The 2019 NMCA Season Preview

The cold winter months will soon be a distant memory and that means only one thing: the NMCA racing season is just around the corner. With another six events on the calendar for 2019, there will be plenty of horsepower-filled fun for everyone at some of the best tracks in the United States.

For the new season, the NMCA has made a strong effort to work on the rules for its top-tier classes. With radial tire racing continuing to grow in popularity, the NMCA has adjusted the rules for both Street Outlaw and Xtreme Street to become closer to other classes across the country.

“This year we’ve moved the Street Outlaw rules much closer to the X275 rules package and also finished moving Xtreme Street to line up with Ultra Street. John Sears has worked with us on the adjustments and the refinements to both classes. Xtreme Street experienced the biggest change in its alignment with Ultra Street. All of the changes to Street Outlaw were made to give our racers an opportunity to compete at other events easier while allowing more X275 racers to join us with minimal changes,” explains Rollie Miller from the NMCA.

According to Miller, the NMCA has also been working on their Xtreme Pro Mod rules for the new season, as well. This was a challenge for the rules committee because the NMCA allows so many different power adders into the class. “We were the first organization to really bring screw blowers into a single Pro Mod class at the national level. For this year we have continued to tweak the rules to keep parity between all the different superchargers along with the turbo and nitrous cars.”

In 2018 the NMCA partnered with Dodge and Chevrolet to bring new racers to national events that might not have a lot of drag racing experience. The Dodge/Mopar HEMI Shootout and the Chevrolet Performance Street Car Challenge allowed those with late model muscle cars to experience national event level racing in a friendly environment and both programs will be back in 2019.

“The big factor that brought these programs back is the engagement of new enthusiasts that allows them to come out and have fun at the track. These classes give new racers a chance to compete at a national event and maybe see heads-up racing for the first time. This allows new people to be exposed to the sport while helping the manufacturers promote safe racing,” Miller says.

There will be some big specialty events coming to the NMCA this year with the 50th Anniversary COPO Shootout being the highlight. This historic gathering of iconic GM muscle will take place during the NMCA All-American Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park. There will be plenty of classic COPO cars on display and the event is open to any COPO vehicle that rolled off the assembly line at GM.

One of the biggest stories to come out of the NMCA offseason is the return to Memphis for the 2019 season. After the NMRA Maple Grove date was moved it caused a shuffle that required the NMCA to change their date for the Beech Bend Raceway event, but the new date wasn’t available. This opened the door for the NMCA to return to their home at Memphis International Raceway.

“With the conflict on the Bowling Green date we decided to take a hard look at returning to Memphis and things worked out. The IHRA has been working hard on the facility and has made some improvements to the track along with the acquisition of new equipment. These changes have made it possible for us to come back and it made sense for us to bring our event there. It’s the birthplace of what we do and has that great nostalgia feel to it,” Miller explains.

Besides the 50th Anniversary COPO Shootout, the Cobra Jet Showdown will be returning to the All-American Nationals in 2019. The Nostalgia Super Stock racers are going to get time in the spotlight at two different events this season in the NMCA. At the Memphis event, the Dave Duell Classic will return with the largest gathering of Nostalgia Super Stock cars in the country. At the NMCA World Finals, the Nostalgia Super Stock Shootout will be back and features the Victory Nostalgia Super Stock group versus the NMCA Nostalgia Super Stock racers.

The 2019 NMCA Racing Schedule

17th Annual Muscle Car Mayhem – March 7-10 at Bradenton Motorsports Park

11th Annual NMRA NMCA All-Star Nationals – April 4-7 at Atlanta Dragway

Inaugural NMCA Memphis Homecoming – May 2-5 at Memphis International Raceway

14th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA NMCA Super Bowl Of Street Legal Drag Racing – July 25-28 at Route 66 Raceway

18th Annual NMCA All-American Nationals – August 22-25 at Summit Motorsports Park

18th Annual NMCA World Finals – September 19-22 at Lucas Oil Raceway

The 2019 NMCA Classes

Xtreme Pro Mod

Factory Super Cars

Street Outlaw

Xtreme Street