{"id":102505,"date":"2025-09-15T14:37:41","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T21:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=102505"},"modified":"2025-09-15T14:37:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T21:37:41","slug":"reed-pedregon-glenn-hall-avoid-chaos-to-win-40th-reading-nhra-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/reed-pedregon-glenn-hall-avoid-chaos-to-win-40th-reading-nhra-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Reed Pedregon Glenn Hall Avoid Chaos to win 40th Reading NHRA Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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High-speed crashes, surprise victories and early exits marked racing at the House of Chaos.<\/h2>\n

The Koretsky family is known for making chaos on NHRA racetracks. Kenny Koretsky raced as \u201cCaptain Chaos\u201d in Pro Stock and son Kyle has been \u201cKid Chaos\u201d in the same class. Now that the Koretsky family owns Maple Grove Raceway outside Reading, PA, that track is known as the House of Chaos.<\/p>\n

And so it is. After four rounds of qualifying and another four rounds of eliminations in the 40th Reading NHRA Nationals for the initial Countdown to the Championship playoffs race in the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, chaos reigned and only one of the four No. 1 seeds was left standing after a chaotic day of racing. The crowds left sated and the competitors wondered what was yet to come in the next five events before the championship concludes at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in November?<\/p>\n

Only two months after a vicious accident at his home race in Seattle, Shawn Reed took the winner\u2019s trophy in Top Fuel, showing that a guy with multiple fractured ribs and an amputated left index finger was, indeed, to be feared. The second-year racer earned his first career NHRA Top Fuel race win, coming from fourth in the qualifying order. Reed knocked off rookie Kyle Satenstein in the first round, got around tire-hazing Shawn Langdon before sending top qualifier Clay Millican back to his trailer.<\/p>\n

That brought Reed to the final round, up against 2023 champ Doug Kalitta, whose second-round accident while racing Tony Stewart – both drivers were okay, their cars not so much – caused Kalitta Motorsports to pull out the spare car to race in both the semifinals and the final round. In only his second final round appearance since joining the tour last year, Reed was fortunate when Kalitta, in his fourth final round this season, lost traction immediately, while Reed strutted to a 3.844-second pass at 326.63 mph.<\/p>\n

Racing last weekend at the IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series competition held at Hebron, OH, Reed was his class\u2019 winner as he checked out his personal condition and the readiness of his team for this six-contest playoffs. Reed was ready for this primetime exercise in speed. NHRA regulars had every reason to think that Reed could possibly run the table a second week, which he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis car has always been good,\u201d Reed reminded. \u201cEarly in the year, we were running into a few little issues on Sunday morning that would bite us, but these last several weeks, going back to when Jordan Vandergriff was driving, we qualified No. 3 at Brainerd and No. 2 in Indy and then won the IHRA last weekend in Ohio. Hats off to Rob Wendland, Ryan Elliott and our whole team,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dragged this bucket of bolts up there every weekend for a year and a half and we finally got a Wally!\u201d Reed\u2019s first finals appearance was a stout seven-plus years ago at the 2018 Gatornationals. With his final round bout, Kalitta took over the points lead as the series goes three weekends in a row to start the Countdown. Kalitta has 18 points on Stewart and 33 on teammate Shawn Langdon.<\/p>\n

While Top Fuel No. 1 qualifier Clay Millican made it as far as the semifinal round, the same couldn\u2019t be said for the top qualifier in Funny Car, Canadian rookie Spencer Hyde. Driving Jim Head\u2019s Ford Mustang, Hyde made a quarterfinal exit after beating Phil Burkart\u2019s Mustang in the initial go. Round two wasn\u2019t kind to Hyde as he joined fellow marquee drivers Austin Prock and Jack Beckman on the sidelines, falling to Blake Alexander in Chad Green\u2019s Dodge Charger. Alexander would go on to the final round, facing two-time champion Cruz Pedregon\u2019s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.<\/p>\n

It had been 55 races since Pedregon stood in the Winner\u2019s Circle, but when the driver\/owner beat Bob Tasca III\u2019s Ford Mustang, John Force Racing\u2019s points leader Austin Prock in his Chevrolet SS and took out Paul Lee\u2019s Charger, the scene was set. Pedregon earned his 40th win with a blast of 3.969 seconds at 330.63 mph. He the starting line advantage over Alexander, never faltered and earned his third victory at this track. It was kind of appropriate that this was both the 40th NHRA national event at Maple Grove and Pedregon\u2019s 40th national event Funny Car win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis s very special, very special,\u201d Pedregon said. After going so long without a victory, \u201cYou start to doubt yourself, as an owner and as a driver, and I\u2019ve done that a lot in the last couple of years. I thought, \u2018Maybe this is it.\u2019 But we took the hard road. I hired young guys who weren\u2019t already on other teams; it was like a draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went through the growing pains, but now I\u2019ve got a good group They\u2019re still learning,\u201d he stated, \u201cbut they\u2019re hungry and now here we are.\u201d Sunday morning, Pedregon held a group meeting and reminded his team that the playoffs are a six-race clash. \u201cI\u2019ve won this race before and sat in the winner\u2019s circle wondering how we did it. We can do that again, if we\u2019re mistake-free, aggressive and if we stay the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blake Alexander, always a threat in any nitro class, reached the final round for the first time this season with wins against four-time champ Matt Hagan (Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat), No. 1 qualifier Spencer Hyde (Mustang) and three-time champ Ron Capps\u2019 Toyota GR Supra. As Funny Car exits the verdant Mohnton, PA track, Prock has a 25-point advantage over teammate Beckman and 29 points on Capps.<\/p>\n

The sole No. 1 qualifier to survive four rounds of racing was Pro Stock\u2019s heir apparent Dallas Glenn, who came into the Countdown as the No. 1 seed. Picking up his fifth victory of the 2025 season in ten final rounds this year, the KB Titan Racing standout earned the 18th win of his young career. As the No. 1 seed in Pro Stock this weekend, Glenn had his way with Shane Tucker and two KB Titan teammates: Deric Kramer and six-time champ Greg Anderson.<\/p>\n

That semifinal round between the top racers at KB Titan Racing was appropriately chaotic. Anderson had issues on his burnout, crossing the starting line beams, and on his second attempt, he crossed the beams again, leading to an automatic disqualification and a solo run for Glenn. In the finals against teammate and first-time final round racer Cody Coughlin, Glenn had a far better reaction time, yet won the contest by a scant .0555 seconds, 6.557 (209.23) to Coughlin\u2019s 6.562 (208.68),<\/p>\n

Glenn leaves Pennsylvania with a 62-point lead over Anderson. \u201cYou definitely come in here and my goal, every race in the Countdown, is to leave with a little bit more of a lead. We definitely capitalized on that today. What a crazy day,\u201d Glenn related. \u201cHaving Cody Coughlin the final, with me taking out Erica Enders and Eric Latino taking out Aaron Stanfield, it was just a wild weekend They call it the House of Chaos for a reason. The car is working fantastic right now. I just have to make sure I don\u2019t beat myself!\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone thinking Pro Stock Motorcycle would be a Vance and Hines Motorsports runaway needs to pull back a bit. This weekend, John Hall showed that he belongs as part of this championship battle, as the Matt Smith Racing Buell rider earned his second Wally winner\u2019s trophy of this season and fourth overall. Beating team owner and builder Matt Smith in the final round was never going to be easy, as Smith had – until Sunday – an 11-5 advantage, but the duo were tied in the final rounds. Hall was first out of the gate with an .050 reaction time to Smith\u2019s .069, and was first to the quarter-mile stripe at 6.802 (199.70) to Smith\u2019s problematic 6.950 (167.66).<\/p>\n

Hall beat Kelly Clontz\u2019 Suzuki Hayabusa3 in the first round, then defeated reigning two-time consecutive champion Gaige Herrera in the quarterfinals, keeping Herrera from Maple Grove\u2019s Winner Circle for the third time in his short career. Hall\u2019s semifinal bout against part-timer Brayden Davis, who is running all six Countdown races on a Vance and Hines Motorsports Suzuki Hayabusa3, meant Hall and Smith were fated to meet in the first MSR intra-squad final since Sonoma in 2024. Smith prevailed in that one; it was Hall\u2019s turn this past Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all special for me; to do this in the Countdown is great because there are six races and you need to bring your A game,\u201d Hall said. After putting a new tire on his motorcycle but not being satisfied with it, Hall\u2019s side of the MSR pits went back to their older rear tire and got the right results. \u201cWe went four 6.80s in a row. The track was great and I need to say thanks to the Koretsky for a great track and thanks to MSR.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is great that they gave me this opportunity – Matt and Angie Smith gave me an opportunity to come out here and compete, probably in the later stages of my career, and I\u2019m just thankful for everything.\u201d Despite his final round loss to teammate Hall, Matt Smith moved to the points lead, riding to his fourth final round of the season and 85th of his career. To reach this final round, Smith beat Brandon Litten\u2019s Suzuki, teammate Joanna Evaristo\u2019s Buell and Vance & Hines\u2019 Richard Gadson\u2019s Suzuki Hayabusa3. Still he has a light six points separating himself from Hall and Herrera, with Gadson just nine points back in fourth.<\/p>\n

The 40th Reading NHRA Nationals had great weather and superb competition. Next weekend\u2019s race, September 19-21, the NHRA 4-Wide Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, NC marks the first time NHRA has raced four-wide in the Countdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High-speed crashes, surprise victories and early exits marked racing at the House of Chaos.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":102506,"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","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[12113,7,10768],"class_list":["post-102505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-2025-nhra-season","tag-nhra","tag-nhra-reading-nationals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/WC.1_MG.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-qFj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102505","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=102505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102507,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102505\/revisions\/102507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}