As usual, there’s so much going on at an NHRA race that there’s more than the nuts and bolts of who won and who lost during the 43rd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, held at Brainerd International Raceway. This event was an opportunity for many to evaluate their standing in the straight-line community as it was the penultimate race before the close of the “regular” season of Mission Foods Drag Racing Series competition.
Once race No. 14, the 71st Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals on Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park’s dragstrip is complete, ten racers in each class of Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle will be in. Everyone else will be out. That fact gives some pause and creates anxiety for those at the base of the points totem pole. The ascendancy of Shawn Reed Racing, an after-thought group in 2024, is one of the larger stories to emerge from these Lucas Oil Nationals:
As Doug Kalitta was rolling towards his second consecutive race title in Minnesota, it was notable that Jordan Vandergriff, in his first competitive outing since 2019, took Shawn Reed’s dragster to a quarterfinal finish after qualifying third. In his first round bout against Kyle Satenstein, who had a better reaction time, Vandergriff was gone by the 60-foot mark and pulled out a workmanlike 4.77/283.97. While he lost to eventual race runner-up Clay Millican in the second round after posting a leisurely .105-second reaction time, Vandergriff took his Rob Wendland-tuned ride to a 3.726 run at 332.18 mph, not terribly shabby for a driver who likely needed an oil can to get the rust out.
Shawn Reed, on-site for the race lauded his replacement: “Jordan did a great job and it was good to get him back in the seat. He needs to be back in there,” Reed said. While it was tough for him to watch his car be driven by someone else, “That’s what the future’s eventually going to be for me. I have another few years in me and then that’s what I want to do. I’d like to be a team owner and a car owner and stay in this business of NHRA drag racing, watching the younger people come up and drive these cars. That’s what the sport needs.”
The quickest and fastest woman in motorsports, Brittany Force has qualified for the Countdown, even as she recorded her 10th 340-plus-mph lap in Brainerd, a feat she accomplished three times last weekend. That both Force and Austin Prock will carry the colors of Cornwell Quality Tools at the race outside Indianapolis could be a precursor for Force, the two-time Top Fuel titleholder who earned a semifinal result in the Lucas Oil Nationals. That allows her to run for the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge in Indy and advance her position in the standings. Bringing home victory in one’s partner’s race is something both she and Prock will be attempting accomplish, albeit with several competitors capable of halting her forward progress. Maybe the partnership with Cornwell will turn the trick for Brittany?
Billy Torrence had a good return to competition in Brainerd with a semifinal result, but is not entered at Indy. His son, four-time-consecutive Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence is on the entry list and, as his dad showed, the team is at full strength heading to the biggest race of the year. There will be several racers looking to trip up those in the top 10, including Ida Zetterstrom, currently 11th and having lost another 20 points to Shawn Reed. She’s 168 points back, but with points-and-a-half on offer at the U.S. Nationals, it would not be smart to discount her. At this point there are eight drivers that have clinched berths in the Countdown, but their positions are still TBD in Indy: Shawn Langdon, Tony Stewart, Justin Ashley, Doug Kalitta, Antron Brown, Clay Millican, Josh Hart and Steve Torrence.
Consistency can be the key to winning championships, something Tony Stewart knows well. He’s won titles in NASCAR (three of them), INDYCAR and USAC’s variety of classes and is currently second in dragster points. With a pair of wins in his second full season of Top Fuel competition, Stewart currently holds second place in the standings, just 45 points behind Shawn Langdon. This, despite a first-round departure in Sonoma and a quarterfinal result in Brainerd. “We have a consistent car that is making it down the racetrack,” Stewart declared. “We have to keep our nose to the ground,” he said before remaining at Brainerd to test on Monday.
Tony Schumacher will be back in the game at Indy, having agreed to chair a second seat at Rick Ware Racing (RWR) with Clay Millican as his teammate. This duo present a threat to every other racer on the grounds. Schumacher, an eight-time champion has been in and out of the game since Don Schumacher closed his operation and is always competitive. For that matter, other part-timers who could easily upset the apple cart in Top Fuel include always-quick Chicagoan T.J. Zizzo, returnee Jasmine Salinas, former Gainesville victor Tripp Tatum III and whoever Shawn Reed anoints to drive his rail next weekend.
Top Fuel will be a challenging class in Indy, but so will Funny Car, despite the fact that we can pretty much give the regular season title to the Prock Rocket, who earned his second straight win in Brainerd and who has six victories on the season with John Force Racing. Austin Prock is steamrolling to another title and leaving his competitors in the dirt. But as we all know, things can change over the six-race playoffs. There are plenty of stout players in the Flopper class, including Prock’s Chevrolet SS teammate, Jack Beckman, four-time champ Matt Hagan, driving the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for Tony Stewart Racing and three-time champ Ron Capps in his self-owned Toyota GR Supra.
Likely, none of the drivers mentioned above were expecting challenges from Jim Head Racing and Canadian Spencer Hyde, but the rookie has fooled many this season by keeping his focus steady and mounting challenges to every other driver on the grounds of the 13 races held thus far. His results have placed the driver eighth in the standings after a second round result in Brainerd. While Hyde is still finding his qualifying legs – he was 11th in Brainerd – he accomplished his first holeshot win in the first round against Alexis DeJoria. And then he got beat by Chad Green, who returned the favor with his own holeshot victory in the second round of play.
Buddy Hull was one of two drivers who crashed hard in Sonoma; he injured his left hand and still wasn’t ready to compete in Brainerd, so Jim Dunn called Jim Campbell, who’s been on the tour for some west coast events this year and was able to substitute for Hull. “These race cars are unpredictable,” Hull reminded, “and everyone is pushing them to the performance edge.” While unable to race, Hull made the trek from his Dallas home to Minnesota in support of Dunn, celebrating his 75th year of competing in NHRA drag racing, and the car’s sponsor for the Lucas Oil Nationals, Menards, the Midwest home improvement chain. Campbell had to race Austin Prock in the first round; he lost.
The U.S. Nationals will have a returning face, as Julie Nataas takes over the seat in Del Worsham’s Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, which Bobby Bode III drove successfully earlier in the year. Nataas, the 2023 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster champion had her first taste of Funny Car action in Bristol earlier this season in Worsham’s Supra, where she beat Jack Beckman in the first round before falling to Daniel Wilkerson’s Ford Mustang in the quarterfinals.
In Indy, she’ll be celebrating a momentous anniversary with Del Worsham and his father Chuck. In 2005, at the U.S. Nationals, Worsham won both the all-star shootout and the U.S. Nationals race, earning $225,000 for the double-up. Twenty years later, Worsham will be calling the shots for his Norwegian-born driver and celebrating the anniversary of his achievement. For Worsham, this is both an opportunity to celebrate the anniversary of his achievement and the opportunity for mentorship. “Julie has proven herself at every level she’s competed in,” Worsham said. “We’ve already built a strong foundation together and Indy is the perfect place to continue her growth. To bring her back here on the 20th anniversary of one of my biggest career moments, it feels like the story had come full circle.”
Chad Green Motorsports has had three different drivers in its pair of Funny Car entries through the first 13 races of the year: Chad Green has raced the full season in his Ford Mustang, while the Dodge Charger in his stable has been shared by son Hunter Green and Blake Alexander. In Brainerd, with Hunter in the Dodge, the first ever father/son battle between the two Green family members yielded victory for Chad, who went on to the semifinal round after defeating Spencer Hyde in the quarterfinals. Alexander retakes the seat when they alight in Indy.
There are a few Funny Car drivers who have many in the industry shaking their heads and wondering what’s up with them? After finishing fifth in the 2024 standings, Bob Tasca III is having one of his more challenging seasons, either running hot or cold, but never with any consistency in his Ford Mustang Dark Horse. He’s currently in tenth place, just two points ahead of another driver who’s not getting the consistency he needs: Cruz Pedregon, The two-time titleholder often appears ready to snake through the competition but seemingly hasn’t been able to go laps with his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. And Paul Lee, who earned his first victory in this class in Phoenix? He’s had good outings, is in fifth place and solidly into the Countdown, 73 points behind Capps in fourth, but after that win, he expected to be farther up the food chain.
At this point, only five drivers are qualified for the Countdown in Funny Car: Prock, Beckman, Hagan, Capps and Lee. Behind them are J.R. Todd of Kalitta Motorsports (Toyota GR Supra), Daniel Wilkerson and Spencer Hyde in Ford Mustangs, Alexis DeJoria’s Dodge and Tasca. With Pedregon and Chad Green single digits behind Tasca, the standings could be thoroughly changed by the close of the Labor Day weekend.
One thing that won’t change any time soon is the ability of Larry “Spiderman” McBride to get his Pingel Top Fuel Motorcycle
down the quarter-mile quicker than any of his competitors. In a four-race series that ends when NHRA returns to Charlotte for the second – of six- races in its Countdown to the Championship, McBride claimed the 2025 title in Race No. 3, held in Brainerd last weekend. In the second year of the series as a points-paying enterprise, McBride has claimed both titles. Who’s surprised? No one, actually. McBride has been the face of Top Fuel Motorcycle for more than 40 years and he still loves it. Which is a darn shame for anyone trying to beat the Virginian.
The 68-year-old, who owns both the ET and speed records in his class, has been riding a supercharged 1511cc Puma/Kawasaki-engined Race Visions chassis that makes an estimated 1,000 horsepower. He made the fastest motorcycle run recorded at Virginia Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie, VA in 2022, at 268 mph. As long as he’s still having fun – and Larry McBride always has fun – he’ll keep at it.
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