{"id":105058,"date":"2026-03-05T07:32:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=105058"},"modified":"2026-03-05T07:32:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:32:54","slug":"nhra75-kicks-off-this-week-in-gainsville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nhra75-kicks-off-this-week-in-gainsville\/","title":{"rendered":"NHRA75 Kicks off This Week in Gainsville"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mark<\/a>
Mark Pawuk’s 2026 Dodge Charger Hustle Stuff Drag Pak by Direct Connection will debut at Gainsville. Image courtesy of Stellantis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first NHRA pro season without a Force in a driver’s seat in 25 years is about to kick off.<\/em><\/h2>\n

The PRO test has been completed, as has NHRA\u2019s own open test on Gainesville Raceway\u2019s legendary dragstrip. Now it\u2019s time to go racing for real. It\u2019s been since last year\u2019s Halloween weekend that the NHRA\u2019s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series has competed in anger, unable to race the season finale due to catastrophic damage to the site of the finals, the result of torrential rains.<\/p>\n

As NHRA starts its 20-race, historic 75th season with the 57th Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals, one thing is prominent: change. For the first time in more than a quarter century there won\u2019t be a Force in the water box this year. No John, no Ashley, Brittany or Courtney. That\u2019s a sea change.<\/p>\n

A19-car Top Fuel entry features reigning two-time titleholder Doug Kalitta and eight-time titleholder Tony Schumacher and four-timer Antron Brown. Add in former Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals winners Josh Hart (driving for John Force Racing) and Tripp Tatum, true rookie Maddi Gordon for Ron Capps Motorsports, along with newbies Will Smith, Gary Pritchett, returnees Jasmine Salinas, Cameron Ferre, Scott Farley, Billy Torrence. Look for class standouts Shawn Langdon, Justin Ashley, Shawn Reed, Dan Mercier, Tony Stewart for Elite Motorsports and Leah Pruett back in her Tony Stewart Racing dragster.<\/p>\n

Three of the Mission Foods classes will be running Goodyear tires with the NHRA 75 logo on them, special for this year. Of course Pro stock Motorcycle does not use Goodyear rubber. Another fun aspect of this event will be a race between four of NHRA’s most celebrated drivers. Kenny Bernstein, Joe Amato, Warren Johnson and Bruce Larson will conduct Legends races on both Friday and Saturday, using 550-horsepower 2026 Dodge Charger Sixpacks.<\/p>\n

In Funny Car, change is the operative word. Two time consecutive champion Austin Prock has taken his talents to Tasca Racing. He’ll be driving a Ford body for the first time in competition this weekend after successful testing the past two weeks. Or so the team says. Prock is joined by his father Jimmy and his brother Thomas on the new team while his spot at John Force Racing has been occupied by Jordan Vandergriff. Prock\u2019s former teammate Jack Beckman will be looking to take his second title in this class, again driving for JFR.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Alexis DeJoria. Photo Courtesy of John Force Racing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daniel Wilkerson is hoping to gain his first win in his third season while former winners Paul Lee, Chad Green, four-time champion Matt Hagan, three-time champion Ron Capps two-time champion Cruz Pedregon, 2018 titleholder J.R. Todd are all hoping to add to their totals. And it all starts here this weekend. Challengers include newly married Spencer Hyde, Dave Richards, Buddy Hull now driving for himself, John Smith, Alexis DeJoria, Terry Haddock, Hunter Green, Todd Lesenko and Julie Nataas in Del Worsham\u2019s Supra. This, too, is a 19-car field.<\/p>\n

There are at least 21 entries in ProStock, led by KB Titan Racing\u2019s first-time champ Dallas Glenn and six-time champion Greg Anderson. Their team is fortified by Eric and Matt Latino, Matt Hartfor\u2019d, Anderson\u2019s son Cody. Elite Motorsports has six Pro Stock entries to go with their single dragster for \u201cSmoke. Their group is, of course led by Erica Enders and recent Pro Mod winner in Bradenton, Aaron Stanfield. Jeg Coughlin Jr. and his nephew Troy Coughlin Jr are both flying the JEGS colors again this year with Jeg in yellow and black, while Troy’s Chevy has more of a black paint scheme. Aaron\u2019s dad, Greg Stanfield, who won a race last year for the first time in a long time, is back with the team again this year. Steven Bell is back for another try.<\/p>\n

Chris and Mason McGaha return to fight again and the Coughlin’s cousin Cody is back on the trail. There are only two drivers not in a GM product. That would be Brandon Miller in a Dodge and Derrick Reese in a Ford body car. Australian Shane Tucker is joining the class again this year at the Gators, and it is nice to see Kenny Delco coming back for more. This is a very strong entry list for the first race of the year; everyone is coming out because it is the beginning of the 75th season.<\/p>\n

All 16 Pro Stock Motorcycle entries are guaranteed to be in the show and it’s a shame that there aren’t more bikes showing up in Gainesville. That might have something to do with the fact that it is Bike Week in Daytona Beach. First time champion Richard Gadson has his two time champion teammate, Gaige Herrera looking to take back a title in 2026, but there’s always the Matt Smith Racing Buell foursome who are dedicated to stopping any Vance & Hines Motorsports title in 2026. Matt and Angie Smith are joined again by John Hall and Jianna Evsristo. 2002 champion Geno Scali is on the V&H rental bike, while last year’s stand out V&H rider, Brayden Davis has left the Suzuki camp to ride a Buell alongside Ryan Oehler. It will be interesting to see how that turns out. This writer thinks Davis will take that team to another level.<\/p>\n

Chase Van Sant and Chris Bostick return to WAR Racing’s Suzuki camp, and can you believe that Steve Johnson is about to start his 40th season in this class, again on a Suzuki. Floridian Kimberly Morrell is an independent rider on a Suzuki and Clayton Howey rides a Suzuki. In 2025, Kelly Clontz had a protracted season on her V&H Suzuki but she’s looking forward to a stronger run this year, as is Marc Ingwersen on his Buell.<\/p>\n

Back when NHRA started at season in Pomona, everyone used to say that the real season began at the Gators. That’s because, beyond the four pro classes, there are 11 more and everyone wants to be here for the start of the season. That’s a big reason for the move. Fans of the sport love to see Pro Mod, Top Alcohol Dragster, and Top Alcohol Funny Car, Competition, Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas, Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, and factory stock showdown, where Marc Pawuk is looking to take a third consecutive title in the class.<\/p>\n

Racing begins Thursday for the sportsmen, while the pros get started Friday mid afternoon. The intent is to have everything completed on Friday by about 7 PM. Saturday is much busier as the Right Trailers All-Star Callout eliminations take place for eight elite Top Fuel racers, in addition to regular action. Sunday’s action begins at 10 AM, shortly after daylight saving time starts. As for the weather, it’s supposed to be clear during the daytime hours with slight chances of showers all nights this weekend. It’s not unusual for Gainesville to have massive rain showers, but I think everyone on the grounds is hoping that doesn’t happen.<\/p>\n

Here’s to the start of the NHRA\u2019s 75th racing season!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As NHRA starts its 20-race, historic 75th season with the 57th Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals, one thing is prominent: change.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":105061,"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":[13133,622,593,13132],"class_list":["post-105058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-2026-nhras-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-gainsville","tag-gatornationals","tag-nhras-mission-foods-drag-racing-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Image-3-4-26-at-6.14\u202fPM-2-scaled.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-rku","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105058","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=105058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105062,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105058\/revisions\/105062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}