It’s an Action-Packed June for NHRA
June is a busy month for NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. In 2025, the sixth month of the year has five Sundays and NHRA will be active on four of those, only pausing competition at the center of June for this year’s Father’s Day weekend. Top Fuel and Funny Car compete in all four races – at Epping, NH this weekend, then on to Bristol, Richmond and, finally, Norwalk. Pro Stock returns for Epping but takes its second hiatus of the season in Richmond, while Pro Stock Motorcycle has another off weekend during the New Hampshire race, taking part in the balance of June’s competition.
Unlike 2024 when it competed in all Mission Foods Drag Racing Series contests, Pro Stock opted to conduct an 18-race schedule, relinquishing its Chicago and Richmond dates; the door-slammer class is on the docket for the balance of the year. NHRA’s two-wheeled competitors, Pro Stock Motorcycle have a 15-race schedule and, after their New Hampshire absence, appear on the schedule for all races save Brainerd, the penultimate contest in NHRA’s “regular” season.
As teams pack up for the trip to picturesque New Hampshire, one racer is determined to succeed. That’s Bob Tasca III of course, the Rhode Island-bred Ford stalwart in Funny Car who calls the New England Dragway track his home race. He’s won the New England Nationals once, in 2023, albeit at Bristol after the finals in Epping, NH were rained out. Last year’s contest marked the 157th victory for 16-time Funny Car champion John Force, who was injured two races later in Richmond and remains on the sidelines.
Weather played a large part in that Tasca victory, as both Saturday and Sunday activities were stormed out, forcing them to take place in Bristol. Weather could dictate activities again, as current forecasts call for showers on Saturday, which would be a continuation of a rain forecast for late Friday night.
While Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series sportsman classes – Competition Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Top Sportsman, Mountain Motor Pro Stock and Top Dragster – start Friday competition at 9:30 in the morning, Pro Stock’s first, of two Friday sessions doesn’t start until 5PM ET and nitro class qualifying doesn’t end on Friday until well past 9PM, or about 12 hours after the start of sportsman time trials.
On the day before Mission Foods Drag Racing Series action commenced, NHRA made the wise decision to amend Friday qualifying start times for the three pro categories: Pro Stock qualifies at 2:30PM ET with the pair of nitro classes a half-hour later. The second session starts at 5:30PM for Pro Stock, with Funny Car and Top Fuel following at 6PM ET.
Saturday’s activities – should they be able to be completed – are far more compact, starting with nitro qualifying at 12:30PM and accompanied by the latest Mission #2Fast#2Tasty Challenge in all three Mission Foods classes on-site. Eliminations are scheduled to begin at 11AM ET on Sunday, June 1 and will be broadcast on FOX at 6PM ET.
NHRA sat out the Memorial Day holiday, but its Top Fuel points leader was busy at work, providing commentary for the 109th Indianapolis 500, just up the road from Tony Stewart’s Columbus, IN home. Stewart, of course, is a former INDYCAR champion, going with his trio of NASCAR and USAC titles. While he owns a slim, three-point advantage on Kalitta Motorsports’ Shawn Langdon as he heads for Epping, there’s no doubt this over-achiever has more wins on his mind.
It took Stewart more than a year to achieve his first straight-line victory in the Top Fuel class; after that initial victory in the Las Vegas four-wide race, he won again in Joliet and took over the points lead fr the first time since he began racing in support of wife, Leah Pruett, who was busy becoming a mother, giving birth to their son Dominic. That changed everything for Smoke; when he became a father, some of the arrogance in him just disappeared. Of course not all of it, and yes, he retains that temper of his, but it’s definitely more muted since he became a dad. For those of us that have been around Tony Stewart since his early, USAC days, it’s really nice to see these changes.
Stewart may not win a second straight contest in New England, but he’s likely to go rounds; his consistency improves with time and laps. That’s how he got near the top of the standings and why he’s now the points leader. Once Tony Stewart figures out a new type of racing, he’ll nurture his knowledge and use it to his advantage. Having a teammate like Matt Hagan, who currently has four championships in Funny Car – including one achieved under the Tony Stewart Racing umbrella two seasons past is an advantage.
There are 15 Top Fuel dragsters on this weekend’s entry list. New England Dragway is the sole strip on NHRA’s current schedule where 2023 dragster champ Doug Kalitta hadn’t won – until last year. The Michigan native, who qualified No. 1 for all of the past three races, hasn’t earned a Wally winner’s trophy yet in 2025 but he has won the Right Trailers top Fuel All-Star Callout and earned two Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge specialty race wins. Ida Zetterstrom returns to competition with JCM Racing this weekend, along with Rit Pustari, Mike Bucher and Scott Farley; the balance of the field are full-time NHRA competitors for the 2025 campaign.
In Joliet two weeks ago, it was Jack Beckman who brought home the bacon in John Force Racing’s PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car. Looking towards another victory for John Force as he continues to recover from his Richmond crash in 2024, Beckman, 58, aims to continue his great showing in class and reminds everyone that, “The last time the PEAK Chevrolet ran here, it was my boss John Foce behind the wheel – and he left with the trophy.” NHRA’s 2012 Flopper champ is aiming to repeat for Force in the 12th annual New England Nationals.
Beckman is an historian of the sport of straight-line racing and relishes its history, which made him the perfect stand-in for Force. The JFR Funny Car squad is, right now the hottest group in the pits, with Beckman and 2024 titleholder Austin Prock. While Prock’s crew chief, dad Jimmy Prock has a tendency to always go for the home run, his sons (Austin brother Thomas is assistant crew chief) aren’t about to rein him in. While they know sometimes he won’t get it right, they’re ready to move to the next challenge, even as they support his efforts.
With 17 Floppers on the grounds, someone’s packing up early on Sunday. Saturday’s prospective Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge pits the two JFR drivers Beckman and Prock against Cruz Pedregon’s and Matt Hagan’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat race cars, respectively. Chevy vs Dodge could be two very exciting races, if the weather permits. Outside of the regular players, look for Blake Alexander in Chad Green’s Charger, Phil Burkart Jr. in a Ford Mustang and Terry Haddock in his Mustang.
KB Titan Racing’s Eric Latino won’t be in the pits or on the track this weekend, recovering from knee surgery, which allows crew chief Dave Connolly to take over the seat for a few days and could throw a real wrench into Pro Stock’s competition. There are 18 Pro Stockers entered for this Epping run, won last year by Elite Motorsports’ Troy Coughlin Jr. Elite hasn’t had much of a year in 2025, beset last season by injuries to crew members who were, in fact, elite! There’s pretty much an unspoken credo in sports that explains when you’re up you’re up, when you’re down you’re down and there’s pretty much no in-between.
KB Titan went through the lows for several years and is on the upswing. There are KB intrasquad battles at every race and this one, despite the absence of Eric Latino, looks to be another street fight on a racetrack. Everyone’s racing a Camaro body with only a few eceptions, those being Bandon Miller’s and Alan Prusiensky’s Dodges, using Stellantis equipment for both the body and engine in each of those racers. Since we always prefer to see inter-squad rather than instra-squad fights, we’re hoping Elite can make it that way.