NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series completes the third early-season West Coast contest of a 20-race 2025 schedule – and fourth race overall – this week with the 25th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This event is also the first of three four-wide races to be held this year, an increase of one from prior scheduling and, in September, the first four-wide race to be part of NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship. It’s acknowledged that these four-wide races truly test teams’ strategies and drivers’ reaction times as they compete against three others, rather than a single adversary.
In addition to four qualifying sessions on offer both Friday and Saturday, this race features the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge that pits semifinalists from the prior race in a Saturday battle for extra Countdown to the Championship points and money. Just like the previous two West Coast races in Phoenix, AZ and Pomona CA, this event features Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock classes. Pro Stock Motorcycle returns in the second four-wide race, next up at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, NC late this month.
As with the recently completed 65th Lucas Oil Winternationals, there’s a shortage of Top Fuel dragsters on the entry list, but it’s a strong 15-car entry, as expected. Led by a pair of four-time champions, Antron Brown and Steve Torrence, the dragster field is exceptionally tight. With points leader Shawn Langdon, the 2013 champion joined by 2023 titleholder Doug Kalitta on the Kalitta Motorsports squad, two-time champ Brittany Force and perennial challengers Justin Ashley and Winternationals winner Clay Millican, along with 2024 Rookie of the Year Tony Stewart – who went to his third final round in Pomona – this field is strong. Very strong.
Force’s dragster will have a different look in Las Vegas, when she and teammate Jack Beckman, who currently leads the Flopper points standings wear black wraps to showcase Graham Rahal Performance. Rahal, married to Brittany’s sister, accomplished Funny Car racer Courtney Force, will be racing in the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend while his business vies for the Winner’s Circle in Las Vegas.
Reigning Funny Car champion Austin Prock, the other member of John Force Racing’s nitro threesome, will continue his Cornwell Tools association here.Prock won a four-wide race at Charlotte in a John Force Racing Top Fuel car and is looking to become the first to win a four-wide in both a dragster and Funny Car. Brittany Force won this race in 2022; Beckman, who was runner-up to J.R. Todd in 2018, when Las Vegas hosted its first four-wide race, will be “spending lots of time Thursday and early Friday rehearsing the staging and turnout idiosyncrasies involved in four-wide racing,” Beckman said.
When it comes to momentum, it’s swinging Clay Millican’s direction after his Winternationals win. While Millican hasn’t won a four-wide contest – yet – he knows his team is “definitely in a good place,” he said. “It’s just cool to say you’re the Winternationals champion. That’s a major for us in this sport and we’re rolling right into Vegas for the 4-Wide Nationals. I enjoy the chaos of four-wide racing. I think everybody has gotten better about all that comes with four-wide racing, but I really enjoy it – and the chaos of it!”
The questions remain about some of Top Fuel’s regular-season players: in the expected heat of this Palm Sunday weekend, who can keep their cool in a very hot Las Vegas, which expects temps in the 90s? Can Justin Ashley find the balance that has made him a threat but not a champion – yet? Ashley is looking to make his 100th career start in Sin City.
Can Steve Torrence find his way to the Winner’s Circle? Was the late-2024 challenge by Shawn Reed an anomaly or can he find it again? Will Tony Stewart make it to the Winner’s Circle this week? How about Josh Hart, whose alliance with co-crew chief (to Ron Douglas) Jason McCulloch might help him get a third victory? Others to look at are Terry Totten, an ever-improving Jasmine Salinas, Steven Chrisman, Rob Passey and Scott Palmer, as they look to throw wrenches into others’ plans. Ida Zetterstrom, who ran the first three races of the year is not competing this weekend; she returns at the initial four-wide race in Charlotte.
Funny Car boasts 19 entries, including the points leader, Beckman and his teammate, Austin Prock, both driving Chevrolet Camaro SS Floppers. Bob Tasca III and Daniel Wilkerson are on-site with Ford Mustangs, while J.R. Todd’s Toyota GR Supra for Kalitta Motorsports is “making progress” as he and the team acclimate to new crew chief Dickie Venables, who helped Matt Hagan to three of his four Funny Car titles. Chad Green’s Mustang is making the trip as is Tony Stewart Racing’s Matt Hagan in his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.
Ron Capps, a three-time champion in his Toyota GR Supra, won his first race as a team owner in the Las Vegas four-wide race in 2022 as the No. 1 qualifier; he’ll be talking about the expansion of his team on Friday. Two-time champ Cruz Pedregon and Arizona Nationals winner Paul Lee are on-site with their Dodge Chargers, while Dave Richards continues with his Ford Mustang. Buddy Hull is racing a Jim Dunn Racing Dodge, while Spencer Hyde is in Jim Head’s Mustang. Jeff Diehl continues his West Coast runs in a Toyota Camry, as does Jason Rupert with his Ford Mustang. Look for a revived Alexis DeJoria with her Charger, Bobby Bode III in Del Worsham’s Toyota GR Supra, Chad Green’s son Hunter Green in a Charger (run by Blake Alexander at Pomona two weeks ago) and rookie Dylan Winefsky in a Dodge. It’s a large and competitive grouping – three of these drivers will be packed up on Sunday morning.
If there’s competition in numbers, Pro Stock has it with 22 cars on the entry list. Whether all of them will show up is anyone’s guess, but we can definitely bank on excitement from the door-slammer class. All three Cuadra brothers are taking a break from their businesses to bring Ford Mustang-bodied Elite Motorsports Pro Stock cars to Sin City; the balance of the field is racing Chevrolet Camaros. Will this race be another KB Titan runaway, with reigning six-time titleholder Greg Anderson continuing his class mastery along with Gainesville winner Dallas Glenn, or will Erica Enders and Aaron Stanfield help bring Elite Motorsports back into the game?
Both Matt Hartford (KB Titan) and Elite’s Jeg Coughlin Jr. have been looking strong in the early season, as has Troy Coughlin Jr., who won the pre-season SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout in Bradenton, Fla. Both Eric Latino and son Matt Latino are on the entry list, as are Brandon Foster, Deric Kramer, Cody Coughlin and Kenny Delco. Chris and Mason McGaha are primed to take their spots in the field of 16 drivers, as are Stephen Bell and Joey Grose. Greg Stanfield hasn’t looked like he needed more track time in his return to Pro Stock competition, while Cory Reed is really making his mark in this class.
It’s really hard to make predictions for a four-wide race and, with the heat expected this weekend, when much of the competition comes in the hottest part of each day, predictions might be better served by a crystal ball. With competition beginning at noon hour every day, staying cool and keeping one’s concentration steady might be a problem.
In addition to the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series competitors, this weekend’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series classes looking for glory are Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car, Competition Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Top Sportsman and Top Dragster.
All told, NHRA is expecting close to 500 (491) cars to compete in the heat. Pro Stock starts its qualifying at noon on Friday and is the third class to qualify on Saturday, not the first. Following Sunday’s SealMaster Track Walk, competition begins at noon with Top Fuel in all four lanes. Fox’s FS1 will broadcast the initial airing of all competition on Friday and Sunday, with FS2 taking over for all re-airs.
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