23. JACK CHRISMAN
Of course, Chrisman rates as one of NHRA's biggest pioneer stars, but he did excel on the match race tour, and in Top Fuel at that. On May 21, 1960, Drag News initiated its Standard 1320 Top Fuel top 10 and behind Garlits, Cyr & Hopper, and Chris Karamesines was Chrisman in the fourth spot with the Pat Akins/Howard Cam dragster. Aiding him in earning that distinction was his backed-up 190.27 at Henderson, Nevada. On May 29 of that year, Chrisman went everyone one better with 193.54 and 191.48 back-ups of a 195.65 record.

Chrisman actually raced his groundbreaking Mercury Comet Cyclone Funny Car in 1964. At Lions in November, he defeated Stone-Woods-Cook's A/GS in a best of three with 155-mph top end come-from-behind charges.

24. GARY BECK
It's this writer's opinion that Beck may be the single most underrated Top Fuel World Champ of them all. Of course, the two Indy Top Fuel wins and the 17 of 18 quickest elapsed times tend to back that up, but there are a few more items worth considering. Beck is the only NHRA Top Fuel racer to win three association divisional titles. He was the Division 3 Top Fuel champ in 1973 and followed in 1974 with the Division 1 Top Fuel crown. In 1978 and 1980, Beck won the Division 4 Top Fuel crown.

He was a winner in all three major hot rod associations, scoring wins like the AHRA World Finals Top Fuel championship in 1974 at Spokane with a final-round win over Don Garlits and then a year later beating Garlits for the Grand American crown at West Salem, Ohio. One of his most impressive efforts was his first of two back-to-back Bakersfield March Meet titles. At the '84 event, temperatures hovered around 100 degrees for the weekend, making world-beating numbers very difficult. Beck became the first Top Fuel racer to run more than two 260-mph times at the event, topping his efforts with a best-of-the-sport-tying 262.39-mph shot over teammate/car owner Larry Minor in the final. Mechanically, Beck was awesome. Also in this writer's opinion, Beck's 4.94 at Pomona in 1989 with the incredibly tricky Australian McGee engine is a highpoint in his career.

26. TOMMY IVO
Drag racing's first touring showman never won in NHRA or AHRA national event competition, but he did in IHRA competition. His first great efforts came in the Top Gas class. He won Top Gas at the inaugural 1959 Bakersfield race in an injected Buick and the following year ran the first gas-powered eight-second run with an 8.98 in a twin Buick on February 5 at Pomona. He switched to Top Fuel in early 1962 and won the coveted Drag News No. 1 spot in his and partner/crew chief Dave Zeuschel's blown Chrysler dragster. Ivo beat Don Garlits at San Gabriel (Calif.) in December for this honor.

The 1972 season was one of Ivo's best in fuel. He and his wild crew chief John "Tarzan" Austin got credit for the first five-second Top Fuel run with a 5.97 win over Bob Starr at Keystone Raceway Park in New Alexandria, Pa. on Oct. 29. That year, Ivo also set the IHRA e.t. record in the spring with a 6.25 at the Longhorn Nationals in Dallas, Texas.  

If Ivo's 5.97 was mildly controversial (that year he never ran better than a 6.21 other than that record), his 250.00 at Suffolk, Virginia in a match he lost to Don Garlits in the spring of 1974 was way controversial. It would've been the first 250-mph run.

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