Whoever coined the phrase, “Once you race Top Fuel, there’s no going backward” obviously never met Spencer Massey. 

Massey is having the time of his life drag racing, and sometimes it’s behind the wheel of an 11,000-horse Top Fuel dragster. In Charlotte, Massey is making one of his infrequent appearances as driver of the Pat Dakin-owned Top Fuel dragster. 

“I'm always happy when I'm here at the racetrack,” Massey said, after procuring the No. 9 qualifying position at the DeWalt Tools NHRA Carolina Nationals. “It doesn't matter if I'm driving my Top Fuel car or Pat Dakin’s Top Fuel car, my alcohol dragster, I'm happy I'm at the racetrack. But definitely getting back inside one of these race cars is something way different than you could ever explain. I mean, heck, it's been a couple of years since I've been at a race. I've run this car at a match race to keep my license current. But when you’re at a race and your lined up against everybody, it's nothing like being out at an NHRA Top Fuel drag race. 

“Went a 3.76. Heck, I haven't been that fast in years. It could have been better. It kicked the rods out at the finish line but these are Top Fuel cars. You never know what's going to happen. I mean, it can happen no matter what. That's why when we put nitro in them, it happens. But this car is very, very capable of winning races and going fast, and it proved it Friday night.” 

Massey ran a 3.769 elapsed time at 321.58 miles per hour in his first NHRA national event since 2019. He expected no less of a performance from a car fielded by Dakin, one of the Top Fuel divisions more seasoned nitro competitors. Massey upended Antron Brown in the first round, and was nearly about to pull off a second one when Brittany Force was able to drive around his .05 holeshot. 

”Pat Dakin, and I, we have such a good relationship,” Massey explained. “He goes back to when I first started driving Top Fuel with Mitch King. Pat decided to get his license back and go Top Fuel racing again and he actually got in Mitch King’s race car, the one I was driving at the time, and he got his license back and ran Indy. 

“We've always had a very good relationship, and we drive the same. He knows exactly how I drive in that I respect the race car. I'm not going to abuse that throttle pedal and hurt the motor and so forth. So we have a very good relationship. But when I sit in his car knowing his history and knowing he's been out here doing this longer than anybody, like the Greek. Very awesome man, very down to earth, and he'll tell you how it is, and that's why he told me he wants me to drive. That's why I'm here. He called me and said, ‘You're driving. I don't want anybody else to drive. You're the one driving.” 

Massey respects the car he’s driving, but Friday night’s engine explosion came as a total surprise. 

“Hundred percent,” Massey admitted. “I'm going down through there, and I'm thinking by eighth-mile like, ‘Alright, this thing's on a 3.70-something run.” 

“I mean, it's moving pretty good. Put my hand up on the chute lever and going right through a thousand foot, hit the chutes, stepping off of it, and it goes KABANG. It looked like number one and two rod failure, might have been from bearings, it might have been from nitro, who knows with these motors. The last thing I want is to hurt a motor because this team and this guy does not like hurting parts. Scott Graham is a great crew chief. Known Scott for a long time from back in the Scott Palmer days. I worked as a clutch guy on Scott Graham’s car as him being a crew chief. So now, as a driver, I totally respect everything as, I don't want to hurt anything. Whenever I feel the rods hang out of it at the top end, I don't like it. That's like money out of my pocket, just like it's money out of Dakin’s pocket. We don't have a big sponsor. We don't really need a big sponsor because we just do this for fun, for the love of it, because we love this sport and we love to go fast. 

“At the same time, I'm not going to abuse it and stand on the street corner and hand money out. I like to save money and save parts. So whenever something like that happens, it does hurt. It's a little bittersweet getting to drive the car and go fast. But then at the same time, I hate blowing stuff up, and I hate hurting the pocketbook, but it is what it is. It’s drag racing. If you can't expect that, then you shouldn't be here doing it.”

Massey has no intentions of returning to the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series fulltime. He’s at a place in life where he’s enjoying everything it has to offer. 

“Truthfully, I have more fun bracket racing,” Massey said. “I've been doing all my big money bracket races with my 1971 Nova and my dragster and I can see myself really doing that full-time, more than I could see myself doing Top Fuel full time. I like the cars. I can do it a few times a year with Pat Dakin or something like that. But other than that, I'm content having fun, living my life, going from bracket races to bracket races and seeing all the happy family and the people out there. 

“My friend, Jeff Serra, just won $175,000 dollars last night. He's won over $400,000 just this year alone in bracket racing. Tell me you can do that anywhere else.”