Can there really be four races remaining in NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series’ regular season of 14 contests? Only Sonoma, Seattle, Brainerd and Indianapolis remain to crown a regular season champion in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle. NHRA awards nearly $400,000 to the regular season titleholders, with $150,000 going to the top points-achiever in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, and the balance of the funding to the pair of Pro Stock classes, cars and motorcycles.
In 2025, Tony Stewart, Austin Prock, Dallas Glenn and Gaige Herrera earned the first-ever regular season championships in NHRA competition; the regular season titles never received awards or even much recognition until last year. Of this quartet, Prock and Glenn went on to secure the national championships in their respective categories: Funny Car and Pro Stock. Neither Stewart nor Herrera were able to turn one title into a second one.
This year things will be different. Both Stewart and Prock are out of contention for regular season honors, and in Top Fuel, this one will be an intramural fight between a pair of Kalitta Motorsports racers: either Shawn Langdon, currently leading the standings by 150 points over reigning dragster champ Doug Kalitta.
Langdon’s numbers for the first half of the entire 75th anniversary season would please most racers if they accomplished his feats over the full year: four outright victories in eight final rounds; Kalitta needs to re-fire his hot hand and have Langdon suffer some indignities. The chance of that happening? Slim. As for Leah Pruett, in third place and 279 points behind Langdon, catching either one of the Kalitta gang is going to be an uphill battle.
Funny Car is a bit tighter and has more players available to nab that six-figure check. Three-time champ Ron Capps made a giant step towards the possibility of a first regular-season title when he earned the diamond Wally at Norwalk, his third of the season, giving him 121 points on perennial foe Matt Hagan. This duo have been fierce opponents throughout much of their careers and were teammates at Don Schumacher Racing. Theirs is a tight battle to watch, but they ought to be looking out the rear window for racers that can catch them over the upcoming four races.
Kalitta Motorsports’ J.R. Todd has done everything he can to upset those two front-runners, aside from winning a race on Sunday. Todd is only two points behind Hagan and John Force Racing’s (JFR) Jack Beckman lingers five points behind Todd. Beckman’s JFR teammate Jordan Vandergriff, 161 points behind Capps and Chad Green, 179 back, can’t be discounted in these upcoming four races. It’s interesting that there are multiple manufacturers in this particular battle: Capps and Todd race Toyota’s GR Supra, Hagan’s in his Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, Beckman and Vandergriff’s mounts are Chevrolet’s SS, while Green’s racing a Ford Mustang.
The big fight in Pro Stock will, once again, fall to KB Titan Racing’s over-achieving duo of Glenn and six-time champion Greg Anderson. Matt Hartford has won three races in 2026, but with 161 points to make up in four races, he’s on the back foot. Maybe. Last year Glenn captured the whole enchilada, thanks to torrential rains that halted NHRA’s season finale in its tracks. He earned the regular season and national titles in the door slammer class and, while Anderson was okay with the trophy staying with KB Titan, he definitely wanted the opportunity to challenge the younger driver.
The points lead in Pro Stock has been a KB Titan boomerang, changing on several occasions so far this year. Glenn returned to the leadership in class after Norwalk, despite a mechanical issue in the semifinals at Norwalk last weekend. Anderson was out in the first round in Ohio with a leisurely reaction time against journeyman Kenny Delco, while Hartford went to the finals, fouling to Aaron Stanfield. While Elite Motorsports’ Greg Stanfield won in Sonoma last year, upsetting the KB Titan apple cart, Glenn had already taken the win in Seattle (which is after Sonoma this season), and Anderson prevailed in Brainerd. If the points are still tight at Indy, the Pro Stock regular season title comes down to who’s best on Labor Day.
There are only two races remaining for the two-wheel set, as Pro Stock Motorcycle competes in Sonoma mid-July and joins the Big Go at Indianapolis Labor Day weekend. Sonoma’s DENSO NHRA Nationals presented by PowerEdge was won by Richard Gadson in 2025 as he ratcheted his way towards the national two-wheel title at the close of the year. Gadson hasn’t lost his step, winning in Norwalk and leading his Vance & Hines Motorsports teammate Gaige Herrera by 83 points.
Sonoma is the site of Pro Stock Motorcycle’s GETTRX All-Star Callout, pitting the top eight riders against one another for a race-within-the-race, which is always fun for the riders and their fans. This year it could be a bit different. While Matt Smith, currently in fourth place in the standings (-136), is recovering from surgery, he’s had Joey Gladstone on his Matt Smith Racing Buell and that rider is keeping Smith’s seat warmed up nicely, having taken Smith’s Buell to the semifinals in Norwalk before fouling against Gadson. Angie Smith is 111 points behind Gadson after winning in Bristol, but the way Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec have Herrera and Gadson running their Suzuki Hayabusa3 bikes, it looks like this class’ regular season battle will be in the V&H camp.
REMAINING RACES IN THE 2026 REGULAR SEASON
July 17-19: 38th annual DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals presented by PowerEdge, Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, Calif.
July 24-26: 37th annual Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals, Pacific Raceways, Seattle
Aug. 20-23: 44th annual NHRA Brainerd Nationals, Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, Minn.
Sept. 2-7: 72nd annual Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Indianapolis
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