Dallas Glenn, a member of Jason Line’s NHRA Pro Stock championship team, is a life-long motorsports enthusiast and an accomplished young racer. (Image courtesy of the Glenn family)
2016’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series was one to remember for KB Racing Pro Stock crew member Dallas Glenn.
Glenn handles back-end duties for the Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro driven by NHRA’s 2016 Pro Stock champion Jason Line. It was a whirlwind season which included eight wins, 14 final round appearances, and ended with a championship won by a razor-thin margin over teammate Greg Anderson.
But like many crew members in the Pro Stock pit area, Glenn is an accomplished drag racer in his own right, and is poised to expand his personal collection of NHRA Wallys.
Glenn, who has been immersed in drag racing and visiting racetracks since he was in diapers, has known nothing but a life revolved around motorsports.
(Image courtesy of the Glenn family)
“I’ve basically been going to the racetrack since I was born,” said Glenn, who hails from the Pacific Northwest, the region known in NHRA’s Lucas Oil Sportsman series as Division 6. “My dad took me to the racetrack for the Seattle national event when I was six months old. Of course I don’t remember it, but that’s kind of where it all started.”
Since then, it’s been nonstop. Glenn’s parents and siblings, (dad and mom — Steve and Susan, and Glenn’s brothers Dana and Jayce) have devoted their lives to motorsports in various forms. At age 5, Glenn first took his turn on the racecourse in quarter midgets. Throughout his youth, the family was also involved in mini sprints and motocross, and in later years, dwarf and Legend cars that Steve and Dana raced together. Dana plans to get in a midget car and compete in 2017.
For Glenn, drag racing is where he found home.
Initially, he preferred working on cars over racing them. But driving is in his blood. His grandfather, Don, bracket raced a ’55 Chevrolet wagon that the family still takes to the track. Glenn’s fierce appreciation for driving couldn’t be helped. Three days after his 16th birthday, he got his license to race big cars on the dragstrip where success quickly followed.
(Image courtesy of the Glenn family)
Glenn’s early achievements include winning the Sportsman title in the prestigious Race of Champions at the Division 6 Summit Racing Series Finals in 2008, in his first full season. Since, he has collected nine NHRA Wally trophies, with a national event victory in Super Gas at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
He’s raced several cars in multiple categories, including driving friend Jim Mabry’s dragster in Super Pro. While piloting Shane Thompson’s Jerry Bickel-built ’94 Camaro in 2010, Glenn cut a .009 light and clocked a blazing 7.86 second pass in the first round of Top Sportsman eliminations in Las Vegas.
“One thing I’m really proud of is making the top 10 in Stock Eliminator,” Glenn said.
In 2010, he finished ninth in the world driving the Doctor Injector Corvette owned by Tom Turner.
Nothing, however, compares to what it felt like to win the 2016 NHRA Pro Stock world championship with KB Racing, he said.
“Racing with a Pro Stock team is exciting, fun, and exhilarating. You learn so much,” he said.
He joined KB Racing in 2013. In addition to working on the cars, he drives the rig that hauls the #1 Summit Racing Chevy Camaro to each track on the 24-race NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour.
“There are some very long hours and very long weekends. We drive to each race and then work on the cars all weekend—then you come back and may have to turn around and go testing. It doesn’t matter if it’s 100 degrees out, you still have a job to do,” Glenn said. “But it’s all worth it. We’ve come so close every year I’ve been here, but we weren’t able to pull off a championship. When you finally get it all put together, everything goes your way, and you end up winning it—then to have teammate Greg Anderson only three points behind—there aren’t enough words to describe that feeling. There’s actually a lot of relief, too, seeing your hard work pay off.”
Glenn has far less time to race his own car these days, but he brings out his El Camino as often as possible for local bracket races. He also competes at the NHRA Division 7 race that takes place in Las Vegas between the NHRA Nationals held there and the season-closing NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.
He also gets his fix during the week bracket racing slot cars after working all day at the KB Racing shop.
“I guess you could say I can’t get enough,” he said, adding: “I’m really looking forward to this year with KB Racing and our Summit Racing Camaros. We just need to keep doing what we’ve always done—focus on each race, and everything should fall into place.”
Grandma’s Gift: Dallas Glenn’s 1968 Chevrolet El Camino
The ’68 El Camino once belonged to Glenn’s grandmother, Bernice. He drove the Elco to the Race of Champions victory at the 2008 Division 6 Summit Racing Series Finals. (Image courtesy of the Glenn family)
“My dad bought the car for my grandma, Bernice, and as a fixer-upper project for us,” Glenn said. “She never really drove it. In 2008, my dad and I cleaned and fixed it up, and I took it out to the track to race it. I wanted to get ready for the High School Drags, and I ended up running the whole season and won the year. When I graduated from high school, my grandma gifted it to me. I don’t think I could ever get rid of it.”
The El Camino is outfitted with a 427 cubic-inch big block Chevy engine that Glenn built. It has iron heads, a dual plane intake, Patriot headers from Summit Racing, an 850 cfm carburetor, Auto Meter gauges, Strange Engineering single adjustable shocks, a Turbo 400 transmission, and Goodyear tires.
“It’s pretty basic, and it might not be the best bracket car in the world, but I have a lot of runs in it,” Glenn said. “It’s a car I’ve won in before, so you could say the car and I are connected.”
From left, Glenn’s fiancé, Division 6 racer Sadie Floyd; Glenn; brother Dana; and parents Steve and Susan celebrating a trio of victories in the Woodburn Dragstrip winner’s circle. (Image courtesy of the Glenn family)
I’ve watched Dallas and his brothers grow up at the race track alongside their dad Steve. Steve and Susan have taught the boys well. When the boys drove 1/4 midgets Steve would have them tear the cars apart after each race and go thru them with a fine toothed comb making sure they were prepared for the next race.
I make sure I stop in the pits and say hi to Dallas when at a National Event. He is a fine young man and has certainly learned a lot being with Jason Line and the Summit Racing.
Congratulations on winning the Championship.
Dallas comes from an absolutely wonderful family… You just cannot find nicer, better people! Love them all dearly and honored to call them friends!! 🙂 🙂 KB Racing is lucky to have Dallas and his family as a part of their team.
The Glenn family are some very cool people Steve is one of the local drag racers I’ve always looked up too it’s very cool to see that last name running with the big boys
[…] He finished in the Top Four that first season, and won the Sportsman title in the Race of Champions run during the NHRA Division 6 Summit Racing Series Finals. You can read more about Glenn’s racing career in the ‘Dallas Glenn Chasing Win Lights’ story. […]
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