2024 NHRA Route 66 Nationals Promises to Be Memorable

When NHRA made the move to return to Route 66 Raceway in 2023 after removing the venue from its schedule for several years, the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Nationals automatically became a big draw. Located southwest of downtown Chicago in Joliet, Route 66 Raceway is an easy reach for fans in the general area and, in 2023 they reacted by packing grandstands with their enthusiasm.

NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is headed back to Joliet this weekend for a 24th time, with more activities than ever before. One of the more important events happening during this Route 66 NHRA Nationals weekend presented by PEAK Performance, the sixth race in a 20-contest campaign, will be a tribute to the late Don Schumacher, who made his early reputation as a Funny Car pioneer in the 1960s and ’70s, and later as the owner of a large and hugely successful team of Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock Motorcycle entries bearing his name.

Schumacher, a native of the Chicago area, succumbed to lung cancer at the close of 2023; his family and multitude of friends wanted a celebration of life that would truly reflect who Don Schumacher was and where he came from. The celebration of Schumacher’s life is scheduled for Friday, May 17 at a trackside tent. It’ll start at 11:30am with prayers and tributes and conclude with a massive autograph session that features former Don Schumacher Racing drivers and riders, who will be signing a special Don Schumacher commemorative hero card.

But that’s only Friday and the action will be fierce from Friday though Sunday, with four sessions of Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Congruity Pro Mod, Lucas Oil qualifying, GETTRX NHRA All-Star Pro Stock [car] Callout, Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge racing on Saturday and four sessions of eliminations on Sunday. Of course Mother Nature knows that Friday belongs, at least in part, to celebrating Don Schumacher, and has arranged for a 40 percent chance of showers, primarily after 1PM. The balance of the weekend is topnotch, sunny and seasonably warm.

Looking at the standings in Top Fuel, the numbers are so similar to 2023 that one has to wonder if it’s groundhog’s day? Justin Ashley is in the lead, while reigning titleholder Doug Kalitta needs 96 points to overtake the New Yorker. Kalitta’s teammate Shawn Langdon is third, 106 points behind Ashley, followed by four-time champ Steve Torrence (-139), Steve’s dad Billy (-168), three-time champ Antron Brown, rookie Tony Stewart, 2023 Route 66 victor Clay Millican, two-time champ Brittany Force and eight-time titleholder Tony Schumacher in tenth, 237 points behind Ashley on what will be, for him and so many others, an emotional race meeting. Schumacher will run a throwback livery as a tribute to his father, Don, this weekend and unveil it Friday morning.

All the top 10 dragsters will be in the pits and rumble to the water box before blasting down the 1,000-foot drag strip, but this weekend’s field is filled with racers who can change the course of the points race with ease. Stewart, in particular, is trying for a “trifecta” as the multi-talented racer has won at Chicagoland Speedway across the street during his NASCAR days and has won at the dirt track that’s part of this complex. He’s getting more comfortable in his surroundings and last weekend’s Top Alcohol Dragster victory is just whetting his whistle.

Josh Hart in 11th place is just waiting for that change of luck that happens when a racer least expects it. He’s joined by Canadian Dan Mercer, by Kyle Wurtzel, ageless Luigi Novelli, Terry Totten, rookie Jasmine Salinas, who is getting ever-more-comfortable with her new Top Fuel rail, Shawn Reed, third generation racer Krista Baldwin, Doug Foley, Travis Shumake, Cody Krohn and local T.J. Zizzo, who has shown his capabilities over the past few years at taking down racers who thought they could get past him on the tree and at the down-track lights. That’s 22 dragsters on the entry list.

Millican, coming into Joliet as the reigning race winner, has plenty of momentum on his side, having earned a final round appearance at the most recent four-wide contest in Charlotte. Last year he was round-winless before taking the victory at Joliet: “That racetrack and I have had a special bond over the years. Something happened between Saturday and Sunday (in 2023) and it was the beginning of our good run,” Millican explained. Steve Torrence, so accustomed to hoisting Wally winner’s trophies, had a rough time in the two four-wide contests that preceded this round. Torrence admits his team has been “pretty aggressive, and when we didn’t get [results], it put us behind the curve. We got better, but so did everybody else and we were always just a tick off the pace,” he said of his performance to date.

If you looked at the Funny Car standings and saw Robert Hight’s car atop the points conga line, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise. After all, Hight’s John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS has been setting the world on fire ever since Jimmy Prock took over tuning duties. Well, Hight’s car is leading the Flopper points standings, but it’s Austin Prock behind the wheel and doing a stand-out job for Hight, who has stepped  back to address medical issues. With a single points-paying win, two runner-up appearances, Prock has been the No. 1 qualifier in three of the first five races of the season, leading the points standings since he won in Arizona.

Prock, proficient in both Top Fuel (4 wins) and Funny Car, has a 17-point lead on Kalitta Motorsports’ J.R. Todd, the 2018 titleholder, and his Toyota GR Supra and 33 points on reigning, four-time Funny Car champ Matt Hagan, driving Tony Stewart Racing’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. Perennial points gatherer Bob Tasca III is fourth, 69 points behind Prock in his Ford Mustang while John Force is a single point behind Tasca as the GOAT attempts to earn his 17th Funny Car title. The balance of the top 10 are three-time champ Ron Capps and Alexis DeJoria in Toyota GR Supra race cars, Daniel Wilkerson in his Mustang – dad Tim won this race last year – Chad Green’s Mustang and Paul Lee, 193 points behind Prock in his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.

With 18 Funny Car entries on the grounds, this will be a very competitive race. After all, there’s several local racers looking to upend the field, including Iowa’s Jack Wyatt and his Dodge, Chicago’s Chris King returning to the Funny Car wars with his Dodge, Justin Schriefer’s Dodge (Grant Park IL) and Barrington, IL’s Bobby Bode III in his Ford. They join two-time champ Cruz Pedregon’s Dodge and Dave Richards’ Toyota Camry, along with Buddy Hull in Jim Dunn’s Charger and Blake Alexander racing Jim Head’s Mustang. It’s a full and competent Flopper field.

For Prock, the young 2024 NHRA Mission Foods season has been “a blur. It’s crazy that we’re already a quarter of the way through the season. It just seems like it’s flown by and it’s been a lot mentally to process.” With the meat of the campaign ahead of him, Prock acknowledged, “I’m just head down, got to stay focused, can’t get too caught up in everything surrounding you ad just go up there and do everything one moment at a time and try to be perfect every moment you do something.”

Pro Stock is one of the weekend’s star categories as it contends for money and fame in the GETTRX Pro Stock All-Star Callout on Saturday, as well as the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. Last year’s Joliet winner in Pro Stock, Dallas Glenn from KB Titan Racing, currently holds third-place points and is 26 behind his teammate Greg Anderson, a five-time titleholder, and a single point behind reigning and six-time champ Erica Enders of Elite Motorsports. Elite teammates Jeg Coughlin Jr. (-109), also a five-time champ, Aaron Stanfield (-160), Cristian Cuadra (driving a Mustang bodied car) is 169 back and sophomore Jerry Tucker is 195 points behind Anderson. Newcomer Brandon Foster (KB Titan), David Cuadra and Troy Coughlin Jr. from Elite round out the top 10, with Coughlin Jr. 242 points behind Anderson.

With 20 cars vying for 16 spots and with the warfare between KB Titan and Elite Motorsports, this should be a maze of tension and competitiveness throughout the weekend. In addition to your top 10, look for 17-year-old rookie Sienna Wildgust, KB Titan’s Matt Hartford, Deric Kramer, Eric Latino to keep everyone on their toes, along with regular competitors Kenny Delco, Eric Latino, Chris and Mason McGaha, John DeFlorian Jr., Fernando Cuadra Jr.and injured Camrie Caruso, on the entry list, but it’s unknown whether she’s cleared for takeoff. Caruso won the first Callout at Joliet last year. Who will win in 2024? The field is comprised of Enders, Anderson, Glenn, Troy Coughlin Jr., Stanfield, Hartford Cristian Cuadra and Deric Kramer.

If you’d plan to bet on this specialty race – or any NHRA competition – the series announced this week that it has partnered with ALT Sports Data for exclusive global sports betting data rights, which will allow legal and official sports betting on NNHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series events. ALT Sports Data, based in San Diego, should bring fans a robust experience with real-time stats, odds and insights, giving NHRA fans a greater opportunity to engage with race teams, as well as the chance to receive more detailed information about trackside action, all through the sharing of info with ALT Sports Data.

If you’re betting on Pro Stock Motorcycle this weekend, there’s likely nothing easier than putting money down on Gaige Herrera, the reigning champion and current points leader, riding the Vance & Hines Suzuki Hayabusa3 with which he annihilated the field in 2023. Herrera holds an 89-point advantage on six-time champ Matt Smith, once again flourishing on his Buell, and 2010 champ LE Tonglet, who is riding a V&H Suzuki this year after only sporadically racing the past few years as he joined his local Louisiana fire fighting corps. Tonglet is third, lagging 97 points to Herrera.

John Hall, who’s kind of bounced around, has found himself in the right place with the right team in 2024, riding a Matt Smith Buell and currently holding fourth-place points. He’s looked good since Gainesville but, let’s remember, the Pro Stock Motorcycle campaign is way early in its run; this is only the third race for the two-wheel set. Angie Smith appears to be fully recovered from her late-2023 accident and is fifth on her Buell (-124), followed by Vance & Hines’ Richard Gadson on his Suzuki, ageless Steve Johnson’s Suzuki, Hector Arana Jr.’s Buell, 2023 Rookie of the Year Chase Van Sant’s Suzuki and Marc Ingwersen’s Buell, a full 170 points behind Herrera.

All of the top 10 are on the grounds and there are 19 motorcycles expected to race this weekend, with some regular runners and a few competitors we haven’t seen for a while (like Tonglet). For instance, 2003 Pro Stock Motorcycle champ Geno Scali, from Lake in The Hill, IL is coming back for more action in the two-wheeled class after a long time away; let’s see if he still has it! We have Jianna Evaristo, still getting comfy with the Matt Sith Racing Buell she’s riding this season, Kelly Clontz on her V&H-prepped Suzuki Hayabusa3, Chris Bostick’s and stablemate Eiji Kawakami’s Suzukis, Wesley Wells on an older Suzuki, Ron Tornow’s EBR, Ryan Oehler returning to the place where he first raced (he’s local in Bloomington, IL) on his Buell and Lance Bonham on a Buell.

The action this weekend will flow from early morning until runs are done, with Congruity Pro Mod, Lucas Oil Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Top Sportsman, Factory Stock Showdown and Factory X all part of the show. And if that’s not enough, after last year’s successful return to Route 66 Raceway, the Drag and Drive exhibition will, once again, be part of this year’s 24th annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals. This Drag and Drive exhibition features star drivers like Alex Taylor (with her full-chassis ’55 Chevy 210)  and Tom Bailey’s Sick Seconds 2.0 1969 Camaro, along with a “Mob of Sick Drag & Drivers.” With standout street cars set to be featured throughout the weekend, running in the six-second range at speeds of more than 200mph, some of the quickest street racers in the country, crowning a winner during Sunday eliminations.