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.