{"id":101550,"date":"2025-07-10T13:09:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T20:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=101550"},"modified":"2025-07-10T15:00:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T22:00:18","slug":"nhra-stars-racing-for-regular-season-payout-at-indy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nhra-stars-racing-for-regular-season-payout-at-indy\/","title":{"rendered":"NHRA Stars Racing for \u201cRegular\u201d Season Payout at Indy"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"For the past decade or so, NHRA has had two championships for its Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. There is the regular season and the Countdown to the Championship, the latter deciding season-long titles for Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaders of the \u201cregular\u201d season that ends with each year\u2019s U.S. Nationals on the Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park dragstrip have received added points to start the six-race Countdown to the Championship, but until this year\u2019s 2025 20-race season, there were no financial amenities.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s changed and now, with four races until the close of the 14-contest \u201cregular\u201d season at Indy, near many teams\u2019 Brownsburg, IN headquarters, being at the top of the heap when leaving Indy will mean more money to buy parts, harbor crews and keep incentives up for the final six-race push to be a World Champion.<\/p>\n

NHRA intends to award close to $400,000 to the regular season titleholders in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stock Motorcycle. A cool $150,000 will be awarded to each of the top finishers of the 14-race \u201cregular\u201d season at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHA U.S. Nationals at Indy in Top Fuel and Funny Car, with the exact payouts for the Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle classes have not been disclosed.<\/p>\n

Taking a look at the standings a week before the four-race dash to the \u201cregular\u201d season finale at Indy begins, it\u2019s easy to to back the top three in the dragster class – Tony Stewart, Shawn Langdon and Justin Ashley. The gap from Stewart to Ashley is a minuscule 77 points, with 2023 champ Doug Kalitta fourth (-187) and reigning titleholder Antron Brown in fifth, lagging Stewart by 218 points. The top three in this class will likely be battling for that $150,000 once Indy rolls around, but you never know.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tony Stewart, Shawn Langdon and Justin Ashley are primed to take Top Fuel regular season honors – Anne Proffit photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lately, Ashley\u2019s had the hot hand but this is not the first time it\u2019s been that way. He\u2019s led the season standings out of Indy in the past but hasn\u2019t been able to close the deal to win a title. Still, the New Yorker\u2019s lack of consistency will hurt him. Stewart\u2019s got two wins and has regularly gone to the semifinals and finals in the dragster class. Consistency has been a call word for Langdon, with two wins as well and four final round excursions. Ashley\u2019s back-to-back wins do give him momentum, but we\u2019ve seen this movie before; can Justin Ashley win when he needs to or will he fold? All thee of these drivers have raced one another deep into eliminations through these ten races; Langdon is 6-4 against both Stewart and Ashley, while Ashley is 4-6 against the pair of drivers ahead of him. Stewart is 4-4 against Langdon and Ashley this season.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
John Force Racing teammates Austin Prock and Jack Beckman are the cream of the Funny Car crop – Anne Proffit photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Force Racing has a near-stranglehold on Funny Car doing these first 10 contests of the 20-race 2025 campaign. While John Force\u2019s replacement driver, 2012 Flopper champ Jack Beckman winning twice and reigning titleholder Austin Prock snatching four victories. Paul Lee, who earned his first-ever Funny Car victory at Phoenix earlier this season has been consistent, thanks to the tuning of Jonnie Lindberg and John Medlen. In the past 30 Funny Car races, the combination of Prock, Beckman and John Force have won 18 of them, including six of the 10 completed contests in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Austin Prock again leads the standings – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prock has four victories this year, giving him 127 points over his teammate Beckman, who has two victories thus far. Lee\u2019s a distant 192 points behind Prock, who seems headed for this regular season title. Prock has led the standings for nearly the entire campaign thus far; he appears destined to earn that \u201cregular\u201d season title – unless Beckman gets hot in these final four contests. There have been three races thus far where Prock vs Beckman has been an all-John Force Racing battle; Prock has a 2-1 lead over his teammate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Pro Stock battleground has been one for KB Titan Racing, which earned the championship in 2024 with Greg Anderson. The six-time titleholder took his most recent crown in the final pass of the final race at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip last November. This year\u2019s championship battle is, once more between Anderson and teammate Dallas Glenn, whom the former defeated in that 2024 finale. Everybody else is picking up their consolation prizes in the door-slammer class, and that definitely includes Elite Motorsports, which had been the dominant team up until last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
KB Titan Racing teammates Greg Anderson and Dallas Glenn will vie for \u201cregular\u201d season honors in Pro Stock – Anne Proffit photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As they prepare to send haulers from their North Carolina headquarters to Seattle for next week\u2019s start of NHRA\u2019s Final Four, Anderson holds 50 points on Glenn, but their closest competitor, fellow KB Titan racer Matt Hartford, lags by an oceanic 313 points. This one\u2019s a two-horse race. Anderson and Glenn have won seven of their first eight races (Pro Stock did not race in Joliet or Richmond this season), while the eighth race – at Norwalk – was earned by their teammate Cory Reed, taking his first Wally winner\u2019s trophy.<\/p>\n

The battle royal between Anderson and Glenn will result in one of them earning the \u201cregular\u201d season crown; they\u2019re tied 3-3 in head-to-head matchups, with each of those races taking place in final rounds. This one is definitely a toss-up; whoever keeps it clean and fast will win the first championship of this season. Will it be the veteran or the up-and-comer?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pro Stock Motorcycle is, again a battle between Vance and Hines Motorsports and Matt Smith Racing. Is this a shocker? Well, no it\u2019s not. While this battle between six-time champ Matt Smith and his Buell rages against Vance and Hines\u2019 two-time reigning champ Gaige Herrera, the latter\u2019s teammate, Richard Gadson is waiting in the wings in case either of these two masters has issues. It could happen. Herrera leads Smith by 96 points and Gadson trails by 111, but this year the stakes have changed. Herrera\u2019s still a winning machine, but not at the rate he racked up for the prior two seasons.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gaige Herrera with his 2024 championship trophy – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All three of the top contenders have won in 2025\u2019s campaign; Herrera has three Wally trophies, while his competitors have one each. John Hall, who races a Buell with Matt Smith Racing, won the most recent event\u00a0 <\/span>at Norwalk, his third career victory. This weekend marks the seventh race for the two-wheeled crowd, while in Sonoma they\u2019ll also be battling for the GETTRX All-Star Pro Stock Motorcycle Callout, in addition to fighting for the overall race win and Mission\u2019s #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. While Pro Stock Motorcycle sits out the race before Indy, at Brainerd, MN, they\u2019ve got a couple of opportunities to shake things up before the points reset at the U.S. Nationals.<\/p>\n

What to think of all this? A regular season title can be precursor to a World Championship in NHRA Mission Foods drag racing. Both Prock and Herrera lifted the large trophy after being seeded No. 1 in the Countdown to the Championship last year, while Ashley folded in the last six races in both 2023 and 2024, after leading the regular season tallies. The battle between KB Titan\u2019s duo will continue through to the season finale, no doubt. Knowing how to win championships is always a big help in instances of this type, with money and fame on the line. Who will be NHRA\u2019s Regular Season champions? The answer likely won\u2019t be known until these final four contests are complete.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cool $150,000 will be awarded to each of the top finishers of the 14-race \u201cregular\u201d season at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHA U.S. Nationals at Indy in Top Fuel and Funny Car, with additional payouts for Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":101557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[6606,12256,11309,1259,8745,9524,887,1258,8558,80,9966,7,12255,10147,4769,81,4641,1192],"class_list":["post-101550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-austin-prock","tag-brainerd","tag-cornwell-quality-tools-nhra-u-s-nationals","tag-countdown-to-the-championship","tag-dallas-glenn","tag-gaige-herrera","tag-greg-anderson","tag-jack-beckman","tag-justin-ashley","tag-matt-smith","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-regular-season","tag-richard-gadson","tag-seattle","tag-shawn-langdon","tag-sonoma","tag-tony-stewart"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Gadson-mug-on-bike-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-qpU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101550"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101595,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101550\/revisions\/101595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}