A TNT Race Car has never made the starting field for a crown jewel event at Eldora Speedway according to historical records, but Jensen Ford hopes to change that come Saturday night. 

If he can, the 36-year-old Ford will be turning back the clock by using ideas from his father Tony Ford’s 2006 chassis design that’s been updated for this week’s action at the legendary half-mile oval, which kicks off four nights of action Wednesday with a Castrol FloRacing Night in America event.

“We just got talking, me and dad, and he said, ‘You know, that car was always good. We just never had the shock technology and stuff we got now,’ ” Jensen Ford said of his 69-year-old father, who built his first race car in 1978 and began producing TNTs in 1986. “We took an older car and basically updated it, but it's an all brand-new chassis. We’ll see how it goes.”

Over 30 years or so, TNT has had modest success has a chassis brand, significantly in the mid-2000s when Danny Peoples of Margaret, Ala., and Todd Morrow of Chattanooga, Tenn., were among racers driving TNTs to regional touring victories.

The younger Ford had significant Crate Late Model success in his father's TNT cars early in his career, and in 2021 picked up a pair of Super Late Model victories for the chassis brand, Ford's first series triumphs on the Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series at Wartburg (Tenn.) Speedway, and the Coltman Farms Southern All Star Series at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.

TNT’s favorite son departed the chassis when he joined McCarter Racing in 2022, but TNT remained relevancy — albeit in a small corner of Late Model action — with Justin Wells of Aurora, Mo.

Wells still drives a 2006 TNT Race Car he’s tabbed Old Faithful, a vintage car that carried him to 11 victories last season en route to the Limited Late Model championship at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. The car clicked off its 100th career victory midway through 2023 and he’s added five more victories in the trusty car this season.

“That car he’s got the same hookups as this car,” Ford said. “That’s one reason why we went back and done it. He's been running so good in that old car and we just decided to revisit it. He’s excited about it, too.”

Ford started the season connected with team owner Bruce Kane of Glen Burnie, Md., but he didn’t record a top-10 finish during Florida Speedweeks and, for his Eldora run, partnered with John Minon Jr. of Clarksville, Tenn., for his return to TNT. Kane, meanwhile, had fellow Marylander Jamie Lathroum in his car Saturday at Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, Va.

“We kind of had a different view on what we were doing here and (Kane) didn't really want to be a part of it, which I understand,” Ford said. “He’s been loyal to Rocket (Chassis) for a long time and I understand completely and no hard feelings. It’s just, we're a little too far away from each other logistically and this is just something I felt like I needed to do.”

Ford is confident he’s got a competitive car.

“In Dirt Late Model racing in general, everybody's struggling with sidebite and traction, and this car right here has sidebite and traction,” said Ford, adding they improved and modernized his car’s ground clearance as part of the updates. “So we're just hoping to get it dialed in. This is the first race on it. We made a few laps at Smoky (Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.). It was good. So hopefully she's going to be pretty good up here.

“From the few laps I turned the other day, it's probably one of the best cars I've had in I don’t know how long.”

Ford stays in touch with Wells, but he doesn’t have a lot of info to go on.

“We're not dumb,” he said. “It takes us a little longer to figure out than some, but we'll get there and I'm looking forward to it.”
Minon, whose Clarksville, Tenn.-based Minon Construction sponsors the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series, notched his first career Late Model victory in a TNT Race Car in 2014. He’s excited to field a car for the first time at Eldora with Ford behind the wheel of a car that will be unique among other entrants.

"We just felt like there were some things we wanted to change and see. I like to be on the physics side of things, I’m a numbers guy, right? I always say I'm not a driver but if my car beat you, it's mechanically beating ya,” said the 50-year-old Minon, who no longer competes as a driver. “His Dad and I, we just gel together, we just gel together. Everybody puts all their ideas in and they go, ‘Hey, what do you think about this? Let's make it the best here, let's make it the best there.’ So it's a bunch about three or four guys; ideas and we just, we're trying to skin the cat a different way.”
Minon’s team is giving Ford a chance to boost TNT’s profile on a big stage.

“My dad's probably the smartest person I know,” Ford said. “He never really had some of the breaks that some of these other guys have had as far as getting the right people in (the TNT Race Cars) and to go and do. But he's smart. He can make it fast. We know what we're doing. It just may take us a little longer to get there.

“My wife said it's a homecoming. We’re coming home.”