The 2025/2026 offseason brought numerous changes to the sport, but one thing that remained constant is the Franklin family’s ownership of the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series. Though rumors swirled that the series was up for sale last fall, those rumblings settled in late October when Tommy and Judy Franklin announced, “After 12 seasons of PDRA Drag Racing, we are not ready to stop here. See you in 2026.”
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #199, the Interview Issue, in March/April 2026.
The Franklins, who were a part of the founding owners group when the series began in 2014, have been the sole owners for the last several years, guiding the PDRA through growth and evolution. The family purchased Virginia Motorsports Park in late 2017 and similarly not only kept that facility open and operating as a dragstrip, but revitalized it and elevated its status. As if that wasn’t enough, the family also fields cars in multiple classes, with Tommy racing in the co-headlining Pro Nitrous division alongside his daughter, Amber Denton, Amber’s husband, Blake Denton, competing in Pro Street, and Amber’s younger sister, Ashley Franklin, racing in Top Dragster.
The offseason did see VMP change hands, though, as the Franklins sold the track to Darryl Cuttell and IHRA Motorsports. The move frees up the Franklins and key team members like PDRA Series Director Tyler Crossnoe, who previously served as vice president of VMP, to focus entirely on series initiatives. VMP is still scheduled to host two Red Line Oil PDRA Series national events as well as all three PDRA Triple Threat Bracket Series events.
In the weeks leading up to the season-opening PDRA Carolina Nationals presented by Pee Dee Fleet, March 25-28, at Darlington Dragway, Drag Illustrated spoke with Tommy Franklin to find out what comes next for the PDRA.
Why was it important to you and Judy and your family to keep the PDRA going?
PDRA is special. I think that one of the things I realized was what we have – the level of racing in the regions that we race and the schedule, just the whole layout – it’s special. We have a lot of racers that have supported us over the years, and I just honestly felt like I couldn’t walk away from that. It was nothing against any of the other organizations. There’s room for all of us out here and everybody will succeed. I never felt like PDRA would look like it looks or look like it did if we were to move on. Got deep into my feelings and just said, hey, as long as people are showing up at the gate to support us, then I’m going to support them as much as I can.
What is it about the PDRA and what you’ve built that you’re most proud of?
I’ve tried to put my finger on it because it’s hard to try to understand what is so special. It’s a national-event-caliber race. It has all of the workings of that. The competition is crazy good. The car quality is crazy good. It’s a national-event-style event, ran with organization, ran with safety, ran with performances that are unheard of, but then it’s just like you’re hanging out at your local dragstrip on Friday night. Everybody is such a tight-knit group. I think that’s what changes it. It doesn’t have the corporate feel, and I hope it never gets the corporate feel.
Series Director Tyler Crossnoe previously also served as the VP at VMP. He’s now full-time focused on PDRA. How important was it to keep Tyler on board as the series director?
I’m excited to see what we can do with giving it 100% of our efforts. And I hate to say that because I don’t want to sound like we weren’t giving 100% effort, but it’s hard to put all the effort all the time. When you had a racetrack and had the series and all of that to do, it’s easy to say, hey, sometimes maybe we’re not looking deeper and further into what can be better or bigger and where that goes. I’m really excited to be able to put resources towards working on PDRA every day of the week. That’s the most exciting part to me.
Obviously, Tyler is a smart guy who cares about the racers, who wants to make sure that the racers have a great place to race, and has the integrity to know that it’s an event that has to go off in the right manner. Whether we like the decision or not, it has to go off in the right manner. Safety is first and everything has to be legit. We try to do all of that. Everybody will always have their stories, but we know what we do on our side, so that’s all we can do. I think he’s great to lead that. I think it’ll show up even more now that he has more time to focus on just the PDRA.
What was critical to continue in 2026 and where did you want to build on and improve?
We have a great racer base, as I’ve said, and the competition level is high. I want that to continue. I want that to only get better. Over the past 10-plus years, I feel like we’ve taken Pro Mod racing to a level that is crazy where these guys can compete as close as they do and be as competitive as it is. I want that to only continue.
I love the sport. I love the classes that we have. I said Pro Mod, but what about Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, the Jr. Dragsters? Every class that we have, the competition level is so high. I think that’s one of the things that I’m most proud of with PDRA. It’s not, “I’m going to go race over here and collect this check.” You’re going to earn it. We see people that choose not to come race with us because it’s not easy pickings. And I’m OK with that.
I want everybody to know that if they’re going to come over here, they’re going to come over here to win and accomplish. I’m OK with that. That’s what I want to continue to build, that reputation where everybody knows, “Hey, this is the hardest grounds to race on and we’re going to come over here and try to conquer it.”
What are your goals for the season?
My goal is just to continue to grow our racer base and really focus on growing our fan base. I think that we have a great product. Drag racing’s a hard sport to come watch because it’s a 12-hour-long day to watch it from start to finish, and you’re going to do that for two or three days. But when people come out, I want them to know that there’s some of the best competition on the racetrack at all times. We’re going to focus on that. We’re going to focus on letting people know when the classes that they want to watch are out there competing and narrow that down to a window where they can see some good racing.
I’ve told everybody, “We do what we do. We just have to focus on what we do and make it the best pass that goes down the racetrack every time.” And I think the rest comes with it. And there’s always a lot of noise and chatter out there. The Internet’s a wild thing, so we just need to continue to be noticed and let our racers elevate themselves and get out there in front of the people that they deserve to be in front of.
This story was originally published on April 10, 2026. 
The post Building Something Special: Tommy Franklin On The Future of The PDRA first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
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