Chrisman began drag racing in 1953 when he raced a 1929
Model A. Chrisman changed to
Mickey Thompson's team in 1962. The
Tommy Ivo-built machine ran on either gas or nitro. Chrisman set new top speed record of at
York, Pennsylvania and a new e.t. record in A/GD (A/Gas Dragster) with an 8.34 second pass. The team debuted a new
Pontiac Hemi engine a few weeks before the
U.S. Nationals at Indy, and won the Top Eliminator crown. During a regular afternoon event at Pomona in May 1963, the dragster's rear end broke. Chrisman spent 42 days in the hospital recovering. After he had recovered, he started working advertising for
National Dragster. Chrisman intended to drive Thompson's dragster to defend his title at Indianapolis, but Thompson's hauler tipped over while transporting the vehicle to the dragstrip.
Funny Car pioneer Chrisman was working for the NHRA in late 1963 or early 1964 when
Ford's Fran Hernandez gave a
Mercury Comet to Chrisman. After Chrisman did not race it, Hernandez asked, "What's going to get you to race that car?" Chrisman responded he wanted a
blower to be installed in the car. Chrisman went to a dealer, picked up the racecar, and brought it to Bill Stroppe's shop. The pair and their crew assembled the car. The car was debuted at the 1964 U.S. Nationals with Chrisman smoking the tires to half track. Chrisman toured the eastern half of the United States with the car through the end of the 1965 season. In 1966, he ran one of the factory backed Mercury Comets with a flip-up fiberglass body, following a trend started by
Don Nicholson and Eddie Schartman. Chrisman won his first race, at the
Hot Rod Magazine Championships at Riverside Race, in the Exhibition Stock category. It is generally considered to be the first funny car to exceed . The car ran the quarter mile in 8.72 seconds at , beating
Jungle Jim Liberman in the finals. On July 10, 1966 he set a class record at , only to have the engine blow up two weeks later at the
Super Stock Magazine Nationals. The car burned to the ground. Chrisman came back with another Comet to race the rest of the 1966 season through 1970. Chrisman did not race in 1971. He built a "sidewinder" Mustang funny car for 1972, but never raced it. He sold it to Ray Maheu, and the car later became
John Force's first ride,
Nightstalker. ==Chrisman Driveline Components==