39th NHRA FallNationals complete Stampede of Speed this Weekend
NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship for its four Mission Foods Drag Racing Series classes has reached the halfway point. Three of six battles have been waged and there are three left to go, starting this weekend with the 39th NHRA FallNationals on Texas Motorplex’s all-concrete dragstrip near Dallas. A beloved venue that holds a 10-day Stampede of Speed including the three days of pro qualifying and eliminations, last year the Motorplex crowned Leah Pruett in Top Fuel, Matt Hagan’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat in Funny Car, now six-time Pro Stock champ Erica Enders, racing her Chevrolet Camaro with Elite Motorsports and Gaige Herrera’s Vance & Hines Suzuki Hayabusa3 in Pro Stock Motorcycle as event titleholders.
Enders is one of three 2023 titleholders returning to defend, and she’s got more on her mind than securing a seventh title and earning her second victory of this 20-race 2024 season. Her lead crew chief, Mark Ingersoll, underwent a double lung transplant on Thursday, October 3 in the Chicago area and her thoughts, along with so many in the whole Mission Foods NHRA pits, are concerned with Ingersoll’s long recovery ahead. Ever the crew chief, as he was prepped for surgery, Ingersoll was busy giving instructions for this weekend’s Texas race to team owner Richard Freeman, Enders, Jake Hairston, Royce Lee, Chase Freeman and Kelly Murphy, who accompanied Ingersoll to the hospital that performed his procedure.
According to Richard Freeman, the surgery went well and Ingersoll, who had been using supplementary oxygen everywhere and every minute except when he was at the starting line, was using “half the amount of oxygen than when he went in. He went off the ventilator this weekend (the team’s off-weekend before heading to Dallas) and he was starting to be his old self,” Freeman explained. Ingersoll will remain in the Chicago area to combat any potential issues in his long recovery. The recovery “is going to come at a cost. We want him to have the best care and not have to worry, which is why we’re doing a GoFundMe to help with ongoing medical and care expenses,” Freeman said. Anyone in the community who wants to contribute can do so at: http://bit.ly/IntersollGoFundMe.
So yes, three of four 2023 titleholders are returning to defend, as Top Fuel’s Leah Pruett awaits her first child with husband and relief driver Tony Stewart, a rookie in the class. That leaves Top Fuel open to the 19 cars and drivers on the entry list for this race, 12 of whom are eligible for the Countdown playoff series. After three straight races and with a single weekend to prep for the next three that are, thankfully, not being held on consecutive weekends, only 267 points separate first from twelfth places in the dragster class, with three-time champ Antron Brown currently perched in the catbird seat in first place in his “Tools for the Cause” pink dragster and two-time national race winner Josh Hart relegated as the current caboose.
In between Brown and Hart are Justin Ashley, 34 points behind the New Jersey native, the Kalitta Motorsports pair of Shawn Langdon (-60) and reigning, first-time champion Doug Kalitta, who needs to find 87 points and will compete with Mobil 1 black-and-gold 50th anniversary livery. Texan Steve Torrence is fifth, 88 points behind Brown, and this is a contest where the four-time champ has reached the finals six times in the past nine years and where he holds the lap record of 3.636 seconds to 1,000 feet. What’s notable about these five drivers is that all have affiliation with Toyota Racing Development.
Behind this quintet lies Tony Schumacher (-103), the eight-time Top Fuel champion and Texas resident who won the most recent race at World Wide Technology Raceway two weekends past and owns six victories at the Meyer family’s Texas Motorplex. No other dragster driver has more than three. He’s followed by the always-dangerous Clay Millican (-133), two-time champ Brittany Force (-173), rookie Tony Stewart (-194 and also racing a black-and-gold Mobil 1 tribute dragster) and Steve Torrence’s dad Billy, in tenth place and lagging Brown by 231 points. Shawn Reed (-241), who went to the semifinals for the first time at the NHRA Midwest Nationals and Hart are the final drivers eligible for the Countdown racing this week.
Still there’s a slew of competitors ready to take them all out, starting with Schumacher’s teammate Ida Zetterstrom, the 2023 European dragster champ, Canadian Spencer Hyde, local racer Kebin Kingsley, class rookie Jasmine Salinas, Krista Baldwin, Cameron Ferre and the miraculous Scott Palmer, recovered from last year’s mega crash.
In Funny Car, teammates head the standings, as Austin Prock, subbing for medically-excused Robert Hight has positioned himself in first place with his John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS. On the basis of seven wins in this class and 12 No. 1 starts, Prock is looking to earn a second win at Texas Motorplex, where he secured a Top Fuel trophy in 2022. Prock leads his team owner John Force, sidelined by a traumatic brain injury (TBI) suffered at Virginia Motorsports Park in June. Per NHRA rules, Jack Beckman is subbing for and collecting points for the 16-time Funny Car champion, appropriately in second place, which is where John Force stood before his accident.
With 105 points in hand over Force/Beckman, Prock, 29, is looking to equal the boss with a 13th No. 1, something the GOAT attained in 1996 during a 19-race season. An eighth win would tie Prock with Hight, who is the president of John Force Racing. “I loved running the Top Fuel car,” Prock allowed, “but Funny Car is where I belong. I always dreamed of driving one like my grandpa and I’m having an absolute blast. I love the challenge of these cars. I love sitting behind the engine. I love the body dropping. And, to top it off, I’m doing it with my family,” dad Jimmy and brother Thomas, who are co-crew chiefs on his car.
Prock’s current teammate, Jack beckman is looking for a second straight win as he subs for John Force through to the close of the 20-race season. Beckman is one of, again, 19 entries in Funny Car, and will have to contend with the other Countdown entries: Bob Tasca III in his Ford Mustang (-159), two-time event champ and three-time Flopper titleholder Ron Capps (-194) with his Toyota GR Supra, last year’s race winner Matt Hagan’s Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat in fifth, 205 points back, the Toyota GR Supra of 2018 champ J.R. Todd (-263), Jim Head Racing’s Blake Alexander (-278), Daniel Wilkerson (-292) and Chad Green (-295) all racing Ford Mustangs, Alexis DeJoria’s Toyota GR Supra (-309), two-time champ Cruz Pedregon’s Charger (-347), Buddy Hull in Jim Dunn’s Charger (-379) and Dave Richards (390) in a Toyota Camry.
To help mix it all up, Paul Lee is back in town with his Charger, Terry Haddock has his Ford Mustang – Haddock earned his second straight Texas Invitational this past weekend, Dale Creasy Jr.’s Dodge Stratus, Chicago area fireman Chris King in his Charger, Jeff Diehl’s Toyota Camry and Bobby Bode III in his Ford Mustang. While it won’t be easy for anyone in this field to halt Austin Prock’s forward motion, there are enough exceptional racers on the grid to keep him honest before the tour descends on In-N-Out Burger Dragstrip for the season finale mid-November.
Keeping the numerology going, there are 19 entries in Pro Stock, too, with the in-season rivalry between reigning champs Elite Motorsports and KB Titan Racing permeating the standings. Will Mark Ingersoll’s medical issues affect Elite Motorsports as it rumbles through these next three races? While KB Titan’s Dallas Glenn, winner at the last two playoff contests, leads the standings, he’s only got 31 points in hand to Elite’s Aaron Stanfield and 90 on Enders. Glenn’s teammate Greg Anderson is fourth, 116 points behind him, while fifth through eighth places belong – currently – to Elite drivers Jeg Coughlin Jr. (-232), Cristian Cuadra (280), Jerry Tucker (-287) and Troy Coughlin Jr. (-294).
The balance of Countdown-eligible racers include KB Titan’s Matt Hartford (-295) and Eric Latino (-310), independent racers Mason (-316) and Chris McGaha (-353) and Deric Kramer of KB Titan, holding down the fort with a negative balance of 414 points. The rest of this week’s Pro Stock field includes Camrie Caruso of KB Titan, independent racer Kenny Delco, KB Titan’s Cory Reed, Derrick Reese, Fernando Cuadra Jr. and David Cuadra. The three Cuadra brothers and Reese are using Ford Mustang bodies this week; the balance of this field races Chevrolet Camaros.
Pro Stock Motorcycle’s 15 entrants will all make the field for this weekend’s race at Dallas Motorplex. There are ten contenders for the championship in these six playoff races and they’re led by last year’s champ Gaige Herrera, racing his Vance & Hines Suzuki Hayabusa3. Only three riders are within 100 points of one another, and the gap from first to tenth is 308 points, all easy to rearrange in three more contests. Herrera has a 34-point lead on Matt Smith, vying for his seventh championship and riding a Matt Smith Racing Buell. Richard Gadson, in his first year as Herrera’s Vance & Hines teammate is in third place 65 points behind the 30-year-old Californian, a fourth-generation racer.
Herrera has 137 points in hand on Hector Arana Jr.’s Buell and a 156-point advantage on WAR Racing’s Chase Van Sant, a first-time winner this year. Sixth through eighth places belong to Matt Smith Racing’s Buell-riding Angie Smith (-198), John Hall (-199) and Jianna Evaristo, who is 234 points behind Herrera. Steve Johnson, whose Suzuki runs hot and cold – depending on the year, and this is a “cool” one for the Alabama resident holds ninth, while Chis Bostick, riding a Suzuki for WAR Racing, is showing exceptionally well in 2024, compared to his previous years in the class. Marc Ingwersen’s Buell, Geno Scali’s Suzuki Hayabusa3, Malcolm Phillips Jr. on a Suzuki, Ron Tornow’s EBR and Ryan Oehler’s Buell complete the roster in this two-wheeled class.
Because everything is bigger in Texas, the balance of the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series classes on hand to race at Texas Motorplex guarantees a packed pit area: Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Competition Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Top Sportsman, Top Dragster and second-year category Factory X all have racers ready to start competing on Thursday through Sunday. The 40th JEGS Allstars competition takes place over this weekend, with regional champs in Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Comp, Stock, Super Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Top Dragster and Top Sportsman attempting to claim honors – and money – among the seven divisions, with a single “blocker” in each class.
With a pair of qualifying sessions each on Friday and Saturday and with the “Friday Night Live” offering more than $40,000 in bonus money to the Mission Foods quartet of categories Friday, low qualifier under the lights nets $15,000 each in the two nitro Top Fuel and Funny Car classes, while Pro Stock Car and Motorcycle low times will receive $7,500 each. That’s great incentive to put down a demon run, particularly since weather forecasts are calling for the kind of heat normally seen in summer, not fall. Temps will rise in the 90s from Thursday through Sunday, with 96 predicted on race day. Who runs best in these conditions? FS1 is broadcasting both qualifying and finals shows on Sunday, with the latter running 4-7PM ET; FS2 airs Monday replays.