This week NHRA makes its return to Richmond Raceway for the fifth annual American Rebel Light Virginia NHRA Nationals. This unique two-day event – held on Saturday and Sunday only for the second consecutive year – is the ninth of 20 races for NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. There will be three qualifying sessions on Saturday and the traditional four rounds of eliminations Sunday – with coverage starting at 4PM on Fox, Sunday June 22.
While everyone will be thinking about momentum and going rounds in the three classes competing at this event – Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock Motorcycle – it’s inevitable minds will race back 12 months and land on the first round of Sunday racing that produced a monumental change in the direction of Funny Car.
At the time, 16-time champion and 157-race winner John Force held second place in the standings, behind his hired gun, third generation racer Austin Prock. The duo, racing Chevrolet SS floppers, had shown their hands early in the season, with Prock taking the inaugural PRO Superstar Shootout even before the NHRA trek began.
In Richmond, Prock was well on his way to a first Funny Car title, tuned by his father Jimmy and brother Thomas. The nascent titleholder would earn 14 No. 1 starting slots in his championship year, breaking a record held by none other than John Force. When Force had his accident, racing from the No. 5 slot against Terry Haddock (No. 12) and his Ford Mustang, the world seemed to slow measurably. The crowd held its collective breath, hoping the GOAT would be okay.
It was touch-and-go for Force at the start of his recuperation, but within a couple of months he was back in California and rehabilitating. He’s still in rehab, and has been on-site for racing since Las Vegas last year. Albeit not in a car. It’s unknown whether he’ll ever be back in a car in NHRA competition.
The John Force Racing team elected to forego the following week’s competition after Prock took an emotional victory, dedicating it to his boss. Prock was joined in the Richmond Winner’s Circle by 2023 Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta and then-reigning first-time titleholder Gaige Herrera, who went on to earn his second consecutive championship by the close of 2024 racing.
At the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals on Summit Motorsports Park’s dragstrip in Norwalk, OH a week after Richmond, the Force transporters were on-site but the team’s drivers were not. It was a classy way of showing support for the sport and giving fans the opportunity to show support for John Force on a huge posteboard that ended up filled with good tidings.
This week there are 14 Top Fuel dragsters heading for Richmond to race. NHRA’s most recent winner, who stated he’s not running a full, 20-race season, looking to have fun when he wants to, Steve Torrence hasn’t made changes to his team, even though he’s been in a drought – until last week. What Torrence is looking for isn’t new: consistency. “The last couple of years, the car has been inconsistent and I’ve been inconsistent as a driver,” he revealed. “It seems like the weekends I was good, the car was not, and the weekends the car was good, I was not. It all has to come together.”
That kind of consistency is the Holy Grail in racing. Last year Austin Prock’s Flopper was the most consistent on four wheels; Gaige Herrera got that nod on two wheels. Prock won this race last year for John Force Racing and Gaige Herrera brought Vance and Hines Motorsports’ Suzuki Hayabusa3 to the Winner Circle. Both of these racers have won races in 2025 but they haven’t been winning consistently. Last year’s Richmond winner in Top Fuel, Doug Kalitta understands all too well where Torrence is coming from. The 2023 dragster champ has been very, very good on Fridays and Saturdays this season, but Sundays haven’t been kind to Kalitta Motorsports’ lead driver.
Along with Torrence, Kalitta, four-time reigning champ Anton Brown – who’s having an up-and-down season of his own – look for Justin Ashley, Shawn Langdon, Brittany Force, Shawn Reed, points leader Tony Stewart, Clay Millican, Josh Hart, Canadians Dan Mercier and Smax Smith, Cameron Ferre and Doug Foley in the pits.
There won’t be any bye rounds in Funny Car this week, with 16 cars and drivers on the entry list. It’s a stout list – even without John Force – and, as NHRA nears the halfway point in the season and edges closer to the end of its “regular” season at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, the standings are much tighter than they were last year. That’s because other racers have been to the Winner’s Circle. Prock hasn’t had the consistency he experienced in his championship run and isn’t running away with the regular season points standings.
Paul Lee’s first NHRA Funny Car victory at Phoenix earlier this year in his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat was no anomaly; he’s been running well at every race and currently sits 31 points behind Prock. Beckman, the world’s fastest elevator technician, is third, lagging by 44. When Ron Capps won in Bristol – for the eighth time – he vaulted in the points standings to fourth, albeit 100 points behind Austin Prock in his Toyota GR Supra.
Four-time champ Matt Hagan’s Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat has not found its sweet spot yet, since Mike Knudsen took over the tuning duties. It takes time for a crew chief, team and driver to become one; Hagan’s former crew chief, Dickie Venables is now working with Kalitta Motorsports’ J.R. Todd, a driver whose Toyota GR Supra won for the first time in ages at Epping. Hagan and Todd are fifth and sixth in the standings followed by two Ford Mustang racers, Daniel Wilkerson and Chad Green, while Dodge Charger drivers Alexis DeJoria ad Cruz Pedregon fill out the top 10 in this class.
Ford Mustang driver Bob Tasca III was runner-up here in 2024; he’ll be trying again, along with fellow Ford driver Dave Richards, an ever-improving racer. Blake Alexander will be driving Chad Green’s Dodge Charger, while Charger racer Buddy Hull, who’s got two round wins in the last two races, will sport the bright colors of Blaze Exhaust Probes, a company that’s been with team owner Jim Dunn for a number of years. Dunn and his team are enjoying their 75th year of competition. Jim Head’s Mustang will once again be in the capable hands of Canadian Spencer Hyde, while Jim Campbell returns in a Chevy for this race.
One Pro Stock Motorcycle rider will be on the outside looking in on Sunday, as 17 entries mean a surplus of one. Who will it be? Hard to say with the competitiveness of this field, which has nine Buell and eight Suzuki entrants. Smart money always goes to the front of the field, where the rivalry between Vance and Hines Motorsports battling Matt Smith Racing pits Suzuki vs Buell. There are five Suzukis in the top 10 points standings and five Buell motorcycles. All of them will be at this race, looking to stir things up and move towards the top of the standings.
With 84 points separating V&H teammates Herrera and Gadson, and Matt Smith’s Buell just 46 points behind Herrera, the opportunities in three qualifying sessions and four rounds of competition are apt to make changes, not just for these three but for everyone else in the pits. Chase Van Sant continues to hound the top runners with his WAR Suzuki, as does the ageless Steve Johnson. Van Sant’s WAR teammate Chris Bostick retains ninth place in the standings and is having another good year with his Suzuki.
The Buell contingent includes the balance of the four-Buell Smith team with Angie Smith fifth in the standings and her squadmates Jianna Evaristo and John Hall seventh and eighth. Marc Ingwersen’s adoption of the Series Two Buell engine has made a big difference for the veteran, who is racing well with this equipment. He said the engine’s smoothness is helping him achieve better consistency.
Joining this group is Hector Arana jr. with his Buell, Brandon Litten on a Suzuki, Brayden Davis again riding the V&H lease Suzuki Hayabusa3, Destiny Spurlock’s Buell, Ron Tornow’s Buell, 11th-placed Kelly Clontz on her Suzuki and Ryan Oehler’s Buell, which is only eight points behind Clontz. After Davis earned the No. 1 seed in Bristol two weeks ago, he’s now a threat to everyone and it will be interesting to see if he can continue his topnotch racing.
Joining the three Mission Foods Drag Racing Series classes are Congruity Pro Mod racers, along with six Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series classes: Competition Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas and Top Dragster. Look for the second Top Fuel Motorcycle run of four this year and Factory X machines to take to the dragstrip. This race is going to be hot, very hot, with daytime temps on both Saturday and Sunday expected to be in the middle-to-high 90s. No rain is forecast at this time. The American Rebel Light Virginia NHRA Nationals will have final elimination runs on the FOX network at 4PM ET on Sunday.
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