Paul Romine, the three-time IHRA Top Fuel Champion (97,98,2000) and current holder of the record for fastest the Nostalgia Funny Car pass, has ended his four decade drag racing career rather abruptly. Romine has decided to hang it up in order to spend time with his family and three grandkids.

A true nitro warrior, Romine first rose to prominance in the 1990s when he raced a Nostalgia Top Fuel car. Tuned by the legendary Clayton Harris, Romine became the first man to send one of the front engined rockets into the five second zone. The pair of Romine and Harris would make the leap to modern Top Fuel racing in the mid 1990s and with backing from Car Quest, won three IHRA championships before Harris’s untimely passing.

One of the most intense and driven competitors in the sport, Romine has never been a man to mince words, pull punches, or tell it anything less than straight. He split off from the IHRA series after feeling that management was heading in the wrong direction. He was never able to match his IHRA success on the NHRA side and he hung up his spurs in 2003.

When he came back with the Man-O-War Mustang in 2009, he was open about how difficult it was for him to stay away from the sport, especially nitro cars. In various interviews he said that nothing he could fill his time with came close to meeting the satisfaction he got when racing fuel powered drag race cars.

The Man-O-War was supposed to be a low impact way to run a car, not spend life on the road, and get his high speed kicks with a team made up of long time friends. It sure started out that way, but quickly, as the car became one of the best known Nostalgia Funny Cars in the country, the schedule filled up. He was a regular at west coast races, ran in a midwestern series, and was planning on running several dates with the IHRA Nitro Jam series as well. Long story short, it became a full time deal again.

On the website of Summit Motorsports Park a note from Romine was published. Romine is quoted as writing,

“There just comes a time after 43 years of drag racing that I need to focus on family more than being on the road. I have 3 grandchildren and needed to make a choice between where I’m going to spend my time going forward.” 

We bet that there are more than a couple Nostalgia Funny Car racers happy to see the Man-O-War team pulling into the proverbial pits for good (we’ll see about that). The scene is lesser for the loss of Paul Romine and his team, but his family is richer for his decision. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that equation in our book.

Best wishes and good luck to Paul Romine in his future off track enterprises!

Here’s our video interview of Paul Romine from the 2010 NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion –