephen Yantus to victory in the event. His engine have also propelled his father, Charlie Westcott Sr., Rick Houser, and Richard Beshore to HEMI Challenge victories in years past. Westcott last raced in NHRA competition in 2018, piloting a Ford-powered Pro Stock entry at a handful of national events.

This season, he’s teamed up with Anthony Rhodes to prepare his 1968 Hemi Barracuda, the “Karolina Kuda,” for competition, and will drive the car in the inaugural Sox & Martin Hemi Challenge at the 70th running of the U.S. Nationals. Rhodes will also vie for the crown, driving his other SS/AH car, the “Kandy Kuda.” Westcott got his feet wet early this summer, driving the Karolina Kuda at the John Holt Race Cars SS/AH “Hemi Clash” at National Trail Raceway, Columbus, Ohio in July.

Last season, a Westcott-powered car won all five specialty/class eliminations races for the SS/AH class. Comella won SS/AH class at the Lucas Oil Series Baby Gators, as well as the Hemi Clash in Columbus, at Indy, and the Dutch Classic at Maple Grove. In November, Rhodes won the Hemi Chootout in Belle Rose, Louisiana.

Thirteen cars are officially entered as of press time for the Sox & Martin Hemi Challenge, including reigning and two-time winner Comella. Comella, with Milita horsepower, and rival Jimmy Daniels have owned the event since Westcott’s departure, combining to win seven of the last eight editions.

The Sox & Martin Hemi Challenge will be contested on Friday, August 30.