Entrepreneur Paul Lee Gets First NHRA Funny Car Victory After Long Time Trying

Yahoo

24-03-2025

Paul Lee has a lot of achievements in life.
Lee owns successful automotive aftermarket companies. He is an expert poker player. He has earned a law degree—three college degrees, to be exact. He won several alcohol Funny Car races. He even survived a widow-maker heart attack several years ago.
But he never won an NHRA Funny Car Wally trophy—until Sunday at the Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler.
The 67-year-old Lee, who earned his nitro license and made his Funny Car debut in 2005 after starting in Top Alcohol cars in 1988, joined Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Shawn Langdon (Top Fuel) on the winners podium.
Lee's first triumph, at reigning class champion Austin Prock's expense, was a tremendously sentimental one, for it came 18 years to the day after Eric Medlen's passing. Eric Medlen's father, John Medlen, is Lee's co-crew chief along with tuner/builder/racer Jonnie Lindberg.
'I had a feeling about today,' Lee said as he received his trophy. 'We prayed about it today, and there was just a calm in our pit. We're blessed. Today was surreal. This trophy is going straight o John Medlen. He's the strongest man I know. He's a blessed man, and he has blessed us with his presence on our team.'
Moments after watching Lee clinch the victory, John Medlen said of his son, 'I think he pushed that car right into the winners circle.'
Lee also credited Lindberg, a Top Alcohol Funny Car champion turned Funny Car racer turned crew chief. Lee likened him to drag-racing legend Don Garlits.
Curiously, Lee's only three final rounds in Funny Car competition have come in the past eight months, including at Seattle last July and at Las Vegas in November 2024. And in all three Lee has had to face Prock.
Prock, representing John Force Racing, had a lot of emotion attached to this final round, as well. Prock grew up around the beloved Eric Medlen when Medlen competed at JFR with John Medlen tuning the car.
The win also gave Lee the Funny Car points lead.
It was as though neither Pro Stock driver wanted to win the final round that was a rematch of the season-opening Gatornationals. And even when Anderson was declared the winner, he said he had no idea what he had done or why he won or what Glenn—who beat him at Gainesville two weeks ago—had done.
Anderson is 64 years old and constantly wisecracks about being a greybeard. Glenn, too, fondly gets in his digs to his mentor. But Anderson was not going crazy Sunday. The final round was the weirdest even the experts have seen in the sport's history.
You see, drag racing has no start-finish line. It has a starting line, and it has a finish line. For the Pro Stock class, those two lines are a quarter-mile apart. But with a weird technical twist, Sunday's starting line was the finish line. Both Anderson and Glenn committed foul starts, and both cars lost power immediately.
Anderson saw his win light come on, and he said later that he didn't know how he could red-light—and have his car quit on him, to boot—and still win. He said he knew he had red-lit at the Christmas Tree—jumped the gun—but didn't have any idea what Glenn, his KB Titan Racing teammate, was doing. So he figured he needed to try to get his HendrickCars.com Chevy Camaro to hook up again and was supremely frustrated he couldn't do that. 'I had no chance of winning that race,' he said, but little did he know he already had won it. Glenn, too, was frustrated for his own reasons.
'We both blew it,' Anderson declared. 'We wanted to put on a good show, and that wasn't much of a show. They say there's no such thing as an ugly win. Well, that was an ugly win. But a win is a win is a win. We'll forget about the details of it. The Great Lord shined on me today.'
Final finish order (1-16) at the 40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park. The race is the second of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.
TOP FUEL:
1. Shawn Langdon; 2. Doug Kalitta; 3. Jasmine Salinas; 4. Brittany Force; 5. Antron Brown; 6. Justin Ashley; 7. Tony Stewart; 8. Josh Hart; 9. Clay Millican; 10. Ida Zetterstrom; 11. Travis Shumake; 12. Scott Palmer; 13. Steven Chrisman; 14. Shawn Reed.
FUNNY CAR:
1. Paul Lee; 2. Austin Prock; 3. Jack Beckman; 4. Bob Tasca III; 5. Matt Hagan; 6. Blake Alexander; 7. J.R. Todd; 8. Cruz Pedregon; 9. Ron Capps; 10. Jon Capps; 11. Daniel Wilkerson; 12. Alexis DeJoria; 13. Bobby Bode; 14. Chad Green; 15. Dave Richards; 16. Buddy Hull.
PRO STOCK:
1. Greg Anderson; 2. Dallas Glenn; 3. Matt Hartford; 4. Aaron Stanfield; 5. Eric Latino; 6. Cory Reed; 7. Mason McGaha; 8. Greg Stanfield; 9. Cristian Cuadra; 10. Troy Coughlin Jr.; 11. David Cuadra; 12. Brandon Foster; 13. Erica Enders; 14. Jeg Coughlin; 15. Deric Kramer; 16. Fernando Cuadra Jr..
Sunday's final results from the 40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park. The race is the second of 20 in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series:
Top Fuel -- Shawn Langdon, 3.724 seconds, 330.39 mph def. Doug Kalitta, 3.770 seconds, 325.53 mph.
Funny Car -- Paul Lee, Dodge Charger, 4.030, 313.22 def. Austin Prock, Chevy Camaro, 4.507, 240.68.
Pro Stock -- Greg Anderson, Chevy Camaro, Broke def. Dallas Glenn, Camaro, Foul - Red Light.
Competition Eliminator -- Jeff Taylor, Spitzer, 6.912, 159.83 def. Paul Mitsos, Chevy Camaro, 21.356, 35.22.
Super Stock -- Ryan McClanahan, Chevy Cobalt, 8.284, 161.32 def. Leo Glasbrenner, Chevy Camaro, 9.413, 142.49.
Stock Eliminator -- Justin Lamb, Chevy Camaro, 9.618, 135.21 def. Jody Lang, Chevy Malibu Wgn, 12.019, 107.05.
Super Comp -- Chad Webber, Dragster, 8.944, 180.91 def. Steve Williams, Dragster, 8.927, 182.62.
Super Gas -- Roger Kato, Chevy Camaro, 9.932, 171.60 def. Jerry Denton, Chevy Corvette, 9.826, 157.85.
Top Dragster -- Mike Fuqua, Dragster, 7.237, 184.77 def. Mallory Reis, Dragster, 6.495, 203.95.
Pro Modified -- Mike Stavrinos, Chevy Camaro, 5.725, 248.43 def. Rickie Smith, Ford Mustang, 5.787, 250.09.
Legends Nitro Funny Car presented by Extreme Steel -- Ryan Horan, Chevy Camaro, 4.706, 240.55 def. Bobby Cottrell, Camaro, 4.826, 235.39.
Final round-by-round results from the 40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park, the second of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series:
TOP FUEL:
ROUND ONE -- Tony Stewart, 4.940, 189.84 def. Shawn Reed, 7.961, 64.16; Justin Ashley, 3.805, 327.19 def. Ida Zetterstrom, 3.818, 324.51; Brittany Force, 3.779, 320.89 def. Steven Chrisman, 4.089, 254.90; Doug Kalitta, 3.762, 325.92 def. Travis Shumake, 3.829, 330.88; Shawn Langdon, 3.783, 323.66 def. Scott Palmer, 3.918, 296.57; Antron Brown, 3.770, 329.34 def. Josh Hart, 3.810, 322.27; Jasmine Salinas, 3.779, 328.70 def. Clay Millican, 3.815, 319.98;
QUARTERFINALS -- Langdon, 3.841, 311.49 def. Ashley, 4.124, 246.08; Force, 3.793, 328.38 def. Stewart, 5.328, 135.00; Salinas, 3.821, 322.88 def. Brown, 3.870, 314.24; Kalitta, 3.821, 322.27 was unopposed;
SEMIFINALS -- Kalitta, 3.767, 317.94 def. Salinas, 3.809, 320.66; Langdon, 3.833, 325.37 def. Force, Broke;
FINAL -- Langdon, 3.724, 330.39 def. Kalitta, 3.770, 325.53.
FUNNY CAR:
ROUND ONE -- Bob Tasca III, Ford Mustang, 3.949, 326.16 def. Jon Capps, Dodge Charger, 4.570, 221.96; Jack Beckman, Chevy Camaro, 3.910, 327.66 def. Dave Richards, Mustang, 7.303, 94.31; Austin Prock, Camaro, 3.936, 324.75 def. Buddy Hull, Charger, 14.943, 58.78; Blake Alexander, Charger, 4.003, 306.67 def. Ron Capps, Toyota GR Supra, 4.165, 230.61; Paul Lee, Charger, 4.445, 196.22 def. Chad Green, Mustang, 7.219, 92.78; Cruz Pedregon, Charger, 3.977, 322.34 def. Alexis DeJoria, Charger, Foul - Red Light; Matt Hagan, Charger, 3.987, 324.44 def. Bobby Bode, Mustang, 4.768, 190.62; J.R. Todd, GR Supra, 7.556, 87.55 def. Daniel Wilkerson, Mustang, Foul - Red Light;
QUARTERFINALS -- Prock, 4.010, 311.92 def. Hagan, 4.005, 316.38; Beckman, 3.973, 319.14 def. Pedregon, 10.113, 80.73; Tasca III, 3.979, 325.22 def. Todd, 5.294, 161.63; Lee, 3.964, 319.82 def. Alexander, 4.151, 276.58;
SEMIFINALS -- Lee, 4.411, 207.62 def. Tasca III, 5.219, 156.41; Prock, 3.966, 321.19 def. Beckman, 3.979, 321.42;
FINAL -- Lee, 4.030, 313.22 def. Prock, 4.507, 240.68.
PRO STOCK:
ROUND ONE -- Mason McGaha, Chevy Camaro, 6.907, 207.69 def. Deric Kramer, Camaro, 9.620, 109.58; Eric Latino, Camaro, 6.598, 209.20 def. Erica Enders, Camaro, 6.824, 209.39; Aaron Stanfield, Camaro, 6.596, 209.33 def. Cristian Cuadra, Ford Mustang, Foul - Red Light; Cory Reed, Camaro, 6.546, 209.62 def. Jeg Coughlin, Camaro, 7.075, 205.60; Matt Hartford, Camaro, 6.560, 208.71 def. Brandon Foster, Camaro, 6.619, 207.50; Greg Anderson, Camaro, 6.555, 209.49 def. Fernando Cuadra Jr., Camaro, 10.798, 85.46; Dallas Glenn, Camaro, 6.560, 210.57 def. David Cuadra, Camaro, 6.602, 208.71; Greg Stanfield, Camaro, 6.582, 208.75 def. Troy Coughlin Jr., Camaro, 6.587, 209.79;
QUARTERFINALS -- Hartford, 6.588, 208.46 def. M. McGaha, 6.837, 204.48; Glenn, 6.590, 209.95 def. G. Stanfield, 18.127, 58.53; Anderson, 6.616, 209.17 def. E. Latino, 6.594, 209.17; A. Stanfield, 6.589, 208.49 def. Reed, 6.603, 209.10;
SEMIFINALS -- Anderson, 6.586, 209.79 def. A. Stanfield, 16.603, 50.14; Glenn, 6.591, 209.79 def. Hartford, 6.586, 208.49;
FINAL -- Anderson, Broke def. Glenn, Foul - Red Light.
Point standings (top 10) following the 40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park, the second of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series -
Top Fuel
1. Shawn Langdon, 219; 2. Antron Brown, 179; 3. Doug Kalitta, 161; 4. Jasmine Salinas, 145; 5. Brittany Force, 118; 6. Tony Stewart, 107; 7. Clay Millican, 89; 8. Justin Ashley, 85; 9. Steve Torrence, 75; 10. Shawn Reed, 66.
Funny Car
1. Paul Lee, 151; 2. Jack Beckman, 149; 3. Bob Tasca III, 143; 4. Chad Green, 139; 5. Ron Capps, 132; 6. Austin Prock, 127; 7. Matt Hagan, 124; 8. Alexis DeJoria, 107; 9. (tie) Bobby Bode, 87; Cruz Pedregon, 87.
Pro Stock
1. Greg Anderson, 228; 2. Dallas Glenn, 221; 3. Cory Reed, 129; 4. Matt Hartford, 117; 5. Eric Latino, 109; 6. Mason McGaha, 105; 7. Aaron Stanfield, 104; 8. Jeg Coughlin, 103; 9. Troy Coughlin Jr., 89; 10. Greg Stanfield, 86.