Racing of all types is filled with the highest of highs and often the lowest of lows. There’s only one winner and lots of losers at every event. While it’s always preferable to see the winning – and losing – occur on the track, sometimes the series has to step in and govern.
This weekend’s Charlotte (N.C.) NHRA 4-Wide Nationals were held on the zMAX Dragway track next to Charlotte Motor Speedway. The second and final four-across drag race of the 2024 season had two instances in which the technical department of NHRA decreed racers weren’t following the rules. One of those cited nearly packed his bags; the other wasn’t nearly as vocal.
There’s a lot left to be said about disqualifications and their collective upshots, but for three days, NHRA held some truly fine races between quads of drivers and that’s the more important part of the sport. When the monumental dust settled, four-time and reigning Funny Car champ Matt Hagan took his Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to a 50th national title, joining double-up Top Fuel winner Justin Ashley, who won the race and the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge race-within-the-race, Greg Anderson in Pro Stock and double-up Pro Stock Motorcycle winner Gaige Herrera hoisting their Wally winner’s trophy late Sunday afternoon.
Hagan passed Don “The Snake” Prudhomme in earning his 50th career national victory and, in his final round, defeated an ever improving Daniel Wilkerson’s Ford Mustang, J.R. Todd’s Toyota GR Supra and 16-time champ/No. 1 qualifier John Force. His 0,029-second reaction time helped the Virginian to this title. This was Hagan’s fourth victory at the Charlotte track he considers his “home” circuit. “This is a massive achievement to win 50 NHRA national events,” he said. “It’s great to have Dodge with us in the winner’s circle for so many years and it’s so special to be around a great group of guys at Tony Stewart Racing.”
Ashley, who earned the points lead, the No. 1 qualifier, the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and Sunday’s race, was definitely on a roll this weekend, earning his second 2024 National event victory at this contest. In taking his 15th career victory, 13th in Top Fuel and first at the zMAX Dragway race track, Ashley is vocal about his enjoyment of four-wide racing. “When you come out here and you race four-wide, the quads are so good. It really doesn’t matter who you’re racing, especially with the depth of the Top Fuel class now,” he said after defeating local Clay Millican, Doug Kalitta and three-time champ Antron Brown in the final quad. “As long as we keep our internal focus, I think we’ll have a lot of success,” he said.
Anderson had a roller-coaster weekend, racing well but also being disqualified for bypassing a switch when they had to change their ECU following the second session Friday night. Anderson’s 6.502-second pass at 210.77 mph secured the Sunday win in his Chevy Camaro, running against KB Titan Racing teammate Dallas Glenn and Elite Motorsports’ Aaron Stanfield and Cristian Cuadra. He earned his 105th victory, extending his all-time lead in the category. “This feels fantastic,” Anderson said. “There is so much talent out there and I’m so proud to be a part of it. We didn’t back into it and it feels good to win a race at zMAX Dragway. It’s my home track and I love it here!”
After finally earning No. 1 qualifier and his Mission title on Saturday, Pro Stock Motorcycle’s reigning champ Gaige Herrera made the quickest pass of each session on Sunday. In his final quad, he defeated John Hall on a Matt Smith Racing Buell, along with teammate Richard Gadson and Vance & Hines technical partner LE Tonglet, both riding Suzuki Hayabusa3 motorcycles. “In the end, me and [crew chief] Andrew Hines and the bike bond so well,” Herrera allowed. “We’re a hard combo to beat. This is just the beginning and it’s all the haters that make us push that much harder. We’re out there to prove them all wrong.” His worst light of .021-sec might shut up a few doubters…
The No. 1 qualifiers, after four rounds of qualifying, were Kalitta Motorsports’ Doug Kalitta, the reigning Top Fuel champ earning his second consecutive No. 1, John Force, who unloaded the 10th best Flopper time in series history Friday night while setting the track’s elapsed time (ET) record for his 167th No. 1, Greg Anderson’s Friday night run in Pro Stock, despite his Saturday morning DQ (see below) and reigning Pro Stock Motorcycle champ Gaige Herrera, who needed all four time trial runs to work his way to the top of the standings.
On Saturday morning, No. 2 Friday night Funny Car qualifier Bob Tasca III had his quick lap disqualified after the series stated his intake manifold had been modified from its “original, accepted state. Tasca’s intake manifold was found to have been media blasted and this violation is considered a technical infraction. Additional penalty may apply after further evaluation,” the NHRA statement said. Because of this, Tasca’s ET from the second qualifying session Friday night was disqualified.
Less than two hours later, five-time Pro Stock champion, and the most successful race-winning driver in that category, Greg Anderson had his Saturday morning Q3 run disqualified. “NHRA has announced the disqualification of Greg Anderson’s run during the third round of Pro Stock qualifying, due to a technical violation, after bypassing a safety device. He is current No. 1 from his Friday run.” NHRA also disqualified Anderson from the final quad of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, placing Erica Enders in that final round, which she won.
The only reason Tasca remained on the grounds after his DQ is due to the community spirit in NHRA. The CAPCO Top Fuel team of Steve and Billy Torrence loaned an intake manifold to Tasca, whereby the Rhode Island racer promptly won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge in his Funny Car class. Tasca, who believed his intake manifolds were being questioned by the community, sent some to NHRA for examination before the season began. They were returned to him but NHRA never did state whether those manifolds were legal or not. Tasca decided, for the first time, to use Alan Johnson intakes for this weekend and, per his usual, flowed them to the satisfaction of crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Aaron Brooks. The color change is what stopped NHRA from permitting their use.
According to NHRA, any modified part isn’t allowed. “Now that’s a very slippery slope because we all lap manifolds; we sand them down, we sand-blow our cases to blueprint them. Everyone does it. That’s a modification,” Tasca expounded. “We blow up cylinder heads. We weld them up and we CNC them. None of them return back to the original manufacturer’s specific dimensions.”
Anderson got the yellow hat given to No. 1 qualifiers, but the fact that he secured that status with only two of four planned qualifying runs showed the depth of his KB Titan Racing team. In Friday night’s Q2 session, Anderson’s Chevrolet Camaro suffered an ECU failure that topped his car from firing up. The car ran fine in Q3 but then, in post-run inspection, it was discovered that when KB Titan installed the new ECU, the team neglected to connect a safety switch. That disqualified Anderson, who forfeited his Mission Challenge standing with this DQ.
Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge winners were Tasca, Ashley, Enders and Herrera, with two of them continuing to earn a second nod in Charlotte NHRA 4-Wide Nationals competition. Tasca, using the borrowed intake manifold from Steve Torrence’s team, took the 10th fastest run in class history with his Ford Mustang to the Challenge finals, defeating points leader Austin Prock (John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS), 2018 Funny Car champ J.R. Todd’s Toyota GR Supra from Kalitta Motorsports and rejuvenated Paul Lee’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.
Ashley continued his Saturday excellence – and repeated on Sunday to be one of two double-up victors this weekend. The SCAG racer outlasted Antron Brown, Josh Hart and four-time champ Steve Torrence to earn the Mission win. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s qualifying, whether it’s the Mission Challenge or whether it’s race day,” Ashley declared, “We want to win each and every lap that we make down the racetrack.”
Erica Enders received a second opportunity to run for the Mission win when Anderson was DQ’d from that event. While he did go on to win on Sunday, she took his place in the Mission Challenge final run. Elite Motorsports’ six-time Pro Stock champion took advantage and, in the final round defeated KB Titan’s Dallas Glenn, along with her teammates Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Jerry Tucker. “Never give us a second chance,” she said. “We’ll figure it out, eventually. The four-wide can definitely be confusing, but thankfully we figured it out and poked in the winner’s circle,” she said after thanking Mission for conducting these stellar events.
Gaige Herrera, too, set a track record in Pro Stock Motorcycle in the Mission challenge with his Vance & Hines Suzuki Hayabusa3 and then went on to score the Sunday race win. To earn the Mission Challenge, he defeated teammate Richard Gadson, along with Matt and Angie Smith’s Buells. Herrera, who had forgotten there was a Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge race at Charlotte’s 4-wide contest, made his best run in the Challenge finals (6.672 at 202.70) for his fifth specialty race victory. “It was great to be in the final quad with two Matt Smith bikes and two Vance & Hines bikes. I feel like it’s going to be like that all year long.”
The 2024 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series holds the 24th annual Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals, presented by PEAK Performance at Route 66 Raceway outside Chicago, IL the weekend of May 17-19. It’s the sixth race in a 20-contest season.
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