At 30 years old, Blake Alexander is set to live our a lifelong dream during the 2019 NHRA drag racing season as he’ll be operating his own nitro funny car team. Alexander send a shockwave through the drag racing world several weeks ago when he announced abruptly that he was departing his driving position at Bob Vandergriff Racing. This was the operation that Alexander had his breakout 2018 season with, earning two victories (Norwalk and Sonoma) and never once losing in the first round. Yes the schedule was limited but the performance was anything but limited. Everyone expected that relationship would continue on because of the success that they had achieved.

Alexander stands alone in some ways when it comes to NHRA drag racing’s business side. See, his primary sponsors, Pronto Service Centers and Monroe are HIS sponsors. He chased them, signed then, and holds the contract. When he left BVR, the money stayed with him and will displayed on the car when he kicks off the season in Phoenix not that many weeks from now.

Alexander purchased the funny car operation of Brian Stewart to make his dream a reality. Starting a team from the ground up, having to buy the truck and trailer and then every nut, bolt, and tool to finish it was not something he had the funding for, so purchasing an existing team was the move to make.

The car will be run in a partnership with Tim Wilkerson. Housed at Wilkerson’s shop in Illinois, Daniel Wilkerson will serve as the crew chief for the team and the crew will have familiar faces on it as many of its members are experienced wrench hands from over the course of Wilkerson’s career. It should be noted that they are not a team, this is a working partnership between Wilkerson and Alexander.

12-races are on tap according to Blake and it will be interesting to see if he can recapture the magic of 2018 for the 2019 campaign. As good as he was in top fuel, we knew that he’d always been a funny car guy and it was a matter of time before he found his way back.

Link: Drag Illustrated interview with Alexander on new team, leaving old team