There are now only two races left to determine the winners of NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series regular season championships, the participants in its six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs and to crown victors in both the Brainerd and Indy drag racing contests.
This past weekend, several drivers got their invitations to participate in the Countdown, having elevated themselves and their teams to the stratosphere of contention for a title – or two. As expected, the Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel duo of reigning titleholder Doug Kalitta and 2012 champ Shawn Langdon have qualified for the Countdown, as has three-time champion Ron Capps, racing his GR Supra in Funny Car. Pro Stock’s KB Titan Racing powerhouse of Greg Anderson, the six-time champ, and reigning titleholder Dallas Glenn have also qualified.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, which hasn’t run since Norwalk and is on hiatus until The Big Go in Indianapolis, reigning champs Richard Gadson and two-time-consecutive titleholder Gaige Herrera placed their Vance & Hines Motorsports Suzuki Hayabusa3 motorcycles into the Countdown, as have Angie and Matt Smith, the latter a six-time titleholder, both riding Matt Smith Racing Buells.
This past weekend’s 12th race of the 75th anniversary NHRA season, the 37th annual Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals, held in the greenery of Pacific Raceways, accented the exceptionalism of Kalitta’s three-car entry. While Langdon fell in the first round of play on Sunday against Justin Ashley after losing cylinders and his blower belt, it was Doug Kalitta who had the upper hand – again – over Leah Pruett in the finals. Reenacting their 2024 series final round, the duo matched up well, with Kalitta first out of the blocks and never trailing, and with a tiny 0.0222-sec margin of victory that’s about 11 feet. He earned his third diamond Wally trophy this season and 62nd of his illustrious career.
Kalitta, winning his second consecutive race, was joined on the Winners Circle stage by his Funny Car teammate, J.R. Todd’s GR Supra flopper, as this duo gave Kalitta Motorsports only its second double-up in the team’s long history. The first occurred in the 2024 season starter at Gainesville, for Langdon and Todd. The win for Kalitta swept this Western Swing, his second win in Seattle and first at this track since 2014. He’s now tied with Larry Dixon for third place on the all-time Top Fuel wins list and 11th all-time in the overall Mission Foods series.
The always-gracious Kalitta first saluted his teammate: “Hats off to J.R.,” he said. “I’m just so happy for Connie” (team owner Connie Kalitta, Doug’s uncle). “He’s given us everything we need and everybody’s pulling together, trying to help one another. Today’s a good result of that.” A relieved Todd, now in his third season working with Dickie Venables and with Todd Smith rejoining the Kalitta team said, “This has been a long time coming. I think we turned the corner with this GR Supra and it’s time to make some hay on these front-runners. I’ve been wanting one of these [Diamond] Wallys all year long. This is great,” Todd crowed.
To reach their final rounds, Kalitta advanced over local racer Shawn Reed, Jasmine Salinas and Antron Brown. Pruett defeated Will Smith, Justin Ashley and Josh Hart. In Funny Car, Todd beat Jeff Arend in Jim Dunn’s Charger, Jordan Vandergriff’s John Force Racing Chevrolet SS and Matt Hagan’s Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to meet defending titleholder Austin Prock, driving Tasca Racing’s Ford Mustang. The latter driver, whose fortunes appear to be changing for the better, was enraged with himself after leaving .005 sec too soon.
With his win, Kalitta trails Langdon by a scant five points, with Pruett third, a surging Brown fourth, Tony Stewart, Maddi Gordon (out in the first round), Josh Hart, Billy Torrence, Justin Ashley and Clay Millican comprising the Top Fuel top ten. There’s a lag of 618 points from first to tenth, with eight-time champ and Millican teammate Tony Schumacher just 72 points behind Millican in 11th. In Funny Car, despite falling to Friday top qualifier Cruz Pedregon in the first round, Ron Capps retains the top spot, followed by John Force Racing’s Jack Beckman and his Chevrolet SS, Todd, Vandergriff, Hagan, Chad Green’s Charger, Prock, Alexis DeJoria’s Chevy, Spencer Hyde and Daniel Wilkerson’s Mustangs.
As happened a week earlier in Sonoma, the Seattle-area contest had quite a few surprising competition departures, both in qualifying, the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and in four rounds of eliminations. While Friday qualifying saw Jasmine Salinas, two-time Funny Car champ Cruz Pedregon and Dallas Glenn start the weekend off with quick times, they wouldn’t last. Except for Glenn, who nailed qualifying both days and ended up with the top Pro Stock time and speed before Sunday’s eliminations. On Saturday, it was John Force Racing’s Josh Hart on top of the dragster time sheets, J.R. Todd leading Funny Car and Glenn topping Pro Stock. The Mission #2Fast2Tasty awards went to four-time champ Antron Brown, Funny Car winner-in-waiting Daniel Wilkerson and Greg Stanfield, who is out-performing many of his Elite Motorsports teammates.
On Sunday the tides turned a bit, with Kalitta, Todd and Greg Anderson earning those diamond Wally trophies. In Anderson’s case, the victory marked his fourth at this tree-laden track but his first since 2010! In earning his third diamond Wally this season, Anderson swept to his 115th Pro Stock win as he regained the top slot in his class. A pair of first-round losses before arriving in Seattle didn’t demoralize the six-time titleholder, but he “didn’t have a lot of confidence when I came here today,” Anderson admitted.
“We raced a lot better this weekend; my car was definitely better but I could see, as everybody could see, Dallas Glenn had the car to beat, so to get by Dallas and everybody else out here, is really great.” He gave credit to his teammate Glenn and to Stanfield, “who’s on a roll.” With his long history in the doorslammer class, Anderson knows just how competitive the field he’s facing can be. “It’s just a cool class right now. It’s going to be a real dogfight and I just feel fortunate to be part of it. I apparently, somehow, took the [points] lead from Dallas today, so that’s pretty damn cool and it just shows what can happen in this class.”
Stanfield, going for two in a row, left early and fouled out in his final round against Anderson, leaving 0.008-sec too soon. As the leader eked out an eight-point advantage over Glenn, Elite’s Stanfield isn’t that far behind in third place, followed by KB Titan’s Matt Hartford, Elite’s Erica Enders, a tie between KB Titan’s Matt Latino and Elite’s Aaron Stanfield, Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Troy Coughlin Jr. of Elite and Eric Latino from KB Titan. There’s a 522-point gap between first and tenth places.
While some competitors plan to compete in the Bader family’s Summit Motorsports Park’s Night Under Fire this upcoming weekend, the next chance to race for points takes place at Brainerd International Raceway in the town of the same name in Minnesota. It’s scheduled for August 20-23 and is the 44th annual NHRA Brainerd Nationals.
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