National Hot Rod Association

Drag racers, unlike drivers in any other form of motorsports, aren’t in their cars for hours at a time. Winning a Full Throttle event means winning four rounds of tournament-style competition; rounds that sometimes come in rapid-fire succession and sometimes come only after long delays from crashes or oildowns. It's during those lengthy stays in the staging lanes that Del Worsham, driver of the Al-Anabi/Alan Johnson Racing Toyota Funny Car, particularly appreciates having a Sequoia for his team's support vehicle.

"It's just a nice vehicle," Worsham says. "When somebody running ahead of you blows a motor and gets oil all over the track, it can take forever for them to get it all cleaned up, and you're just sitting there with nothing to do. You really don't need any more time to think about the run you're about to make – you've already gone over everything several times. You just want to clear your mind. My favorite thing about the Sequoia is probably the DVD player; watching DVDs is a great way to relax until it's time to run."

The technicians who service Funny Cars and Top Fuel dragsters between rounds spend even more time in support vehicles than do the drivers themselves. They're the ones putting 30,000 miles a year on them traveling from race to race on the NHRA circuit, which has events from California to New Jersey and from Washington to Florida.

"The Sequoia has good power and a smooth ride, and it's really roomy in there," says Caleb Williams, a clutch technician and tire specialist for the Toyota-supported Matco Tools dragster driven by perennial Top Fuel championship contender Antron Brown. "At the end of the day when we have to get seven guys in there for the ride back to the hotel, there's plenty of room for everyone. It has a lot of get-up-and-go, too."

There's more than enough space for all the support equipment teams haul to the starting line for each run, too.

"We completely load up the back of it with the car cover, the engine cover, the tire covers, a spare front tire, our starting-line toolbox, and four blower and crankshaft pulleys that crew chiefs always want to have in there in case the conditions change and they have to make a last-minute adjustment," Williams says. "One of the first things I do at every race is pick up all the new tires way down at the far end of the pits, and with the Sequoia I don't have to make trip after trip after trip. I can throw three complete sets up on the luggage rack and get it all done in one shot."

Larry Dixon, the top-ranked Top Fuel racer this season and driver of the Toyota-supported Al-Anabi/Alan Johnson Racing dragster, uses his team's Sequoia as his own personal "chill zone" before he climbs into the car for each round of racing.

"The back seat is my spot," says Dixon, the second-winningest Top Fuel driver of all time and a 15-year Top Fuel veteran. "That's where I hang out when we're in the staging lanes, waiting for our turn to run. It's just a nice place to be, with a lot more leg room than any of the other vehicles I've been in when I was driving for other teams. I get the air-conditioning going, crank up some tunes on my ipod, and relax. It's great for the crew, too. We've had the fastest car at the track at a lot of races this season, but we still need the Sequoia to get us to the hotel every night and back out to the track the next morning."

Dixon also drives a Sequoia at home in Indianapolis. "It's awesome," he says. "I've got three kids, and it's great for wheeling them around wherever they need to go. In the winter, I just pop it into 4-wheel-drive to deal with the conditions, and with my whole family in there, that really puts me at ease."