About a year and a half ago, the National Hot Rod Association saw a monumental spike in drag-racing interest, astronomical TV ratings, and a younger, more energetic group of racers and fans alike across multiple media platforms.

And the sanctioning-body executives were angry.

They adopted an aggressive policy of righteous indignation – though not without justification.

What riled them so was the fact that what was generating all the desirable attention was a reckless, anti-establishment posse of scofflaws – the very kind of rebel NHRA founder Wally Parks tried to harness during the late 1950s car craze. It was this mash-on-the-gas mania and envelope-pushing passion – from the “Street Outlaws” cable-TV program on the Discovery Channel.

This resurgence in drag-racing popularity wasn’t anything the NHRA marketing department had orchestrated. However, more importantly, Josh Peterson, the NHRA’s vice-president of racing operations, would tell its members racers in a February 2015 letter, is that the show’s activities were not compliant with Section 1.3.1, Participant Conduct of the NHRA Rulebook. It accused any NHRA racer who participates in the show of engaging in conduct detrimental to the sport and warned that any such racer risks his/her NHRA competition license.

At the center of the controversy for the Street Outlaws was a likeably brash young man from Oklahoma who calls himself “Big Chief.” His given name is Justin Shearer, but “Big Chief” suits him, for he’s like some storied Comanche leader. He’s at once a stubborn warrior and willing diplomat, declaring to his challengers on the TV show, “If you want to race, you go through me,” yet negotiating a truce with the NHRA.

Big Chief and the NHRA have forged a treaty.

That was evident this past weekend when Shearer visited Englishtown, N.J., for Old Bridge Township Raceway Park’s signature NHRA Summernationals. Rumors are abuzz that he has his eye on a Pro Stock car, but he was especially excited about the Pro Mod class. (Eventual Englishtown winner Troy Coughlin said after Friday’s first round of eliminations, “We've even got 'Big Chief' under the race car, working on it. Maybe some of the Street Outlaws stuff will rub off on us.”) But he huddled with Leah Pritchett in the Top Fuel pits, too.

Officially, Shearer was at Englishtown to film a public service announcement for the NHRA, encouraging drag racers not to participate in illegal street racing, to join the NHRA, and to compete the safe way. Under the direction of NHRA executive Ken Adelson, he happily and patiently recited several takes of his message with ear-splitting Top Fuel dragsters providing the backdrop. He seemed content, maybe even relieved, that this feud, which he described as “a weird disagreement,” is over. He was giddy just to see some new scenery: “This is the furthest east I’ve ever been. I was just excited to see the ocean from the airplane when I came here,” Shearer said.

Who knows what will come of this new alliance? Shearer was mobbed at Englishtown for autographs, photo opportunities, and the chance for fans to gush over him. He liked that last part. “Everything I do, I like to make a big splash,” he said with a slightly mischievous grin. And he talked about why he debuted his new race car at last December’s PRI Show: “to try to become the center of attention, like always.”

Without doubt, Shearer’s presence in NHRA competition would inject the excitement any class could use. This year, even in the Top Fuel headliner category, the quality of competition is strong but the quantity is weak.

Will Shearer make the move to the NHRA, legitimize his love of heads-up racing? He didn’t pledge that this past weekend.

He got around a commitment by saying, “I want to drag race for the rest of my life at the highest level possible, and this is where they drag race. I’m out here, checking it out. You never know, you know?”

All Shearer would say is that he and the NHRA are, in lingo he might use, BFFs.

“There was somewhat of a tiff between me and the NHRA back then. Now we’re Facebook friends and everything,” he said. “They let me in the club. I’m certified now. I get to be part of the biggest drag-racing organization in the world and the frontier of all of it. Now I get to be a part of it, and hopefully I can stay a part of it . . . if I can keep my act together.”

He said he never wanted to be at odds with the NHRA and that Texas Motorplex President Gabrielle Stevenson initially prodded him to build that bridge.

“We were both on the same page even then [during the flap]. It’s just we didn’t know how to communicate it to each other,” Shearer said. “It was two giant – NHRA is huge, and I think I’m huge . . . It was two giant entities going at it that didn’t know how to communicate.

“I fully agree with what they were saying then and what they’re saying now. It was a weird disagreement, really, because I agree that street racing should have consequences. I agree that it’s dangerous. I agree that it’s insane. I agree that we shouldn’t be promoting – shouldn’t be teaching young people that it’s a smart way to do things. I agree with all of that,” he said. “The only thing that I didn’t agree with was just the communication part of it.

“That spun out. It spun out so quickly that we couldn’t get it gathered back up. Just like driving a car – sometimes you’ve got to pedal it two or three times to get it gathered up and go around the guy. We’ve pedaled a few times with each other and now we’ve got it gathered up and we’re headed to the finish line together. We’re back on the same page,” Shearer said.

Recently, for his “Street Outlaws” show, Shearer established a so-called Shark Pool, a twist in format to keep the program’s regular racers on their toes.

“Every time I think it’s getting stagnant and I think it needs shaking up, I’m going to bring in some new, wild, fast guys and put ‘em up against it.”

That sounds like a practice the NHRA might want to adopt.

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