The 59th annual In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals are setting up to be a revelatory occurrence this coming weekend. Similar to last year, champions won’t be crowned until the racing is underway, whether in the four sessions of qualifying on Friday and Saturday, or four sessions of eliminations on Sunday. It’s a scenario that shouldn’t be surprising to fans of straight-line racing, as winners are rarely anointed without a good dose of strong competition. With points-and-a-half on offer to all competitors at this series finale, anything can happen.
Last year’s Top Fuel battle in NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series went down to the final run on Sunday night, between two racers hoping for their first titles: Doug Kalitta and Leah Pruett lined up in the final round to earn a title. It went to Kalitta, who’d been trying to earn a championship for 26 years.
That won’t happen in 2024, as the reigning titleholder has lacked the necessary consistency to go back-to-back. Last year’s “regular season” winner is currently leading the points, as Justin Ashley holds a 44-point lead on three-time titleholder Antron Brown, with Kalitta’s teammate, 2013 dragster champ Shawn Langdon is a single point behind Brown. Kalitta’s in fourth place, 85 points in arrears and tied with four-time champ Steve Torrence. The only other racer less than 100 points behind New Yorker Ashley is Clay Millican, with 93 points to make up.
Most anything is possible when 30 points are available for each round win and don’t think these racers are unaware of that scenario. When even the qualifying points are elevated, change during the race meeting is something everyone can depend on. The only chance of this title being decided before race day? Can’t think of one! Behind Millican are Brittany Force, who finally returned to the Winner’s Circle in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, eight-time champ Tony Schumacher, a very improved Shawn Reed (who didn’t even have tools a year ago) and class rookie Tony Stewart, vying for Rookie of the Year.
The three major combatants have a variety of histories in the sport, and can look to their families for the impetus to compete. Ashley’s dad Mike raced in NHRA nitro classes with some success, but nothing like his son, who is looking to bookend the Pomona races after winning the Winternationals last spring (still can’t used to that). While he’s not had the championship-winning experience of either Brown or Langdon, he realizes there’s “a lot more on the line, but it’s still just another race. Our team,” Ashley said, “deserves to be in this situation and our focus is internal, to make sure we’re enjoying it. Situations here are out of our control.”
For Brown, the hunt for a fourth title could have been easier after he won the first two races of the six-contest Countdown to the Championship that began in Reading this September. While he’s got a good hot-weather setup, with temps expected in the 60s on Sunday’s race day, “We know we’ve got to get the job done on a consistent basis. We’re going out to win, not just race because we’ve prepared this whole season for this moment.” Langdon has a brand new car after his Sunday rear-end failure at Las Vegas. The team went back to Ypsilanti, Michigan when the finals of that race were still ongoing and, Langdon said, “We saved ourselves some off-season work by having to both front- and back-half the car for this weekend. You work all year long to be in this situation; this is what you work for, to put in the hours and trust the process.”
With 19 Top Fuel dragsters expected to be on the grounds, this could be quite the upsetting run for some of those looking for a big Sunday. Schumacher’s teammate Ida Zetterstrom has shown flashes of brilliance, expected for the 2023 European dragster champ. She’s joined by double race winner Josh Hart, Billy Torrence, Jasmine Salinas, Krista Baldwin, Lex Joon, Gary Pritchett (in the second Scrappers dragster), indefatigable Scott Palmer and Ron August Jr. That’s quite the lineup of dragster racers!
It would be easy to concede the Funny Car title to John Force Racing’s Austin Prock, who doubled up in Las Vegas with teammate Brittany Force less than two weeks ago. He has a huge, 188-point lead on boss man and 16-time champion John Force, whose similar Chevrolet Camaro SS is being wheeled by 2012 Flopper titleholder Jack Beckman as substitute for the ever-improving Force, who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) at Richmond in late June. As Beckman said, during last weekend’s Nitro Revival 7, “I’ve got the best car I’ve ever driven with this JFR Camaro. There’s only one that’s just a little bit better and you know who that is!” (Beckman’s last time running in the final race of the season came in 2020 at Las Vegas and, yes, he won that event. Can he do it again?)
Yes, we know. It’s Prock, who has raced Top Fuel the past few years and assumed the driver’s seat in Robert Hight’s Funny Car at the start of the season when that three-time titleholder had to step away due to medical concerns. Essentially, Prock didn’t know if he’d be racing at all in 2024 until Hight needed to give up his seat for the season and now, barring an epic issue in qualifying Friday and Saturday, the 29-year-old is set to earn his first NHRA title. With a record 14 No. 1 qualifiers this year and eight wins – including three in the six-race playoffs that conclude this weekend – Prock realizes, “The job isn’t done. This category is so tough, so unpredictable and the job is finished when the trophy is in our hands. And when it gets to my hands, it’s going straight to my dad’s hands! But the job isn’t finished; we still haven’t won the championship and that’s our main goal this year.”
Last year’s race winner at Pomona’s season finale in Funny Car was Chad Green in a Ford Mustang, crew-chiefed at the time by Daniel Wilkerson, who is vying for Rookie of the Year as he completes his first 20-race campaign in what had been dad Tim’s Ford Mustang. Wilkerson is in seventh place, 372 behind Prock, who leads Ron Capps’ Toyota GR Supra by 251 points, reigning titleholder Matt Hagan’s Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat by 258, by Bob Tasca’s Mustang (-282), and Blake Alexander in Jim Head’s Mustang, 351 points behind Prock. None of these seven drivers, nor J.R. Todd in Kalitta Motorsports’ Toyota GR Supra, Green and two-time champ Cruz Pedregon in his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat is anywhere near Prock’s points total, with Pedregon in tenth place a gaping 450 points in arrears.
In addition to these ten drivers, in another expected field of 19, there are plenty of good cars and drivers who can upset the points chase. Paul Lee’s Charger helped him get to the finals at Las Vegas, while Buddy Hull completes his first season driving Jim Dunn’s Charger. Terry Haddock’s on-hand with his Mustang, Dave Richards has his Toyota, Steven Densham is back in dad Gary’s Mustang, Jeff Diehl is making the trip to race in his Toyota Camry, Jason Rupert returns in his Mustang, Alexis DeJoria has one more chance to win in 2024 with her Toyota GR Supra and Alex Miladinovich is returning to race his Mustang. That makes for a very, very stout entry list.
Last year’s Pro Stock battle saw Erica Enders win her sixth title and Aaron Stanfield secure the race victory, both on the Elite Motorsports squad that is expanding by the minute. Last year’s battle was between Enders and five-time champ, KB Titan Racing team leader Greg Anderson. This year’s the duo are in fourth and third places, respectively, with Elite’s Stanfield just two points more than a round win ahead of KB Titan’s Dallas Glenn. Those 32 points could evaporate quickly if Stanfield’s not on his game. Anderson is third and 56 points back, while Enders is fourth and a massive 128 points in arrears.
Both Stanfield and Glenn have had great seasons, with the former earning six victories and going to 10 final rounds. Stanfield is aware that this battle could easily go down to the final round of play late Sunday afternoon, especially with the extra points on offer and the 32-point gap being just over a single round. It’s easy to foul out in one of these Pro Stock machines so all three title combatants, Stanfield, Glenn and Anderson have to be fast, quick and simultaneously steady. If either Stanfield, 29, or Glenn, 33, prevail, they’ll be the first drivers not named Enders or Anderson to win this title since 2018!
“It’s going to come down to the wire,” Stanfield projected, “and I’ve never been in that position before. It very well could come down to that last round. That’s what dreams are made of and it’s going to be fun to watch it all play out!” Glenn, who’s led the standings for the larger part of this 20-race season, earning five wins along the way, realizes that he knows “what I need to do when I get there. Hopefully we can go out and make eight solid runs this weekend. I’ve tried to relax and not overthink things, and then just go out there and do the best we can. But our goal is to make eight quality runs and try to win the race.”
The balance of the Pro Stock top ten are Jeg Coughlin Jr. from Elite (-212), KB Titan’s Matt Hartford, Elite’s Cristian Cuadra, Jerry Tucker and Troy Coughlin Jr., with KB Titan’s Eric Latino in tenth place, a massive 398 points behind Stanfield. Again, 19 entries are expected to alight at Pomona for this impactful event, with Camrie Caruso again working with KB Titan, Cristian Cuadra racing a Mustang for Elite, Kenny Dell’s Camaro, both Chris and son Mason McGaha bringing their Camaros, Cory Reed continuing his Pro Stock indoctrination, while Joey Gross (Camaro), Derrick Reese (Mustang, Fernando Cuadra Jr. and David Cuadra bringing their Mustang-bodied cars to the show.
Every racer in the Pro Stock Motorcycle pits will be racing on Sunday, as only 16 riders are bringing either a Buell or Suzuki motorcycle to Southern California. While Gaige Herrera hasn’t run away and hidden as he did in earning his first Pro Stock Motorcycle championship on the Vance & Hines Motorsports Suzuki Hayabusa3 in 2023, he still holds a 123-point advantage on six-time champ Matt Smith and his Buell. Smith and his Matt Smith Racing quartet of Smith, wife Angie, John Hall and Jianna Evaristo have definitely kept the proceedings interesting, as they challenge Herrera and his team.
Behind M. Smith in second place lies Richard Gadson, the rookie rider for Vance & Hines on a Suzuki Hayabusa3, Hector Arana Jr.’s Buell, 2024 race winner Chase Van Sant’s WAR Racing Suzuki, Angie Smith, John Hall, Jianna Evaristo, veteran Steve Johnson’s Suzuki and WAR Racing’s Chris Bostick’s Suzuki, the lone motorcycle with a parachute (worth seeing). The balance of entries include Marc Ingwersen’s Buell, 2003 class champ Geno Scali on a third V&H Suzuki Hayabusa3, local Aaron Pine from La Mirada on his Suzuki, Ryan Oehler and Lance Bonham as Buell teammates and Clayton Howey of Hanford, CA, racing a Suzuki motorcycle.
The pits will be full this weekend, and not just with the Mission Foods’ protagonists. There’s plenty of Lucas Oil sportsman categories on the docket: Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car, Competition Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas, Top Sportsman and Top Dragster. In addition, cacklefests are planned at the track’s Hot Rod Junction, there are plenty of autograph sessions and Sunday’s SealMaster Track Walk before eliminations take place. A cold front is expected to blow through the Los Angeles area on Thursday night and into Friday, with a slight chance of Saturday showers. Temps will hover in the low 50s to mid-60s throughout the weekend.
Who will be toasting their titles come Sunday night? We’ll have to be there or tune into FS1 to find out.
Leave a Reply