Projecting winners of this year’s Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series championships in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle is becoming even more problematic. One thing for sure, though, is that anyone with a mind to stop Austin Prock in his John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car is going to have problems. The 29-year-old, third-generation racer is tasking everyone in that class, including four-time, reigning champ Matt Hagan, driving Tony Stewart Racing’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, whom Prock beat in Sunday’s finals. Prock, a seven-time winner thus far this year joined five-time 2024 winner and consecutive playoffs victor Antron Brown, a three-time champ, in Top Fuel, Dallas Glenn’s KB Titan Racing Chevy in Pro Stock and six-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Matt Smith’s Buell in the Winner’s Circle at the close of Sunday’s 16th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte.
Prock once again was a quick qualifier after four rounds – albeit not the quickest – and schooled his competition on Sunday, even as Hagan managed, with his No. 1 in qualifying to have a bye round in the quarterfinals and driving in what could be construed as the easier side of the ladder in eliminations. Of course in this environment, there is no “easier side” of any ladder and the competition is always ready to take down a driver that stumbles. Stumbling isn’t something Prock did on Sunday – and the one time he’s looked remotely beatable was at Brainerd when he had a poor reaction time that took him out of the running.
Winning the 16th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals against Hagan with a 3.924-second pass at 326.46 mph, Prock made it to the 1,000-foot mark just before No. 1 qualifier Hagan (3.958/324.98). The final round came after an all-John Force Racing semifinal bout against team leader John Force’s exceptional stand-in, Jack Beckman. In his third consecutive victory and second in a six-race Countdown to the Championship, the seven-time 2024 winner qualified second, just missing a 12th No. 1 mark (there’s always this week), Prock took out Alexis DeJoria’s Toyota GR Supra in the first round, three-time Toyota GR Supra champ Ron Capps in the quarterfinals and then 2012 class champ Beckman before meeting Hagan in the finals.
“We’ve got a great team behind us and I just try not to mess it up,” Prock admitted. “I just feel so comfortable – and I love racing with my family. I know how good this team was (with Robert Hight driving before medical issues sidelined the three-time champ), and how great it was when they told me I was going to get put in the seat. I had high expectations for myself from the start,” he noted. “You don’t want to be the guy who lets them down. I’ve done that a couple times this year and it’s the worst feeling in the world.”
Antron Brown, with his victory at zMAX Dragway this weekend, earned his seventh win on this dragstrip adjacent to Charlotte Motor Speedway. Starting the Countdown with a pair of wins in two attempts, Brown is looking to sweep the first three races, just as he once swept the Western Swing at Bandimere, Sonoma and Seattle in 2009 earlier in his Top Fuel career. Although he qualified tenth after being out of the field after the first qualifying session, Brown and his dragster came alive when it mattered: in eliminations.
As the final pair in the first round, Brown relegated fellow Toyota racer Steve Torrence to the sidelines – in their first meeting sine 2021. He followed that by defeating Steve’s dad Billy in the quarterfinals. Then it was time to take on the reigning champ Doug Kalitta in the semifinals before racing veteran Doug Foley (in that driver’s second career final round) and leading from Christmas tree lights to the final winner’s beam. “We’ve got some momentum and we’re just finding ourselves in the right situations and we’re capitalizing on it,” Brown said. “We’re really, really close to being where we need to be, but the good part is we’re working and we’re getting better – and we’re in the right spot at the right time to capitalize.”
Last weekend Brown moved from fifth to second in the standings with his Reading victory; he’s now the leader of the dragster pack for the first time since 2017 – and the first time as his team’s owner. Brown assumed the lead after winning these two initial playoff races in both 2015 and 2016 en route to his second and third Top Fuel titles, but realizes there’s still 16 rounds of racing remaining in this year’s Countdown to the Championship playoffs. “The Countdown is really, really intense. We’ve got to enjoy these moments now, but we can’t let them slow us down on what our mission is, and our mission is to finish the job that’s at hand.”
Pro Stock continues as a KB Titan Racing versus Elite Motorsports competition. Last weekend it was time for Elite’s Aaron Stanfield to secure his second straight title; this week regular season leader Dallas Glenn of KB Titan earned the win against Stanfield. He returned to the class points lead by a hair, going 6.626 at 207.18 to Stanfield’s 6.630/207.75, helped by an .026-sec reaction time. Earning his fourth win of the 2024 campaign, Glenn now leads Stanfield by a minuscule eight points with four races yet to run. To race Stanfield, Glenn beat Mason McGaha, fellow KB runner Matt Hartford and reigning Elite six-time titleholder Erica Enders.
Glenn credited Stanfield for keeping him on his toes in this six-race Countdown. “Aaron has a fast car, he’s a great driver and doesn’t make mistakes,” Glenn acknowledged. “So it’s a deal where you can’t make a mistake against him. The crew chiefs have to do their job and give me the best car they can. I’m glad,” he said, “that Aaron and I put on a good show for the fans in the final round. I hate not having a close race against him.” In every Countdown round, be it qualifying or eliminations, “I’m on kill. I’m trying to do everything I can,” Glenn said. “I can’t make any mistakes. I’ve got to try to make sure I get every last bit in case it does shake a little bit and I lose whatever performance advantage I have. I’m on kill 100 percent of the time!”
Stanfield reached the final round by qualifying third and beating Chris McGaha, teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. and KB Titan team leader Greg Anderson to reach his eighth final round of this highly charged 2024 20-race season. It was his 23rd career final round. “We’ve had a great weekend here at zMAX. I talked about keeping momentum going, and I feel like we did that,” Stanfield said. It’s disappointing we came up short in the finals, but we knew this wasn’t going to be easy. It’s going to be a dog fight, and that’s what it was today,” he stated.
Winning your home race is always sweet, and for King, NC’s Matt Smith, victory in Charlotte gives this six-time Pro Stock Motorcycle titleholder a big step towards a seventh career world championship. Smith and his Buell had an easy time taking their second race win of the season in the finals, when Vance & Hines’ rookie Suzuki Hayabusa3 rider Richard Gadson anticipated the Christmas tree lights and left a wee bit too early (-.013 sec). Smith’s non-too-shabby reaction time of .036-sec propelled the rider to a quarter-mile lap of 6.846/199.35 for the hometown victory.
To reach the finals, No. 1 qualifier Smith had a bye in his first round, beat wife Angie Smith in a close race in the quarterfinals and fellow teammate Jianna Evaristo in the semifinal round to meet Gadson, who arrived at his second straight final round by beating the Buell of Ron Tornow, Chase Van Sant’s Suzuki and teammate Gaige Herrera. Trying to become the first Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to earn seven national titles, Smith now leads Herrera, the reigning champ by 25 points.
“I was just trying to stay good and tough against Richard [Gadson] and when I went through the lights, I didn’t see my win light and I didn’t know if I won or not,” Smith revealed. “It’s never a good feeling when you can’t see a win light because you thought you had a good deal, but you don’t ever know. But all in all,” he grinned, “what a weekend, what a day. I like being under pressure. It doesn’t matter what you do in the regular season. You always have to be good the last six races, and I’ve always been pretty good last six races, and that’s how I won my championships. That’s how we’re going to continue to race.”
This 16th NHRA Carolina Nationals took place on a track with increasing temperatures as the weekend progressed. Thankfully, there were no stoppages for weather issues. As teams gathered their equipment together, all were focused on getting ready for the third consecutive race in this six-contest Countdown to the Championship, next weekend’s 13th annual NHRA Midwest Nationals, held at World Wide Technology Raceway just outside St. Louis, MO.
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