As NHRA lurches towards its halfway mark with the ninth event in a 20-race schedule for the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series set for this weekend, there are questions in the paddock. While some teams seem to be on a march towards titles at the close of this 75th anniversary NHRA season, others are quizzically lagging behind.
Over the past decade, Kalitta Motorsports has shown periods of excellence, often followed by times when both the team and its competitors wondered about the Michigan squad’s direction. Over the past season or so, Connie Kalitta’s two Top Fuel teams, for reigning two-time titleholder Doug Kalitta and his sparring partner, 2013 champ Shawn Langdon have been close to omnipotent, particularly in this 75th anniversary campaign. Langdon is a Sunday scientist, with three straight victories and looking for a fourth (or even fifth) this weekend in Bristol. Kalitta’s Saturday superiority has brought him close to his teammate, but he’s still 100 points back. In Funny Car, 2018 champ J.R. Todd is consistently going rounds without too much breakage, leaving him just 15 points behind leader Ron Capps.
The Top Fuel wars show teams and their drivers moving different directions. For instance, when Justin Ashley first came to the Top Fuel ranks, he was quite the sensation, especially with his very tight reaction times that had others just shaking their heads in wonderment. With his SCAG Racing team, then led by Mike Green and Tommy DeLago, Ashley’s been a force on the trail since his 2020 rookie season, when he was acknowledged as the top new driver of that very tough year for everyone. To date, Ashley has collected 19 Top Fuel winner’s trophies and competed in 31 final rounds.
Ashley’s five consecutive top five finishes in the Countdown to the Championship NHRA playoffs, including third-place results in the last two seasons are the kind of stats any racer would be happy to claim. And to do it all with an outgoing personality and an appreciation for the history of this sport and the ability to engage with fans throughout the country.
Something appears to be missing the first half of this season, but then, we don’t know what tricks the DeLago-led team is trying before the all-important Countdown to the Championship begins after this year’s Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals are held. But even if this team is trying new tricks – Ashley now has a teammate in Will Smith to help push him forward – it’s hard to ignore four first-round eliminations and times when even Ashley’s reaction times aren’t good enough to win. Ashley has been to a single final round – at Pomona, one of his better tracks – and a single semifinal result (Ashley went to the second quad – of three – at Charlotte).
One can hope for some kind of turnaround in Bristol or later this year, but it’s a head-scratcher when a normally competitive team seems to have lost something from one year to the next. Not that it hasn’t happened to others; it’s just strange seeing both Justin Ashley and his team struggling. Ashley currently holds ninth-place points; his new teammate Smith is in 12th place.
This weekend marks the return of Jasmine Salinas at one of her favorite tracks. Salinas is competing in both NHRA and IHRA this season and the Bristol contest marks her third NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series contest this calendar year. While she didn’t compete at Thunder Valley in 2025, Salinas owns four semifinal results in her 27 total races; her father Mike has won this race twice, in 2019 and 2021 and the lush track is “one of my favorite places to race, so it was a no-brainer to include it in our limited schedule,” she said.
This upcoming weekend in Bristol, TN’s Thunder Valley for the aptly named 25th annual Super Grip Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals, the track will celebrate its quarter-century hosting professional NHRA drag racing by inducting Ron Capps, the three-time Funny Car champion who has achieved eight victories at this track in his chosen class over parts of four decades, into its Hall of Fame. Working with a variety of teams and driving with two legends: Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Don Schumacher, Capps has had the services of all-star crew chiefs like Ed “The Ace” McCulloch, Rahn Tobler, John Medlen and, currently, Dean “Guido” Antonelli.
A two-time winner in 2026 with his Ron Capps Motorsports Toyota GR Supra, Capps currently holds a 15-point advantage on Kalitta Motorsports’ J.R. Todd and his similar vehicle. A winner of 79 career Funny Car races, Capps holds the Bristol Dragway track ET record at 3.884 seconds, a number he set in June of 2016 while still working with Don Schumacher Racing. Capps induction to the Legends of Thunder Valley will be one of the inspiring moments in Sunday’s pre-race ceremonies. This Bristol Dragway Hall of Fame will now amount to 24 inductees, as Capps joins such luminaries as Shirley Muldowney, Prudhomme, Tony Schumacher, John Force, Connie Kalitta and the initial five inductees: Rickie Smith, Larry Carrier (track founder), Don Garlits, Wally Parks and Bruton Smith.
There’s been a change in Elite Motorsports’ and Modern Racing’s JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod Dog Racing Series entry. The team’s regular driver Mason Wright made the decision to step back from full-tine competition in this class to concentrate on his business. Wright operates a machine company in Odessa, TX, with a majority of his work in oilfield equipment. To take his place on the Elite team, Richard Freeman looked no farther than his large Pro Stock squad, tabbing Aaron Stanfield to complete the current season on behalf of the team.
“Oilfields run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and so do the people who work in them,” Wright explained. “That work ethic has carried over into everything I’ve done, including drag racing. But as our businesses continue to grow, they require my full-time attention.”
Stanfield, who has won world NHRA championships across a multitude of categories, proved his competency in the class earlier this year when he won the prestigious World Series of Pro Mod in Bradenton, Florida, earning $150,000 in the process. He realizes that “it’s an honor to get the call to represent ProFlow Pumping Solutions, Modern Racing and Elite Motorsports for the rest of the year,” Stanfield said. “Pro Mod is an absolute blast and incredibly competitive. Coming off the big win in Bradenton earlier this year, I feel confident we can give this team a great showing at Bristol, along with the rest of the season.”
While he didn’t run the table last week in Epping, gaining both the No. 1 qualifier and Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victories, KB Titan Racing’s Greg Anderson, who won this race last year and earned his 1,000th career round win in the process, is hoping he can halt Glenn’s inexorable thrust to a second straight title in Bristol. The balance of the 2025 winners of this race were Steve Torrence in Top Fuel (he’s on hiatus but his father Billy will be racing this week), Ron Capps’ eighth win here in Funny Car, Anderson and Richard Gadson in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Pro Stock Motorcycle rejoins the tour this weekend with another change in riders. Since Matt Smith’s diagnosis of pancreatitis, gallstones, kidney stones and an ongoing hernia issue that led to gallbladder and hernia surgeries, his team used Chip Ellis as a substitute in Maryland and has taken the opportunity to have Joey Gladstone return to two-wheel competition. Gladstone, who was teammates with Cory Reed when that driver was on a bike (Reed moved to Pro Stock cars last year with KB Titan Racing, but didn’t join the tour this season), will put down his wrenches, re-attach his helmet and put on his leathers this weekend in Bristol.
Gladstone will be riding the six-time champion’s motorcycle for the foreseeable future, as Matt Smith works to return in time for this year’s U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend and the final six Countdown to the Championship playoff races. The winner of three Pro Stock Motorcycle races during the 2022 campaign, Gladstone is only signed to compete this weekend, but it’s possible he could continue to race the Matt Smith Racing DENSO Buell in Norwalk and, possibly, the Pro Stock Motorcycle Callout race in Sonoma. Smith had intended to put Gladstone on his bike in Maryland, after originally thinking he have crew member Michael Ray simply get the qualifying points in Q1.
“We decided to ask Joey (to substitute) because he’s at every race [as a KB Titan Pro Stock crew member]. He was willing to do it but didn’t have a suit with him, so we had Chip Ellis come in. We still think Joey is a great choice and that he deserves a shot. Jim Whiteley’s company, J&A Services is also my dad’s (Rickie Smith) sponsor, and we’ve had previous talks with Jim about putting Joey back on a bike for next season, so this is a great opportunity for an audition,” Smith said. “I’m really anxious to see how Joey does. He hasn’t been on a bike for a while and we don’t have any chance to test, but I don’t think he’s lost it.” Matt Smith currently holds third-place points behind reigning titleholder Richard Gadson, riding a Suzuki Hayabusa3 with Vance and Hines Motorsports; wife Angie is in second place after winning the Potomac NHRA Nationals presented by JEGS and earning the 200th pro win for a woman in NHRA competition.
During last weekend’s Epping outing, NHRA mandated new weights for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, announcing amendments to aid parity in this class. For the Suzuki contingent, any 4-valve motorcycle using the V&H head on their up-to-113cid mill can shave five pounds, going from 660 to 655 pounds; using a 4-valve Monster head on the same size engine, competitors may now shave 10 pounds, going from 625 to 615 pounds. We’ll see if this makes even one iota difference…
On Friday night, during the second qualifying session for the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, beginning at 7:30PM with Pro Stock Motorcycle and Pro Stock and continuing at 8:30PM with Funny Car and Top Fuel, fans will get to see the final rounds that were rained out this past Sunday in Epping, NH. In Top Fuel, it’ll be points leader Shawn Langdon against Leah Pruett, currently 219 points behind Langdon in third place (reigning champ Doug Kalitta is second, 100 points behind his teammate Langdon). Funny Car features two John Force Racing (JFR) Chevrolet SS Floppers for Jack Beckman and Jordan Vandergriff. Vandergriff, in his first season with JFR, already has a win under his belt and holds third-place points; Beckman is in sixth place.
NHRA has scheduled two qualifying sessions for Friday and two more on Saturday, as well as the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus event for all four classes. On Thursday, the start times for Friday’s important two qualifying/race-concluding sessions would take place earlier than originally scheduled, with the first 4-class session starting at 2PM and the second at 4:15, including the two Epping final rounds. Eliminations start Sunday at 11AM. All of this scheduling, however, is dependent on weather patterns. At mid-week the weather situation looks “iffy” at best for both late Friday and much of Sunday, with Saturday looking like the better of the three days. It’ll be hot and muggy, as well.
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