Matt Hartford Has Gone From Navy Nuclear Engineer To Pro Stock Contender

Matt Hartford missed the chance to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a U.S. Air Force pilot; instead, he became a nuclear engineer in the U.S. Navy.

He was blessed with a strong work ethic rather than the luxury of simply showing up at the racetrack with his helmet in one hand and a clump of cash in the other and stepping into a competitive Pro Stock car. Instead, he carved his own path through the Sport Compact series and NHRA sportsman ranks, assembled his own small, talented team, and became a perennial Pro Stock title contender in the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series’ Countdown to the Championship.

The rural northeastern Pennsylvania native settled into the business world after his military service, then acted on the opportunity to secure investors and buy a thriving automotive business, move to Phoenix, and become responsible for supporting roughly 100 families as president and CEO of Total Seal Piston Rings.

And no one can top Matt Hartford at unique and wondrous travel adventures. He and his wife, Amber, who maintains the back end of his Chevrolet Camaro race car, oversees the wheels and tires, and services the transmission, have celebrated their January birthdays, just one day apart, by exploring some of the world’s most remote and breathtaking locations.

“I have physically walked on all seven continents,” Hartford, 54, said. “Traveling is something that we both love to do. Amber has walked on six continents. She has not been to Australia. That’s the last one on her list. But we love to travel together. We’ve gotten to see a lot of things and experience a lot of really cool things around the globe. We love exploring places that are really hard and remote to get to and seeing things that most people in the world will never get to see. That’s really our outlet, whether it’s Africa or whether it was Antarctica or Southeast Asia out in the middle of nowhere. It’s a really cool experience to go to see how other people live and what other people have to deal with. And it really makes you understand how fortunate we are every day.”

That last thought is why he joined America’s armed forces. Hartford said, “I believe that it’s a great thing for any people coming out of high school, to go in and support the military. The freedoms that we have today are because of all the people who have fought for the rest of us for all those years and for centuries. And I just felt it was a good thing to do for the country.

“Originally I was going to go into the Air Force and go to the Air Force Academy to be a pilot, but I didn’t pass my vision test. You had to be 20/20 uncorrected back then. And I was not. I was 20/20 corrected. That’s different now. You can be 20/20 corrected in today’s day and age. So the opportunities were either to be a pilot or become a nuclear mechanical engineer and go on to the submarines and enjoy the Navy, which is what I did.”

But yes, Antarctica.

“Being out walking on the ice in Antarctica is surreal. We literally went on a submarine. We went on an expedition ship into Antarctica to cross the Drake Passage, which had massive waves, like 30-to 40-foot waves. And it was very rough for 36 hours going across that. But when we got to Antarctica, it was the most peaceful place I’ve ever seen in my life,” Hartford said. “And then we actually went on a submarine and went almost a thousand feet down in a submarine and sat on the ocean floor in Antarctica. That’s something that most people will never say that they’ve done, but just to know that you were standing out there in the middle of nowhere and there’s literally nobody, it’s definitely different.

“We’re just very fortunate to have had the opportunity to go experience some of the things that we have. Unfortunately, not a lot of people get to do that, but that’s what we save up for every year, to go on a trip somewhere and go somewhere that is different. We’re not going to Disney World for vacation. We’re going somewhere that’s remote and hard to get to and life-changing,” he said.

He has been doing that with his drag racing, as well, chasing a championship in an ultra-competitive class, one that’s just two years older than he is, hoping to become only the 21st in 56 years to wear the Pro Stock crown.

Hartford knows how to find success with a slow, calculated approach. And it has shown in his racing career.

“In the mid-’90s, I ran a blown alcohol car on my own. I ran some sportsman cars in the ’90s. I ran a blown alcohol car in IHRA way back when. And then from 2000 to 2006, I ran in the Sport Compact series with NHRA. I ran one year with Ford, and then I ran five years with GM and Summit as my primary sponsors. In 2006, I was building a Pro Stock car, and I partnered up with Steve Schmidt to drive it. I drove for Steve Schmidt for five races in ‘06, and then ‘07 on, it was our own program, and I drove with Kenny Koretsky and David Nickens. In 2009, I was racing NHRA Pro Stock with Jerry Haas and David Nickens. I was racing Mountain Motor Pro Stock with Justin Elkes and Ron Hutter in the Wilson Manifolds car,” Hartford said, tracing his steps.

“We won the championship in Mountain Motor Pro Stock that year. I was also running an A dragster in Comp Eliminator. I decided in 2012 I was going to sell all my Comp stuff and buy a Pro Stock car. I ran a limited schedule in Pro Stock from ‘13 to ‘18. Then ‘19, we went full-time.”

“What’s more impressive, he has done it with just three others: “It’s myself, my wife Amber, my brother Adam and Eddie Guarnaccia, my crew chief. That’s it. It’s a small little family team, and we love it that way,” he said.

Hartford gets his engines from KB Titan Racing, but he doesn’t tap into its vast resources on a regular basis.

“KB has probably three people per car and maybe 30-plus people at the track, all supporting their five cars. So they have an onslaught of technology with people. So if one car goes out, those people just migrate over to the next car, whereas for us, we only have one car and there’s only four of us. So, I would say that we’re probably one of the smallest teams competing for a championship out there,” he said.

He tries to apply the same mindset at the dragstrip that he does at work: “At Total Seal, we have roughly a hundred employees, so that’s a hundred families that depend on the decisions that get made by me and our entire management team. If we make the right decisions, it’s a very positive outcome for everybody and no different on the racetrack. If we make the right decisions in the trailer, we can have a very positive output on the racetrack.”

“Every time you roll up to the line, you have the opportunity. And there are 16 cars out there right now that are all very capable of winning any given round on any given Sunday. So you can’t take anything for granted. There are no easy rounds. You just have to worry about what decisions you made in your trailer and worry about what’s going on inside your car and worry about your own lane,” Hartford said. “And once again, the win light will tell you whether you did a good job or the other guy did a better job. So you just go up there, do your best, try to execute, and the light at the end will tell you.”

What it was telling him with two races remaining in the 2026 schedule was that he had a 29-15 elimination-round record with three race victories this year (at Gainesville, Charlotte, and Bristol) in seven final-round appearances. He reached the final round at two of the first four Countdown races. His three victories matched his career best for a season.

And that’s all because he is focused. Hartford is cordial, certainly, but he’s on a mission to win. He and his small group stay absorbed in their own tasks.

“That’s what our team does very well. We stay behind our own ropes. We don’t socialize. We’re not there to make friends with everybody, chat, and gossip. We’re there to focus on our own team and go out there and race,” he said. “Absolutely, you have a lot of friends out there, and you have a lot of acquaintances, but our goal isn’t to want to go over into the trailer next door and hang out and bullshit and gossip. Our goal is to focus on what we need to do so that we can qualify better and get points for that, or we can win the next round.”

Hartford claims he isn’t always super serious. “There’s a lot on the line. There’s a lot of responsibility when you show up at the racetrack. We have a lot of support from different sponsors, different friends and family, and we have a lot of responsibility to our team to try to be successful. We’re not going through the motions because we like the extra work. We’re there to win. When we’re there, we have a job to do. That is our job. Then when we leave the track, we typically have an Airbnb, and we all go back to the house. The four of us, we all stay together, we cook dinner, and then we can go back into normal mode. But as far as being at the track, we’re there to win.”

Matt Hartford and his team have put a lot of effort into their 2026 season. No matter how the chips fall, it has been an adventure, and that’s just how Hartford likes it.