The latest update as of June 21, 2021

NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster & Funny Car Standings

It was a busy weekend for the NHRA Top Alky cars, with events on both sides of the country: Lebanon Valley Dragway in New Jersey, and Bandimere Speedway in Colorado. And it did have some effect on the points standings, with Shawn Cowie continuing his climb up the charts as he moved within 32 points of leader Jackie Fricke, courtesy of his win at the Western Regional at Bandimere. Fricke was competing at Lebanon Valley but fell in the semifinal round to Duane Shields, who won the event and moved up one spot to #4 with his win.

James Stevens had a good weekend at Denver, only falling in the final round to Cowie, and gained one spot to #6, while 1st round loser Joey Severance also advanced a position to #7 over Karen Stalba who was idle over the weekend. One more racer climbed into the Top Ten, as Rich McPhillips Jr. finished runnerup to Shields and bumped into the #9 spot.

Here's the updated standings that also show who's racing this coming weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk. It's going to be quite a battle, with eight of the top ten cars in attendance, and a field of 20 competing; the largest car count since the second Las Vegas event in 2019. It's a fairly diverse field with seven blown alky cars competing against 13 injected fuel burners. It's definitely going to be a great show for the fans with some incredible performances on tap.

NOTE: Click on the image to see a larger - and easier to read - version of these tables

On the Funny Car side, points leader (and defending champion) Doug Gordon won the Denver event and lengthened his lead to 127 points over #2 (and idle) Bob McCosh Jr.. Below McCosh, Wyoming's Kris Hool vaulted over the also idle Sean Bellemeur into the #3 spot. Two racers bumped into the Top Ten, as Lebanon winner, Dan Pomponio and runnerup Matt Gill moved into the #9 and #10 positions respectively, bumping out Aryan Rochon and Mark Billington in the process.

One final note concerns the red numbers appearing in a few places in the standings. They indicate points that have been waived, which starts once a racer attends more than three regional and seven national events (the most that a racer can earn points from). We've guessed which races were waived as the NHRA website hasn't been completely updated to reflect those decisions.

In other drag racing news, the third event on the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series calendar took place at Bowling Green, Kentucky's Beech Bend Raceway Park over the weekend. The Holley National Hot Rod Reunion was a very successful event, with full fields of Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars in competition. We know that nine AA/FD's attempted to qualify, and that Jimi Young defeated Dan Horan Jr. in the final, with both drivers recording great e.t.'s and speeds. On the Funny Car side, the "Illinois Thunder" entry of Levi Keenen was low qualifer and took the event win over John Smith's Firebird-bodied "Entertainer" in a close race.

We do have a large number of photos from Friday's qualifying at Bandimere, courtesy of our Western correspondent, Dale Fackler but it's going to be later in the week before we can get them posted. Sometimes, real life, and a short holiday, take precedence over the world of drag racing. As always, stay tuned for updates, photos and news as soon as we have time to get to it.