There are only two remaining races in NHRA’s 75th anniversary season. As the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series prepares for this Halloween weekend’s MOPAR NHRA Las Vegas Nationals powered by Dodge, every one of the professional classes – Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle – remain in play. In some cases the Countdown to the Championship is a tight battle; in others it’s a matter of which team member gets the nod. And there’s also the NHRA Rookie of the Year competition to examine, as one of five candidates will get this award after the season finale in Pomona.
It would be easy to cede the Top Fuel crown to Shawn Langdon, who has 139 points in hand over teammate Doug Kalitta. The standings behind this duo place the remaining contenders at least 224 points back. Antron Brown’s surge in this Countdown could signal a fifth title for the team owner should either of the Kalitta Motorsports teammates suffer issues in these two remaining races. It’s happened. It could happen again. In fact, Doug Kalitta had a long rep for being a bridesmaid in Top Fuel before earning his first championship in 2023. The veteran followed that with his second title last season and he’s been the one challenger Langdon hasn’t been able to ignore.
Failing to consider anyone in this Top 10: Langdon, Kalitta, Brown, Tony Stewart, Leah Pruett, Will Smith, Maddi Gordon, Justin Ashley, Billy Torrence and Josh Hart is a fool’s errand. Any one of these drivers can and could upset the Kalitta apple cart. As has been its current custom, NHRA will award points-and-a-half in the Pomona finale; Langdon would have to run the table in Vegas to earn his second Top Fuel championship this year and his first since 2013! They’re that difficult to come by…
Langdon needs to leave Sin City with 191 points over his contenders to earn his second title before the season finale takes place, something that hasn’t happened since Steve Torrence’s four-straight titles in the class. At this point, with 18 races completed, Kalitta Motorsports’ dragster duo have claimed 12 diamond Wally winner’s trophies and, the team reminded, competed in 68 of the 71 rounds of racing held to date! Neither one made final round appearances at the first Pomona race in March, June’s Norwalk event or two weeks ago at Texas.
The 17-car Top Fuel field for this Halloween weekend includes Shawn Reed, Tony Schumacher, Clay Millican, Spencer Massey, Cameron Ferre, Chris Powers and Bernie Plourd, the latter making his first start in class after earning his license in Indianapolis.
The standings in Funny Car are tighter than Top Fuel, but it’s still Matt Hagan and his Tony Stewart Racing Dodge//SRT Hellcat looking for a fifth title, after ceding to former John Force Racing (JFR) driver Austin Prock these past two years. Prock, who joined Ford stalwarts Tasca Racing to drive their Ford Mustang Dark Horse in 2026, is currently in fourth place but still has a chance, albeit a dark horse chance, to take a third straight. The guy who took over his Chevrolet SS at JFR, Jordan Vandergriff is shadowing Hagan and lies 98 points back, while Kalitta Motorsports’ racer J.R. Todd’s Toyota GR Supra holds third-place points after he won in Texas, needs to make up 119 points.
Figure those three are the primary targets for the 22-car field’s remaining 19 competitors, all of them racing either a Chevy (confined to JFR only), Dodge, Ford or Toyota. Funny Car has a large grouping this weekend, all of them looking to either make the field, qualify for Rookie of the Year or, just generally, have fun by going racing. Behind Prock in the standings are 2012 champion Jack Beckman’s JFR Chevy, three-time titleholder Ron Capps and his Supra, Alexis DeJoria’s Chevy – sporting a silver-and-black scheme to celebrate her sponsor, Bandero Premium Tequila’s Las Vegas Raiders partnership – as she looks to move up from her seventh place position (-227), Daniel Wilkerson, Chad Green and Spencer Hyde in their Mustangs. Hyde lies 354 points behind Hagan, who has already earned four diamond Wally trophies and has been to seven final rounds.
Joining this over-excelling group are Cruz Pedregon’s Hellcat, Terry Haddock’s Mustang, Dave Richards in a Mustang, Jeff Arend in Jim Dunn’s Dodge, Jeff Diehl’s Camry, Tim Gibbons and Jason Rupert in their Mustangs, Hunter Green’s Hellcat, Dylan Winefsky attempting to qualify for Rookie of the Year with his Dodge, and Julie Nataas, making another start in Del Worsham’s Supra. It’s a heady group looking to make the field for this penultimate race of the year.
The Elite Motorsports vs KB Titan Racing battle should go down to the wire at Pomona, as the top five drivers in class – all in Chevrolet Camaros – have a 99-point spread between them. The top of that grid moved from Elite’s Greg Stanfield to KB Titan’s Dallas Glenn after the recent Dallas race won by Glenn. There are only 14 points separating this pair of racers, while Matt Hartford is enjoying another stellar season in third, 41 points back. KB Titan’s biggest star, six-time champ Greg Anderson needs to make up 78 points while Troy Coughlin Jr. is 99 points back.
While the top five show three KB Titan and two Elite challengers, that situation reverses for sixth through tenth places, with Aaron Stanfield in sixth for Elite, rookie Cody Anderson seventh with KB Titan, five-time Pro Stock champ Jeg Coughlin Jr. eighth with Elite, Matt Latino ninth for KB Titan and six-time champ Erica Enders in tenth place, 224 points behind Glenn in her Elite Camaro. Entry lists show 16 competitors for this race, including Aussie Shane Tucker, Eric Latino, Deric Kramer, Alan Prusiensky in the lone Dodge racecar, Kenny Delco and Chris Vang, the latter a surprise first-day top qualifier in Sonoma.
At the start of the season, it would have been an easy bet to call for a Vance & Hines Motorsports shootout once the show came west to finish out this 75th anniversary season. But that is not the case. Sure, reigning titleholder Richard Gadson stands atop the listing, followed by his two-time title-holding teammate Gaige Herrera, but Matt Smith, Ryan Oehler, John Hall, Jianna Evariso/Joey Gladstone and Angie Smith are all riding Buells in third through seventh places. Angie Smith is 188 points behind Gadson, the final driver less than 200 points back.
What’s interesting about these Buell riders is that not all of them are with the same team. Ryan Oehler’s 2026 season has been nothing but exceptional, as the former single-Buell team now has three entries and it’s not taking anything away from the team owner. Oehler is riding better than he ever has on his family-prepped Buell, plus he’s got former Suzuki riders Malcolm Phillips Jr. and Clayton Howey keeping him honest as teammates this season. It’s also smart to note that Joey Gladstone’s great job subbing for Jianna Evaristo – who is expecting her first child in 2027 – has led to a full-time ride in 2027. Matt Smith Racing will have a fifth Buell for Ron Procopio Jr. in Las Vegas.
Eighth through tenth place in this two-wheeled lass belong to the Suzukis of Chase Van Sant and Steve Johnson, with Howey currently in tenth place and 317 points behind Gadson. These ten are joined by Chris Bostick’s and Geno Scali’s Suzukis, Marc Ingwersen’s Buell, GT Tonglet Jr. making his second appearance of the season after racing in Texas on the family’s Suzuki, Brad Hawkes on a Suzuki, and Karen Stoffer returning on a Suzuki this week.
There’s an extra incentive on the line for all four classes during Friday’s scheduled qualifying session in the evening. The special low qualifier bonus, from Ted Weins Complete Auto Service is sponsoring, for the second straight year, the “Ted Wiens Trick or Traction Award” that gives the low qualifier in the nitro categories of Top Fuel and Funny Car an added $3,500, while the Q2 Pro Stock top qualifier gets $1,500 and Pro Stock Motorcycle’s quickest rider earns $1,000. Last year those awards went to Brittany Force in Top Fuel, current Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan, reigning Pro Stock champ Dallas Glenn and two-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champ Gaige Herrera.
There may be weather issues in the Nevada desert this week, with rain forecast for all three days. This is an unusual occurrence, of course, but it could happen. At this time, the opportunity for rainfall is higher on Sunday than either preliminary qualifying day, striking a bit of apprehension.
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