Jeff Lutz Talks No Prep… Street Outlaws No Prep Kings!

Jeff Lutz is quite literally a drag racing legend, having taken home multiple Drag Week titles and smashed countless records and barriers. We’ve seen him going in the 3’s on radial tires and kicking ass on the streets of the 405 and just about everything in between. Having made countless thousands of passes down the track and the street, Lutz would be considered an authority on the sport by most everybody in the community.

Over the past several months, Lutz has been competing on unprepped surfaces across the nation while filming for Street Outlaws new spinoff series, No Prep Kings. While filming an episode in Memphis, Lutz had the misfortune of getting crossed up mid-track and nosing his gorgeous 1957 Chevy into the concrete retaining wall. The chassis of the car wasn’t damaged except for a few of the support braces for the body, so Lutz had almost no downtime in getting the car back on the track, although for most of the season it was wearing a coat of grey primer on the nose and passenger side.

In this bonus scene from the show, Lutz talks about the differences in what he’s used to as far as track surface and finding traction, or lack thereof. He also discusses where on the track things are the sketchiest, and his insight just might surprise you. I know I personally would have thought the track got slick just past where the cars stop their burnouts, but apparently, that’s not the worst place on the track at these no prep events.

Instead, as Lutz points out, the trickiest part of the track is actually the second half of the quarter mile. Many of these cars are on the edge of control when they cross the 1/8th-mile finish line and the rubber just past that point on a quarter mile track provides little in the way of traction, so you have cars going from wide open and cranking the steering wheel to jumping on the brakes. Needless to say, that upsets the balance of the car even further, often sending them out of control.

This is some great info from one of the true legends of the sport, so hit that play button and check out what Jeff has to say!