The latest update as of September 30, 2024

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.