Brainerd is home to a whole host of contests this weekend, including the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and Ida Zetterstrom’s official first NHRA Top Fuel appearance.
Has it only been three weeks since NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series has been in action at Sonoma Raceway? Sure feels like a year between contests, doesn’t it? But it’s officially time for the 42nd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at the Brainerd International Raceway dragstrip.
The penultimate race before NHRA’s regular season closes with the 70th Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, these Lucas Oil Nationals offer four rounds of qualifying on Friday and Saturday, the penultimate Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge for Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock combatants (no Pro Stock Motorcycle activities until Indy) and a full roster of Lucas Oil Sportsman classes: Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car, Competition Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Top Sportsman, Mountain Motor Pro Stock, Top Dragster and Factory Stock Showdown.
That’s quite an array of categories to undertake over a weekend, and NHRA will start the festivities on Thursday with Sportsman qualifying. Pro qualifying is set for 4 and 6PM on Friday, while Saturday’s racing for the Mission Foods competition begins at the crack of noon (central time, of course). Final eliminations are scheduled to start at 10:30AM Sunday.
While Top Fuel offers a short group of 15 entries, it’s quite an entry of racers gathered for this 42nd visit to Brainerd, Minnesota. Topped by reigning champion Doug Kalitta’s marking of his 600th NHRA race, the first in his class to make this many runs down a dragstrip, Kalitta joins Funny Car drivers John Force (681 races), Cruz Pedregon with 678 and the 641 races of Ron Capps as the sole four drivers in NHRA history to reach the 600-race plateau.
If past results count, Kalitta is in a pretty good place, leading the points with 125 in hand over Kalitta Motorsports teammate Shawn Langdon and four-time champ Steve Torrence 150 in arrears. The balance of the top 10 dragsters are Justin Ashley, Antron Brown, Tony Schumacher, Clay Millican, Billy Torrence, rookie Tony Stewart and Night Under Fire victor Brittany Force, who is 430 points behind Kalitta in tenth place.
“It’s a very cool milestone for me,” Kalitta said of making his 600th start. “I didn’t realize nobody else (in Top Fuel) had made it to 600, but it’s been a cool ride. It’s been a great opportunity for me, out there running with the NHRA and competing for as long as I have. I certainly still enjoy driving the cars and surrounding myself with great people and great teams,” he said.
With three wins in six final rounds after 12 races thus far in 2024, Kalitta is definitely in a good place, 18 races after he earned his 50th Top Fuel victory at Reading last year. One driver looking forward to making a first NHRA appearance – and running for the series’ vaunted Rookie of the Year award – is European 2023 Top Fuel champ Ida Zetterstrom, whose JCM Racing team is finally ready for prime time. With the need to get cars built, to get and supply a tractor-trailer filled with spares, to find the right crew members to work with this team, it’s taken a while since Zetterstrom first announced her entry at the December 2023 Performance Racing Industry show.
At this point the top five in Top Fuel have clinched their spots in the Countdown that begins at Reading in September: Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon, Steve Torrence, Justin Ashley and Antron Brown. Joining them this weekend for this Brainerd race, together with the balance of the top 10 are Zetterstrom, Josh Hart, Terry Totten, Jasmine Salinas and Shawn Reed. Not on the entry list is Ron August, who went to the semifinals at Sonoma, making him an entrant in Mission’s #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. His absence will give Tony Stewart, who went to his first final round in this, his rookie season, a bye, while Brittany Force has to race Sonoma victor Antron Brown, who won the Brainerd race last year.
In Funny Car, it’s a much more robust field for the 42nd Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals this weekend with 17 cars vying for 16 elimination slots. As of this moment, only three drivers have clinched a spot in the Countdown and they are points leader Austin Prock, driver of John Force Racing’s Chevrolet Camaro SS, Bob Tasca III and his Ford Mustang, along with reigning and four-time Flopper champ Matt Hagan, wheeling Tony Stewart Racing’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. Prock has a 211-point advantage on Tasca, while Hagan is 254 points behind the first-year Funny Car racer, subbing for company president Robert Hight, a three-time Funny Car champion.
Behind that trio and looking to find their way into the Countdown are J.R. Todd in Kalitta Motorsports’ Toyota GR Supra, Ron Capps’ Toyota GR Supra, John Force, who is being replaced for the balance of the season by 2012 champ Jack Beckman (and both names are on the entry list because Beckman’s points benefit Force), Daniel Wilkerson’s Mustang, Paul Lee’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, Chad Green’s and Blake Alexander’s Mustangs. Alexander, who races for veteran Jim Head, is 592 points behind Prock! Nipping at their heels are Alexis DeJoria (Supra), Cruz Pedregon (Charger SRT Hellcat), Buddy Hull’s Charger and Dave Richards’ Ford Mustang. Jim Campbell is back on the tour this week, as is Bobby Bode III, Campbell in a Chevrolet and Bod in his Ford Mustang.
Dave Richards, along with Top Fuel racer Justin Ashley, fellow Funny Car driver Daniel Wilkerson and Pro Stock’s five-time champ Jeg Coughlin Jr., are all racing new SCAG Power Equipment livery this weekend that features orange animal graphics. These four cars should be totally photogenic on the Brainerd dragstrip as well as in the Zoo camping area, where the animal prints should mimic whatever goes on in those confines. Ashley’s dragster features Cheetah II and Turf Tiger II; Wilkerson’s Mustang has the Jackal; Richards features the BlueBird Turf while Coughlin Jr is racing with multiple products featured on his cat’s eye gold Chevy Camaro Pro Stock racecar.
The Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge for Funny Car features semifinal runs pitting Prock against Tasca III and former teammates Capps racing Hagan. Capps, a seven-time event champion at the Lucas Oil Nationals, won this race last year and is still looking for his first 2024 victory. Points accrued during these Challenge races come into play once the Countdown begins and could dramatically change the scope of those playoffs.
Pro Stock is the final Mission Foods Drag Racing Series class in operation in Minnesota this weekend and offers a group of 19 entries looking to capture 16 elimination slots. Of course everyone in the race for the Countdown and currently in the top 10 are on hand for this event, including points leader and 2023 Brainerd victor Dallas Glenn of KB Titan Racing, his teammate and five-time door slammer champ Greg Anderson, reigning six-time champ Erica Enders, Aaron Stanfield and Jeg Coughlin Jr. of Elite Motorsports, all of whom have clinched their spots in the playoffs. Glenn has 115 points on Anderson, while Coughlin Jr., in fifth place needs to capture 242 points in order to surpass Glenn. The balance of the Pro Stock top 10 are Troy Coughlin Jr. and Jerry Tucker from Elite, Deric Kramer of KB Titan, Cristian Cuadra of Elite and KB Titan’s Eric Latino, who is 585 points behind team leader Glenn.
The Pro Stock entry list includes Matt Hartford (KB Titan), Brandon Foster (KB Titan), Kenny Delco, Chris and Mason McGaha, KB Titan’s rookie Cory Reed, Ohioan Derrick Reese, Fernando Cuadra Jr. and David Cuadra. It’s good to see all three Cuadra Boys back in the Pro Stock saddle at Brainerd; their absences have been noticed over the past few events. This weekend’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge for Pro Stock has Sonoma semifinalists Greg Anderson battling race winner Aaron Stanfield, while sophomore Jerry Tucker and class rookie Cory Reed have the opportunity to battle once again for the Challenge prizes. Reed is making only his third Pro Stock start; pretty convincing to land in the final round in only his second, Sonoma race.
As Hurricane Ernesto ramps up in the Caribbean, America’s midwestern areas are bracing for a wee bit of damp weather this weekend. The Brainerd area of Minnesota, near rivers and lakes, is subject to rainy periods, and Thursday is destined to have showers that could creep into Friday, with current NOAA forecasts calling for a slight chance of both showers and thunderstorms. Saturday looks clear as does much of Sunday, with a slight chance of showers late in the day. Temps should range from the mid-70s on Friday to low 80s on Sunday. The weather is always a challenge for NHRA crew chiefs and the racers standing on the Winner’s Circle podium Sunday afternoon will have crew chiefs who read the conditions best.
Leave a Reply