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TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER Eliminations - Round TWO

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TOP FUEL Eliminations - Round ONE

After the pre-race ceremonies, which included the inevitable track walk, professional driver introductions, the Raceers for Christ invocation and the National Anthem, it was time for the traditional "Let's Get Ready To Burn Some NITRO" invitation from Joe "WFO" Castello. And things started to happen QUICKLY!

(LEFT) The first pair out of the lanes are almost always the #8 and #9 qualifiers, and this battle saw the "out of nowhere" Travis Shumake (far lane) taking on Shawn Reed in the near lane. Shumake dropped a bomb on the field in qualifying, laying down career best numbers - by a TON - at 3.724 - 323.12, while Reed continued on his upward trajectory as crew chief Rob Wendland has pushed this car into contending status, as shown by a 3.715 - 327.74 best in qualifying. While Reed nearly matched his qualifying time with a great 3.726 - 320.58 for the win, Shumake slowed slightly but still posted a very good 3.798 - 324.20 that showed how far this new team has come in a very short time.

(RIGHT) Points leader Justin Ashley (near lane) only qualified in the #7 spot and drew a tough opponent, Spencer Massey (far lane) in the first round. Driving the Krista Baldwin car, Massey nearly matched his 3.728 qualifying best, carding an excellent 3.735 - 323.66. It wasn't quite enough to get past Ashley, who left first by nine thousandths, and ran a little quicker at 3.711 - 329.67 to take a less than a car length win and move into the next round.

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FUNNY CAR Eliminations - Round ONE

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TOP FUEL Eliminations - Round TWO

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FUNNY CAR Eliminations - Round TWO

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PRO MODIFIED - Eliminations Round THREE

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LEGENDS NITRO FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round TWO

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TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round THREE

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Eliminations Round THREE

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TOP FUEL Eliminations - Round THREE

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24 annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

NOON UPDATE:

We're well into the final day of the Las Vegas event, with the first round of PRO eliminations complete, and the first two rounds of elimations for Pro Mod and Top Alcohol in the books. Anything to report? Yes, and Yes! The biggest news so far is the ascension of perennial contender Shawn Cowie, to the top of the standings in Top Alcohol Dragster. He's advanced to the semifinals and is now TEN points ahead of second place Hunter Green, who has been eliminated from contention as he's run out of points earning events for the season.

There are four other racers who could overtake Cowie for the championship, but only one, defending champion Julie Nataas, can do it today. She would have to win the event, and Cowie would have to lose in the semifinal round to make that happen. But she would only be FOUR points in front of Cowie going into the final two events of the 2024 season. Next week's West Regional at Las Vegas, and the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona in two weeks. Other racers with a chance to upend Cowie, are Jackie Fricke, who will have a final shot at Pomona, Matt Cummings, and Angelle Sampey. Fricke has the best chance of that trio, as she "only" has to win at Pomona and hope that Cowie doesn't win this event or go past the second round at Pomona.

Facing an even taller mountain to climb is Cummings, who not only needs to win Pomona, but has to also win at next week's regional at Las Vegas. In just as deep is Sampey, who also has to win both events. However, if Cowie wins this event later today, that would eliminate Cummings from contention, and Cowie would only need to get past the first round at Pomona to clinch the championship, even if Sampey can run the table by taking back-to-back regional and national event wins. Very long odds indeed.

More updates coming later today and all day tomorrow. Stay tuned!

4:00 PM UPDATE:

The finals are set for the Top Alcohol, Pro Mod, and Top Fuel classes. Unfortunately, due to a major oildown from the broken rear end in Doug Kalitta's Top Fuel car, it appears that racing will not resume until Monday morning. It's been a cool windy day at The Strip and with the time required to remove all the synthetic gear lube and re-prep an already cold track, the decision has been made to postpone the balance of eliminations until tomorrow, starting (hopefully) at 9:00 am.

We can report some big news from the Pro Mods, as Kelowna, BC's Jordan Lazic has won the Congruity Pro Mod World Championship for the 2024 season. He defeated former champion Kris Thorne with his quickest run of the weekend, a 5.759 - 247.57, while Thorne lost an engine at half track and coasted to a losing 6-second time. In the Top Alcohol Funny Car semifinals, already crowned champion Sean Bellemeur advanced to his eighth national event final of the season and only has to win the final to cap a "perfect" 850 point season. That's the maximum number of points possible to earn in the top alcohol categories. His last hurdle to that achievement is the #2 driver in the standings, young Maddi Gordon, who's had an awesome rookie season, with four national event finals under her belt, winning one, and three regional wins to her credit.

In the Top Alcohol Dragster category, Shawn Cowie has advanced to the final round and could have an almost insurmountable lead in the championship standings if he can get past defending champion Julie Nataas. That's no easy task as Nataas set low e.t. of the meet with a winning 5.211 in her semifinal win, while Cowie has posted back-to-back 5.26 times in the quarter and semi-finals. If Nataas turns on the winlight in the final, she'll only be SEVEN points behind Cowie, and within striking distance going into the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona.

While the distance between the contenders seems close, Cowie does hold an advantage as he can waive a first-round loss (Brainerd), and increase his point totals by simply winning his first round race at the finals. If he can, then Nataas would have to win Pomona to take the championship, or be runnerup if Cowie falls in the first round. Simply put, the odds greatly favour Cowie at this point.

In the pro categories, only the Top Fuel final is set, after a crazy match between Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta ended up putting the kibosh on the event today. Kalitta broke the rear end before half track and could only watch Langdon streak away toward an easy win. But Langdon was fighting the car as it kept heading for the centerline, finally taking out the finish line e.t. and speed timing blocks, and handing the win to the broken entry of Kalitta. Despite the "gift" round win, defending champion Kalitta is in fourth place in the standings, 85 points behind the leader, Justin Ashley. A miracle finish to Kalitta's season is improbable but never say never in drag racing. Facing Kalitta in the final is an even more improbable championship contender, Brittany Force, who is in eighth place, and 138 out of the top spot, an almost impossible task to catch Ashley.

Much, much more tomorrow. Stay tuned!

24 annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #3

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TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #4 (FINAL)

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FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #4 (FINAL)

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TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Eliminations Round ONE

24 annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

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TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #1

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FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #2

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TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #2

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Top Alcohol Dragster UPDATE

Before we get into the final Hot Rod Heritage Series event of the season, the California Hot Rod Reunion, we've got an update to yesterday's note about entries in the Top Alcohol Dragster class for this week's Ford Performance NHRA Nationals. The field has now grown to 26 entries, as Aaron Olivarez snuck in before the deadline. It will be his first appearance in nearly a decade, presumably with Jim Rizzoli tuning the injected nitro entry. Of the 25 cars on the list, a full one third of them, nine out of 26 are of the supercharged alcohol variety, showing that the blown combination is far from dead despite the preponderance of injected nitro cars in the class.

The 26-car field is the largest in Las Vegas history and ties for the largest of the past six years with the 2018 U.S. Nationals. The only larger field, with 27 entries was at Dallas in 2017 and 30 in 2016. And you have to go all the way back to 2008 to find a larger field, 32 cars in fact, at Chicago's Route 66 Raceway. Taking it one step further by a "number nerd" like myself, the largest entry lists in NHRA history - to as far back as I can reach (1998) - shows 36 entries at the second Chicago race in 2002, and 35 at the 1998 U.S. Nationals.

California Hot Rod Reunion - Famoso Dragway - Bakersfield, CA

The major championship battle was the four-way fight for the Nitro Funny Car crown. Points leader Nathan Sitko (Edmonton, AB Canada) was just ahead of defending series champion Bobby Cottrell, while Geoff Monise and Shane Westerfield were close enough to snatch the title. Despite qualifying #3, and leaving first by nearly half a tenth, Sitko smoked the tires and lost in the first round of eliminations. The #2 qualifier, Westerfield got left on, then smoked the tires and also lost in the opening stanza.

That opened the door for Cottrell and Monise to catch Sitko and they all advanced to the second round with strong runs. Monise was the quickest at 5.601 - 258.02, while Cottrell trailed in the e.t. department with a pretty good 5.700 - 256.26Z winning pass. In the second round Jeff Arend ran 5.582 - 262.00, which stood up as quickest and fastest of eliminations. That gave Arend lane choice over Monise in the semifinal, while Cottrell didn't have his choice against Mike Peck Sr..

The latest update as of October 27, 2024

24 annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

There's just three races left on NHRA's calendar, two national events, and one regional. The next three weeks are going to see some tremendously exciting racing as the world championships are decided in the Pro and Pro Sportsman categories. Actually one of the championships, Top Alcohol Funny Car, has been taken by now three-time champion Sean Bellemeur in the Tony Bartone-owned car.

We can't forget Pro Mod, as 23 drivers are entered in the final event of the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod series at Las Vegas. The top 17 racers in the standings are on that list, and 13 of them have at least a mathematical chance to secure the championship. Adding some serious spice to the event, two racers, Justin Bond and Jordan Lazic, are from my home province of British Columbia. They sit just 12 and 24 points behind the leader, Khalid Al Balooshi, and could easily overtake him for the championship. However, there's four more racers within 50 points of the lead, and a total of 11 sitting less than 100 points behind Balooshi. It's going to be one very intense event for those racers, and reaction times are likely to decide many of the results.

In Top Alcohol Dragster, there's a very tight battle raging among seven of the top eight racers in the category. They are all within striking distance of the current points leader, Hunter Green, who has used up all his available points earning events, and can only act as a "blocker" to the other contenders. Closest of them are Jackie Fricke and Shawn Cowie, just 11 and 12 points respectively behind Green. While Mike Coughlin (#4) is out of contention as he's out of events like Green, there are four other racers within 75 points of the lead. Defending world champion Julie Nataas is only 39 points behind, while Matt Cummings is currently 56 back, but he could trim that margin to 35 points if he can win the weather-delayed final round of last week's Phoenix Western Regional event.

The Eastern Regional this weekend at Maple Grove made no changes to the Top Ten standings in either Top Alcohol Dragster or Funny Car and last week's Western Regional saw only Cummings improve his points totals in the Dragster category. On the Funny Car side, Maddi Gordon and Brian Hough will meet in the Phoenix semifinal round during qualifying at Las Vegas, and Hough has the most to gain as he could pass Bob McCosh and move into second place in the standings. On the flip side, if Gordon can prevail over Hough and take out Don Hudson in the Phoenix final, she could solidify her hold on the #2 spot in the standings.

One final note for today is the number of entrants in the TAD category at Las Vegas. There's 25 cars entered, the largest field since the 2018 U.S. Nationals. It's going to be an absolute war in every round of eliminations, and qualifying is going to be a major battle just to be in the elite 16 that go into eliminations. The bump spot at Vegas for the fall race has been 5.337 for the past two years, and the all-time quickest bump in the category was set just two weeks ago at Dallas, at 5.315. Could we see an all 5.20's or better field this coming week? Stay tuned for that and don't forget, our photographer, Bob Snyder, is already packed and warming up the van for his trip to The Strip.

UPDATES to the Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car points standings

Last weekend's event at Firebird Motorsports Park was not completed, but to the point that eliminations were postponed, we have calculated the points earned and where the contenders for the Top Alcohol Dragster world championship stand. The Funny Car championship was won by Sean Bellemeur and the "Killer B's" at the NHRA Carolina Nationals (Charlotte, NC) last month, but the battle for positions #2 through #10 are still underway.

The biggest development for the dragsters at Phoenix concerned the points leader, Hunter Green, who failed to qualify in his last points earning event of the season. That leaves him with 562 points, still at the top of the list, but seriously vulnerable to Jackie Fricke with 551 points, and Shawn Cowie with 550 points. While both racers have used up all their regional chances, they are entered in the final two national events, and only need two round wins to overtake Green in the standings. Whether it's two first round wins, or one semi-final at either race, they are both more than capable of achieving those goals. After that, it may come down to one or even two head-to-head meetings between those two to decide the 2024 world championhsip.

While Mike Coughlin (#4) has run out of events to claim and can't climb any higher in the standings, the #5 through #8 racers are still within reach of Green's spot. Defending world champion, Julie Nataas, needs to win one of the final two national races to pass Green, or make two final rounds. Not easy, but with Randy Meyer tuning, it's possible. Below her, Matt Cummings is in a stronger position as he has advanced to the final round at the postponed Phoenix regional, and could enter the final regional event of the season at Las Vegas (the week after the nationals). If he can double up at the nationals next weekend, taking the regional race, and the national event, he would overtake Green. Even if he doesn't, he still has the second regional, and Pomona to do the deed.

A bit of a longshot, but with the strongest mathematical possibility is Top Alcohol rookie, Angelle Sampey, who could finish the season with a total of 701 points if she could win the two regionals (Reading, PA and Las Vegas, NV) on the schedule, and the two national events. Just winning the regionals would give her 604 points. A win and a semifinal would also put her ahead of Green, but would most likely leave her behind the strongest contenders, Fricke and Cowie. It is to be noted that Sampey has entered both remaining national events, and could take over the points lead without travelling all the way to Pennsylvania this coming weekend, and simply compete three weeks in a row out west.

We doubt that this week's regional at Maple Grove will have much, if any, affect on the championship standings, but next week in Las Vegas will be absolutely critical to the racers vying for the championship crown for the 2024 season.

The situation in Funny Car is much more straightforward. Sean Bellemeur has the championship won and the only goal his team has left is to finish with a "perfect" season, ie, seven national and three regional wins for the maximum possible 850 points. All they need to achieve that is to win the Las Vegas national event. Easier said than done, but with that team, almost anything is possible. Sitting well behind Bellemeur in second place, in a very creditable performance for the first season driver of the Gordon family car is Madison "Maddi" Gordon, who will try to hold off Brian Hough, who is 52 points behind in the #4 spot in the standings, and coming on strong with a late season charge.

Gordon and Hough will meet in the semifinals of the postponed Phoenix event, during Saturday qualifying next week at Vegas, and if Hough can turn on the winlight and get past returning veteran Don Hudson in the subsequent final round, will close the gap to just TEN points behind Gordon. As he has run two fewer national events than her, he will get the chance to pass her for second in the standings going into the final races of the season. Below Gordon and Hough, only Annie Whiteley has a mathematical chance of overtaking either of them as no one else in the Top Ten is entered in either of the final national events.

However the chips fall, and the scoreboards light up, it's going to be an exciting few weeks of drag racing as the 2024 NHRA season races to a conclusion.

FIREBIRD FALL SHOOTOUT - Firebird Motorsports Park - Chandler, AZ

Here's a twist to the old adage about "bringing a gun to a knife fight" (or vice-versa). On Friday night at Firebird, Dylan Winefsky brought the blown fuel "Nitro Moose" to the Top Alcohol shootout. The Winefsky team was shaking down the car and prepping young Dylan for his licensing runs at Las Vegas after the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals at the end of the month. The team will compete at that event with veteran driver John Hale in the cockpit.

Making his first pass(es) in an all-new BIG show Funny Car, young Dylan Winefsky put the "Nitro Moose" through a couple of burnouts and one launch that ended quickly with major tire shake. The track just wasn't prepped to handle the big horsepower on a cold evening.

Then it was down to business for the final Western Region Top Alcohol event of the 2024 season. It was quite interesting to see how many national championship contenders made the trek west to try to capture more points towards their title hopes. Among the dragsters were points leader Hunter Green, and #6 Matt Cummings. There were two other Top Ten racers competing, but #3 Shawn Cowie had used his allottment of regional events, and #10 Madison Payne was already eliminated from contention for the championship. It is to be noted that Cowie could hurt both Green and Cummings' chances if he could eliminate them on Saturday.

One more item of note is that of the 11 dragsters in the pits, the majority were running blown on alcohol, with six of the blower cars entered. Quite a change from the makeup of almost every field in the past year or three. Also to be noted is that we don't have a breakdown on what numbers the racers ran in each session, so we have simply reported their quickest e.t.'s.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) Still fighting the good fight with a blown car, Medford Oregon's Mike Austin couldn't get a solid grip on the cold track as the LAD Automotive entry could only muster a non-qualifying 8.360 - 108.18 clocking.

(RIGHT) Following some strong runs at the U.S. Nationals, where she broke into the 5.20's in her blown alcohol car, Shaundra Blinzler fell well short of the bump spot of 7.159, with a best of 8.045 - 99.49 on her qualifying sheet.

(LEFT) The Darien & Grisel team, with Casey Grisel driving and Jerry Darien tuning has been running very strong since mid-season, starting with their dominating winning performance at the Northwest Nationals. They followed that up with a career best for Grisel at Dallas (5.185 - 278.09), and kept the beat going with a top qualifying 5.265 - 270.37 here. Grisel made strong runs in both sessions, as he ran even faster, at 271.24 on one of his attempts.

(RIGHT) Here's Grisel launching hard in the near lane, while long-time alky racer Chris Demke in the "Peen Rite" car punched his way into the field with a solid 5.415, coupled with a big speed of 271.45 mph. That was good for the #6 spot on the ladder.

(LEFT) Nearing the end of what had to be a disappointing season for the Duane Shields-owned "Muscle Milk" team, third-generation racer Madison Payne warmed the tires prior to her first qualifying shot. She got down the track strongly on both attempts, posting speeds of 272.94 and 273.77 mph, with her best e.t., 5.325 placing her in the #4 spot in the field.

(RIGHT) Here she is leaving the line (near lane) against Joey Severance in the far lane. The "J&A Services" has been seemingly been snakebitten all year, running strong then losing fire, breaking, shaking, smoking, etc. But they were on their game here, taking the second rung on the ladder with a very good 5.295 - 274.00 to lead all the supercharged cars in the field.

(LEFT) Making only one pass in qualifying, Shawn Cowie executed his patented high-revving, tire blazing burnout. He skipped the second session as the track cooled and he didn't feel any pressure to top the field as he was out of points earning opportunities.

(RIGHT) When this pair crossed the finish line, the scoreboards lit up BIG with some very solid numbers despite the cold air and track temperatures. In the near lane, Shawn Cowie stopped the clocks with an excellent 5.352 - 275.39, while in the far lane, Matt Cummings posted a very close 5.357 - 274.72 to slot in right behind Cowie on the qualifying list.

Coming into this event with a last chance to increase his points total, Hunter Green smoked the tires hard right off the line and coasted to a non-qualifying 11.458 e.t. at 68.26 mph. He would have needed to qualify and get past the first round to gain any points, and at this point, can only wait and watch what the racers chasing him do. NOTE: He has entered both the Las Vegas and Pomona national events, so we can presume that he plans to attempt to "block" the challengers to his points lead. If he can eliminate them before they overtake him, he might be able to hold on to the #1 spot, but he's less than one round win in front of Cowie and Fricke and that scenario seems improbable.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

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TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #2

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TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #2

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ELIMINATIONS

We don't have any photos or details other than the e.t.'s and speeds for eliminations. It appears that there were a number of no-shows in the first round of Funny Car, as apparently Will Martin broke something on his first qualifying pass, and Hunter Jones appeared to suffer the same fate. On the dragster side, everyone showed - and most ran well - in the first round, but only two of the four semifinalists made it to the line, giving their opponents bye runs into the final round.

FIREBIRD FALL SHOOTOUT - Firebird Motorsports Park - Chandler, AZ

One of the three regional events remaining on the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series schedule is underway at Firebird Motorsports Park. Three qualifying sessions were held for the Top Alcohol cars yesterday, and their eliminations will start at 5:30pm today. We received a brief telephone report on the action from our photographer, BIG Bob Snyder, and we expect to see a batch of photos later today and tomorrow. He did indicate that our favourite (almost) local racer, Shawn Cowie was in the #3 spot on the ladder after the first session, and that seven Funny Cars were in attendance.

That was a very skimpy synopsis but we expected to be able to see much more detail from the NHRA.com "Divisional Live Timing" page. That didn't happen as NHRA listed the event as happening on Saturday and Sunday, instead of the actual dates of Friday - Saturday. Then we checked out the usually reliable results website, DragRaceCentral.com, but there was nothing there either as of 7:00am today. We'll just have to stay tuned to see what's happening at Firebird and when we do, we'll be able to generate a report, with pictures and details.

Something somewhat surprising happened on Thursday morning when media credentials arrived for Mr. Snyder to attend the FORD Performance NHRA Nationals at Las Vegas at the end of this month. The surprise was that they usually arrive no earlier than one week before a race and here it was a full two weeks in advance. Snyder's certainly going to be a busy guy for the next few weeks, as there is a request in the pipeline for credentials to the season ending In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona two weeks later. And we'll be busy too, posting lots of photos and stories to go with the final races of the 2024 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series.

POINTS Standings following the Texas NHRA FallNationals

We'll start our Monday morning musings with the latest updated points standings for the Countdown to The Championship (for the PRO competitors) and the Top Alcohol racers. Starting with this edition of the standings, you will notice the "points difference" numbers are in red for some racers. Those competitors have been mathematically eliminated from contention for the championship(s). Realistically, there are more than a few other racers that would need the leaders to not attempt at least one qualifying pass at either of the final two races, and gain maximum points at those two events to have the slightest chance of winning the season title. In other words: it's just not going to happen.

TOP FUEL: The most obvious change in the standings is at the top, with Justin Ashley taking over from Antron Brown. After Brown lost a very close first round match with Ashley, by less than two hundredths of a second, the way was cleared for Ashley to gain ground, which he certainly did. When his winlight came on in the final round, it gave him a lead of 44 points heading into the final two races on the tour. While Shawn Langdon held on to the #3 spot, he fell from 50 points behind Brown to 76 points back of Ashley. The next three racers gained one spot each, but only one, Clay Millican, closed the gap between himself and the points leader, getting 19 points, almost one round win, closer to the top, but still 114 points in arrears.

The biggest drop in the standings was experienced by the defending world champion, Doug Kalitta, who fell from #3 to #7, courtesy of his third 1st round loss in the first four races of the countdown. You could say that figuratively the wheels have truly fallen off his title defence, as he goes into Vegas 133 points out of first place. Making up nearly seven rounds of racing in two events is virtually impossible for him. One spot below Kalitta is two-time world champion Brittany Force whose chance to be in contention evaporated in a holeshot loss to Tony Schumacher in the second round of eliminations.

FUNNY CAR: The biggest news surrounding the FallNationals was Jack Beckman, in second place, being unable to race in eliminations due to a vertigo-like condition. That put a serious dent in his championship aspirations on behalf of John Force. He fell further back in the chase, from 105 to 147 points behind teammate Austin Prock, but it could have been worse if Prock hadn't lost in the semifinals when his throttle linkage unravelled on the burnout. Despite that setback, young Mr. Prock increased his lead over the former #3 racer, Bob Tasca III, who dropped a close first round race to Blake Alexander, when Tasca had to lift on the top end.

Taking over the third spot in the standings was the event winner, Matt Hagan, but he's 168 points out of first place, and his title hopes are looking slim at this point. Tasca dropped to #5, more than 50 points further behind Prock, and now has a 211-point deficit. Below him, no one has any realistic chance of contending, and the bottom five racers on the chart are already mathematically eliminated.

PRO STOCK: This category has boiled down to a basically four horse race, with #5 in the standings, Jeg Coughlin, the FallNationals event winner, sitting nearly 200 points behind leader Dallas Glenn. He gained 33 points on Glenn when Dallas lost in the semifinals, but it's not realistic to expect him to challenge for the title even if he sweeps the last two events of the countdown. The #6 racer, Matt Hartford is more than 300 points behind and his title hopes are more than precarious, while below him, the last seven racers on the list are already done for.

Closest pursuer to Glenn is still Aaron Stanfield, but he dropped from 31 points out of first, to 53 going into the second to last race of the season. The other two racers with a realistic chance of taking over the top spot changed places when Greg Anderson went to the final round, while former #3, Erica Enders, lost in the second round and fell 21 points further back to 111 behind. Anderson meanwhile, closed the gap by 36 points to just 90 points behind Glenn. It's going to be quite a battle between the two dominant teams in Pro Stock, the KB-Titan group (Dallas Glenn and Greg Anderson, and the Elite Performance super-team, with Erica Enders and Aaron Stanfield. It's most likely to come down to reaction times - and they will be close - over the last eight rounds of racing in 2024.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE: It's a lot of the "same old, same old", as the top six riders in the class all stayed in the same position going into and coming out of Dallas. Gaige Herrera won his first back-to-back races since mid-season, and put some distance (28 points) between himself and closest challenger, Matt Smith. A first round loss cost #3 Richard Gadson dearly as he fell nearly 100 points further behind Herrara and not sits 161 points behind. After starting the countdown with a win at Reading, Hector Arana Jr. (#4), has failed to get past the semifinals and is now 185 points out of the top spot. Below Arana, the next four racers are well out of contention, and below them, the bottom two are already guaranteed to have no chance for the championship.

Next up are the Top Alcohol categories where there's some real drama in the Dragster ranks, and another world championship clinched in the Funny Car category. The points standings for the Top Alcohol racers are harder to follow than for the Pro racers, due partly to the mix of national and regional event points that count towards the respective championships. Factor in the "waived" races and it becomes harder to see where things will end up from week to week. At this point in the season there are three regional and two national events left on the calendar, with the next two weeks seeing regional events, this week at Firebird Motorsports Park (Phoenix, AZ), and next week at Maple Grove Raceway (Reading, PA).

NOTES:Fields that have XXX filled in are events that are not possible for the racer to attend. Point numbers in red are waived races. There are two national and three regional events remaining on the schedule. The upcoming races entered by the Top Alcohol competitors on the graphics below. With two weeks to go before the entry deadline for the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, we expect there will be numerous entries added, especially in the dragster category with the very close competition for the championship.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER Those closing races of the 2024 season could be critical for three of the racers in contention for the championship, especially the points leader, Hunter Green who has only more chance to gain points at a regional event, as all his national events are already claimed. Lower in the standings, Matt Cummings and Angelle Sampey have two more possible regional points earning opportunities, in addition to the final two national events. The defending world champion, Julie Nataas also has two national events to increase her total, while perennial contender, Shawn Cowie, likewise has two nationals left to fill his points card.

Only three of Top Ten are mathematically eliminated from the championship chase, with #4 Mike Coughlin, out of chances to catch Green, while #9 Karen Stalba and #10 Megan Smith cannot catch him either. On the other end of the scale, Green's closest pursuer, #2 Jackie Fricke, is only 11 points out of the top spot, while Cowie is just a single point behind her. The #5 through #7 racers are close also, with Nataas just 39 points behind, while Cummings is 56 back, and Sampey is lurking just 64 behind the leader. Even #8 in the standings, Finally, Joe Maynard is within striking distance, just 75 points out of first place.

It's going to be a very intense next five weeks for all the contenders, and the championship could easily down to the later rounds at the season ending In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona in mid-November. We'll be updating the standings on a weekly basis from here to the end as it's expected that the last five events of the season will all have some impact on the title chase.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR What became obvious at the end of the NHRA Carolina Nationals (Charlotte, NC) in late September was that Greg Bellemeur had wrapped up his fourth world championship in Top Alcohol Funny Car. Following two years out of the top spot, the "Killer B's" went on a "revenge" (joking, of course) tour to retake the title from the Gordon family. They did just that and now only need to win at Las Vegas to complete a perfect 850-point (maximum possible) season.

Sitting well back in second place is rookie Maddi Gordon, who holds a not insurmountable lead over #3 Bob McCosh and #4 Brian Hough. Of the two, Hough has the best chance to overtake Gordon, with two national, and two regional events left to claim, while McCosh can only improve marginally at the final two national events. The only other racer in the Top Ten with a realistic chance to catch Gordon is #5 Phil Esz, while #6 Annie Whiteley and #7 Chris Foster have only remote chances to do so. Below them the bottom three racers are already mathematically eliminated.

39th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals - FINAL Eliminations

39th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals - FINAL Qualifying

39th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals

It's day SEVEN of the Stampede of Speed, but only the third day of qualifying for the FallNationals. Yesterday saw the first of three qualifying sessions for the Top Alcohol cars, and there were some very quick - and some not nearly so quick - runs made. The bump spot for the dragsters was a decent 5.497, with the top nine qualifiers bunched between 5.243 and 5.285. With two sessions remaining, the quickest field ever at the Texas Motorplex, in 2022, were all in at 5.339 or better. And the quickest field ever at an NHRA national event was the 2023 In-N-Out Burger Finals at Pomona, with the bump spot at 5.331. Both marks are in serious danger of being broken later today.

The Funny Cars weren't quite as quick but the top nine came in at 5.584 or better, with the top dog, Mick Steele, showing the potential of his injected nitro entry, as he led the field with a very strong 5.461 pass. In a bit of a surprise, a total of 17 cars filled the entry list, with only Bob McCosh sitting out the session.

NOON UPDATE: As expected, the second qualifying session for the Top Alcohol cars showed just how strong both fields were. The Funny Cars came out first and as could be expected, Sean Bellemeur rocketed to the top of the list with an excellent 5.459 - 269.04 in the Killer B's "Pirate Ship". When the tire smoke and clutch dust had cleared, the first 15 cars on the ladder were qualified at 5.596 or better, with the top five in the 5.40 zone. Sitting on the bump at 5.640 was Christine Foster, and just a few ticks behind her in the first alternate spot sat Alaska's Ray Martin at 5.678. Both racers have run in the 5.50's so the final session could see some real fireworks as the battle for a spot in the field concludes.

The dragster field tightened up considerably with the 15th qualifier (Madison Payne) in at 5.316, while Greg Hunter in the Canadian car of Doug Doucette holds down the bump spot at 5.386. Hunter's position is in serious jeopardy entering the final session, as defending world champion Julie Nataas is at the bottom of the 20-car list after two consecutive tire smokers. When was the last time a Randy Meyer-tuned car smoked the tires three times in a row? Like never, so you can expect that the bump will end up at 5.316 or better when qualifying finishes. Two of the other three alternates have run in the 5.20's in the past, so we could possibly see a 16-car field qualified in the 5.20's, or better. Stay tuned!

2:00 PM UPDATE: The final qualifying session for the Top Alcohol cars was also the first round of eliminations for the JEGS Allstars. Starting with the Funny Cars, the first four pairs to run were the JEGS qualifiers. In the second pair of the round, Christine Foster improved to a 5.583 to get off the bump spot and put Mark Billington there with his 5.596, making it a very quick field. Next out of the lanes was Ray Martin who needed to pick up nearly a tenth to get into the FallNationals elimination field. He almost did, falling just ONE thousandth of a second short with a very good 5.597. That solidified the field with everyone qualified in the 5.50's or better, including the lone alternate.

The dragsters set a new standard with the quickest field in the history of the sport. Coming into the final session, the bump spot Greg Hunter sat on the bump spot with a very good, but fragile 5.386 e.t. When Julie Nataas blasted her way into the field to the #9 spot, from the very bottom in #20, it pushed Hunter into the first alternate spot. After the other three non-qualifiers all failed to improve and make the field, it was down to Hunter and while he turned his best e.t. of the weekend, a 5.350, it wasn't enough to bump into the show. With the 16 cars from Mike Coughlin on top with a 5.216, down to Madison Payne on the bottom with a 5.315, the entire field were bunched within a tenth of a second. Eliminations are obviously guaranteed to be quite a show of quick e.t.'s and reaction times.

Next up today is the first session of PRO qualifying, then the second round of JEGS eliminations followed by the awesome "Friday Night Live" qualifying show under the lights. It offers more than $40,000 in bonus qualifying money, and the totally Texas scenario where the quickest qualifier in each class gets to sit on a mechanical bull until they are bumped off by a quicker qualifier. The last racer on the bull in each class will pick up the bonus bucks, with $15K each to the Top Fuel and Funny Car low qualifiers. It should be quite a show with some serious entertainment value.

6:00 PM UPDATE: Before the night time qualifying show got under way, the second round of JEGS Allstar competition for Top Alcohol Funny Car and Dragster took place. At the conclusion of the Funny Car segment, a special ceremony was held in the shutdown area where Sean Bellemeur was presented with his 2024 World Championship Trophy.

Photos copyright by NHRA.tv 2024

The four dragsters remaining in the JEGS eliminations all put up great performances, with the slowest e.t., a 5.236 by Karen Stalba, taking out the quicker and faster Shawn Cowie of British Columbia, Canada, who lost with his quickest pass of the weekend, a 5.215 at a booming 279.16 mph. In the other pairing, Julie Nataas earned the final round berth against Stalba by eliminating a slower reacting Matt Cummings. Cummings' 5.227 wasn't nearly enough to catch Nataas' low e.t. of the meet 5.212 effort.

The night time PRO qualifying session is underway and with the air and track temps cooling and density altitude dropping, there should be some spectacular performances coming. Stay tuned for further updates tomorrow morning.

39th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals

It's three events rolled into one, becoming the longest event on the NHRA schedule. It all started last Saturday, when the Stampede of Speed kicked off with a combinations country music festival and specialty match race. The "Texas Invitational" featured an all-Texas racer lineup, consisting of the Fuel Funny Car of Terry Haddock, the awesome "War Wagon" Fuel Altered driven by Kebin Kinsley and Outlaw Pro Mod racers, Frankie "Madman" Taylor and Brandon Pesz.

All four cars ran over two days and in the final on Sunday evening, Haddock took out Taylor, while Kinsley outran Pesz in the consolation final. Taking home the champion's belt (and it's a BIG one!) for the second year in a row, Terry was elated with his results and the entire show as a leadup to his return to the NHRA tour at this week's FallNationals. After competing at seven of the first nine races of the season, he's skipped the past seven races before getting back in action this week. And he'll be attending the final two races on the 2024 calendar to close out his season. As a sidenote, Kinsley is making his return in Top Fuel at this race for the first time since the 2022 edition. He'll be driving the Terry Totten entry.

Qualifying for the FallNationals started this afternoon for the sportsman racers and continues tomorrow with Top Alcohol joining the party, followed by the PRO cars on Friday. There's full and overflowing fields in almost all categories and with only two races remaining in the Countdown to the Championship after eliminations on Sunday, the pressure and drama are sure to be intense.

TOP ALCOHOL Championship Standings

We're a little late on this item, but it's time to post the latest points standings for the Top Alcohol categories. There's still at least ten contenders for the Dragster title, but for the Funny Cars.... it's a done deal, with Sean Bellemeur and the "Killer B's" reclaiming the championship after two seasons on the outside, looking in.

The graphics below show the current points total, the possible points total and which national events the racers have entered. The entries are as of this morning, so they are obviously subject to change. We'll post updated figures after next week's Texas NHRA FallNationals. At this writing, there's three national and four regional events remaining on the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series schedule.

NOTES: Fields that have XXX filled in are events that are not possible to attend for the racer. Point numbers in red are waived races.

NOTE: The graphic above was correct at the time of posting, but since then Julie Nataas, Karen Stalba and Megan Smith have entered the Dallas event. That means that the entire Top Ten in the standings will be in competition together. That could have some serious consequences to the standings.

It's a fairly close race for the championship at this point with everyone in the top ten with a mathematical chance to overtake the leader. However, there is a regional event at St. Louis this weekend and the NHRA Texas FallNationals at Dallas next weekend and the results from those two events should give us a clearer picture of just who is a contender for the Top Alcohol Dragster crown. With 19 cars already on the entry list and nine of them in the Top Ten there could be some serious movements in the standings.

Despite holding down the #2 spot in the standings, Mike Coughlin is most susceptible to being overtaken by most of the other racers on the list. And at the bottom of the pack in #10, Megan Smith would have to win three consecutive national events and a regional race to squeak ahead of points leader Hunter Green. Frankly, that is not going to happen. Green is somewhat vulnerable as Dallas will be his last points earning national event, but he has two regionals left to claim points if he's willing to travel. The next two weekends will be critical to everyone in the Top Ten as the results from those races could go a long way to determining the 2024 champion.

The defending Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series TAD champion, Julie Nataas, in her last year of A/Fuel competition is not yet entered for any more events and looks unlikely to mount a charge to the championship. Perennial contender Shawn Cowie has had an eminently forgettable season, starting with not qualifying at the Winternationals, and three first round losses, one of which was on a bye run at Seattle. A persistent electrical gremlin caused the car to lose fire at the end of the burnout, and it bit him at the second regional race at Woodburn before the Northwest Nationals. Without all that bad luck he would have a solid lead in the standings.

There's a couple of darkhorses on the list, with Angelle Sampey able to accumulate the most points of anyone in the category. Again, it's going to take some travelling and hard racing to make up the 85 point gap between her and Hunter Green. The other racer with much to gain, if he enters the last three national events and two of the regionals, is Matt Cummings and he could make a big leap up the standings if he runs at St. Louis and does well there and at Dallas.

NOTE: The graphic above was correct at the time of posting, but since then five more have entered the event, meaning that the Top Nine racers in the standings will be competing at Dallas. While it won't have any effect on the top spot, there could be some shuffling lower down in the standings.

It's a mystery to me why Sean Bellemeur has not been crowned the World Champion in Top Alcohol Funny Car for 2024. He's got an insurmountable lead in the standings, with even #2 racer, Maddi Gordon unable to catch him after two consecutive first round losses at Brainered and Indy. Up until the Labor Day weekend she had a longshot chance to overtake Bellemeur for the points lead, but that chance is gone.

With declining participation in the Funny Car category, evidenced by only 32 racers entering a national event this season, and not a single full field at the first 10 races on the tour, there's less drama in the class. Yes, there are a bunch of cars that consistently produce great performances, but not enough to make for exciting competition at every event. Sometimes it seems that the finalists are almost a foregone conclusion by the end of qualifying. While the NHRA has tried to increase participation in the class by adding an A/Fuel option, so far, only two racers have appeared with an injected nitro engine and only has run at a national event.

As the season winds down, the largest field of the 2024 series will be on hand at Dallas next week, with 15 cars on the pre-entry list. Entries for the final two events of the season are very few so far but the sportsman racers tend to enter much closer to the deadline than the pro classes.

Then there were THREE.....

....national events remaining on the 2024 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series schedule. It's seem like only a week or two (actually four) weeks ago that the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals wrapped up at Indianapolis, and now we're half way through the Countdown To The Championship. This is an "off week" for the travelling acceleration show, but it's followed by the annual "Stampede of Speed", a week-long event, at the Texas Motorplex. See the latest PRO standings below and our prognostications of just who has a chance to challenge for the championship.... and who is essentially working toward better results for next season.

PS: To save on readers having to do the math, we've listed the gap between the leaders in each categories and the racers chasing them.

TOP FUEL: The win streak of Antron Brown ended in a cloud of tire smoke in the second round at St. Louis, but he still maintained a 34 point lead over Justin Ashley. The next three racers on the list, Shawn Langdon defending world champion Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence are all less than 90 points behind Brown, \ and well within striking distance. From there down the gaps widen to the point that #9 Tony 'Smoke' Stewart is 194 points behind with only 12 rounds of racing left in the season. Admittedly, there are "points and a half" on offer at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona, but it's going to take a combination of a bunch of winlights by the lower racers in the standings and some serious stumbles by the racers above them to close the significant gaps.

FUNNY CAR: It was looking like a runaway for Austin Prock but his 10-round winning streak ended in the semifinals at St. Louis. Taking advantage of that loss was John Force (aka: Jack Beckman) who won the event, moving up to #2 in the standings, and closed the margin to "only" 105 points. The next three racers with a realistic chance of competing for the championship range from 159 to 194 and 205 points behind Prock. Two of them, Ron Capps and Matt Hagan are former champions, and they're joined by #3 Bob Tasca III in the #3 slot. Below the top five, the next closest racer, J.R. Todd, is 253 points out of the lead and it tails off seriously from that point down to the bottom of the standings.

PRO STOCK: The domination by the first four racers in the standings continued at St. Louis, with all of them reaching the semifinals for the third consecutive race. Dallas Glenn took his second win in the countdown and opened a slight lead over #2 Aaron Stanfield, who now sits 31 points behind him. Falling a little further back, as they both lost in the semifinals, were #3 Erica Enders (90 points behind) and #4 Greg Anderson, who's now 126 points behind the leader. From that point the gaps widen considerably with #5 Jeg Coughlin Jr. 232 points behind and from there on it's 280 to 310 points for the bottom five in the Top Ten. With only three events remaining it's pretty much over for those racers unless the wheels completely fall off (figuratively) the points leaders.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE: If the countdown didn't exist, the world champion would already be crowned with Gaige Herrera taking the title in a landslide. Before the countdown "reset" after Indy, Herrera was nearly 300 points ahead of the #2 rider, Matt Smith. But he proved to be slightly mortal, exiting in the semifinals at the first two races of the countdown, and falling 25 points behind Smith. Things turned around at St. Louis as Herrera took his eighth win of the season, and a 34 point lead over Smith. The #3 racer, Richard Gadson, is only 65 points behind, but from there on down the standings, the gaps widen as can be seen by #7 John Hall nearly 200 points adrift.

13th annual NHRA Midwest Nationals

The wheels keep turning as the race teams head north from North Carolina to the midwest World Wide Technology Raceway for the NHRA Midwest Nationals. Before we move ahead to that event, let's take a look at how the Countdown To The Championship(s) are going after the second of six events on the "playoff" schedule.

TOP FUEL: The points leader after the second event is Antron Brown, courtesy of back-to-back wins at Reading and Charlotte. The leader at the start of the countdown, Justin Ashley, has fallen back a little and sits 53 points in arrears of Brown. He's followed by the Team Kalitta cars as they've gotten off to a slow start in the countdown, but #4 Doug Kalitta is still only 67 points behind Brown. From there the gaps open up considerably, with #7 Tony Schumacher 173 points behind the leader and closely followed by Tony Stewart and Brittany Force. When you get down to the #10 runner (Billy Torrence), it's more than 200 points and that's starting to get dangerously close to being eliminated from contention.

FUNNY CAR: It's starting to turn into a runaway for the season-long points leader Austin Prock. His closest pursuer, Bob Tasca III is 129 behind already, and the other Force Team car, driven by Jack Beckman sits just behind him in third place. After #3 Matt Hagan (153 points back), the numbers take a steep dive, with and J.R. Todd more than 200 points behind. From there on down to the bottom of the list, most of them are nearly or more than 300 points adrift and without any realistic chance to climb back into contention.

PRO STOCK: It's turned into a four-way battle for the championship, with racers in #5 (Jeg Coughlin) and below, nearly 200 points behind already. The points leader coming into the countdown, Dallas Glenn dropped out of the top spot when Aaron Stanfield won the Reading event. But Glenn came back strong at Charlotte to re-take the lead, but only by the very slim margin of 8 points. Defending champion Erica Enders is just 53 points behind and in 4th place, Greg Anderson is only 74 points in arrears. To show how dominant the top four have been, no one else has made it to the semifinals in the first two races of the countdown.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE: It was a slightly surprising result at Charlotte, with Matt Smith taking the trophy and moving 25 points ahead of Gaige Herrera in the standings. And the closeness continued as #3, Richard Gadson was the runnerup and is only 27 points behind Smith. The winner of the first race of the countdown at Reading, Hector Arana Jr. lost in the 2nd round at Charlotte and sits 115 points behind in 4th place. Lower down, the next four racers range from 154 to 171 points behind. With the consistency that Herrera has shown over the past two seasons it's reasonable to assume that none of them have a realistic shot at climbing into contention. Only one of them, Chase Van Sant has won an event this season and he's already more than 200 points out of the lead.

70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park - Clermont, IN

It's final eliminations day at the U.S. Nationals and our hard working photographer, Dale Fackler is working hard to capture all the action on the track. The event saw a lot of Canadian content, with Canuck racers top qualifying in Pro Mod, Justin Bond, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Stan Sipos, and third in Top Alcohol Dragster, Shawn Cowie. Other north of the border racers qualified in Top Fuel, Dan Mercier, Pro Stock, Siena Wildgust, and two more in Pro Mod. Taking the #4 spot in that class was Jordan Lazic, and #16 was Scott Wildgust.

After three days of varying weather conditions, including a rainy Friday, Monday morning dawned sunny and cool. The air temperature was down 20 degrees from qualifying, the track temp was down more than 30 degrees, and the density altitude was nearly 2000 ft lower. All very conducive to making BIG horsepower, with the track capable of handling it. For the 16 "survivors" entering eliminations it was time to go BIG or go home.

TOP FUEL - Eliminations Round ONE

(LEFT)The second pair of the round matched father and son, with Steve Torrence facing Billy Torrence. Steve got the party started with the second quickest run of the event, a very good 3.702 - 329.67 to easily handle an up-in-smoke Billy.

(RIGHT) Three pairs later, the newly wrapped "Direct Connection" retro look dragster of Tony Stewart faced Doug Foley. Coming out of qualifying in the highest starting position of his admittedly short Top Fuel career, Stewart cranked out a great 3.723 - 331.53 to take a close win by less than a car length.

(LEFT) With a very different appearance due to the "Arby's" wrap, Clay Millican charged hard off the line and stopped the timers with the quickest run of the round - so far - a 3.695 and top speed of the meet at 333.74 to eliminate Antron Brown who lost traction at half track and slowed.

(RIGHT) Coming into eliminations from the #12 starting spot, Josh Hart appeared to be in deep against #5 qualifier Tripp Tatum. He grabbed a big (.052 to .103) reaction time advantage, and pulled away quickly from Tatum, before hazing the tires and slowing to a 4.018 - 249.49. However, Tatum smoked the tires and was off the throttle before the 330' mark.

FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round ONE

(LEFT) Leading the way out of the lanes to start Funny Car eliminations, second-generation fuel flopper pilot, Dan Wilkerson faced another "young gun" in Bobby Bode Jr. After a strong launch, Wilkerson suffered a major engine explosion before half track, blowing the body into two pieces, but managed to wrestle the wreckage to a stop without hitting the wall. Bode made his best run of the weekend to escape the conflagration and advance to the quarter-final round.

(RIGHT) This what was left of the body as it went down the return road on a flatdeck truck. It was a sad end to an expensive weekend for Team Wilk as they had another major engine failure during qualifying.

(LEFT) With the top qualifier hat already in his wardrobe, Austin Prock absolutely obliterated the bump spot racer, Chris King. It was no contest as King was out of it early and Prock rocketed to low e.t. of the meet with a brilliant 3.850 - 334.15 timeslip.

(RIGHT) This is how they get some of the awesome overhead shots on the FOX network and NHRA.TV broadcasts. It's a quad-rotor drone with a 4K HD video camera.

(LEFT) Prock was followed by the #2 qualifier Bob Tasca III in what looked like a true David vs Goliath battle. Qualifying near the bottom of the field, Buddy Hull, in the Jim Dunn car was in deep but he pulled off the improbable upset as Tasca smoked the tires just past the 660' mark. It wasn't pretty but Hull scored the first round win of his Funny Car career with a 4.063 - 286.86 pass.

(RIGHT) Taking over the driving chores for the GOAT (John Force), former world champion "Fast" Jack Beckman was looking to start turning on some winlights after debuting in the car at Brainerd. He qualified third at 3.877 and bettered that with a new low e.t. of the event, 3.842 - 332.51 to get a leg up on teammate Austin Prock. In the other lane was long-time veteran Dale Creasy Jr. who made the quickest and fastest run of his career with an excellent 3.950 - 325.92 to give Beckman a good fight.

(LEFT) Needing at least one round win to guarantee a spot in the Countdown to The Championship, Blake Alexander turned on the horsepower to crank out a great 3.883 - 327.74. Winning the Brainerd event two weeks ago, qualifying #4 here and advancing to the second round with lane choice proved that the Jim Head car is a worthy championship contender. His first round opponent, Chad Green left first but lost traction early and slowed.

(RIGHT) It's been another tough season for Cruz Pedregon, but he worked hard to qualify in the top half of the field and earned a holeshot victory over Paul Lee. Pedregon's 3.923 - 323.58 was enough to take a car length win over Lee's hard running Charger. The loss put Lee's chance to gain a berth in the countdown in serious jeopardy.

(LEFT) Sporting another Don Prudhomme tribute paint scheme, Ron Capps hoped for a three-peat at Indy following victories in the two previous editions. He had a slight advantage over opponent J.R. Todd off the line, but fell back a little before Todd smoked the tires as Capps sailed on to a winning 3.946 - 333.33 and a ticket into the next round.

(RIGHT) The round closed with a pressure packed match between Alexis DeJoria and defending world champion Matt Hagan. The most pressure was on Paul Lee, who would be eliminated from the countdown if DeJoria won the round. She qualified just three thousandths slower than Hagan but crew chief Del Worsham turned up the wick and it resulted in a very good 3.886 - 327.98 win over a tire smoking Hagan.

TOP FUEL - Eliminations Round TWO

With the track temperature up nearly 25 degrees, air temp up 10, and the corrected altitude up 600 feet, conditions weren't quite as good as the opening round, but still better than four out of the five qualifying sessions. While it would be a safe bet that there wouldn't be any 3.60 runs, mid to low 3.70's were more than possible.

(LEFT) First up in the second round, and coming off a great run earlier, Tony Stewart faced a tough competitor in Justin Ashley. Stewart was two hundredths slower off the line but the race was over quickly in a cloud of smoke coming off Ashley's slicks, as Stewart ran away to a very convincing 3.747 - 330.88 victory.

(RIGHT) In only her second NHRA national event, Ida Zetterstrom was hoping to go into the semifinals again. She nearly did as she left on Steve Torrence and held the lead until after the 660' mark before dropping a cylinder and losing the race by a third of a car length. Her 3.797 - 317.12 was a very creditable performance, albeit in a losing cause.

Closing the round with a very good 3.753 - 332.18 run, Clay Millican advanced to the semifinals over a tire hazing Josh Hart. Millican's e.t. was only the third best of the round but it was good enough to earn lane choice over Brittany Force.

FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round TWO

(LEFT) Making another strong run, but having to win on a holeshot is not the usual route to victory for Austin Prock. His 3.879 - 331.61 run was excellent by any standard, but it took an .057 to .084 reaction time advantage to take the win over Alexis DeJoria's valiant, but losing, 3.876 - 327.90 pass.

(RIGHT) The other Force team member, Jack Beckman faced off against veteran Cruz Pedregon for the right to advance to the semifinals. "Fast Jack" slowed a little from his low e.t. in the first round, but a great 3.870 - 330.15 was more than enough to turn on the winlight and grab lane choice over Ron Capps in the semifinals.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Eliminations Round THREE

After setting low e.t. of the event (5.194) in the second round, Langley, BC Canada's Shawn Cowie looked to advance to his fourth final round at the U.S. Nationals. However, he was still looking for his first event win at the "Big Go". His opponent, Angelle Sampey, hadn't run as well as Shawn, but she left on him and took a holeshot win over Cowie's extremely good 5.205 - 277.54 effort.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round THREE

(LEFT) As the low qualiifer, Victoria, BC Canada's Stan Sipos earned the bye run in the semifinals. Partnered with ace tuner Les Davenport (Calgary, Alberta), the veteran team took it easy on this run, shutting off before half track and coasting to a winning 6.169 - 170.64 time that gifted lane choice to the winner of the next pair.

(RIGHT) In a great side-by-side race, Sean Bellemeur took a close win over Chris Foster, with an excellent 5.457 - 267.16 to hold lane choice and back up his low e.t. of the meet 5.423 from the previous round. That set things up for a great final round between two very experienced and successful teams.

TOP FUEL - Eliminations Round THREE

With 21 previous final round appearances at NHRA national events, but never at the U.S. Nationals, Clay Millican, in the Rick Ware Racing entry, was looking to take another winlight. Facing Brittany Force, Clay was ready for her and ran away to a very convincing victory when she smoked the tires almost instantly. The scoreboard read 3.750 - 332.18 as Millican advanced to the final.

FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round THREE

(LEFT) Hoping to make it an all-JFR final round, Austin Prock did his part with another consistent 3.80-range pass, a 3.887 - 332.34 to eliminate a tire-smoking Blake Alexander.

(RIGHT) It wasn't a successful conclusion for Jack Beckman as he smoked the tires early and could only watch Ron Capps run away to a win that ended with the tires breaking loose and the throttle closed. Capps' 4.315 - 252.52 wasn't anywhere near Prock's 3.887 effort, but it was still good enough to move into the final round.

FUNNY CAR - Eliminations FINAL ROUND

With only one racer, Ron Capps, standing between him and the winner'c circle, Austin Prock was primed for a great finish to an outstanding weekend. He stayed in the 3.8-zone with a great 3.885 - 327.98 to turn on the winlight. He left on Capps by nearly three hundredths, and ran half a tenth quicker than Ron's valiant, but losing 3.935 - 331.45 performance.

TOP FUEL - Eliminations FINAL ROUND

Then there was one - race that is - with Clay Millican, in his new Arby's livery, facing multi-time world champion Steve Torrence (not shown). Millican had lane choice, and had been quicker than Torrence in two of the three rounds leading up to the final. Although Torrence left first by a small margin, it was nearly a dead heat at the 330' point before he started hazing the tires and fell back. On the top end it was all Millican as he roared through the lights with a strong 3.792 - 327.82 winning time, while Torrence slowed and blew the engine before stopping the clocks at 4.317 - 192.30. Adding insult to injury, Torrence was fined 10 points for oiling the track, dropping him to #5 in the final "regular season" standings.

That's the complete report from the 70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals. It was a six-day tour de force of drag racing with great performances, challenging weather and track conditions, large crowds and nearly 1000 competitors. Best of all, we had a great photographer on site for the entire event, providing us with the images to go with the stories that made up our coverage of the most iconic event in drag racing.

70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park - Clermont, IN

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #4

At the start of this penultimate qualifying session the density altitude was under 2700', the track temp was a manageable 119 (F) and the air temp was 81 (F). All of that was good enough for the fuel cars to run well and most likely the conditions they would be facing in eliminations tomorrow.

(LEFT) Down to her second to last chance to gain a berth in eliminations, Krista Baldwin needed to pick up at least half a tenth on her previous best of 3.863. She was looking good early in her run, but dropped cylinders past the 660' mark and slowed to a 3.875 - 269.46 to remain in the #18 position. Up to the point where the pipes went wet, she was almost certainly on her way into the qualified field.

(RIGHT) Already well qualified in the #8 spot with a 3.739, the Leatherwood Distilleries entry of Tony Schumacher slowed down substantially to a 3.947 - 314.31 to stay in #8. It certainly wasn't what they expected to run, but at least one cylinder dropped before the 660' mark.

(LEFT) Despite holding down the #5 rung on the ladder, Tripp Tatum III had only made one really good run in the first three sessions, which gave him a 3.729 e.t. He failed to come close to that number again, smoking the tires early and shutting down to a 5-second timeslip.

(RIGHT) Another failed attempt to improve, as Shawn Reed in the new look "Star Racer" wrap, smoked the tires - a recurring theme so far - and coasted to a 4.475 - 179.66 pass.

(LEFT) Stop me if you've read this before: more tire smoke, this time courtesy of Ida Zetterstrom as she broke traction and posted a 4.548 - 171.90. That left her safely qualified, but near the bottom of the field in the #14 spot going into the final qualifying session later in the day.

(RIGHT) In the near lane we have Clay Millican wearing his new Arby's wrap, while Jasmine Salinas (far lane) is sporting her usual Scrappers Racing look. On the launch, Millican's exhaust flames could be seen clearly in the afternoon light. He made it to the 660' mark before he lost traction and slowed to a 4.015 -236.38, while Salinas started smouldering the hides a few hundred feet earlier before stopping the clocks with a 4.787 - 153.20, leaving her in the precarious bump spot position with just one more chance to get solidly into the show on Monday.

(LEFT) Already solidly qualified in the #7 spot, Justin Ashley bucked the tire smoking trend and laid down the quickest pass of the session with a strong 3.778 - 327.52 that nearly matched his earlier best of 3.738. He was scheduled to face Lex Joon but the Nev'R Quit team decided to sit out the session and get ready for the final round of qualifying.

(RIGHT) Things got back to "normal" in the next pair, as Doug Kalitta (barely visible in the far lane) and Brittany Force both failed to get very far past the 330' mark before the tires lost their grip. Kalitta's performance left him in the #18 position and outside the field, while Force was on top of the heap with her earlier 3.693 best.

(LEFT) Two more swings... and two more misses, as both Dan Mercier (near lane) and Tony Stewart (far lane - barely visible), were... wait for it.... up in smoke well before the 330' timing blocks. Both were in good positions on the ladder, with Stewart #2 and Mercier in at #10.

(RIGHT) The last pair of the session rolled to the line and got a little further down track before losing traction, leaving T.J. Zizzo (near lane) and Josh Hart (far lane) wondering how so many cars could fail to navigate what was appearing to be a very tricky track surface.

With just one qualifying session left, the bump spot was held down by Jasmine Salinas at 3.814, closely followed by the Team Kalitta cars at 3.821 and 3.823. Not much further back were the third and fourth alternates, Krista Baldwin at 3.863 and Lex Joon at 3.927. All the racers were hoping for a lower track temp and better air density readings.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #5

Down to their last shots to improve their qualifying session or simply get into the field, all but two of the Funny Cars in the pits made their way into the staging lanes. One of them was the man on the bubble Chris King, a low budget racer from Chicago who elected to save on parts and fuel by sitting out, and the other was fellow Illini resident, Bobby Bode Jr. who was solidly qualified in the #12 spot but was in a similar situation to King, budget-wise. The track temp was still high but the sun was lower in the sky and everyone was hoping for better performances than in the previous session.

(LEFT) Sitting at the very bottom of the list and needing a HUGE jump in performance, Justin Schriefer was in trouble before he got to the 60' clocks. He didn't smoke the tires but simply went silent just off the starting line, ending his weekend.

(RIGHT) The last racer to have a chance to bump into field was Dave Richards, who was facing a bubble time of 4.079. He wasn't far off that mark with a best of 4.105 in an earlier session, but his final shot fell short with a 4.328 - 237.59 showing up on the scoreboards. The run looked strong until about 300' before it started slowing and eventually shut off well before the finish line.

(LEFT) Not satisfied to be in the #13 spot on the ladder, and disappointed at being stuck in the 4-second zone, Chad Green was looking good in his final attempt until well past the 660' mark, but slowed to a 4.124- 239.57 as he failed to improve.

(RIGHT) Qualified in the fast half of the field, Matt Hagan wanted to stay or improve from his #8 position. He did improve, by a hundredth of a second over his earlier best. The clocks stopped at 3.908 - 327.66 but he remained in the #8 spot as his opponent in this session, Dan Wilkerson, (not shown) ran just a little quicker and leapfrogged ahead of Hagan.

(LEFT) Hoping to impress his ex-boss (Don Prudhomme), Ron Capps made a full pass this time, posting his best speed of the meet (his earlier best was only 313.37), with a good 325.92 mph blast, but the e.t. was nearly a tenth slower than his previous best of 3.918. On this run he stopped the clocks with a 3.996 to remain in the #7 slot.

(RIGHT) Slowing a little from his great earlier run, Jack Beckman put down a consistent 3.933 - 322.58 that ended up fifth quickest of the session. It looked like a solid tuneup run for tomorrow's eliminations.

(LEFT) Running alongside Austin Prock in the second to last pair of the session, Blake Alexander made another very good pass at 3.921 - 320.20. It wasn't an improvement on her earlier #4 qualifying 3.890, but it showed the consistency needed to go into eliminations.

(RIGHT) Running in the last pair and hoping to make enough of an improvement to overtake Prock for the top spot on the ladder, Bob Tasca III, in his Mustang-bodied "Dark Horse" entry didn't have the horses (sorry for the very bad pun) to do it, and slowed early to a 4.255 - 222.69 that left him in the #2 position in the field.

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #5

The final session for the dragsters opened with the track temp at 114 (F), air density at 3100+ ft, and air temp at 82 (F). Not the greatest conditions, but far better than the first session on Friday and probably close to what tomorrow's later sessions of eliminations would be. All of the 20 cars entered were in the lanes and ready to do their best, some to simply qualify, some to solidify their qualifying positions, and some looking for a good race-day tuneup.

(LEFT) First to test the track was Krista Baldwin, who needed at least a 3.813, and realistically, something in the 3.70's to make the field. She looked good on the launch but started mixing up cylinders early and shut off to a non-qualifying 4.304 - 202.91 to end her weekend.

(RIGHT) Somewhat safely in the field in the #14 spot at 3.776, Ida Zetterstrom wanted to move up a rung or two on the ladder but couldn't quite do it as she posted a solid, but not improved, 3.790 - 324.67 clocking.

(LEFT) Another clean pass was in the cards for Clay Millican, but the scoreboard reading of 3.828 - 327.27 meant that he would start from the #13 position in the field.

(RIGHT) Quebec, Canada's Dan Mercier got a slight case of the "yips" at the starting line, double-stepping the throttle and leaving the line before the tree activated. The result was an NTR (no time recorded), as he remained in the #10 spot with his earlier 3.763 e.t.

(LEFT) Continuing the pattern of most of the racers before him in this session, Shawn Reed slowed from his earlier best of 3.755, stopping the timers with a respectable 3.837 - 322.04 as crew chief Rob Wendland worked at dialing in the car for eliminations.

(RIGHT) While he didn't run quicker than the 3.739 recorded earlier, Tony Schumacher did turn the quickest pass to this point in the session. A 3.777 - 325.06 lit up the scoreboards as he remained in the #8 qualifying position.

(LEFT) Running alongside his teammate and father (Billy Torrence - not shown), Steve Torrence nipped Schumacher's run as he set a new low e.t. and top speed of the final session with a very good 3.773 - 330.72 pass.

(RIGHT) And the hits just kept on coming, as part time runner Tripp Tatum pushed the "Capco clone" car to an even better e.t. than Torrence, with a 3.747 - 328.06 showing up on the timers. It was less than two hundredths slower than his #5 qualifying 3.729 from the 2nd qualifying session.

Closing out the session was #4 qualifier Antron Brown in the 45th anniversary Matco Tools wrapped dragster. He nipped Torrence for the second best run of the session, with a solid 3.771 - 320.66 pass.

70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park - Clermont, IN

The day started ominously with a several hour rain delay, but after some hard work by the Safety Safari, the track was brought into racing condition, and the fast cars started running. In fact, the entire day was devoted to PRO and Pro Sportsman racing. Our photographer missed the second qualifying session for Top Fuel but got to the track in time for the second go-round for the Funny Cars.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #2

With track and air conditions better than last night, as the adjusted altitude was down to 2800', air temp at 77 (F) and track temp at 94 (F), expectations for some great performances were almost certain to happen.

(LEFT) It didn't take long for the big numbers to start showing up, as Bob Tasca III really lit up the scoreboard with a brilliant 3.871 - 336.23 that vaulted over Blake Alexander's low e.t. of the first session (3.890), and put Tasca at the top of the list.

(RIGHT) Going in the other direction on his second attempt was Dale "Peanut" Creasy Jr., as he left hard, started heading for the right side wall, and shut off to a 9-second time.

(LEFT) A close look at the windshield of Chris King's Dodge Charger will show a big hole in it, courtesy of a blower explosion on the burnout. It appeared that someone left the throttle stop disconnected and when the rpm's went sky-high, the blower and windshield suffered.

(RIGHT) Following up her first session 3.987 pass with an even better 3.911 - 323.50 allowed Alexis DeJoria to pick up three spots from #8 to #5 in the qualifying order.

(LEFT) Making a full - or almost full - run this time was Ron Capps as he kept the chutes inside their packs most of the way to the finish line. He picked up nearly a tenth in e.t. with a 3.901 - 313.37 showing up on the scoreboards and moved up five positions to #5, bumping DeJoria back a notch.

(RIGHT) Not missing a beat after four years out of a race car, Jack Beckman ran well at his season debut in Brainerd, and continued that here with a strong 3.877 - 329.10 to move up to the #3 rung on the ladder.

Leading the field after the first qualifying session, Blake Alexander had fallen to #4 by the time he came to the starting line for his second pass. The car ran well for the first 500' but was mixing up cylinders and moving around, forcing him to shut down to a 4.262 - 212.36 result. This run was also the first round of the Mission 2Fast2Tasty Funny Car Challenge, which he lost to opponent Chad Green (not shown).

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #3

The air and track temps were up from the earlier session, with the track going up 25 degrees, from 94 to 119 (F), while the air only rose four degrees from 77 to 81 (F). Density altitude also rose nearly 300 ft to 3175 ft, but humidty dropped 4% to 77%. Good, but not great conditions for the fuel cars.

(LEFT) Coming into the session at the bottom of the list in the #20 spot, Josh Hart was feeling the pressure to produce on the big stage that is Indy. The Ron Douglas tuned entry did what it had to do, cranking out a solid 3.772 - 326.63 to grab the #12 spot on the ladder, bumping Doug Kalitta out of the field in the process.

(RIGHT) Safely qualified in the #11 spot, Billy "Captain Capco" Torrence didn't have much luck on this run, smoking the tires early and shutting off to a 5.236 - 187.18 result.

(LEFT) After making a great 3.707 pass in the earlier session, that lifted him all the way up to the #2 spot, Tony Stewart slowed down substantially in this go-round. He made a solid, but slower 3.793 - 327.98 pass to finish his day's work.

(RIGHT) Running in the final pair of the round, Justin Ashley was hoping to climb up the ladder from his #7 position. It wasn't to be though as he lost traction around the 600' mark and slowed to a 4.085 - 260.01 clocking. Besides being in the final pair of the session, Ashley won the Mission 2Fast2Tasty Challenge race over opponent Ida Zetterstrom (not shown). And that put a wrap on Top Fuel for the day, with two more chances to qualify or improve their positions tomorrow.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #3

As the afternoon went on, the track temperature kept climbing from 105 (F) in the previous session to 119 (F) when the 3rd qualifying session began.

(LEFT) After a good first session pass of 4.055 on Friday, Dale Creasy Jr. didn't run well in the earlier session today. He failed to improve on this attempt too, with the tires breaking loose just past the 330' mark, slowing him to a 6-second clocking as he remained in the #14 position on the ladder.

(RIGHT) Getting back to a consistently quick performance, Blake Alexander, laid down a very good 3.915 - 314.31 despite the blower belt breaking near the finish line in the Jim Head owned and tuned Mustang. That kept them in the #4 slot on the qualifying list.

(LEFT) Coming into the session on the bump spot, the Jim Dunn team, with Buddy Hull driving, picked up a few hundredths - but remained on the bubble - as a 4.093 - 313.51 flashed up on the scoreboard.

(RIGHT) Looking to repeat in the heat of the day, Matt Hagan nearly matched his earlier 3.918, good for #8 on the ladder, with a solid 3.951 - 326.32 timeslip.

(LEFT) Solidly in the field in the #7 spot, Alexis DeJoria was looking to repeat her earlier 3-second passes and did just that. She stopped the timers with a good for the conditions 3.969 - 322.96 pass that showed serious consistency in performance.

(RIGHT) Another racer that was looking to repeat his earlier best of 3.877, and stay in the #3 position on the qualifying sheet, was "Fast" Jack Beckman. He nearly matched that earlier effort with a great 3.895 - 327.74 that stood up as the best e.t. of the session.

(LEFT) Unable to move up on the qualifying list as he was already #1, Austin Prock nearly matched Beckman's low e.t. of the round, but fell just four thousandths short, with an excellent 3.899 - 328.46 that was the fastest speed of the session.

(RIGHT) Running in the final pair of the round, and simultaneously, the final round of the Mission 2Fast2Tasty Challenge, J.R. Todd was looking to take the challenge win and lay down a good number towards qualifying. He didn't improve on his earlier 3.918 best, but his 3.953 - 325.22 was consistent and quick enough to turn on the win light over opponent Chad Green (not shown).

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

With just three qualifying sessions, there wasn't a lot of time for teams to dial-in a good qualifying tuneup. Coming into the final round of qualifying, some of the heavy hitters were on the outside, and hoping to get into the field. Included among them were the defending Indy champion, Madison Payne, and #5 in the 2023 national standings, Jackie Fricke.

(LEFT) Down to the last chance to improve, Jared Dreher got off the bump spot with a big improvement from an earlier best of 5.584 to a good 5.355 - 270.81 to jump all the way up the charts to the #5 position in the field.

(RIGHT) With a very good earlier effort of 5.325 that placed her #3 on the ladder, Angelle Sampey stepped up all the way to the top spot with a very quick 5.280 - 274.89 to show that she could run with the best cars in the class.

Running in the final pair of the session, Canada's Shawn Cowie wanted to improve on his #7 placing, based on his earlier best e.t. of 5.352. He did just that, dropping into the 5.20's with a great 5.295 - 273.77 to move into the top quarter of the ladder, in the #3 position.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

With only 12 cars entered, everyone was qualified, but battling for position(s) was going to be the order of the day in the final qualifying session for the alky floppers.

(LEFT) Sitting at the bottom of the field with a "best" of 10.525, Annie Whiteley was determined to step up and she certainly did, pounding out a very good 5.560 - 264.18 to elevate her to the #4 spot in the field.

(RIGHT) Following his wife in the next pair was Jim Whiteley and he was in a similar situation to her, with a previous 8.957 leaving him at the bottom of the field as he moved into the stage beams. He launched hard but fought to keep the car going straight, pedaled it and finally got it under control to the tune of 5.895 - 249.90 to pick up one spot to #11 on the qualifying sheet.

(LEFT) Another of the heavy hitters having trouble in qualifying was Sean Bellemeur in the Bartone Bros. entry. He came into the final session in the #9 position with a 5.728 e.t. but quickly erased that mark with a good to move up to the #3 spot.

(RIGHT) Running slower than usual, the Swedish Leander Bros. team, with Ulf Leanders driving was looking to improve on his earlier 5.685 best. He did that, but his 5.648 - 260.41 was only quick enough to hang on to the #9 spot in the order.

Saving the very best for last, the Victoria, BC, Sipos & Davenport entry, with Stan Sipos driving, and legendary Les Davenport tuning, was sitting in the #8 position with a 5.589 best. He not only improved on that but he became the first car into the 5.40's with an excellent 5.493 - 266.58 to claim the top spot in the field. A great way to close qualifying for the Top Alcohol cars.

Here's the photos from Friday's action.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

The first really fast cars of the event made their first qualifying sessions, with the Funny Cars leading the way. Sadly there were only 12 cars in the field.

(LEFT) Making a strong statement with a very good 5.599 - 261.88 pass, Iowa's Chris Foster landed in the #2 spot at the end of the session.

(RIGHT) A familiar face on the national scene, Bob McCosh ran into some serious tire shake, forcing him to shut off and post a 7-second time.

Finishing the session, the "Killer B's" pirate ship, with Sean Bellemeur at the tiller, put down a decent run at 5.787 - 256.65. Decent in that he ran into tire shake, had to pedal, but still managed to get to the finish line as the 5th quickest car of the round.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #1

With 18 cars in the pits, and only 16 spots available in the field, there was at least a small amount of drama to see who was going to be racing in eliminations. As the cars rolled out of the staging lanes, the track temp was already at 125 (F) and corrected altitude reading over 3600 feet, not the best conditions for great performances.

(LEFT) First out of the lanes was the blower car of Brandon Greco, and he set the tone by laying down a good opening pass of 5.376 - 269.78.

(RIGHT) Less than a year into her driving career, Arizonan Shaundra Blinzler made a good opening pass of 5.452 - 269.19.

(LEFT) Not having a great start to his weekend, Maryland's Dan Dietrich in one of the five blown alcohol cars in the field, stuttered off the line and limped to a 19-second clocking.

(RIGHT) Coming all the way from the West Coast of Canada, perennial championship contender Shawn Cowie rattled the tires hard before the 330' mark and shut down to a 14-second clocking that left him outside the field at the end of the session.

(LEFT) One of the horde of A/Fuel cars in the field, the John Finke owned and tuned car of Jackie Fricke had no luck as the car lurched off the line in a haze of unburned fuel and idled down the track to a 12-second time.

(RIGHT) Having a better result was Pennsylvania's John Ausherman who didn't have a perfect run but managed to crank out a respectable 5.584 - 256.36 to grab the #10 spot on the ladder.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) After missing the last four races, Ryan Oehler shook off the rust with a decent 7.097 - 188.28 pass to take the #10 position on the qualifying list.

(RIGHT) Getting some last minute coaching from teammate Matt Smith, the Scrappers Racing rider, Jianna Evaristo, became the first in the session to break into the 6-second zone with a 6.939 e.t. and very fast 198.15 mph. The speed held up as the fastest of the session and the e.t. put her in the #4 rung on the ladder.

PRO STOCK - Qualifying Session #1

Our Pro Stock coverage is rather skimpy as the hard working photographer had to take a break from the oppressive heat and humidity. He did manage to capture veteran Larry Morgan launching on his way to a 6.733 - 205.85 pass that left him outside the qualified field in the #18 slot.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

As the sun dipped down and the lights came on, the staging lanes filled with Nitro Funny Cars, and their longer wheelbased brethren, Top Fuel Dragsters. As the flopper session commenced, the density altitude had dropped to 3300' and the air temp was down to 83 (F). And it would only get better as the session progressed.

(LEFT) Still working on the tuneup, the Chris King team made a huge leap forward with career best numbers of 4.079 - 302.21 on his first pass of the event. To put those numbers in perspective, his previous top speed was only 233 mph.

(RIGHT) Another team that's been working on their tuneup for the better part of two years, the Paul and Dave Richards car made a decent run to the 600' mark before shutting down to a 4.502 - 205.72 clocking.

(LEFT) Jumping to the top of the qualifying sheet with a great 3.901 - 325.53 run was Cruz Pedregon as he opened his account on a high note.

(RIGHT) Not quite matching some of the earlier runs, Paul Lee stopped the timers at 4.004 - 293.28. The numbers were a little less than expected, but he was off the throttle before the finish line.

(LEFT) Sporting a jungle themed "Jackal" wrap, Dan Wilkerson was a little slow early but finished strong with a 313.58 speed, coupled with a decent 4.026 elapsed time.

(RIGHT) Another new look was on the Ron Capps car, with their second annual Indy tribute to the legendary Don "The Snake" Prudhomme. Capps ran strong to the 800' mark before one of the chutes came out, slowing him to a 3.997 - 300.73 that placed him #8 on the list.

(LEFT) And the specialty wraps just kept coming as Matt Hagan had a total "Direct Connection" look on his car. Unfortunately it didn't run as good as it looked as he lost traction before the 660' timing blocks, causing him to lift and coast to a 4.837 - 164.59 that ultimately left him in the first alternate position at the end of the session.

(RIGHT) Closing out the session going side-by-side with points leader Austin Prock (not shown), Bob Tasca III ran strong until getting out of the throttle just past the 660' mark and coasting across the finish stripe with a 4.171 - 230.96 showing on the scoreboard.

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #1

There were 20 cars in the lanes and only 16 spots available for the eliminations field. While it was important to put down a good pass under the evening conditions, there were four more qualifying sessions over the next two days to make up for a lack of performance in this first session. After seeing some very good numbers from the Funny Cars, the dragster teams were looking for some very quick and fast runs.

(LEFT) Making only his third appearance of the season, and first since Norwalk in June, Tripp Tatum III" made some great numbers in the first 330' but lost traction just after that point and shut off to a 4.473 at 174.21 mph.

(RIGHT) With similar attendance figures as Tatum, T.J. Zizzo prepared to make a major impression on the Indy fans and did so until just before the finish line. He lost the blower belt shortly after the 660' mark and stopped the timers with a 3.902 at only 266.32 mph.

(LEFT) Three pairs later, Brittany Force dropped a bomb on the field, rocketing to the top of the ladder with a 3.740 - 334.32. To underline those numbers, she was running 292.39 mph at the 660' and 3.017 seconds at that point. Very strong numbers.

(RIGHT) In the next pair, Top Fuel "rookie" Tony Stewart made a good opening run at 3.839 - 319.52 that placed him #8 on the qualifying list.

Next up is Saturday's photo coverage - coming soon

70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park - Clermont, IN

We've only got - so far - photos from Thursday's sportsman qualifying, but we expect to receive a huge batch from yesterday's hot qualifying. And we mean HOT as in 90+ (F) temperatures and very challenging conditions for the racers, crews, spectators and media. Today it rained in the morning, and as of this writing (11:30 am EDT), track drying is still in progress. The tractors are prepping the traction and the grandstands are starting to fill up so racing should commence fairly soon.

SUPER STOCK ELIMINATOR - Qualifying Session #2

The gigantic 149-car field had to be whittled down to "only" 128 advancing to eliminations for what would be a marathon seven rounds of competition.

(LEFT) Doug Duell in his FSS/E 2015 Challenger claimed the #21 spot with a strong 9.009 pass that was slightly more than one second under his index.

(RIGHT) Gary Stinnett in his GT/KA 1990 Camaro landed much further down the list in the #101 position, courtesy of a 10.158 pass.

(LEFT) Bobby Rashid in his GT/GA 2005 Cavalier ended the session in the upper half of the field in the #48 spot after a 9.484 pass.

(RIGHT) Making the long trek down from Kennewick, WA was Larry McLanahan in his FSS/B 2019 Mustang, and he grabbed the #65 spot with a very quick 8.324 effort.

Closing out the session was Todd Frantz in his GT/GA 2005 Pontiac G5. He ran 9.017 and took the #61 spot on the ladder.

COMPETITION ELIMINATOR - Qualifying Session #1

With a giant 60-car field, Comp(licated) Eliminator was sure to see some fast and close racing from a very wide variety of cars.

(LEFT) Doug Engels in his D/DA Prostart chassis powered to a 7.454 (.546 under the index) to land in the #6 spot.

(RIGHT) Defending World Champion, and well known TV personality, Bruno Massel in his CC/AT 2010 Cobalt slotted into #9 on the ladder with a 7.038 that was .522 below the index.

(LEFT) Ohio's John Frech in the Weddle chassisied F/Dragster took the #27 spot with a 8.093 effort that was nearly half a second under his index.

(RIGHT) Cali Neff, from Colorado pushed J/DA dragster to a 7.773, good for the #16 position. The pass was .507 below the index.

(LEFT) Adam Hickey ran a strong 6.886 in his Spitzer chassied B/DA, nearly five tenths below the index and good for the #21 spot in the show.

(RIGHT) Closing out our Comp coverage, Jason Coan ran the G/Econo Altered '32 Bantam to an 8.253 that put him in the #19 spot.

Sox & Martin HEMI Challenge - Qualifying Session #2

With 22 cars in the field, comprised of 6 Darts and 16 Barracudas, the battle for "Hemi Supremacy" was sure to be intense.

(LEFT) Charlie Westcott, driving the "Karolina Kuda" qualified #6 with an 8.525 - 157.36

(RIGHT) Louisiana's Ben Kimberley grabbed the #19 spot in the 22-car field with a 9.055 - 146.45

(LEFT) South Carolina's Anthony Rhodes pushed the "Kandy Kuda" to an excellent 8.491 - 157.48 to slot into the #4 spot in the field.

(RIGHT) Not running as well was the Cleve Stewart entry, as he landed near the bottom of the list with an offpace 9.492 - 142.75 effort.

(LEFT) From Fraser, Michigan it's Jerry Kassin, driving his '68 Dart to a 8.826 - 149.85 to qualify #16.

(RIGHT) It's Bucky Hess in his "Psycho Kuda" qualified #3 at 8.463 - 156.81.

2nd annual East Coast Chaos - Maryland International Raceway - Budds Creek, MD

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations Round ONE - "A" Field

A total of 22 cars made at least one qualifying attempt, but there were two dropouts due to breakage, as Brian Cunningham mortally wounded the "Nor'Easter" he was driving, while Bruce Mullins also suffered irreparable mechanical damage. That resulted in the number 9 and 10 qualifiers being elevated to the "A" field. Those changes had a further result in tightening up the "B" field, now ranged from #11 Paul Conlon, who ran 4.175, down to #18 Delbert White Sr., in at 4.353. That gave the "B" group an e.t. spread of less than two tenths of a second, and a 4.02 index. A small "C" field was created with the bottom four racers running on a 4.23 index.

(LEFT) First out of the lanes was Cody Helger in the "Dazed & Confused" '69 Camaro.

(RIGHT) His opponent in the opening stanza was Virginia's Matt Stambaugh in the '74 Vega-bodied "Generation X".

It was Stambaugh (near lane) leaving first and getting to the finish line first, but he left an -.055 red light glowing at the starting line. That negated his very good 4.062 - 174.98 pass. Running well in the far lane was Helger and he advanced with a strong 4.131 - 175.73 effort.

(LEFT) Executing a hard burnout in her gorgeous '21 Camaro, was NHRA Top Alcohol racer Melinda Green-King, running under the "MGK Motorsports" banner.

(RIGHT) Leaving first with a solid .131 to .195 reaction time advantage, Green-King blasted out her best run of the weekend at 3.776 - 199.94 to easily handle the otherwise very good, but late, 4.032 - 192.36 from the blown fuel '79 Mustang-bodied "Pandemic" of Michael Tabacco.

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations Round ONE - "B" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations Semi-Finals - "A" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations Semi-Finals - "B" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations Semi-Finals - "C" Field

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations FINAL Round - "C" Field

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations FINAL Round - "B" Field

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Eliminations FINAL Round - "A" Field

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2nd annual East Coast Chaos - Maryland International Raceway - Budds Creek, MD

We've got all three qualifying sessions posted, two from Friday night, and the final session earlier today. We're still waiting to see the photos from eliminations, which should arrive sometime tomorrow... if we're lucky. Captions and details for qualifying will be posted tomorrow and we hope to have the complete eliminations coverage done by Monday. As always: stay tuned!

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #1

Without any video sources this season, we don't have access to the run sheets for the qualifying sessions, and can only see the best e.t.'s and speeds for the first two sessions combined.

(LEFT) The sharp looking Buick-bodied "War Path" entry of New Jersey's John Cerchio (near lane) posted a 4.675 - 158.73 that left him in the #20 position on Friday. In the far lane, Wade King in the '55 Chevy "Big Girl" tribute to the fighter planes of WWII, stopped the timers with a better 4.348 - 164.49 to sit just outside of the "B" field in the 17th position on the list.

(RIGHT) Making a solo pass in the '71 Firebird "Dixie Bandit" was North Carolina's Alfred Karlowitsch. He slotted solidly into the middle of the "B" field with a very good 4.195 - 175.71 best on Friday.

(LEFT) Making the long tow to the East Coast from his Oklahoma base, Jordan Ballew made his 53rd consecutive FCC event in the ultra-familiar "Ballew Thunder" entry. He didn't lay down his most competitive pass with a 4.465 - 158.46 coming up on the scoreboards, leaving him in the "C" field. In case you're wondering, the 53 events that he's attended are every one that Funny Car Chaos has run.

(RIGHT) A pair of hitters came out next, with the nitro-burning "Pandemic" '79 Mustang of Michael Tabacco (near lane), facing NHRA Top Alcohol racer Bill Naves in his very colourful late model Mustang-bodied "Shooting Star". They both made the "A" field, with Tabacco in the #7 spot at 4.060 - 183.17, while Naves was one notch higher with a slightly quicker 4.046 - 180.38 clocking.

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #2

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Qualifying Session #3 - FINAL

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2nd annual East Coast Chaos - Maryland International Raceway - Budds Creek, MD

Running far from their home base in the south central part of the country, the FUNNY CAR CHAOS crew invades the East Coast for a special exhibition race. No championship points are being offered but at least a few of the regular contestants, and many, many seldom seen East Coast and Central racers will be on hand for a special race. Our formerly East Coast-based (Long Island, NY) photographer, BIG Bob Snyder will be on hand to capture all the action on his newest Nikon cameras. While there isn't any FLOracing video coverage of the FCC events this year, Snyder's photos will be enough to capture the flavour of this special event.

70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals - Lucas Oil Raceway Park - Indianapolis, IN

Earlier today it was confirmed that our dedicated Colorado correspondent, Dale "Dime Store Shutterbug" Fackler, has been granted a photo credential for the running of the 70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Indianapolis, IN. It's the annual six-day extravaganza of drag racing with over 1000 racers competing for more than $1,000,000 of prize money from August 28th to Sepotember 2nd. It's as much an endurance test as it is a performance test, with only the strongest and fittest surviving to the end of the event. That goes not just for the racers, but for the crews, the media, and the spectators. We wish everyone the best of luck, the best of health, and a safe to, from, and down the track.

59th annual Twisted Shifterz Labor Day Weekend Classic - Mo-Kan Dragway - Asbury, MO

Completing our triumvirate of events, is the championship finals of the FUNNY CAR CHAOS season at Smokin' M0-Kan Dragway in Asbury, MO. As long as our "Road Warrior Extraordinaire", aka BIG Bob Snyder, can recover from his weekend at Budds Creek, MD, we'll have tons of photos and details from the championship finals of the FCC season. There's currently 35 cars on the pre-entry list, and FOUR 8-car fields scheduled to run, so it's going to be quite a race. The top five racers in the points standings all have a serious shot at the championship crown, but everyone in the final Top Ten standings will go home with some bonus money. There's lots of bonus shows on offer with the Dirty South Gassers, the ever-popular Jet Dragsters, live music, BBQ parties, and much more to entertain the fans over the weekend.

42nd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals - Brainered, MN

This week the NHRA travelling acceleration show moves to the north central part of the country, to Brainerd International Raceway for the penultimate event of the 2024 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series "regular" season. It will be a full show in almost every NHRA national event category, with three of the four PRO classes running, both Top Alcohol classes, nine sportsman categories, and the Mountain Motor Pro Stock class. In the professional categories the fight to gain a berth in the Countdown to the Championship is getting down to the wire, with just the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals remaining on the schedule before the six-race countdown, or "playoff" season commences.

In the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, the battle for national championships in the Top Alcohol categories are growing intense, clearly evidenced by the number of contenders entered for the Brainerd event. Eight of the Top Ten in Funny Car, and seven of the Top Ten in Alcohol Dragster will be fighting it out for the points lead. With six national, and seven regional events remaining on the schedule after Brainerd, the chances to make up ground on the leaders will become fewer as each week passes until the season ending In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals wraps it all up in mid-November.

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

We're still working on our much-delayed coverage of the Northwest Nationals, but we've made a little bit of progress today by posting some Top Sportsman action from Saturday. You can check it out at NHRA Northwest Nationals. Tomorrow we will continue working on the Seattle report, and fill in more of the details from last week's Funny Car Chaos event at Albuquerque.

61st Anniversary Event - FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Albuquerque

After just two qualifying sessions, the first on Friday evening, and the second on Saturday afternoon, the 24 racers that qualified in the three fields prepared to do battle, starting at 5:00 pm. Of the 27 cars that attempted to qualify, it appears that only 22 were able to appear for eliminations, as two of the three non-qualifiers were unable to appear. The first alternate, Dustin Bradford, did slot into the "A" field to replace Ray Stringer. Additionally, two of the "C" field qualifiers, Jade Cook and Phil Flower were unable to make the call for round one.

The top three qualifiers laid down 3-second runs, but below them the e.t.'s trailed off quickly, with the bump spot for the "A" field ending up at a rather weak 4.451. In the "B" field, the numbers ranged from #1 at 4.455 to #8 at 4.725, which worked out to a 4.30 index, while the "C" field qualifiers ran from 4.746 all the way down to 4.994. That generated a 4.59 index for the "C" group. As many of the cars in both the "B" and "C" fields were capable to running quicker than their indexes, the chances for breakout losses were rated high.

Eliminations - Round ONE Eliminations

(LEFT) As is customary before the start of any motorsport event, the playing of the "Star Spangled Banner", accompanied by a military honour guard preceeded eliminations.

(RIGHT) As the last few notes of the anthem faded, they were replaced by the sweet sounds of the blown fuel car of New Mexico's Lyle Greenberg (not shown), as he kicked off round one against Colorado's Bill Bernard. The race was over for Bernard before it began as he redlighted by nearly two tenths, making Greenberg's solid 4.026 - 185.03 the automatic winner. Bernard ran strong to the 330' mark before clicking it off to a 4.620 at 122.02 mph.

(LEFT) Action continued with Clay Cunningham in the "Still Crazy" car (near lane), facing the heavily favoured "Man O' War II" of Shayne Lawson in the far lane. Knowing that he needed to close the three tenths+ performance gap, Cunningham pushed just a little too hard on reaction time, redlighting by just two thousandths of a second, and turning on the winlight for Lawson. Cunningham made his best run of the weekend, at 4.235 - 173.54, but it was all for naught as Lawson's 3.970 - 195.40 advanced him to the semifinals.

(RIGHT) An absolute David vs Goliath match was next on the agenda, as #1 qualifier Kirk Williams (far lane) faced the first alternate (#25 on the qualifying list), Dustin Bradford in the "American Dream" Dodge Challenger. Williams' scheduled opponent was Ray Stringer but the blown fuel Chevy broke during qualifying and was unable to appear. Bradford is almost out of the frame in this burnout shot, then broke on the launch, coming to a stop just past the starting line. Williams whipped the "200 Proof" entry to an excellent 3.891 - 193.80 for the win.

(LEFT) Bradford's broken car was towed back to the pits before the final pair of the first round of the "A" field fired up.

(RIGHT) In the near lane, the defending series champion, Tom Furches in his "Made In America" Corvette made a solid pass at 4.210 - 172.88 and cut a very good reaction time of .032, but it wasn't enough to hold off Alan Bradshaw in the far lane. The "Unfinished Business" nitro burning entry left eight hundredths behind Furches, but took the win with a very good 4.048 - 185.41 as he moved into the second round.

(LEFT) Moving into the "B" field, the first pair out were Justin Herbst in his short wheelbase "Scorpion" in the near lane. In the far lane was Mitch Bowen in the higher qualified "Bowen & Monn" entry. Herbst left first by a full tenth, but his 4.646 - 152.18 wasn't quite able to hold off Bowen's later reacting, but quicker, pass of 4.532 - 161.70. The margin of victory was just .015 of a second.

(RIGHT) Another short wheelbase entry, the "Hombre" Vega of Texan Mike Buchanan (near lane), faced the nitro burning "Twisted Sister" of Colin Thomas in the far lane. Buchanan pushed the tree a little too hard, igniting the red bulb by just four thousandths of a second. Buchanan drove it all the way to the finish line with a 4.853 - 149.45 showing up on the scoreboard, while Thomas enjoyed the automatic win with a decent winning time of 4.524 - 155.23 to move into the second round.

(LEFT) The supercharged "Thunderhorse" of Darrin Hamby in the near lane faced fellow Arizonan Sheldon Lofgreen in his turbocharged "Arizona Thunder" in the far lane. Hamby launched first by half a tenth, but Lofgreen pulled away to a solid win with a close to the index 4.349 167.72 that covered Hamby's 4.635 - 152.65 effort.

(RIGHT) It looks like a close race off the starting line, but the "Brutus" Mustang of Chris Schneider, in the near lane, actually redlighted by .027, making Brent Jones in his "Lawless" entry the winner. Jones made a strong run of 4.397 - 161.87, while Schneider trailed him across the finish line by only a car length with a 4.510 - 161.41 clocking.

(LEFT) Leading off the "C" field was Michael Neal in the "Burnin' Love" Nova. He took the winlight on a bye run, as his opponent, Jade Cook, was unable to fire. Neal didn't exactly rotate the earth on his winning 4.902 - 140.76 pass, but it was more than enough to move into the second round.

(RIGHT) It looks like Shane "Smokey" Blanton was also on a bye run in the "Joker", but his opponent, Scott Pareso in the "Texas Twister" actually left before the tree was activated. Blanton sat at the line for a second before launching to a very early shutoff, but winning time of 5.086 at only 65.92 mph.

(LEFT) Another pair, another redlight, as Chance Biffle, (near lane) in the "Bad Intentions" car, redlighted by .021 as opponent Jordan Ballew sat broken at the starting line. The "Ballew Thunder" recorded a 22-second reaction time but barely broke the beams before stopping. Biffle threw away a 4.809 - 147.93 with his redlight as Ballew advanced to the semifinal.

(RIGHT) The round closed with yet another uncontested run, as Wayne Hofmann's opponent, Phil Flower failed to appear, giving him the (almost) automatic win. Hofmann pushed the "China Syndrome" to a lower than the index 4.523 - 159.24 but that was still good for the win as the breakout rule does not apply on a bye run.

FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Round TWO Eliminations

(LEFT) The semifinal round started with two of the "hitters" facing off, with both qualifying in the 3-second zone. Lyle Greenberg (near lane) was more than a tenth slower than Kirk Williams (far lane) in the first round, but Greenberg laid down a great 3.989 - 188.84 to take out the Williams brothers entry, as Kirk lost traction early and coasted to a 6.800 - 70.58 losing time.

(RIGHT) You can see the initial lead that Williams (far lane) took over Greenberg (near lane) with an .051 reaction time to Greenberg's later .111 leave.

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FUNNY CAR CHAOS - FINAL Round Eliminations

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August 2, 1950 to August 2, 2024

Today is my 74th birthday so I'm taking the next few days off to celebrate. We'll be back at it on Monday and hope to have everything completed from the Albuquerque and Seattle races before the end of the week.

61st Anniversary Event - FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Albuquerque

Qualifying Session #2 (FINAL)

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Next to be posted are the photos from eliminations!

61st Anniversary Event - FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Albuquerque

Qualifying Session #1

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61st Anniversary Event - FUNNY CAR CHAOS - Albuquerque

Aside from the qualifying order, we only have the bare details of who won and runner-upped in the Albuquerque FCC event. We've got the finals photos posted below and we've also received some shots from the Friday night qualifying session, courtesy of Dale Fackler. There were only two sessions before eliminations started on Saturday evening, due to a rainout of the second session on Friday. The abbreviated qualifying hurt a few of the racers, as regulars Chuck Loftin, Casey Geeslin, and Dustin Bradford all failed to make the final cut.

We expect to see a larger batch of photos from Bob Snyder tomorrow, and sometime later in the week, we'll get the details on eliminations from Funny Car Chaos. Our full report on the event will be done by the end of the week, and of course, we're still working on last week's NHRA Northwest Nationals coverage. There just never seems to be enough time to get things done here.

"C" Field Final

Working through the finals, starting with the "C" field, we've got Michael Neal in his family's "Burnin' Love" Nova in the near lane, while his opponent, second generation funny car racer Wayne Hofmann, was in the "China Syndrome" / Western Auto Avenger, occupying the far lane. Neal started from near the bottom of the field in the #23 spot, while Hofmann was up near the top of the "C" group in the #18 slot. The photo shows them leaving the line close together, but it was Hofmann turning on the winlight and grabbing the winner's points. He came into the event in 3rd place in the standings, just 17 points behind leader Kirk Williams, and the win might have elevated him to the top spot in the standings.

"B" Field Final

We can only see one car in the picture, the "Arizona Thunder" of Sheldon Lofgreen, but he wasn't the winner of the "B" field. He'd "rolled the lights" (overstaged) and lost on the automatic redlight. Taking advantage of Lofgreen's mistake was Brent Jones in the "Lawless" entry for his first win in the Funny Car Chaos series.

"A" Field Final

In the big "A" field final, it was New Mexico's own Lyle Greenberg in the familiar "Cone Hunter" Corvette in the near lane, taking on Shayne Lawson in the "Man O' War II" Mustang (far lane). Falling victim to overstaging as in the "B" final, Greenberg threw away his chances, and made Lawson the winner of the event. Coming into the race in 7th place in the standings, Lawson most likely moved up two or even three spots with the victory. As he was only 35 points out of first place coming into the event, he should be in a very good position to challenge for the season championship in the final race of the year at Asbury, Mo's Mo-Kan Dragway at the end of August.

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

Our report(s) on the Northwest Nationals may be turning into a never-ending saga as the days drag by and the progress on our coverage has slowed to a trickle as we deal with everything but drag racing. But we are making progress and to keep this page from becoming a fragmented jumble of photos, captions and stories, we're posting everything in the features section of the website. You can access it directly by going to NHRA Northwest Nationals. We've only scratched the surface of the heap of photos from the event, but we will be adding to the report day by day over the next week.... or so.

While the NHRA travelling roadshow heads south to Sonoma, CA for this coming weekend's DENSO NHRA Sonmoma Nationals, our team of photographers, Bob Snyder and Dale Fackler are heading east and south, respectively, to the Funny Car Chaos event at Albuquerque Dragway. It's billed as the 61st anniversary Special Event, and there are currently 28 cars on the FCC Official Pre-Entry List. It's going to be one hot weekend with some even hotter on-track action at the New Mexico mecca of drag racing. Our coverage of that event will begin on Saturday and should be complete early next week.

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

Sunday started sunny and warm but it didn't take long for the clouds to roll in and bring down the temperature from the previous two days of qualifying. With the first round of eliminations scheduled for 10:30, starting with Top Fuel, it was looking like there could be some very quick and fast performances in store. Having run the second session of qualifying on Friday evening, the crew chiefs had some similar track and air temp data to build a tuneup for the morning. However, if the clouds moved away and the sun came out in force for the later rounds, everything could change on a round by round basis.

As the pre-race ceremonies wrapped up and the cars started filling the staging lanes, I made the idle comment that it was reminding me of the late, and mostly unlamented, FallNationals that ran at this track from 1975 to 1980. Held in mid-September it always seemed to coincide with the start of the rainy season in the Pacific Northwest. I can remember looking out motel room windows in Kent or Auburn or Federal Way so many times to see the rain coming down, or on a few brief occasions, the sun shining. Thankfully, the switch to a late July date has proven a wise choice for the NHRA schedule makers.

However, my musing about past events might have triggered the on-and-off-and-on again precipitation that plagued the first four hours of eliminations. It never rained heavily enough to bring out the track drying equipment, but the race teams spent an inordinate amount of time putting the covers on the cars, taking them off, then back on again in a seemingly never ending dance with mature nature's whimsical ideas for the day. By the end of the second round of pro eliminations the racing got going in earnest, but unfortunately for this hard working Northern Thunder correspondent, the clock dictated our departure from the track in order to catch the last ferry home to Vancouver Island.

We will be posting photos from the event throughout the week, and probably into next week, but we'll keep updating our progress on this page each day. As always: stay tuned!

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

10:00 am UPDATE

It's day two of the 2024 NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. Another beautiful, albeit very warm, day is on tap for the racers and the thousands of avid drag racing fans. For the sportsman racers, who completed qualifying yesterday, it's a day of mixed emotions, as the win-lights bring either disappointment or elation as their early rounds of eliminations play out.

For the Top Alcohol cars, there's one final qualifying session, scheduled for high noon, but without the drama that could be associated with it as both fields are well short of capacity. However, fighting for the top spot(s) that bring the bonus of a bye run in the first round of eliminations could make for some interesting and entertaining performances in that final session.

Friday night's second qualifying session for the PRO cars saw some great performances, starting with Pro Stock bikes and cars. Almost everyone improved and the fields tightened considerably, with only one non-qualified racer (Joey Grose - Pro Stock) in the four classes. Neither nitro class was full, with 14 dragsters and 15 funny cars, while the bikes were shorter still with just 12 entries.

The much promoted Musco liighting did light up the track considerably, but unfortunately it didn't really help the photographers, with only very narrow windows of usable illumination for them. Or at least for the Northern Thunder staff photo-journalist. Tune into this page this evening to see what we were able to salvage from the night session. The grandstands weren't all full, specifically the very large stand on the tower side, but overall, it was one of the larger crowds seen at Pacific Raceways in quite a while.

By the time the bikes and cars finished their session and the track was prepped for the nitro burners, the track was in full darkness but the extra lighting took full effect and made for great viewing for the spectators. The fuel session led off with Funny Car and with the track temp cooled down to 100 (F), everyone was looking for some big jumps in performance and the low e.t. of the first session (3.97) to be eclipsed very quickly.

It didn't happen until the fifth car down the track, Paul Lee, who pounded out a very competitive 3.917 - 327.03 to jump to the top of the field. Unfortunately for Lee, everyone knew that number would be erased well before the end of the evening. But it didn't happen that quickly, as the next two pairs, which included some of the heavy hitters, failed to break into the 3-second zone.

Finally, the performance dam broke with a side-by-side 3-second race between Ron Capps and J.R. Todd with Capps' 3.886 - 331.53 taking the top spot, at least temporarily, as the final pair awaited their chance to shine. And shine he did, as Austin Prock did what has happened so many times over the years with the "Prock Rocket", whipping it to a brilliant 3.838 - 328.62 to put a large exclamation point on the #1 qualifying spot.

As the air and track temps continued to drop, expectations for what the Top Fuel cars could crank out were running high. The session didn't start that way though, as local "hard trier" Ron Smith made an on-and-off-and-on again pass that finally stopped the clocks just past the 5-second mark. Then things got much quicker as Tony Stewart wiped out the low e.t. (3.804) from the first session, breaking into the 3.70's with a strong 3.778 - 319.90 and moved to the top of the field.

That great run was followed by the next pair running side-by-side 7-second passes, but the pair after that pumped up the volume in a big way, with Jasmine Salinas and Shawn Reed running nearly identical 3.73's. Salinas also set a career best speed of 332.43 and took the #1 spot away from Stewart. At least until the next pair crossed the finish line.

It actually took two pairs for that to happen as Justin Ashley broke into the 3.60's with a new low e.t. of 3.694 - 331.04 to grab the top rung on the ladder, while Doug Kalitta, running alongside him, was very close with a 3.710 for the #2 position. Just two pairs remained to run, and the first of those pairs saw Steve Torrence trump Ashley's effort with an even better 3.688 at a new track record speed of 335.32. His e.t. was just three thousandths slower than the e.t. record set by Antron Brown six years ago.

Almost lost in the excitement of Torrence's great run was Brittany Force's otherwise excellent 3.701 - 333.08 that slotted her into #3 on the list. That brought up the final pair of the evening, the two quickest cars of the first session, and while they ran well with both drivers, Josh Hart and Antron Brown running 3.74's, they ended up 7th and 8th respectively.

And that was a wrap on the first day of the 2024 edition of the NHRA Northwest Nationals. All that remained was for the very large crowd to make their way out of the facility and prepare to come back for another day of drag racing at this storied facility. Despite the best efforts of local law enforcement and track workers, it was quite an ordeal traversing the exit lanes to Highway 18.

12:00 noon UPDATE

We had a bit of free time, 30 minutes worth, courtesy of a Super Gas oildown, so we took advantage of the down time to trek on over to the Top Alcohol pits and have a quick chat with Shawn Cowie. He confirmed that his seven-year tuning partnership with Norm Grimes ended at the start of this season on very amicable terms. They are still in regular contact, with Shawn asking Norm questions, and buying specialty parts from him, but Shawn is now ultimately responsible for all the tuning decisions on the car, with input from Nik (Duperon) and Tom.

The Mundie's Towing & Recovery team has been very competitive this year and will take over the top spot in the national standings at this race from Mike Coughlin, who is idle this weekend. As they prepare for the final qualifying session in an hour's time, and first round of eliminations in the late afternoon, the Cowie team is in the #1 position by a substantial margin.

As for the future, Shawn outlined his schedule for the balance of the season, with the only real question being: would he run at Reading or Charlotte? Since the air and track conditions at Reading are superior, he chose the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals. Following the Pennsylvania race it's on to Dallas (FallNationals), Las Vegas (Nevada Nationals) and Pomona (In-n-Out Burger Finals) to finish out the season, with a "tuneup" weekend at the Phoenix regional thrown in for good measure.

When asked about his future plans in the class, he unequivocally ruled out switching to A/Fuel, and said "I'd quit before I ran that combination". Looking at the Super Comp dragster of son James beside the big hot rod, he said they were just taking it one step at a time and not rushing to put him in an alcohol car. Whether that car would be a team car to Shawn's or taking over the driving chores of the alky dragster remains to be seen.

1:00 pm UPDATE

Right on schedule, despite an oildown from a Super Gas car, the Top Alcohol cars came up with the dragsters first, followed by the funny cars. It wasn't exactly an auspicious start as the first pair of A/Fuel cars didn’t do anything to write home about. Mike Quayle wasn't able to engage reverse after his burnout, was forced to shut off, then be pushed back behind the starting line. Running on a solo, Mitch Myers dropped a cylinder on the launch and blubbered his way to a 5.72, to lock himself into the #10 spot on the ladder, while Quayle sat at the bottom of the field in the 11th position.

Next up were Kim Parker and Mike Austin and they entertained the fans with a good side-by-side matchup, with Austin getting there first, 5.383 - 266.00 to Parker's close 5.436 - 261.02. The result left both drivers where they were, Parker in #8 and Austin 9th. An all A/Fuel pairing was next but it was some good: Casey Grisel with one of his quickest runs of the season at 5.316 - 276.18, and some bad: as Garrett Bateman smoked the tires early and failed to improve on his #4 qualifying spot.

More A/Fuel cars next, which wasn't surprising because 8 out of the 11 cars in the field were burning nitro. It featured the two best runs of the session - so far - with Trevor Larkin setting another career best for the third time in three runs, this time clocking 5.261 - 273.94, while Jackie Fricke improved on her earlier best, by one thousandth of a second, to a 5.281 - 273.55. Both drivers remained in their respective positions: Larkin #2 and Fricke #5.

The final pair of the round was an all blown alcohol affair with #1 qualifier Shawn Cowie facing #3 Jon Bradford. Both drivers fell off from their Friday best numbers, with Cowie still in the 5.20's at 5.276 - 276.75 - second quickest of the session - but still fastest. Bradford, on the other hand, gave up the chase early and slowed to a 5.432 at only 224.02 mph.

Notable by his absence from this final qualifying session was Joey Severance who put some serious smoke out of the pipes at the conclusion of his second run yesterday. There's no word if the damage was terminal, and we can only assume they wanted to be sure they had the parts to be competitive in eliminations. Skipping the session only cost them one position as Grisel eased past them and dropped them to #7 on the ladder.

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

12:30 PM UPDATE:

Looks like I should have read the schedule a little closer and seen that Top Alcohol wouldn’t be coming out at 12:30 - or any time close to that - as we’re just getting ready to start the 2nd time trial for Super Street after a bit of cleanup of the first pair of Comp eliminator cars. It will be at least 2:00 before the blown alky and injected nitro cars get to do their thing. In case you're wondering, yes, the air is getting worse by the minute as the sun is at it's zenith.

Go Canada! After the first round of Top Sportsman qualifying, Canadian cars were occupying three of the top six spots on the list. Topping them all was Alberta's Will Yakimetz with a very quick and fast 6.621 - 213.23 to hold down low e.t. by a tenth and top speed by six miles per hour. In a 22-car field, that’s a good grouping as they prepare for eliminations. With only more qualifying session early this evening before eliminations start tomorrow morning, it's a good start for the "Great White North" brigade.

3:30 PM UPDATE:

The first session of Top Alcohol qualifying came to a close with a whimper, not a bang, as the two highest rated cars in the field were in trouble almost instantly after they launched. Up until that point there had been a good mix of solid runs, a career best (Trevor Larkin), interspersed with tire shake and/or smoke and early shutoff runs. Thankfully, nobody deposited any parts or oil on the track and only a few cars exhibited signs of serious damage as they crossed the finish line.

The Funny Cars came out first and Mike Doushgounian got things going on a single run but he shook early, started skating around and clicked it to a 15-second clocking. The first pair saw side-by-side 5.5 times, with Stan Sipos stopping the timers first with a very good 5.501 - 265.64, after a wheels up launch, while Bret Williamson trailed only slightly with a solid 5.558 - 261.42 time.

(LEFT) Stan Sipos (RIGHT) Ray Martin

The next pair wasn't even close as Ray Martin shook, spun and pedalled before throwing in the towel with a 9-second pass. In the other lane, Annie Whiteley dropped into the 5.40's with a brilliant 5.469 - 269.67 at nearly 270 mph to grab the top spot away from Sipos. The session ended with a highly anticipated match between Brian Hough and Madison Gordon. Gordon headed for the centreline on the top end, and clicked it to a 6.02, while Hough kept the hammer down to a good 5.553 - 266.95 to take the #3 spot on the ladder.

Brian Hough (near lane) vs Madison Gordon (far lane)

Switching to the dragsters, with another odd-sized (11-car) field, Mike Quayle brought out his Alberta-based A/Fuel car and launched hard but lost traction before the 330 ft mark and shut off to 9-something. The first pairing of the session was a blown versus injected match, with newcomer Jon Bradford in the Bob Button EFI car, making his national event debut. After running so well last week at Woodburn, with low 5.30's, he lost traction and shut off to a 5.843 - 226.67 as Trevor Larkin in Eric Chesleigh's A/FD took the top spot with a career best 5.312 - 267.53 pass.

(LEFT) Mike Quayle (RIGHT) Jon Bradford

Two A/Fuelers lined up next, and the beautifully wrapped Copeland Motorsports entry, driven by Kim Parker went up in smoke instantly and shut off. In the other lane, Mitch Myers ran well with a flashing up on the scoreboard. The second to last pair of the session saw another alcohol versus nitro match with both cars making good passes. Garrett Bateman in the Rick Henkelman owned and tuned car took over the #2 spot with a very good 5.382 - 273.61 (top speed so far), while Austin wasn’t far behind with a solid 5.439 - 265.72 pass.

(LEFT) Mitch Myers (near lane) vs Kim Parker (far lane) (RIGHT) Mike Austin (near lane) vs Garrett Bateman (far lane)

Another alky vs nitro battle ensued, with Joey Severance, sporting a new look with a full J& A Services wrap, went up against the familiar green Darien & Grisel machine. Grisel went into instant tire smoke, while Severance made a strong run that ended with a lot of smoke out of the pipes at the finish line, but still clocked in at 5.358 - 268.92, good for at least a temporary hold on the #2 spot on the ladder.

(LEFT) Joe Severance Sr. leaning against the tire (RIGHT) Joey Severance burning out

The final pair of the session did their pre-race routine, and were preparing to stage when they were shut off due to an unexplained "off-track situation". They both elected to return to the pits, cool down, refuel, adjust the clutch and come back after the Junior Dragsters and Jet Funny Cars had run. Unfortunately, the highly anticipated match went sour almost immediately, with instant tire smoke for Jackie Fricke in the John Finke New Jersey-based A/FD, while Shawn Cowie shook, pedalled, shook some more and finally gave up to an 8-second time. And that was a wrap on the first of three qualifying sessions for Top Alcohol.

Shawn Cowie (near lane) vs Jackie Fricke (far lane)

7:00 PM UPDATE:

We've finished the first round of PRO qualifying and the second go-round for the Top Alcohol cars. While the first five (alky) Funny Cars had trouble negotiating the hot tricky surface, the final pair showed that there was nothing wrong with the track. Leading the way was Annie Whiteley who improved on her great earlier timeslip with an even better 5.465 - 270.05. Nearly matching her wheel to wheel was Stan Sipos who dropped into the 5.40's with a 5.487 - 267.37 to solidify his hold on the #2 spot on the ladder.

The dragsters that didn't run well in the first session seriously picked up the pace in the second. First out of the lanes was Kim Parker who jumped into the #2 spot with a very good 5.347 - 268.92 to vault into #2 on the list. The first pair, both A/Fuel cars, made great side-by-side passes, with Casey Grisel bumping Parker down one spot as he ran 5.336 - 269.78. Leading Grisel at half track was Mike Quayle before he dropped a cylinder and slowed to a still good 5.410 - 243.24 as he picked up two spots.

The next pair were both disappointed with their first passes but more than made up for it in the second, with Shawn Cowie blitzing the timers with new low e.t. and top speed marks at 5.203 - 279.73, while Jackie Fricke wasn't far behind with an excellent 5.282 - 276.13 that took over the #2 spot, behind Cowie's top qualifying effort.

And the hits just kept coming as the last three pairs of the round produced three runs in the 5.20's, two in the 5.30's, and the slowest run of the round was Mitch Myers decent 5.455 - 268.17. The first of the three pairs featured side-by-side 5.2 runs, with Jon Bradford bumping Fricke out of her #2 spot with career bests of 5.268 - 269.78. Just a couple of ticks behind at 5.270 - 274.00 was Garrett Bateman who inherited the #3 spot.

The next pair were both blown alcohol cars and both improved their positions by two spots, but Joey Severance couldn't be totally happy with his 5.320 - 269.35 as he was still not where he wanted to be on the tuneup. Mike Austin, on the other hand, had to be reasonably happy with his 5.376 - 267.91 pass. Closing out the session in a big way was Trevor Larkin who re-set his personal bests for the second time in one day, knocking half a tenth off his previous best with a great 5.265 - 269.83 to get back near the top of the heap in the #2 slot.

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

Compared to past years there isn't a lot of Canadian racers entered in the Northwest Nationals. In the sportsman ranks (comp and lower), there's 11 racers from BC, 11 from Alberta and one from Saskatachewan. In the Pro Sportsman classes, there's a Top Alcohol Dragster from BC, and one from Alberta. In Top Alcohol Funny Car there's one Canadian racer, from Victoria, BC. In Pro Stock there is a Canadian entry, as rookie Siena Wildgust has rejoined the tour in one of the Elite Motorsports cars. And Eric Latino, who was listed as living in Port Perry, Ontario until recently is quickly making a name for himself in Pro Stock too.

There's a Canadian racer in the winner's circle on a regular basis, usually in one of the Super Classes, or Super Stock or Stock. But winning in the higher classes is a rarity, even with some very competitive Top Alcohol teams coming out of Canada. This year’s best bet to be on the podium has to be perennial contender Shawn Cowie from Surrey, BC. He’s currently second in the national points standings with a very good chance to take over the top spot this weekend.

His major obstacle to winning the event could be Jackie Fricke, who's in the Top Ten, but there's some very quick Northwest racers, like five-time national champion Joey Severance, and the injected nitro entries of Garrett Bateman and Kim Parker, both of whom have run in the 5-teens under the right conditions. In the 11-car field, just three racers are using the supercharged methanol option, Cowie, Severance and newcomer Jon Bradford from Arizona.

In the Alcohol Funny Car category, Stan Sipos has been competitive, but not dominating in his return to racing after a 32-year absence. With top notch equipment and noted alcohol guru Les Davenport tuning, his return to a national event winner's circle could happen before the end of the season. Unfortunately it probably won't be this weekend.

He might have a shot at winning this weekend with only seven cars entered, but he's got some very tough competition in Madison Gordon who has picked up right where her father Doug left off when he retired at the end of last season. There's two other Top Ten racers, Brian Hough and Ray Martin who will be tough to beat. Even though the field is small, there are some very quick cars entered and eliminations could see some very close racing.

We haven't got time to look at the Professional categories in this update, but there will be lots of news from them over the weekend. Stay tuned for updates!

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

NHRA.com has started looking at the Top Ten points earners in the PRO categories and reviewing their season(s) to date and offering a prognosis for the balance of the season. As the Northwest Nationals represents the start of the second half of the 2024 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, it's a somewhat pivotal event as one of the three remaining races before the Countdown to The Championship begins. Only the Pro Stock field will be full at Seattle, with 18 entries, while Pro Stock Bike has just 13 riders. In the nitro classes, Top Fuel has 14 entries, and Funny Car shows 16 drivers, but with one of them, John Force, obviously out of action for at least the balance of the season, there will only be 15 cars lining up to qualify.

While yesterday's feature on NHRA.com looked at the Top Fuel points race, one of today's features on the website summarizes the situation in Funny Car. We can expect to see similar stories on the Pro Stock classes tomorrow and Wednesday in the lead up to the start of the Northwest Nationals on Friday. Check out the Doug Kalitta Leads Charge story on Top Fuel, and the Prock has Commanding Lead Funny Car synopsis.

Below the professional categories, the Top Alcohol points races are starting to take shape, but with the majority of their national events, eight of thirteen (including Seattle) yet to run, the standings could change in a big way over the next few months. Conversely, on the regional schedule, thirteen of the 22 events on the schedule are already in the books. With just eleven entries in Top Alcohol Dragster at Seattle, and just two of them (Shawn Cowie and Jackie Fricke) in the Top Ten, there will almost certainly be some changes in the upper reaches of the standings. As long as Cowie makes a qualifying attempt, he will take over the points lead from Mike Coughlin, and Fricke could jump into the #3 spot if she can get past the first round of eliminations.

On the other side of the Alcohol pits, the Funny Cars are few in number, with just seven entries on the list. However, three of the top five drivers in the standings are in that group. While Greg Bellemeur could lose the points lead to rookie Madison Gordon, if she wins the Seattle event, the #4 and #5 drivers, Brian Hough and Ray Martin respectively, can only, at best, advance one spot in the standings. Two drivers who are currently outside the Top Ten, Annie Whiteley (#11) and Victoria, BC's Stan Sipos (#15) could make a serious move upwards with good performances at Seattle. Whiteley will move up to #7 in the standings by making a qualifying run, while Sipos would need to win the event to move into the top ten. However, with alcohol guru Les Davenport tuning and Sipos driving, they could make some Pacific Raceways magic before the weekend is over.

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

One week from today, the Northwest Nationals begins with four qualifying sessions for all four PRO categories, including what is being played up as a monumental step forward for Pacific Raceways as they will be running the nitro burners under the lights on Friday night. Of course there's been lots of blown fuel racing at the track in the past, at night, and often late into the night, but never before at an NHRA national event at Seattle. We still haven't seen an entry list for the race, which is rather strange this close to an event, but maybe on Monday when entries close, one will magically appear at nhra.com.

In the leadup to the race, there's been very interesting stories on the internet, with Competition Plus leading off with yesterday's Move Over Wrigley Field - Pacific Raceways Will Be Racing Under The Lights. It details how the temporary Musco lighting for this event was arranged as a joint effort between Pacific Raceway's Jason Fiorito, PRO (Professional Racers Organization), with Chad Head coordinating, and the NHRA. All three parties are excited about the possibilities the professional lighting will bring, and expectations are high for a sell-out crowd on Friday evening.

Today, the NHRA National Dragster editor Phil Burgess posted a piece detailing the history of NHRA national event racing in Seattle, starting with the ill-fated Fallnationals in 1975, at what was then named Seattle International Raceway. The event only ran for six years, concluding in 1980, before being resurrected in 1990 with the mid-season Northwest Nationals. Burgess went into detail about each running of the Fallnationals, with my personal highlight being the 27 Top Fuel cars that attempted to qualify at the inaugural event. Twenty-seven cars at an event way up in the northwest corner of the country! My goodness, that's about as many fuelers that exist nowadays, let alone gathering for a far-flung event in a new market.

Check out Phil's story Seattle and the Fallnationals: A history of drama, intrigue, and points battles.

We expect to see more Northwest Nationals related stories posted over the next week, so stay tuned to see what develops on that front.

The 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals

After a three week break in national event action; the longest of the season until a similar break between the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals and the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals (Brainerd), the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series kicks into action at Pacific Raceways from July 19 to 21. With all four PRO categories in attendance for the first time at Seattle, and the Top Alcohol classes in competition it's going to be quite the show. And for another first, at least the first time planned, there will be night time qualifying for the NITRO cars on Friday night. It's certainly going to be one of those "BE THERE!" evenings.

After many trips to SIR (Seattle International Raceway), and the renamed facility (Pacific Raceways) over five decades, and seeing first hand, from the grandstands, from inside my dragster, and from the photographers area, I'm interested to see just how much light they can cast on what was so often a brightly lit starting line that quickly faded into almost total darkness by the finish line. With FOX sports television cameras on hand I'm sure there will be the best lighting ever seen at the facility.

We're still waiting to see an entry list to get an idea of just how big the show will be, but with the annual "Western Swing" reduced to just two races on back-to-back weekends on the West Coast there may be short fields in a few categories. We can only hope that the Bandimere family can make good on their promise to build a new track in the Denver area. It appears as though that might be quite a ways in the future, as progress on procuring a site to build on has been slow to this point.

More news on the 2024 NHRA Northwest Nationals tomorrow, and a look back at previous Northwest Nationals events is coming up over the next week. As always: stay tuned!

To see previous updates, go to the What's Old page

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