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This weekend\u2019s third race in NHRA\u2019s diamond anniversary Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, the Lucas Oil Winternationals, has 75 years of NHRA-sanctioned straight-line racing. This weekend marks the 1,000th Funny Car race in the class\u2019 60th year. That\u2019s why 18 crew chiefs are bent over their computers trying to find The Way to get to the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip Winners Circle at the close of eliminations.<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t be easy. It never is, and this weekend\u2019s race mirrors last year\u2019s season finale in that weather is going to play a large part in the pending event. There hasn\u2019t been real rain in Southern California for quite a while, but with NHRA in town, everything changes. The system is supposed to hit Friday; the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series has already extended the time for sportsman racers in all ten classes to withdraw from the event. The extension goes to Wednesday, April 8.<\/p>\n
Four qualifying sessions are on tap for the Winternationals schedule, with the first two held mid-to-late afternoon on Friday and Saturday\u2019s pairings, which also include the second round of Mission#2Fast2Tasty Challenge competition between semifinalists from the previous race in Phoenix. Eliminations are scheduled to occur beginning at 11am on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Weather notwithstanding, Funny Car is obviously the focus for this weekend, and with 18 cars on hand, two will be out of action once eliminations take place. All eyes should be on the Tasca Racing Ford Mustang driven by reigning two-time champion Austin Prock. Pomona is where he achieved both of his titles – one on the track, the second waiting out last November\u2019s torrential rains. Prock didn\u2019t make the field at Gainesville, where 2026\u2019s 20-race sprint began; he was out after the first round in Phoenix and is currently 15th in the standings.<\/p>\n
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Chad Green holds first place in Funny Car\u2019s championship chase; driving his Ford Mustang Flopper, Green earned the first diamond Wally trophy of the season at Gainesville but fell in Phoenix\u2019s quarterfinals to Paul Lee and his Dodge Charger. Lee won the Phoenix round a year ago but was the loser to Ron Capps\u2019 GR Supra in the semifinals, allowing the now-78-time winner in NHRA competition to secure his first diamond trophy of the year against 2025 Rookie Of the Year Spencer Hyde.<\/p>\n
Pomona is a local event for many NHRA Funny Car racers, none more than Carlsbad resident Capps and one of his regular combatants, Corona\u2019s Jack Beckman. John Force Racing\u2019s most tenured team member at this time, the\u00a0 <\/span>2012 champion has earned a winner\u2019s time slip four consecutive times when he\u2019s been on the entry list; Beckman was out of action after Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) quit the sport, but went to the Winners Circle in Pomona both before the end of the DSR era and afterwards, when he joined John Force Racing (JFR) after John Force\u2019s 2024 accident. For his major sponsor PEAK, a win this weekend would be their third straight!<\/p>\n Still, Capps and Beckman aren\u2019t the sole Funny Car locals. Alexis DeJoria, who joined JFR this season is not only a Los Angeles native, but has continued her residence in the area. She\u2019s currently sixth in the standings after recording a runner-up result in her JFR debut in Gainesville, before being dispersed in Phoenix\u2019s first round against newly-minted JFR Funny Car racer Jordan Vandergriff, himself a Golden State native!<\/p>\n As California is considered the birthplace of both drag racing and NHRA, the latter now celebrating its 75th season of sanctioning straight-line racing, it\u2019s appropriate that so many of its racers come from California. And John Force Racing is among the more successful teams at this track, where its drivers have won 17 times in the Winternationals and on 14 occasions in the season closer; John Force won the 50th Anniversary NHRA Nationals at this track in 2001. What other Californians are looking for that 1000th Funny Car victory? Paul Lee in his Dodge Charger, Jason Rupertv (Anaheim) in his Mustang, Huntington Beach\u2019s Jim Campbell in a Mustang and Cruz Pedregon with his Charger, born in Torrance!<\/p>\n At this point, after two events, Chad Green\u2019s in the catbird seat, followed by Spencer Hyde in Jim Head\u2019s Mustang, Ron Capps, JR Todd, Matt Hagan, Alexis DeJoria, Jordan Vandergriff, Paul Lee, Daniel Wilkerson and 2025 Winternationals victor Jack Beckman complete the top 10 in points, with 110 points separating first from tenth. Look for Todd Lesenko in Jim Dunn\u2019s Dodge, Dave Richards in his Mustang, Blake Alexander in Chad Green\u2019s Dodge and newcomer Dylan Winefsky making a second consecutive stab at this tough class in his Dodge.<\/p>\n Yes, there are two other Mission Foods classes in play at the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. There are 15 Top Fuel entries this week and all of them are tough on this track Last year, Clay Millican won the Winternationals and he\u2019s hoping to repeat, even though he\u2019ll have to take on the reigning dragster titleholder Doug Kalitta, who is once again atop the points standings. Millican is plenty excited about being the face of NHRA\u2019s commemorative race tickets for his home event in Bristol, TN. NGRA is saluting 20 different racers – or their cars – for its 20 races in this 75th season.<\/p>\n Kalitta\u2019s teammate, Shawn Langdon, third in points after winning in Phoenix a second straight year, from nearby Mira Loma, is being recognized as one of NHRA\u2019s 75 best this weekend and he considered the recognition by \u201cweird and humbling,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I was a kid, I watched all those guys and a lot outhouse people I looked up to as a kid and got autographs from as a kid are heroes of mine!\u201d Bracketing the two Kalitta Motorsports racers is Josh Hart, in his first season with John Force Racing, who won his hometown event last month at Gainesville. Hart\u2019s car will look different this week, now that Speedmaster has joined the team as his primary backer. Just last week this company aligned with Melanie Johnson in Top Alcohol Dragster and now they\u2019ve placed their black-and-red colors on Hart\u2019s car.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Top Fuel field might be a bit light in numbers but it\u2019s strong in capabilities on the dragstrip. Everyone in the top 10 is on-site: Kalitta, Hart, Langdon, Leah Pruett of Tony Stewart Racing, Ron Capps Motorsports\u2019 Maddie Gordon, Tony Stewart with Elite Motorsports, four-time champ Antron Brown, eight-time titleholder and Millican\u2019s Rick Ware Racing teammate Tony Schumacher, Billy Torrence and Shawn Reed. To that group add the always -competitive Justin Ashley (currently11th), his new teammate Will Smith, Huntington Beach\u2019s Cameron Ferre and Ron August Jr. from Pleasanton, in northern California. There\u2019s a 111-point gap from first to tenth places.<\/p>\n A 19-car entry in Pro Stock will do more than take up space in the pits over this race weekend. The GESI No. 1 qualifier award has returned this year, dispensing $2,000 at every event to the quickest driver on the grounds. Last year, six-time champ Greg Anderson of KB Titan Racing dominated in qualifying all year, earning eight No. 1 awards while his teammate and eventual 2025 titleholder Dallas Glenn earned six. Matt Hartford, Cody Coughlin and Eric Latino, CEO of GESI each earned a single No. 1 award in 2025 as KB Titan teammates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, the first four racers in Pro Stock\u2019s top 10 all work with KB Titan Racing: Glenn, Hartford , Cody Coughlin and Anderson. Behind them are Elite Motorsports\u2019 Erica Enders and Greg Stanfield, with KB Titan\u2019s Matt Latino seventh, Elite\u2019s Jeg Coughlin Jr and Aaron Stanfield and KB Tiran newcomer Cody Anderson taking the tenth slot. Racers we\u2019re accustomed to seeing at higher levels will just have to step it up, including this group intending to race on Sunday: Troy Coughlin Jr., Eric Latino, Deric Kramer, Chris and Mason McGaha, while Dave Connolly makes an appearance in Cody Coughlin\u2019s car, Kenny Delco, Stephen Bell, Joey Grose and Chris Vang attempt to make this field.<\/p>\n In keeping with NHRA\u2019s celebration of its 75th season, expect to see appearances by six-time champion Kenny Bernstein, who made a 1994 blast of 310mph on this track, along with Funny Car winners Bruce Larson, Johnny Gray, Tim Wilkerson and John Force. Also scheduled to make appearances over the weekend are Don \u201cThe Snake\u201d Prudhomme, Richard Tharp, Gary Beck and many more. NHRA is giving away special 75th anniversary Winternationals event posters to the first 4,000 fans to pass through the gates.<\/p>\n As the Mission Foods series comes together at its legendary ancestral home, NHRA notes the list of milestone Funny Car drivers and the achievements leading up to this 1,000th race:<\/p>\n Weather notwithstanding, Funny Car is obviously the focus for this weekend, and with 18 cars on hand, two will be out of action once eliminations take place.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":105486,"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":[3465,3470,16,5029],"tags":[9330,13102,9631,9642,10004,9966,7,13193],"class_list":["post-105479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-pro-stock","category-racing","tag-9330","tag-1000th-funny-car-race","tag-in-n-out-burger-pomona-dragstrip","tag-lucas-oil-winternationals","tag-mission-foods-2fast2tasty-challenge","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-nhra-75th-anniversary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1000th-FC-race.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-rrh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105479","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=105479"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105489,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105479\/revisions\/105489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Ron-Capps-300x177.jpg\")
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