Category: NHRA

Four-time Top Fuel world champion Steve Torrence powered to the provisional No. 1 qualifier on Friday at Firebird Motorsports Park, putting him in line for his first top spot of the season at the 39th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals. Funny Car’s Austin Prock is also the provisional No. 1 qualifier.

Due to unseasonable weather conditions on Friday in Phoenix, the Safety Safari spent additional time working on the track and track prep. Based on those weather conditions, the Pro Stock and Pro Mod qualifying sessions were postponed to Saturday. Both classes will make three qualifying attempts on Saturday, with Pro Stock running at its scheduled 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. times. The Pro Stock #2Fast2Tasty Mission Challenge will take place during those sessions. The last session in Pro Stock is slated for 3:30 p.m., where the finals of the NHRA Winternationals will also take place.

Torrence went 3.678 seconds at 336.23 mph in his Capco Contractors dragster to close out Friday qualifying as he looks for his 38th career No. 1 qualifier. The Texas native is also seeking his first victory of the 2024 season and was pleased with Friday’s run, which nearly set a career-best speed.

“I love racing here and I’m glad to be back in Phoenix,” Torrence said. “It’s a cool place to race and the car felt really smooth going down there. When you run that kind of mph, that’s nothing but power. It was a nice, smooth, clean run and that was exciting. We’ve made some big steps and figured some things out, and I feel like this car is better than it’s ever been. Now, we’re just trying to get that consistency down.”

Brittany Force took the second spot after going 3.689 at 334.90, while defending world champ Doug Kalitta’s 3.697 at 323.66 has him third.

In the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge, Force and Tony Schumacher won their matchups and will meet in the final round of the specialty race in the opening qualifying session on Saturday. Schumacher and Justin Ashley will race in the championship round of the NHRA Winternationals to close out final qualifying.

Driving the car that won at Firebird Motorsports Park a year ago, Funny Car’s Prock ran 3.840 at 334.40 in his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS to take the provisional No. 1 spot to continue his impressive start to his Funny Car career. If it holds, Prock would already have two Funny Car No. 1 qualifiers in three races this season and also the fifth in his nitro career. Taking over driving duties for Hight in Funny Car this year, Prock has performed well and has confidence this weekend driving for a team that has won the last two years in Phoenix.

“I can see the confidence in the team this weekend,” Prock said. “We have a really good notebook of runs here. The team (with Robert Hight driving) won the last few times they came here and we’re off to another great start.

“It really flew. This place is tricky, you get these crosswinds that really push these cars even though you’re punching a hole through the air and it really moves these cars around, but that’s what I love about Funny Car. So, you got to be ready for that. We love coming here and the fans are always great.”

Bob Tasca III is currently second after going 3.876 at 334.65 and Paul Lee is third thanks to his 3.889 at 329.02.

John Force and J.R. Todd won their matchups in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge on Friday and will meet in the finals of the specialty race in the first qualifying session on Saturday. Force and defending world champion Matt Hagan will meet in the finals of the postponed NHRA Winternationals to close out the last qualifying session.

Qualifying continues at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park.

A schedule change has been made for the upcoming Virginia NHRA Nationals, as all three qualifying sessions in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series will now take place on Saturday, June 22, leading into eliminations the following day at Virginia Motorsports Park.

The two-day NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series event will feature three qualifying sessions on the same day in the professional categories (Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle) for the first time, leading into Sunday eliminations. Official times for Saturday’s three qualifying sessions and Sunday’s first round of eliminations will be released next week.

This year’s event will mark the first NHRA race at Virginia Motorsports Park — regarded as one of the quickest and fastest tracks on the NHRA circuit — since 2022. It also will feature the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge for the first time during the last two qualifying sessions on Saturday. The Challenge is a unique bonus event that brings competitive racing to Saturday and offers a bonus purse and bonus championship points.

Brittany Force powered to the top spot to close out qualifying on Saturday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, earning her first No. 1 qualifier of the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season at the 64th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals. Matt Hagan (Funny Car) and Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) also qualified No. 1 at the second of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.

After a lengthy rain delay, Force put together a run of 3.711-seconds at 335.73 mph in her Mark Christopher Auto Center Chevrolet/Monster Energy dragster. It was the lone qualifying session due to weather and Force claimed her 47th career No. 1 qualifier with the standout run. She’ll open eliminations looking for her first victory since 2022 when she finished the year as world champion.

“That was a good, consistent run and that’s what we’re focused on,” Force said. “We’re in a good place and it’s pretty awesome to have 47 No. 1 qualifiers. That’s (crew chief) David Grubnic and this entire team. But our focus is on raceday and trying to get a win. We’re ready for tomorrow.”

Eight-time Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher took second with a 3.735 at 331.85, while Billy Torrence took third with a 3.745 at 330.47. Tony Stewart’s run of 3.737 at 328.30 during the second session was ruled invalid due to a timing system malfunction.

Reigning Funny Car world champion Matt Hagan, who won the Winternationals a year ago, made the most of his run on Saturday, going to No. 1 with a run of 3.893 at 330.15 in his Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for Tony Stewart Racing. It gives the four-time world champion 51 career No. 1 qualifiers and plenty of momentum going into raceday, where Hagan looks to pick up his milestone 50th career victory. He’ll open eliminations against Buddy Hull trying to pick up his first win of the season.

“To do a burnout and still have that many fans in the stands after the weather was pretty cool,” Hagan said. “The track was tricky, so we’ll take that run. All in all, I’m pretty happy with that. We’ve had a lot of success here and to make that run makes me feel confident going into tomorrow. We’ve won a lot of races because Dickie (Venables, crew chief) has been good on Sunday. It would be great to get that 50th (win) in Pomona. It’s such a special place and it’s really magical here. There’s so much history and when you show up here, you get chill bumps. It’s just a cool feeling.”

Ron Capps took the second spot with a 3.893 at 326.71 and Bobby Bode took third after going 3.972 at 292.96.

In Pro Stock, defending event winner Dallas Glenn racked up his fifth career No. 1 qualifier, closing out qualifying with a run of 6.536 at 209.75 in his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro. Glenn made a big move to close out the day after the team made wholesale changes leading into the day. They struggled on Friday, but the changes paid off heading into raceday, putting the young standout in a good spot to try and earn his first win of the season. He’ll open eliminations against KB Titan Racing teammate and rookie Sienna Wildgust.

“That was really satisfying,” Glenn said. “We basically rewired my entire car this morning. We changed so much stuff on it. We were not happy with it and it had been doing some crazy stuff. It at least worked for one run and we were pretty happy with it. The run felt amazing and we made a really killer run. Pomona has always been up there as one of my favorite tracks. I’ve always loved coming here and hopefully we have it turned around.”

Defending world champion Erica Enders qualified second with a 6.547 at 210.73 and Camrie Caruso jumped to third thanks with a 6.557 at 208.88.

Only one round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge was completed on Saturday due to weather as well. Shawn Langdon and Steve Torrence both won the opening round in Top Fuel, while J.R. Todd and Austin Prock picked up the Funny Car victories. In Pro Stock, Glenn and Enders raced to Challenge wins.

Eliminations for the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals begin at 10 a.m. PT on Sunday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.

Brittany Force grew up a 35 minute drive up the CA-57 N to Pomona Dragstrip.

“I’ve raced Super Comp there, A Fuel, Top Fuel, won two Top Fuel championships there,” said Force, age 37, on the eve of this weekend’s Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals. “There’s nothing like Pomona.”

Force comes off of a winless 2023 NHRA Top Fuel campaign in which she scored one runner-up finish and four semi-final appearances. The 2017 and 2022 NHRA To Fuel champion, it was the first time in three years that the Californian went without a win. Frustrated and disappointed with 2023, Force and the Monster Energy Chevrolet Top Fuel dragster team coined the expression 2024ORCE for the new race year.

“Yeah it is 2024ORCE this year,” said Force while making an appearance at longtime sponsor Monster Energy’s corporate headquarters in Corona, California. “Last year was a tough season for us. We weren’t performing where we should have been and that was after coming out of a championship year in 2022, so this year we’re going to get back on top and where John Force Racing should be. All of our teams – Austin Prock, my dad and my team – are looking to definitely turn things around and we want to win and we’re going to chase down another championship.”

“It’s tough, but when you get beat weekend after weekend, in those moments, it teaches you a lot about your team. Not once last season did we ever think, ‘Oh, this is out of our reach’ or ‘we can’t win.’ Obviously we’d get frustrated when we got beat again, but there was never an idea in our head where it was like we were going to give up. That speaks very loudly of this team and our character. It’s those tough weekends that prove how strong you are. It’s how you bounce back from those weekends.”

A fortnight back, Force and company yanked up the curtain on the 2024 season at the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout at Gainesville Raceway in Florida. Force was defeated by Antron Brown in the final round, and while disappointed to not win the Callout, she was enthused to just be back in her dragster.

“I was pumped just to be back in the seat at Gainesville,” said Force, who lost Sunday’s opening round of the NHRA Gatornationals. “It was a long off-season, and again, we didn’t have a great season last year. We want to come back swinging and we want to jump right into it and we want to chase down our first win of the season. So, very anxious just to get back out there and get back into the seat of my car and get into the routine of things and get this season going.”

To optimize performance and creativity, for the 2024 season, Force has the support and collective resources of two crew chiefs in David Grubnic and John Collins.

“It has been great with both of them,” said Force. “David Grubnic, I’ve been with him since 2019. And for this year, John Collins came on board. He came from Cruz Pedregon’s team, so we are excited to have him and I think they’re going to work together really well and I think we’re going to see it on the track very soon.”

Furthermore, Force has her father John Force making sure the JFR Top Fuel house is in order.

“My had has been very up-and-down,” she said. “You never know what you’re going to get with him. But he had a tough season as well in 2023, and that’s something we connected on and shared. It was a hard year for us, but we are ready to be back this year.”

During the off-season Force has spoken about wanting to optimize on race day.

“So our goals going into Pomona, or every event this season, whether we get three qualifying runs or four, we want to take advantage of every single one of those,” she said. “We need to go down the track every single run. We want to see consistency. We need to qualify in the top five to give us the best spot on race day and we need to go rounds and win some races if we want a shot at another championship.

“Pomona is a very important race for us. It’s Pomona, so we usually start our season here and end here, but they changed things a little. This is where we end our season. This is where champions are crowned. It’s a big one. It’s my home track. I’ve been coming here and watching my dad since I was a little kid. When I pull up to that racetrack, it is like, ‘I’m home.’ I love Pomona Raceway. We’ve done a lot at that racetrack and I’m excited to see what we’ll do this weekend.

“We need to qualify well. Starting there this weekend, we need to qualify well to get us set up for race day. We want to go some rounds. Like I said, we didn’t have a win last year. It was a tough season. But again it proved how strong we are. We kept pushing forward. We never gave up. We never lost sight of getting back to that winner’s circle. It just didn’t happen for us. This year, it’s game on. We’re going to go some rounds. We’re ready to get the ball rolling.”

Jasmine Salinas will make her NHRA Top Fuel debut this weekend at Pomona as she takes over driving the Scrappers Racing dragster from her father, Mike.

Mike Salinas, 62, is stepping back from competition to tend to personal health matters.

“I’m very proud of Jasmine,” Mike said. “I look forward to returning to the driver’s seat once I am ready. Jasmine has got the best crew in drag racing, led by Rob Flynn, Arron Cave, Adem Cave and Troy Fasching. So, there’s no doubt in my mind that this Scrappers Racing team is going to be a force at the track. They are just as confident in her as she is in them.”

The 32-year-old Jasmine spent much of 2023 working on earning her Top Fuel license, planning to move into the class this season. Scrapers Racing, the Salinas family team, had been seeking funding to run two cars with Jasmine and Mike as teammates.

Jasmine finished tied for second in the Top Alcohol national championship standings in 2022. Salinas earned three No. 1 qualifiers that season and won at Gainesville and Dallas.

Salinas will pilot the Scrappers Racing/Petersen Automotive Museum Top Fuel dragster this weekend.

“It’s an absolute mix of emotions as this was not how I wanted the opportunity to come about,” Jasmine said. “I’m incredibly grateful that my dad has entrusted me with the chance to step up into his place. I know that I have some big shoes to fill. My dad and his entire team have worked hard to make a name for themselves in this sport, and I want to make them all proud.”

Mike earned two Top Fuel wins in 2023 and finished fifth in the championship. Salinas also made history by becoming the first driver to run 300 mph at the 1/8-mile when he did so during the final round of qualifying at zMAX Dragway last fall.