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One of drag racing’s most promising young talents is set to take the next leap in his career as Hunter Green makes his Funny Car debut this weekend at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas. As he prepares to slide into the cockpit of a 330-mph nitro Funny Car for the first time on the big stage, he joins an elite roster of second-generation drivers who have made their way into the nitro ranks.��

The 24-year-old son of current 91���� Funny Car contender and recent Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals winner Chad Green, Hunter has already made his mark in the Top Alcohol Dragster ranks, where he earned four national event wins, including a monumental victory at the 2024 NHRA U.S. Nationals, in an A/Fuel Dragster, and the pivot from dragster to Funny Car came as a surprise to everyone, Hunter included.

When Chad Green Motorsports began talking with Funny Car veteran Blake Alexander about adding him as a second Funny Car team in 2025, things changed in a hurry for all concerned.

“I was definitely on the dragster path, but when the Blake thing started happening, and we started putting together a second Funny Car team,” explained Hunter, who already owns a Top Fuel license after making runs a few years ago in a dragster owned by Tim Wilkerson, “it just made more sense for me to move to Funny Car, too, because everything we have in new shop in Indy is Funny Car-related. If I wanted to drive Top Fuel, I would have to find a dragster and put together a third team, so it just made more sense financially, and I was up for the challenge too.

“I had a lot of confidence from running A/Fuel for three years, and winning races built my confidence as a driver, and I was ready to take on the challenge of driving a Funny Car.”

Not that it was easy by any means. After making a single, get-acquainted lap in his dad’s car after last fall’s event in Las Vegas, licensing began in earnest in Bradenton, Fla., early this year, where he impressed everyone with a 3.93 pass at 319 mph. Since then, he also made a run during testing in Gainesville and two runs after the NHRA Arizona Nationals.

Although he feels comfortable, it’s been a bit of a trial by fire, and it certainly wasn’t all smooth sailing.

“There were definitely some things about it that surprised me,” he admitted. “I don't even want to say ‘surprised me’ because my dad tried to warn me about how much you have to drive those things, and Blake has been an incredible mentor, but it’s hard to really get the feel for it until you're in there and have something happen to you. Not every run in testing were smooth runs down the track. It dropped holes and it spun the tires, but after I felt those things happen, and was ready for it, I started feeling pretty comfortable in the car.

“In my experience driving the dragster over the last few years, I just had to kind of finesse it down the track, make some quick corrections here and there, but in Funny Car, you have five times more the steering," he said. "If it drops a hole, it will shove you fast towards the wall or the centerline, and you’ve got to be ready to catch it and do a significant move on the steering wheel.

“The early procedure – the burnout, backing up, staging – all that's exactly the same as what I'm used to the last few years driving the A/Fuel Dragster, but now, not only do you have the blower in front of your face, but the Funny Car is vibrating my head more and the vision is blurrier because it's faster," he added. "It's definitely taking a little bit more for my brain and my eyes to catch up. I know there's still going to be plenty more it's going to throw at me, but I get more comfortable every time.”

Initially, Hunter was only going to run four events this year to preserve his eligibility for NHRA Rookie of the Year in 2026 – once a driver competes at five or more events in a season, it is considered their rookie year – and was supposed to start at the four-wide event in Charlotte later this month, but those plans also have changed, and Hunter will run six this season with Alexander running the rest of the season, sharing the saddle of their John Force-chassised, Dodge Charger-bodied machine. That plan will not change, no matter how well Hutner does.

“Blake has obligations to his sponsors to run a certain number of events, so no matter what happens, I won't run more than six,” he said.

Making his debut at the four-wide event, which has been known to befuddle rookie drivers, is no concern for Green.

“I ran four-wide a few times in the dragster – my first race in the A/Fuel car in 2022 was the four-wide in Las Vegas – so I’m not worried about it,” he confessed. “Actually, I feel like there's almost less of a microscope on you because everyone's staring at four cars rather than just two, so I won’t feel like everyone's just like watching me so closely.”

With 19 cars, including fellow debutant Dylan Winefsky, a spot in the field is not guaranteed, but Green thinks they’ll have no problem being among the quick 16.

“We’re not guaranteed a spot in the field, but Blake ran a 3.94 in the car in Pomona," he said. "We have all the right parts. We have the best of the best stuff. We have veteran guys on our team. I'm not too worried about qualifying. I'm pretty confident we'll qualify as long as the car is making clean runs down the track, and, yeah, we can even win rounds. I don't doubt that at all.”
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