POMONA, Calif., Feb. 22, 2011 – Spencer Massey can barely control his excitement in anticipation of this week’s 51st annual NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline here at Auto Club Raceway, the inaugural event in the 22-race 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season, which will mark the return of the 2009 NHRA rookie of the year to active competition.

    Now driving the PRESTONE/FRAM Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing, Massey has been fighting boredom after having to sit out the 2010 season when his previous team’s sponsorship evaporated.

    “I’m foaming at the mouth to get to Pomona and get to racing,” said the 28-year-old Fort Worth native. “I’ve been bored waiting around to race again and I cannot wait for the first round of qualifying Thursday.”

    Massey will be one of the three DSR Top Fuel Dragsters, all poised to fight for the 2011 championship.

“Spencer is one of the most talented young Top Fuel drivers and a perfect addition to DSR," explained Don Schumacher. "We expect him to battle Tony [Schumacher, seven-time champion and runner up in 2010] and Antron [Brown, finished fourth in 2010] for the 2011 championship from the first race and to be a great representative for the Honeywell Team of Fram, Prestone and Autolite.”

    It has been a busy off season for Massey. He made trips to the DSR shop in Indianapolis for initial car fitment and other team business, then two test sessions in Florida comprising 25 passes, including the fastest 1,000-foot times he has ever recorded, plus helping out friends by crewing on their cars in regional events.

    “Qualifying and racing are a lot different than testing,” he said. “But after all the time behind the wheel in Florida, I’m ready to go to Pomona, ready to go racing again!”

    A year’s hiatus was not what Massey expected following the 2009 season. Driving in his inaugural NHRA nitro campaign, he won two national events (Joliet and the second Las Vegas race), on his way to a sixth-place Top Fuel finish and recipient of the Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award.

    “I got hooked on nitro and tire smoke as a kid; growing up in Texas, Eddie Hill was my idol,” said the driver seemingly born to be a drag racer.

    His father worked on friends’ dragsters as Massey hung around the shop, learning whatever he could about the cars. He eventually worked for his own friends, and moved up to crew for Scott Palmer’s NHRA Top Fuel team (2001-03), Ashley Force Hood’s alcohol dragster (2004) and Morgan Lucas’s alcohol dragster (2005).

    Massey’s driving career began as a 13-year-old in Junior Dragsters (1997 IHRA champion), progressed through local bracket racing into NHRA and IHRA alcohol dragsters (2006-2008) and then IHRA Top Fuel dragsters where he won the 2008 championship (including four wins in five final rounds, out of 10 overall races).

    His 2009 team shuttered its operation following the season, leaving Massey without a ride, so he spent this past season competing in IHRA Top Fuel match races and looking for a NHRA nitro ride.

And, when he was not testing or getting ready for his own return, he turned a wrench for friends.

“It’s because I just can’t get enough.”