Beech Bend’s Tenn-Tuck Extreme Offers Possible $250,000 Payday

Where are the big purses in drag racing? They certainly aren’t in the upper echelon NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car ranks. No, sir. If you want to race for eye-opening payouts, what you need is a deadly consistent four-link dragster with a Big Block Chevrolet, where such race cars will be a dime a dozen this weekend at the Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Ky. as some of the nation’s toughest bracket racers vie for one of the largest single payouts in drag racing history.

Each year, Beech Bend contests big money bracket races known as Tenn-Tuck that pays out upwards of $10,000 to the winner each day, but this year, track owner Dallas Jones has aimed for the moon with this weekend’s Tenn-Tuck Extreme race, which based on a minimum of 256 entries, could award the winner of Saturday’s marquee race a huge $250,000 payday, with a cool $50,000 to the runner-up, $20,000 to the semifinalists, and sizable payouts in the four rounds prior. The quarter million winners check would rival that of the infamous Million Dollar Race, which typically awards in excess of $200,000 to the winner.

Tenn-Tuck Extreme gets underway on Thursday and runs through Sunday, with $10,000 and $5,000 to win races leading up and and following the Extreme race on Saturday. The late rounds at the spring Tenn-Tuck race included bracket racing stars the likes of Luke Bogacki, John Labbous Jr., Scotty Richardson, and Tracy Sons. This weekend’s race is one example in drag racing where you may not need to spend a half million to make a quarter million.