7 DECADES OF THE BIG GO: First-Time Winners Etch Out Legacies in 2010s & 2020s at Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals

Current stars and champions like Capps, Kalitta, Torrence, Hagan, Todd and Enders enjoy first Indy victories and more

A Look Into the 7 Decades of The Big Go:
Previewing the 70th Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals
Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals and the 1960s
1970s: Snake Carves out his Legacy
Glidden Dominates 1980s in Indy
1990s Loaded with Historical Moments
Schumacher Rules the 2000s in Indy

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – August 23, 2024 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – It’s been said that no racer’s legacy is complete without a win at the prestigious Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals. Known as the world’s biggest drag race, a victory in Indy is the one that every competitor wants and that will be the case at this year’s 70-year celebration of The Big Go on Aug. 28-Sept. 2 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

For nearly 70 years, racers have chased the ultimate glory at the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals, including several marquee and star drivers who cashed in for the very first time during the 2010s and thus far in the 2020s.

Celebrating 70 years of The Big Go greatness brings us to the two most recent decades, which featured a flurry of first-time winners, many of whom waited a considerable time to taste success on drag racing’s grandest stage.

By 2015, many of the sport’s biggest current stars had not won in Indy, a list that included Ron Capps, Matt Hagan, Doug Kalitta, Erica Enders, J.R. Todd and Steve Torrence, an impressive group that now has more than 300 victories and 19 world championships combined. It took them time to find their Indy moment, but each has found the prestigious Indy winner’s circle in the past 10 years.

Enders, a six-time world champion and motorsports’ winningest female driver, broke though in the midst of her dominant 2015 campaign, following it up with Indy triumphs in 2020 and 2021.

Kalitta’s time came even later, as he could never find his footing at the U.S. Nationals. That all changed in 2019, as the veteran, who went on to claim his first career world championship in 2023, defeated Billy Torrence in the final round for his first Indy win. It came 25 years after his uncle and team owner, Connie Kalitta, picked up his lone Indy victory in 1994.

“I’m a real persistent guy, so I never give up,” Kalitta said in his post-race interview. “But it does make you wonder if you’re going to win it. After we got past the first round, I was thinking this was going to be a pretty good chance to win it.”

In 2017, both Todd and…