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This weekend at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, Dylan Winefsky will strap into his family-owned “Nitro Moose” Funny Car for the very first time on the sport’s biggest stage — and it still doesn’t quite feel real.

The 20-year-old Arizonan has worked his way through the quarter-mile ranks, from Jr. Dragsters to the family’s Fuel Altered in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series, always dreamed of making a run in a nitro Funny Car, but not like this.

"Yeah, to be honest with you, it does kind of feel like a dream," said Winefsky. "In the back of my mind, I dreamed that one day maybe I would drive a big show car, but not to own our own car.

That all changed in January 2024 during pre-season testing with the altered.

“The first run out of the trailer, I went about 400-500 feet and the center of the rear wheel just shattered,” he explained. “It totaled that car.”

The team had a backup Fuel Altered but pivoted to Funny Car instead. Dylan and his father, Robert, had gained some practical hands-on Funny Car experience under the tutelage of Arizona nitro legend Johnny West — and had, in fact, raced in Fuel Altered against him — and also with West while working on Terry Haddock’s car.

“Our friendship with Johnny has definitely been the best thing that probably could have happened to us,” he said. “Super knowledgeable, and just a great guy all around.”

The team purchased an old John Force chassis — one with good lineage: it was Robert Hight’s 2019 championship-winning car — and topped it with a Charger body purchased from Jim Dunn Racing; stripping the Mooneyes wrap revealed that it was formerly the Aaron’s Dodge Charger run by Matt Hagan in 2012.

“We decided to go to a big-show car because, after talking to Johnny, it made more logical and financial sense,” Dylan explained. “You get more TV exposure at national events for sponsors and, realistically, to competitively run a Nostalgia Funny Car these days, you have almost just as much inventory as a part-time big-show car. And, at worst, you're gonna get appearance money for trying to qualify at a national event and at least first-round money if you qualify.”

The team spent the summer of 2024 putting the car together, and after Dylan took the maiden voyage in the car a week earlier at Firebird Motorsports Park, John Hale shook the car down for the team at the Las Vegas NHRA event last fall. Dylan followed with a few preliminary licensing runs after the event. Completing the licensing process was a rinse-and-repeat at this year’s NHRA Arizona Nationals, where Jon Capps qualified the car to race on Sunday and Dylan licensed on Monday.

A 4.45 at 281 mph and a 4.42 at 287 mph completed the required runs, and Del Worsham and Daniel Wilkerson inked their names to his license application. It was a big jump from a career-best quarter-mile pass of 5.90 at 245 mph in the Fuel Altered.

And that “Nitro Moose” name?

“Back in 2019, when my dad and I were working on Terry Haddock’s car, we took a road trip between the Bristol and Norwalk events because they were back-to-back. We took a bunch of back roads to Norwalk, and we went to a town called Nitro, W. Va., and I took a picture in front of the Nitro Moose Lodge bus, and it sounded like a cool name. Plus, when I was younger, like 13-14, I was kind of shorter and stockier, so the name fit really well.”

The 4-Wide Nationals may not be the easiest entry into pro competition, but Winefsky’s taking it in stride.

“I don’t think I’ll be more nervous,” he said. “The hardest thing for me is just going to be the four-wide deal. It is a tough place to pick your debut, but we’ll make it work.

“We’re just going there to get more laps and get me more seat time. We’re not expecting anything crazy. I mean, it'd be awesome if we qualified and got to run on Sunday, but really it's about building confidence.”
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