Bowling, an IHRA-member racer which calls Music City Raceway his home track, had a .006 reaction time and was dead-on with a six-second run in the final round to capture the prestigious victory. 

“That was a bucket-list win, something really special,” said the Greenbrier, Tenn., driver. “It was really awesome to see how many people came out to support this.”

Bowling drove his 1972 Chevy Nova with a 421-cubic inch, small-block engine to the victory in a race which was delayed by a couple of downpours. It was another huge victory for the 31-year-old driver, who earned another $50,000 at Beech Bend Raceway in May. 

Bowling started racing as a teenager, starting in full-size cars. Besides Music City, he’s competed at other IHRA tracks including Holly Springs Motorsports Park, site of the IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals, and Beacon Dragway. 

The runner-up was another IHRA-member racer Charlie Lockhart from Lynville, Kentucky.  Lockhart, who competes at such tracks as Beacon Dragway and Gleason Raceway Park, won his semifinal matchup against Nick Kay, but broke out by .008 of a second in the final.

Lockhart, the 2021 IHRA Summit SuperSeries track champion at Beacon, finished sixth in the Mod (No Box) national standings that year. He’s a racer which Bowling has a tremendous amount of respect for, as they’ve often lined up next to each other.

“Charlie and a few of us, we always end up racing each other,” Bowling said. “I grew up racing at Music City and there’s a lot of good competition there. I will still go there and race when I’m not traveling. But with Charlie and the others, we’ve faced so much good competition when we’ve traveled to these races.”

Todd McKinney, a longtime IHRA competitor from nearby Elizabethton, Tenn., drove his yellow AMC Spirit to victory in Saturday’s $15,000-to-win main event which featured a Footbrake record 625 entries in the first round. McKinney posted a .004 package in the semifinals and then bested Cody Barnhart in the final. Barnhart is an IHRA member from Alabama, who calls Baileyton "Good Time" Strip his home track.