There’s reading about drag racing history, and then there’s sitting in a room listening to the people who made it. If you’re heading to Rosemont, Illinois, next month for the 2026 Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN), make room on your Saturday schedule. The show’s Drag Racing Living Legends seminar is back, and this year’s lineup is packed with the racers, tuners, and team owners who defined the golden era of factory-backed quarter-mile warfare.
The Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals is the premier indoor car show celebrating the American performance vehicles that have shaped car culture for more than 60 years, across a wide range of manufacturers, brands, and nameplates. MCACN was founded in 2009 by a group of muscle car enthusiasts who formed MCACN, LLC, each bringing their own passion and perspective to build an event unlike any other.
The one-hour seminar takes place on Saturday, November 21, 2026, inside the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. It will be hosted by drag racing historian and noted author Geoff Stunkard, who knows how to get these guys talking.
Over the past several years, the Living Legends seminar has turned into one of MCACN’s fan favorites, and it’s easy to see why. This was the era when Detroit’s automakers held nothing back in their fight for supremacy at NHRA, IHRA, and AHRA events across the country. Factory lightweights, HEMI Super Stockers, altered-wheelbase cars, and the birth of Pro Stock all came out of this period.
Here’s a look at who’s scheduled to appear.
Few careers in drag racing stretch as far back as Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick’s. With nearly 70 years behind the wheel, Beswick has no shortage of stories.
His roots are firmly planted in Pontiac country. Beswick made his name with ferociously competitive Pontiac Stockers and Super Stockers, including a 1962 Super Duty 421 Pontiac and a ‘63 Swiss Cheese Super Duty 421 Catalina. From there, he moved into the ‘Tameless Tiger’ 1964 GTO Funny Car. In 1966, Beswick got his hands on a pre-production GTO so a fiberglass Funny Car body could be molded from it.
As the Funny Car class evolved through the late 1960s, Beswick was often cast as the underdog. But his innovation and relentless work ethic earned him a legacy that still resonates, especially with the Pontiac faithful.
If you know anything about Mopar drag racing, Buddy Martin needs no introduction. As co-owner of the legendary Sox & Martin team, Martin helped build one of the most dominant operations the sport has ever seen.
The partnership started when Martin met Ronnie Sox in the early 1960s. Sox brought the driving talent. Martin handled the business side, from sponsorships to the overall operation of a professional race team. Together, their HEMI-powered Super Stockers became the cars to beat.
Martin’s influence went well beyond his own team. In late 1969, he lobbied NHRA to create a new heads-up Pro Stock class for the 1970 season. When it arrived, the red, white, and blue Sox & Martin Pro Stock ‘Cudas dominated its first two seasons. Martin’s business savvy helped carry professional drag racing to a new level, and his fingerprints remain on the Pro Stock class today.
Herb McCandless may have started out in a Chevrolet, but his legacy is pure Mopar. The turning point came in 1965, when he bought a brand-new Plymouth ‘A990’ Super Stock HEMI Belvedere.
That purchase set off a run through the drag strips of the South, where McCandless match raced a variety of Mopars, grabbing gears and taking down plenty of competitors along the way. He kept climbing the ladder, including a stint with a 1968 Super Stock HEMI Dart.
The biggest move of his career came in 1970, when McCandless was tapped to drive the Sox & Martin Pro Stock HEMI Duster. His skill behind the wheel earned him the first-ever Pro Stock victory at the NHRA U.S. Nationals, a win that cemented his place in the Sox & Martin dynasty and in Pro Stock history.
From the 1960s through the 1970s and well into the 1980s, Butch Leal raced at hundreds of drag strips, and he won in just about everything he drove. His résumé spans brands most racers never touched in a single career: a Ford Thunderbolt, a Boss 429 Mustang, a 427 Camaro, Plymouth HEMI Dusters, and even a Pontiac Firebird.
Leal earned the “California Flash” nickname with sharp reaction times, precise power shifting, and an uncanny connection to whatever car he was driving. He was the kind of racer opponents didn’t want to see in the other lane, both feared and respected by the field he faced.
Paul Rossi’s career began in the early 1960s with HEMI-powered Plymouth Super Stock sedans. By the start of the 1970s, he had moved into an SS/AA 1968 HEMI Barracuda.
But it was later in the decade that Rossi became a household name among Mopar fans. His Direct Connection-sponsored SS/FA 440 Six Pack Challenger, famous for its wheelstanding launches, made him one of the most recognizable racers of the era. Rossi didn’t stop at drag racing, either. In the 1990s, he branched out with a fleet of highly successful Eagle Talons in the IMSA sports car series, driven by some of the top road racers in the business.
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