Photos by Todd Dziadosz, NHRA
SUNDAY NOTEBOOK – NHRA READING NATIONALS AT MAPLE GROVE RACEWAY
1 – KALITTA-STEWART CRASH UPSETS ACTION – Tony Stewart said he had no recollection of his 325-plus-mph Top Fuel collision with Doug Kalitta during the second round of eliminations Sunday at the NHRA Reading Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.
The violent, high-speed accident occurred between Stewart, who entered the race atop the Countdown to the Championship standings, and No. 3 Kalitta, upsetting psyches and the standings.
For unknown reasons, the front left wheel of Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster collapsed at the finish line following his winning 335.73-mph pass. That triggered the scariest incident of a wild day at the Countdown to the Championship opener, held at the appropriately nicknamed “House of Chaos.”
That sent Kalitta from his lane into the right side of Stewart’s Dodge Direct Connection dragster. Stewart, who just had completed a 326.71-mph run on the 1,000-foot course, took the brunt of the impact. His car flipped onto its left side but rebounded upright onto its tires and struck the left guardwall. Kalitta’s car slid back over the center line and came to a stop in its right lane.
Kalitta climbed from his dragster right away, but Stewart took a bit longer to exit his car. NHRA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Phil Surface consulted with each driver onsite before releasing them. The ever-calm Kalitta, who rushed over to check on Stewart’s condition, appeared only slightly shaken and spoke about his team pulling out the back-up car for its semifinal appearance.
However, Stewart clearly was subdued and implied that he had been knocked unconscious, at least for a short moment. He said he had no idea what happened.
“I don’t have a damn clue, honestly. I honestly don’t know. I don’t remember any of it. Just the first thing I remember, they were waking me up here, so not sure what happened,” Stewart said. “But it appears to be pretty massive.
“So, I mean, looking at Doug’s car and my car, I’m glad PBRC [Precision Built Race Cars, of Brownsburg, Indiana] builds our cars. We got safe race cars, obviously, but I’m as curious as everybody else as to what happened,” he said. “I just know we’re not where we’re supposed to be at the end of a run here. So … just confused.”
He added, “I’ve got one hell of a headache, and it banged my left hand up. But, yeah, I mean, I’ve been through sprint-car crashes way worse than this, I’m pretty sure. So we’re good. We’re fine, I promise. We’re fine.”
Stewart said he definitely plans to race this next weekend near Charlotte, when the Countdown continues with the 4-Wide Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway.
“I’m not going to miss that,” Stewart said.
Kalitta – who in the 1990s raced Stewart in USAC sprint cars, where both were champions – said his tire “was down or blew or whatever. So, yeah, it was just unfortunate, really. It just happened so quick that there was nothing I could really do.
“Just glad we’re going” to the semifinals, he said, “We’ll drag our other car out, and see if we can keep this thing going here. But fortunately, Tony and I are good. So that’s really the main thing.” He added, “That’s probably the worst [wreck] that I’ve had, but, yeah, it’s been very fortunate over the years. It’s all part of it.”
Clay Millican, the No. 1 qualifier who defeated Brittany Force in the next pairing after Kalitta-Stewart, said, “My heart was not in the race car at that moment.”
And Rob Wendland, crew chief for Shawn Reed, who ran after Millican, said, “Seeing something like that has you crapping razor blades.”
2 – REED’S TOP FUEL VICTORY ONE OF DAY’S HAPPY STORIES – Top Fuel winner
Shawn Reed turned his troubles into triumph with his first NHRA Top Fuel victory Sunday at the Countdown to the Championship-opening Reading Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.
He defeated new points leader Doug Kalitta in the final round on the historic eastern Pennsylvania dragstrip that was marking its 40th NHRA visit.
It has been less than eight weeks since Reed broke five ribs and had his left index finger amputated following a qualifying crash at Seattle.
But after hiring Jordan Vandergriff to substitute for him at the next three races, team owner Reed has made a storybook rebound. He entered an IHRA race near Columbus, Ohio, to see if he was comfortable in the car yet, and won. Cleared medically to return to NHRA competition, he fulfilled his goal to race all six Countdown to the Championship events – and won Sunday’s playoff opener. It vaulted him from 10th place into a tie for fifth with this weekend’s No. 1 qualifier, Clay Millican.
“I know it’s a hard road, but what I will tell you is that No. 10 will not be on my wing next year,” he said.
“Man, it’s crazy. It’s hard to keep my composure,” he said, cradling his first Wally statue. Remembering that he didn’t qualify for this event last year and vowed “We’re going to be part of the conversation next year,” Reed thanked his crew, saying they have “put up with a lot of gunk.”
He said, “This car has been running good for a while now and has been steadily getting better and better throughout the year. Hats off to Rob Wendland, Ryan Elliott, and our whole Reed Trucking & Excavating team. We dragged this bucket of bolts up there every weekend for a year and a half, and we finally got a Wally. I’m just so happy for these guys, even more so than I am for myself probably, and I’ve waited six years to get one of these.”
3 – ANGRY HAGAN BLASTS BODY TETHER RULE – The start to an abysmal day for Tony Stewart Racing came in the opening round of Funny Car eliminations. Matt Hagan launched a tirade against the NHRA’s Funny Car body tethering rule after an engine concussion split the body of his Dodge Direct Connection/American Rebel Charger in his match-up against Blake Alexander.
“This NHRA tether rule is ridiculous. It’s going to get a driver killed,” Hagan said. “I couldn’t see where I was at. I couldn’t see where the other driver’s at. Couldn’t see anything. I was just along for the ride. It’s like, ‘What are we doing?’ I’m a four-time world champion, and I probably should walk away from the sport because of stupid stuff like that. We got guys making rules that have no idea how to drive one of these things. I get it, there’s no great answers, but this ain’t it.”
Hagan was vocal a year ago at the same race about the rule, which requires Funny Cars to have one tether per side. It’s a safety effort to prevent a carbon-fiber body, which weighs nearly 90 pounds, from sailing into the grandstands and injuring spectators.
“Crawling into these things, knowing that I put myself at a massive risk of getting hurt and injured, and we’re just one run away from being John Force, you know what I mean? There’s not a single person out here that crawls that car that can deny that with these bodies the way they’re tied down. They’re unsafe now,” Hagan said last September, referring to John Force’s high-speed wreck in June 2024 at Richmond that effectively has ended his driving career with a traumatic brain injury diagnosis.
“So what can be done to make you safer? I don’t know,” he said. But for starters, he pleaded, “Take the tethers off.” As for the suggestion about a booster rev limiter, he said, “A lot of crew chiefs and a lot of guys don’t like that, but it shuts the car off before it ever gets to where it blows up, you know what I mean? But that doesn’t work when the body’s all crinkled up and the lines don’t work. So what happened with Force’s car when the body blew up? The tethers pulled it up and then it fell back down, so then there’s all this slack in the line here. So basically what happened, even though the thing might’ve worked, it never pulled the slack out of the line because the body was still all crunched in, pulled down on top of it. So you put all the safety stuff on there you want, but at the end of the day, if it doesn’t work, you’re just along for the ride.”
He continued, “It’s one of those things where it is very concerning. I want to live another 30, 35 years, but I don’t want to do it burned up or crippled up or maimed up because of optics that we’re trying to protect the fans. I love our fans, but we’ve been launching bodies off of these things for decades and nobody’s gotten hurt. So why are we putting our drivers in a situation to where it’s really, really bad for us?”
He quickly clarified, “Not saying that I want anything to happen to our fans by any way, shape, or form. But I definitely have made a career out of this, and I have no choice but to crawl in these cars to pay my bills. And now I feel like I’m in a situation to where it’s unsafe for me to be in there. You’re never going to make a Funny Car safe. They’re Funny Cars, but we’ve increased the opportunity to get hurt in one now by four or five times the amount by just bodies not coming off, ’chutes are not coming out. Fire is greater when the body stays on there. More chance getting trapped in the car, not being able to see when the firewall comes up, and the windshields up out of here. I mean, that’s five examples right there, right off the rip.”
Hagan said he understands that “everybody has their own opinion. And mine is that, that we should find a different way to do this other than the tethers. I’ve been driving one of these things for 15 years, and I’ve been in a lot of situations where I’ve been on fire so bad that you blister your legs up and you want to jump out when it’s still running 150 miles an hour. I’ve been through it, so it’s not like I’m sitting here preaching to someone that hasn’t been through the ins and outs and the bad boomers and the explosions and all the other stuff. So, I mean, I just know what happens at 300 miles an hour when you’re doing that, and it’s not good.
“What happens when we’re holding these bodies down [is] you’re asking for all that energy to stay underneath the car there. When you put a firecracker in your hand and you open up your hand, it’ll burn you pretty bad, if you’re lucky. But you close your hand around that, and it’s going to knock your fingers off. That’s just simple physics. Any person that understands physics understands that’s going to happen. But that’s what we’re trying to do with these cars. Even with the burst panel up front, you’re trying to hold that energy down on top of the driver, and that’s a massive concussive force that you can’t even explain to someone. It’s just a lot of energy. And then what happens is these tethers stretch a little bit, so then the firewall is up in front of your face instead of the windshield. So then you’re running blind.”
The same has happened to fellow Funny Car driver Daniel Wilkerson, who has called for an investigation into the matter.
“I get it,” Hagan said. “That’s the responsibility we take on to drive. But that’s not the responsibility I took on when I first started driving. One is I decided to make a career out of this and kind of put all my eggs in this basket kind of thing. So things evolve and things change, but I just feel like … I don’t know why I’m the only driver that’s really talking about this.”
4 – WILD ROUND 2 IN FUNNY CAR – Sunday simply was not Austin Prock’s day.
The No. 2 Funny Car qualifier did beat Joe Morrison in the opening round, but fell to eventual winner Cruz Pedregon in an uncharacteristic mistake in the quarterfinals. He was being a bit hard on himself, as he was battling a dropped right-side cylinder early in the run.
He had said after his first run that “this Countdown is so stressful. You’re trying to make it not stressful – but, damn, it is.
“Not turning on the win light’s one thing, but when you look like a d—head and you mow over cones, that stings as a race car driver. That’s the first thing I’ve ever hit in since 2018, when I started driving these cars. So, definitely frustrated. The thing left, had a hole out, had my hands full, then it’s come loose, and I tried pedaling it and it just hung a left on me. So really frustrated that not only did we lose, we lost more valuable points. So we’re going to have to get our stuff together – me, as well – and we’ll be fine. You can afford to lose an early matchup when you come in as a points leader. So, sorry to all my sponsors – Hendrickcars.com, Cornwell Tools – for letting you guys down. I should be able to catch that thing and still turn on the win light. So we’ll get ’em next week.”
Pedregon was happy, but not boasting about his round-win over Prock, saying, “They kind of beat themselves.”
It was just one part of a wild second round in which No. 1 qualifier and surging rookie-of-the-year candidate Spencer Hyde lost against eventual finalist Blake Alexander (the driver Hyde succeeded at Jim Head Racing).
And then Ron Capps was mystified rather than elated after he defeated Jack Beckman by 14-thousandths of a second – and blew up his engine and damaged the car’s body at the top end of the course.
5 – FINALLY BACK IN WINNERS CIRCLE – Funny Car winner Cruz Pedregon defeated Blake Alexander to win for the first time in 56 races – since the November 2022 NHRA Finals at Pomona, California. And when he advanced to the final round Sunday, the two-time champion declared, “I haven’t been a champion for nothing.” He proved it, earning his third victory at Maple Grove Raceway and his 40th overall that has him sixth on the class’ all-time win list.
“I was emotional earlier, and I said, ‘We’ve won a couple of championships – I haven’t forgotten how to do it.’ So as long as the Raiders are back, the Cruzer’s back, baby,” Pedregon, an avid Las Vegas Raiders fan, said.
He is three victories behind brother Tony Pedregon, also a two-time champion, who left the seat of his Funny Car to become a TV analyst for the FOX broadcasts. Cruz Pedregon said, “Man, this is big, 40. I used to kid Tony … He’s got like 40-some wins [43] and it’s taken me a lot longer. He quit like, I don’t know, 100 years ago, and he still has me beat with the Wallys.
“Man, this is a big one. These things are hard to win. I tell my buddies that drive sprint cars all the time, ‘You need to be in shape to do this, too.’ I’m wore out. It’s just been a process.”
He praised Jason Bunker, his young crew chief who used to work with Paul Lee, and his longtime sponsor Snap-on.
He took a brief moment to allude to the Charlie Kirk shooting that has been in the news since Wednesday: “And a lot of not-so-good things going on in our country right now. I want to send the best to the families, folks in Utah. Nothing political, just human beings, right? “ Pro Stock Erica Enders also has written on the back of her windshield, “TPUSA. We love [heart] you, C.K.”
Pedregon, now sixth in points the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, said of Sunday’s triumph, “This is very special, very special. You know, you start to doubt yourself — as an owner, as a driver — and I’ve done that a lot the last couple of years. I thought, ‘Maybe this is it.’ But we took the hard road. I hired young guys who weren’t already on other teams. It was like a draft.
“We went through the growing pains, but now I’ve got a good group. They’re still learning, but they’re hungry, and now here we are. This morning, I told the guys, ‘There are six races left, including this one. I’ve won this race before and sat in the winners circle, wondering how we did it. We can do that again — just be mistake-free, be aggressive, and stay the course.’”
6 – ANDERSON’S ERROR LEADS TO GLENN’S WIN – Dallas Glenn capitalized on a mistake by KB Titan teammate and 111-time winner Greg Anderson in the semifinal and went on to win the Pro Stock trophy. He claimed his fifth victory in 11 final-round appearances this season and his 18th overall by defeating Cody Couglin in the all-KB Titan showdown.
Anderson, the current champion, was disqualified in the semifinal because of burnout/staging procedure violations. Anderson faltered on the first burnout attempt, crossing the starting line beams, and on his second attempt, he crossed the beams again.
“I messed the burnout up the first time, and honestly, I didn’t even realize I crossed the starting line on the first drive,” Anderson said. “So backed right up and tried to do it again. But obviously my mistake. Got to know the rules. I didn’t think I crossed the starting line on the first drive, but obviously I did. Couldn’t have been by much, was it? It didn’t matter. A miss is as good as a mile.” He said he doesn’t use an in-car radio. “I don’t. And there’s one time that it would’ve come in handy. Lesson learned.”
Glenn said after winning, “You definitely come in here and my goal every race in the Countdown is to leave with a little bit more of a lead.” And he did just that in what he summed up as “a crazy day.” He said, “Having Cody Coughlin in the final, with me taking out Erica Enders and Eric Latino taking out Aaron Stanfield — it was just a wild weekend. They call [Maple Grove Raceway] the ‘House of Chaos’ for a reason. The car is working fantastic right now. My car is so good, I just need to make sure I don’t beat myself. I definitely have the car to beat right now. I just need to continue what I’m doing, keep riding the wave, and see how far we can go with it.”
7 – NO HALL PASS FOR HERRERA – For Pro Stock Motorcycle dominator Gaige Herrera, the class’ No. 1 Countdown seed and two-time and reigning champion, the Maple Grove Raceway jinx continues. It’s the only track at which the Vance & Hines headliner has not won, and he was hoping this would be his year to break that short streak.
But John Hall had other ideas. Hall, from just up the freeway at Hamden, Connecticut, eliminated Herrera in the second round and went on to beat Matt Smith, his team boss, in the final round. It was Hall’s second victory of the season – the first came at Norwalk, Ohio – and fourth in all.
Crew chief Michael Ray said, “I just want to bring that [championship] trophy to North Carolina [where Matt Smith Racing is based]. I’m tired of it going to Indianapolis [headquarters of Vance & Hines]. We ain’t done yet. We’re just getting going.”
Hall noted as he looked at his Wally statue that Smith, a six-time champion, has 42 trophies. “By the time I’m 90, I’ll catch him,” Hall joked.
8 – ‘YOU WON’T REGRET THAT’ – Steve Torrence, who opted out of four regular-season races this season, said he shared some advice with Brittany Force after she announced Friday she will move out of the seat of her dragster at season’s end.
“I’m super happy for Brittany,” he said. “She made the decision to step back, and I told her, ‘You won’t regret that at all. The time I spent at home with my family and kids this summer made me think about it pretty good, too. We’re having a good time.”
9 – POINTS RACES TIGHTEN – Although Doug Kalitta defeated him, then accidentally crashed into him, Tony Stewart kept the loss of his points lead to his longtime friend in perspective. Stewart said, “The silver lining is that everyone around us [in points] had problems in the second round. Even though Doug took over the points lead, we’re all close to each other in points heading into Charlotte, so we can rally from there.”
Kalitta has an 18-point edge over Stewart, with that duo and Shawn Langdon, Justin Ashley, and Clay Millican all within 67 points as the series heads to Charlotte for the first four-wide race in the Countdown’s 19 years.
In Funny Car, Austin Prock still leads the standings, despite dropping out with a second-round mistake – but teammate Jack Beckman as well as Ron Capps, are within two rounds of points. Matt Hagan, who is fifth after Reading, said that seeing Blake Alexander and Cruz Pedregon in the final “was the best scenario we could have hoped for points-wise.”
Beckman, who is now second, said, “It’s just going to be whoever takes advantage of every opportunity, including qualifying sessions. Those bonus points likely could decide a championship. To win this championship is going to take the team that best takes advantage of opportunities.” Beckman earned the Funny Car championship in 2012 by a mere two points over runner-up Capps, then lost the 2019 title to Robert Hight by eight.
Dallas Glenn extended his Pro Stock points lead, defeating Cody Coughlin in the final round and recording his fifth victory of the season and 18th overall.
And in Pro Stock Motorcycle, John Hall knocked off class dominator and reigning two-time champion Gaige Herrera in Round 2 and went on to win the race. Matt Smith assumed the PSM points lead, with he and his next three rivals (Hall, Herrera, and Richard Gadson) separated by just nine points.
10 – SPORTSMAN WINNERS – The Lucas Oil Series winners Sunday were Jamie Noonan (Top Alcohol Dragster), Brian Hough (Top Alcohol Funny Car), Mark Hopkins (Competition Eliminator), Louis Gill (Super Stock), Michael Iacono (Stock Eliminator), Dave Long (Super Comp), Michael Reynolds (Super Gas), Vincent Fourcade (Top Sportsman), Taylor Dietsch (Factory Stock Showdown), Lenny Lottig (Factory X), Johnny Pluchino (Mountain Motor Pro Stock), and Daniel Spotts (Jr. Dragster Shootout).
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – MILLICAN, HYDE, GLENN, HERRERA KEEP TOP STARTING SPOTS; LEE BUILDING UP MOMENTUM; NEW VIBE AT MAPLE GROVE?
1 – HE BLOWED UP BUT STAYED QUICKEST – Top Fuel racer Clay Millican wasn’t convinced he’d keep his No. 1 status at Pennsylvania’s Maple Grove Raceway after a significant engine explosion and fire Saturday in his PowerEdge dragster during the third qualifying session at the NHRA Reading Nationals presented by NitroFish. But he did, scoring his first top starting position of the season and the 27th of his career on the strength of Friday’s 3.704-second elapsed time at 336.32 mph on the 1,000-foot course.
“I tell you what, that’s pretty impressive considering the mess we made in Q3,” Millican said. “It was a lot of stuff burned and broke and blowed up. And I always feel bad because I know Rick Ware’s fixing to spend some money. But man, these guys turned that thing around and [3.]79, 330, we’ll take that. I’m going to stomp on that loud pedal.”
He said he and the team “don’t know exactly what happened [to cause the incident]. We didn’t have time to diagnose it.”
Eyeing his first victory at Maple Grove Raceway and his second of the season, Millican was happily surprised by the heroic effort of his team, which enabled him to set the second-quickest time of the final session.
“I certainly wasn’t pleased with Q3. That was a big boomer, and I hadn’t had one that big in a long, long time,” he said. “But the boys and girls who make this thing go did a great job getting us right back up there for Q4, and we ended up second-quick. To come back and make that kind of run in the heat was pretty dang impressive.”
Millican has a first-round bye and will go in the quarterfinals against the winner of the Brittany Force-Dan Mercier pairing.
Then, referring to the NHRA’s announced a fourth straight Saturday sellout crowd at the storied dragstrip that’s celebrating its 40th edition of this race, Millican said, “Love you guys for being here. Drag racing is so alive and well. How about sold out every day? All you people on the comments, come on – drag racing is kicking butt. And the commenters are the ones that ain’t showing up. Y’all should be here. Watch us go 330 or maybe 340. I love drag racing, and I know you do, too. Or you wouldn’t be commenting.”
2 – HYDE AND SEEK – Longtime Funny Car team owner Jim Head still is intensely focused and straight-spoken, but he’s smiling a lot more these days with the impressive performances of Countdown-qualified rookie Spencer Hyde, who maintained his No. 1 qualifier position through the final two rounds of time trials Saturday with a 3.866-second, 330.07-mph run, earned the first No. 1 berth of his career. Hyde will be seeking his first Funny Car victory, starting with opening-round opponent Phil Burkart Jr., the No. 16 qualifier.
Hyde has a couple of runner-up finishes, and he said he’s more than ready to score a Wally trophy.
“We’ve been waiting 15 races to do this, so it’s good,” Hyde said of his No. 1 accomplishment. “It’s good for me. It’s good for my guys and it gives them some confidence and motivation to hopefully go out and win this thing tomorrow. This is definitely a good start [to the Countdown], and it’s a good time to get hot. We’re hungry, and we’re here to race. And if we can go deep into the rounds tomorrow, we’re right back in it.
“Anything can happen in drag racing, so I know this No. 1 position is no guarantee for how things will go tomorrow. But it certainly doesn’t hurt,” Hyde said. “I’m going to focus on doing my job as a driver, not make any mistakes, and keep us going far into the day. I want to be standing in that winners circle tomorrow more than anything.”
Hyde, of Stratford, Ontario, Canada, wants to become the first Canadian driver to win a national event in a nitro class since Jeff Arend at Houston in May 2011.
“It’s a good time of year to get hot,” said Hyde. “Jim [Head] fixed the car up even more since Indy, and he thinks he found something that’s been biting us all year, and he’s motivated. The whole team is motivated. This is just going to help that.”
What he’s hoping will help, as well, is a strong turnout from the fans, who jammed the grandstands Saturday. “Nothing makes us drivers happier than to race in front of a whole bunch of fans,” Hyde said. “And obviously, Team Chaos does a heck of a job filling this place, which is awesome. It’s my first time here, and I love it. I hope to be back next year, and I hope to be standing here holding a Wally tomorrow.”
3 – ‘LITTLE OOPS’ DOESN’T DETER GLENN – Despite missing out on his Q4 run because of an unspecified mechanical problem, Dallas Glenn remained Pro Stock’s No. 1 qualifier. This was his fifth of the 2025 campaign and 11th of his career, and he earned it with a 6.502-second pass at 210.50 mph Friday in his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro.
Lamenting the fact he didn’t get to sharpen his already considerable skill at the Christmas Tree, add any best-of-session bonus points, and hot-weather data that likely will mimic Sunday’s elimination conditions, Glenn said, “It sucks to miss that run. We’ll find out what it was and make sure that can’t happen again during the rest of the Countdown.”
He’ll take on No. 16 Shane Tucker in the opening round Sunday with what he called “a really good car,” expressing his delight at being able to “make a decent run this morning and get a bonus point.”
He said, “Heading into that final session, I felt like we had a shot at getting two or three more bonus points.
Unfortunately, we had a little oops and were shut off and missed out on those points, but being the No. 1 qualifier does help.
“We’ll see if we can get four win lights tomorrow. I’m ready for tomorrow. We have a lot of brain power in the KB Titan crew chief room right now, and I’m pretty sure they’re confident they know what to do.”
4 – HERRERA MAKES IT OFFICIAL, WITH EASE – No one threatened Saturday to overtake No. 1 Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifier Gaige Herrera, and he stayed on top of the order with his 6.745-second run at 200.20 mph from Friday on his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki.
“The track has been very consistent today in the heat, and that gives us good data going into tomorrow,” Herrera said. “I’m happy to get the win for Vance & Hines and all the guys back at the shop. I feel like tomorrow we’re going to have a very strong field. Between me and Richard [No. 3 starter Gadson], I’m glad we’re on opposite sides. I definitely don’t want to race him early,” the points leader said after claiming his fifth top-qualifier award of the year. “This crowd really loves the bikes. I’ve got friends here who had never seen nitro cars before today, and now they want to come to more NHRA races. It feels like home, like we brought our bike crowd into the NHRA world.” After enjoying a Round 1 bye, Herrera will meet the winner of the race between the Nos. 8 and 9 qualifiers, John Hall and Kelly Clontz.
5 – PERFORMING SUPERB-LEE – Funny Car team owner-driver Paul Lee missed last year’s Countdown because he skipped the Epping race, then fell below the 10th-place cutoff line. Resolved not to let that happen again, Lee is in the hunt, entering the playoffs as the fifth-ranked driver. And he’s keeping the pressure on the other frontrunners at the first of these final six races. Lee will open eliminations Sunday as the No. 3 starter and will meet Chad Green.
Lee said his 3.893-second elapsed time in the final session Saturday “absolutely” is a statement for his Funny Car competitors. “We got our race car back. Jonnie [crew chief Lindberg] has been working real hard with John Medlen and all the crew. They’ve been working real hard. We’ve had, like five, six races in a row where he kind of lost our race car.” In the previous six races, since advancing to the final round at Norwalk, Lee has won just two rounds.
“But I tell you what, we got it back at Indy a couple of weeks ago. Even though we lost second round, Jonnie said, ‘Hey man, our car’s perfect. We’re going to be ready for this Countdown in Reading.’ And here we are, man. I’m excited,” Lee said.
6 – STRUGGLING CAPPS NOTICES NEW READING FEEL – Top Fuel racer Antron Brown remarked that Maple Grove Raceway “has been tricky. It’s tricky for everybody.” And fellow team owner-driver Ron Capps noticed after slipping into the Funny Car field in his last opportunity that the vibe at Reading has changed in recent visits.
“Going back five or 10 years, it was throwdown. It was Disneyland. It’s a little different,” he said Saturday. “We had track temperatures last night that people should have been running low eighties [3.80-second elapsed times]. So we’re not sure, but everybody’s figuring it out.
“But you talk about championship moments, Guido [crew chief Dean Antonelli], our team, it doesn’t matter if you’re staged in Saturday morning, you’re not in the show – like I was – or you’re at Pomona and it’s first or second round and you’re fighting for championship. It’s the same thing in the Countdown. So it’s the same pressure, and I felt like I was in Pomona, staging for a final round. So you got to make the show. You got to be in it to win it.”
Speaking of his 3.949-second elapsed time that set him up for a No. 12 start in Sunday’s eliminations and a first-round race against J.R. Todd. “To throw that number down, Guido went in the box probably 10 times more than he usually does, but I got all the faith in the world in him. And boy, that’s a little bit of pressure off of us now.”
7 – BUILDING FOR 2026 – Tony Schumacher and his Rob Flynn, Troy Fasching-led Rick Ware Racing team are trying to build on the positives from his 2025 return at Indianapolis. Asked if they planned to “go for it” and swing for the fences during the Friday-night qualifying session, Schumacher said, “I don’t know if we know how to go for it.” He did admit that they were “pushing it” a bit Saturday. But he said, “We ran a [3.]73 in Indy. We know how to do that. Rob Flynn, Troy Fasching, these guys, they never ran a canopy car. They’re doing amazing. I am blown away and how quick they’ve caught on and how great the car’s running. But we have to be smart about this. We made it down the track several runs in a row. We want to keep building off that. I asked Rob, and he goes, ‘We’re going to try to replicate what we did in Indy if not go a little quicker.’ But we don’t have that throwdown run yet. [Brittany Force’s crew chief David] Grubnic won’t sell it. We’ve been asking him for weeks. He just keeps it in his own pocket.
“But kidding aside, man, this car is great. Happy to drive it. This track’s wonderful. The fans are great, and we’ve won it a lot of times here. So happy to represent. Clay is such a good guy. I’ve watched him race for years, so to be his teammate at Rick Ware Racing, I’m just proud to be part of it.” said Flynn, praising Millican’s crew for working extra for three weeks to prepare Schumacher’s dragster. “If it wasn’t for Clay’s team, we wouldn’t be here.” He’ll pay back Millican by acting as a spoiler, or blocker, during the Countdown while he prepares for a full 2026 season.
8 – OUT OF HIS ELEMENT – Buddy Hull, still nursing his left hand that was hurt at Sonoma, said, “I actually, oddly enough, feel out of place. I feel like the eighth-grader walking down the high-school hall. I’m just not in place – so I’m not good with it. Outside of my family and my business, NHRA drag racing is the most important thing in the world to me. So it’s weird. So I’m going to do all I can to get it healed as quick as I can so I can drive a nitro Funny Car.”
He said he’s “working on it every day, just trying to strengthen it back up. That’s where we’re at right now. So, our hole’s healed up. Bones are healing up. And it’s just a matter of getting strong. So I can hold on to the steering wheel, but we’re doing all we can.”
Conceding that he’s a lousy spectator, Hull said, “Believe me when I tell you I’m walking around the racetrack, and I feel like just I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m a little bored.”
9 – PRUETT’S DNA = NHRA DRAG RACING – Looking back to her winner-take-all Top Fuel final round against Doug Kalitta at the last race of the 2023 season, Leah Pruett described her frustration – which came with a secret at the time, one that wasn’t made public until about a month later at the PRI Show in December at Indianapolis. “When we did not turn on that win light, I knew right then and there that those two years were going to feel like 10 before I get back.” The little secret turned out to be a pregnancy, and that she was handing the driving duties to her husband, former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart – the current points leader as the Countdown begins.
But those two years have passed, and her sense of urgency has been tempered by some lovely memories along the way. She’ll be back on track in her familiar dragster – “same car, same team, same partners, everything,” she said. But she has a healthy little boy, Dominic, and she he has been instrumental in planning some team initiatives. And she has seen her tutoring paying off, with husband’s comfort level in the dragster growing and his list of achievements growing, as well.
Again this year, she was keeping a secret – her return to Top Fuel competition in 2026. It’s a move that has “been in the works, and we were trying to figure out the right time and the place to announce it. And I think Reading holds a special spot in a lot of our hearts for many reasons. Of course, it’s a great place to run fast, but this is the start of the pure intensity of a Countdown. And we wanted to make sure that our team – our Dodge team, Tony, Neil [crew chief Strausbaugh], Mike [assistant Domagala], everyone – focus on the Countdown. So earlier, Tuesday, this week, yes, I announced I will be back next year. And we’re just going to keep that momentum rolling forward.
“But I’ve been standing on the starting line now for two years, watching as a fan, absorbing as much as I can about the sport that I typically can’t when you’re a driver because you’re so focused in,” Pruett said. “And I’ve just completely renewed my love for the sport, but I am itching [to get back]. I mean, I get goosebumps, the same intensity and emotions whether I’m outside or inside the car. Everybody’s made from different type of DNA, but mine is definitely made up with NHRA drag racing.”
At the Winternationals this March at Pomona, Calif., at a team dinner, she and her gang were discussing logistics of her testing.
“It was Richmond many months down the road, and I said, ‘I would like to get back in the car, see how I feel,’” Pruett said. She said she wondered, “How am I going to feel inside the car? I’ve heard different things from mothers that have raced or been professional … [that] it’s changed them, being a mother. And so I thought, ‘I need to get back inside that race car and see if I feel any different.’
“And let me tell you, and I’m still nursing and all that jazz, and I love my son Dom to pieces. But that day when I was testing, besides the time I had to nurse or I had to pump, I just knew I had a race car and I had my team and that was the feeling that I was looking for,” she said. “That’s what I needed to feel, to make sure I could make that decision to get back in.”
She thanked all the fans “for their patience all along and for rooting on Tony. I think he is doing a fantastic job behind that wheel. We will figure out what’s to come for him after that. But for now, we’re just, man, we’re starting out on top right now, going into this Countdown. And so it’s a long fight. But again, it starts here in Reading. And the fans, I think, feel that intensity. They can see it in the pit, see it on the starting line, and see it down the track.”
10 – ODDS AND ENDS – Versatile veteran Alex Laughlin, who’s substituting at Jim Dunn Racing for the injured Buddy Hull, hinted Friday that he might one day be racing a Pro Stock Motorcycle. He said, “There’s nothing more exhilarating, obviously, than driving a nitro car. Happy for the opportunity, but once again, it’s Buddy’s seat, Jim Dunn’s car, and I’m just doing the best I can to hold the pedal down and keep it to the finish line. So one day at a time, one lap at a time. I just never know what’s going to happen between seasons and in the off-season. I’ve raced weirder things. I recently just received my Pro Stock Motorcycle suit, so hang tight,” he said with a wink. If he earns a bike license, he’ll be eligible to race in 11 different classes.
Phil Burkart Jr., who anchors the Funny Car lineup in the entry managed by Dana Hard, Mike Smith, and Jay Lewis, tried to race in the Super Comp class, as well, this weekend. But he dropped out Friday, losing by one-thousandth of a second. “That’s a brutal category,” he said. “Super Comp and Super Gas are absolutely a numbers game of thousandths of a second.” Burkhart has enough to deal with, preparing for his first-round Funny Car match Sunday against No. 1 Spencer Hyde.
The crew of Funny Car driver Austin Prock had a different make-up this weekend – but still with a family feeling. Thomas Prock, assistant crew chief to dad Jimmy, was at home in the Indianapolis area, awaiting the birth of his and wife Halle’s first child. Thomas and Austin’s brother, Sam Fabiano, stepped in, while Thomas has helped advise via phone. Fabiano is General Manager at John Force Racing, and he has been a longtime crew member at JFR and Don Schumacher Racing.
Scott Farley had hoped to bring his rebuilt ScottRod Racing dragster back Saturday following Friday’s massive fireball in qualifying, but as hard and as quickly crew chief Bob Peck and the team could work, it just wasn’t ready. So Farley missed both Saturday sessions – but he’s in the one-man-short field for Sunday eliminations, ready to face No. 2 qualifier Justin Ashley, the most recent Top Fuel winner. His weekend definitely has been rough so far – “an inferno … a little bit of a pop and then a big pop … and then the fire and the fire coming around, pulled the fire bottle. The Safety Safari was on me. I mean, quick … hauled me out of the car, hosed the car down. Really minimized damage. They did a fantastic job. Super quick, super fast.” However, he received some consolation Saturday. He and his team were the recipients of the Holly EFI Never Rest Performer of the Race award. He said that after the fire on track, “all of my team came around, surrounded, stripped the car, all these guys and my gal Michelle, came in and just double-timed it last night. Got it to where we had most of the wiring. And then the people to thank – it’s unbelievable,” he said. “The Leveriches next door with parachutes. Kalitta [Motorsports] helped us with a belly pan. Tony Stewart. Everybody has made a huge effort to say, ‘What do you need?’ The community has been fantastic.” Farley said at that time that Peck was “still in the pit, finishing up the wiring. We were trying to come out for a hit on Q4. And we won’t bring it out unless it’s safe, unless it’s perfect, and it’s just not quite there. So we will be there tomorrow and just thank everybody, all my guys and my gal for all of their hard work. It’s just an incredible group that has just really put in the time when things did not quite go as planned.”
Funny Car driver Joe Morrison set his career-best elapsed time (4.065 seconds) and speed (310.41 mph) this weekend.
Along with Alex Laughlin, Terry Haddock didn’t qualify – but Haddock carried a tribute to assassinated Charlie Kirk on the front panel of his Funny Car. It read, “Rest in Peace, Charlie Kirk. 2 Timothy 4:7-8.” That verse of Scripture says, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which The Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – BRITTANY FORCE’S CHOICE TO STEP AWAY ALSO YIELDS NEWS FROM HER DAD; MILLICAN, HYDE, GLENN, HERRERA TOP EARLY MAPLE GROVE CHARTS; HART SHARES PLANS FOR FUTURE; FREEMAN SAYS NO PLAN YET FOR DRAGSTER
1 – TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS IN ONE – Brittany Force’s announcement Friday before qualifying for the NHRA Reading Nationals presented by NitroFish yielded a glimpse of what direction John Force Racing (JFR) will go when no member of the Force family is on the dragstrip.
John Force, sidelined since June 2024 in the wake of a brain-injury accident, said his operation will expand and continue, despite no Force-family drivers.
Ashley Force Hood is heading John Force Entertainment, and her sons with JFR crew chief Danny Hood, Jacob and Noah, are involved in Jr. Drag Racing. Courtney Force Rahal and husband Graham have two daughters and a third baby on the way, and John Force said he expects the girls eventually will be immersed in IndyCar racing like their race-driver dad. Former son-in-law Robert Hight, the three-time Funny Car champion and former JFR President, is no longer racing.
Both John and Brittany Force confirmed that they “are working to keep [the David Grubnic-, John Collins-led crew from her Monster Energy dragster] together as one under the John Force Racing umbrella.”
Toward the end of their presentation Friday at Maple Grove Raceway, team owner John Force – the 157-time winner and 16-time Funny Car champion – offered his vision for JFR, and once again publicly acknowledged he doesn’t see himself returning to the seat of a Funny Car. He said, “We’re building. I’ve always been a driver. It looks like those days are passed, but what I’m looking at is multi-car teams.”
He said he had leaned hard on Brittany, trying to persuade her to stay in the seat of her dragster. Ultimately, he said, she has a mind of her own: “Brittany makes her own decisions. Brittany’s my last shot, and I didn’t want her to leave. We’ve argued over it. In fact, we argue all the time. But she’s done a great job. I don’t like her talking about quitting, but I know she had a plan, and she got married and she’s done all that.
“But I’m going to grow my team,” John Force said. “I’ve already started, and I’m going to have more teams. And I’ll have a place for her when she’s ready. And it came up in the meeting the other day in dealing with one of her sponsors. They said, ‘We don’t want to lose her.’ And without thinking, I said, ‘Well, you’re not losing her. If I fall over dead, she’ll run all this stuff. But she’s an owner. She’ll be with you forever. She owns it all. The girls [including eldest daughter Adria] … I know they’ll all come and help their dad. They love their mom, and they love me.’
“And I never thought about it all them years. I never told ’em if I die tomorrow, she’ll keep this thing afloat. So what I’m saying is she’s got a job here to help me run it. They know this world. They’ve grown up in it, all of them. And so I’m excited that this will live on through them.”
2 – MILLICAN LEADS TOP FUEL FILE SO FAR – Rick Ware Racing landed both dragsters in the upper half of the provisional Top Fuel field, with Clay Millican grabbing the No. 1 position and new teammate Tony Schumacher sitting in seventh with two more sessions scheduled Saturday.
Millican’s 3.704-second elapsed time at 336.32 mph in the PowerEdge dragster has him poised to lead the field for the 27th time in his career. Boosted by his runner-up finishes to Justin Ashley at Norwalk and to Doug Kalitta at Brainerd in the previous five events, Millican is seeking his first victory at Maple Grove Raceway, his second win of the season, and a rise from seventh place in the standings as the six-race Countdown to the Championship begins.
“It’s always fun coming here,” Millican said. “It’s only the provisional No. 1, but it was a good one. In qualifying, the only thing the driver can do is screw it up. I was pretty excited when it stayed No. 1, because we need these points.
“The biggest thing is consistency. Home-run hitters can go on streaks, but consistency usually wins,” he said. “We’ve been putting solid runs together lately. At Brainerd, we went to the final, then had a parts failure. At Indy, we beat Shawn Langdon first round, then had an electrical failure second round. But the car is going rounds, and I like our chances.”
Justin Ashley took second with a 3.738-second pass at 331.69 mph and Doug Kalitta is third at 3.756, 335.40.
3 – HYDE ENJOYS FIRST TRIP TO READING – Provisional No. 1 Funny Car qualifier Spencer Hyde is pragmatic. He said, “A No. 1 qualifier is obviously one of the boxes you want to check when you come out here, but qualifying doesn’t get you Wallys. I want to win one of these things so badly. We’ve been close a couple times in the finals, and the race just didn’t go our way. But qualifying No. 1 puts you in the best possible position on race day, and I’m confident that if we get to a final again, we’ll get it done.”
Hyde used a 3.868-second, 330.07-mph performance in the Jim Head Racing Ford Mustang to strengthen his bid for 2025 NHRA Rookie of the Year honors. It put him .014 seconds ahead of No. 2 qualifier Austin Prock, the regular-season champion.
Already this season, Hyde, of Stratford, Ontario, has reached the finals at the New England Nationals at Epping, New Hampshire, and the Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma, California. He also won the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge at Las Vegas. He credits the team and how he continues to gell with its members.
“Jim [Head] has put together an awesome team. These guys are pumped every round,” Hyde said. “They’re just excited to be here, and it makes the experience a whole lot better. I want to get a win for this team so bad. They work hard. They do such a good job giving me an amazing car. I really feel like this could be our weekend.”
He is starting his first Countdown from the No. 9 slot. With the NHRA resetting the points after the U.S. Nationals that was completed Sept. 1, Hyde is mindful of low-E.T. bonus points and the fact they matter more than someone might expect. He started this weekend just two points behind Alexis DeJoria. The three bonus points he earned from going quickest of the second qualifying session were enough to already push him into No. 8, all before race day.
“Every point matters in the Countdown,” he said. “The weather is going to be warmer tomorrow. We’re going to run a little earlier in the day. Track conditions are probably going to be a little bit trickier. I’m hopeful that my 86 will hold up. But this team is hungry, and we’ll tackle whatever we are handed on Sunday.
“This is my first time at this track. The facility is beautiful,” Hyde said. “This area reminds me of home in Canada, where we live out in the sticks and in the hills. So this feels like home, and I love it. It would be incredible to get both my first No. 1 qualifier and Wally in the first Countdown race of my Funny Car career.”
4 – REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPS RULE – In the Pro Stock classes, the provisional No. 1 spots went to regular-season champions Dallas Glenn (car) and Gaige Herrera (motorcycle).
Friday qualifying was another battle between KB Titan Racing and Elite Motorsports. Glenn, of KB Titan, edged Elite’s Aaron Stanfield by three-thousandths of a second, powering to the top of the leaderboard with a 6.502-seond effort in his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro to Stanfield’s 6.505, 211.59. Glenn is on his way to his fifth No. 1 qualifier of the season and 11th of his career.
Glenn, who is seeking his first victory at Maple Grove Raceway, said he was using a back-up engine, “but it’s running fantastic right now. I’m really pleased with it, and the car is starting to come around. When I got to the top end on that run, I didn’t think it was going to hold. I thought we would be able to go 6.49 for sure, but I was hoping for a 6.48. Sitting up there and being this late, the humidity probably came up more than I thought. But going into the Countdown, I’m feeling really good. I was .027 on the tree my first hit, and I feel like I’m heading in the right direction. I feel like we have the car to beat for the championship.”
Stanfield is second so far, and U.S. Nationals and 50-time Pro Stock winner Erica Enders is third, close on their heels with a 6.506-second E.T.
In the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, Herrera is off to a strong start in pursuit of a third straight championship, capturing the provisional No. 1 position with a 6.745 at 200.20 on his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki. The U.S. Nationals victor has a specific goal this weekend: to conquer Maple Grove Raceway. It’s the lone racetrack at which he has not won any of his 26 trophies. If he secures his fifth No. 1 start of this campaign, it could give his an extra lift.
“Reading has definitely defeated me the last two seasons,” Herrera said. “My best here is a semifinal. So, my main goal this weekend is to go one round further and hopefully not leave here second in points like I have the last two years. This place is beautiful. The Koretsky family has done so much with it, and I’m glad to be back. To leave here with a win and check that box would mean a lot.
“It’s a different atmosphere here — there are tons of fans and they love motorcycles. It’s not more pressure – it’s just a different vibe. It’s a fast track. I love racing here, but it’s been tough on me.”
Matt Smith is second (6.753, 200.95), and Richard Gadson (6.763, 200.92) is third after two sessions.
5 – HART ‘NOT GOING ANYWHERE’ – Top Fuel racer Josh Hart raised eyebrows for a number of reasons this week when he put his dragster operation on the sales block and Elite Motorsports maestro Richard Freeman snapped it up. Hart reassured his fans Friday after taking the provisional No.9 qualifying spot, saying, “I’m not going anywhere. Nobody asks the right questions, and I’m not bashful, but I plan on driving for somebody. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
He added, “Being a team owner is stressful. I got a big business back at home. A lot of people know that, but you don’t want to go up there and try to cut a light, and you’re thinking about invoices and payroll and all that kind of stuff. And I was starting to get distracted. So my wife and I built an awesome business out here. We built an awesome business back there. And it was just time for us to try to change the landscape a little bit. So, excited. There’s going to be some big announcements coming soon, and we’re not going anywhere. [Sponsor] R+L Carriers, we’re together forever.”
6 – ‘I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE PLAN IS’ – Richard Freeman declared Friday that he has yet to finalize what he plans to do with the assets he said Wednesday he had purchased from Josh Hart.
“I don’t know what the plan is. All I know is I bought a Top Fuel team, and there’s a lot to be worked on and we got a long ways to go,” the Elite Motorsports owner said. “And hopefully we can field the car for ’26.”
In what he conceded was “a wild week,” Freeman also announced that Elite and Tony Stewart Racing have formed a business alliance that encompasses sales, marketing, and hospitality.
He said the move amounted to “joining forces for all of our partners. We got a lot of partners that coincide, and Tony and I’s thought processes align, and so we look forward to working together and giving our partners more for their money. And the drivers that we have in each stable are unbelievable and [with] Leah [Pruett] stepping back in the car [TSR’s Top Fuel dragster] and we’ll see what happens.”
7 – FARLEY ON FIRE – Eager to build on the impressive turnaround his ScottRod Racing team has experienced this season, part-time Top Fuel racer Scott Farley wanted maybe not to set the world on fire but certainly to join the “super part-timers” club with some memorable runs. His opening-session qualifying pass was hot, all right. He was surrounded by flames for much of his 4.136-second run, but with swift reaction from the Safety Safari team, he exited the car without any injuries.
“Just got a little out of the groove. I let out of it and boom!” Farley said moments after collecting himself. He said what really got his attention were “flames up around me in the cockpit. It was exciting – exciting. Pulled the fire bottle. The [emergency safety] crews were on me. Fantastic. I mean, they were like, ‘Get out! Get out!’ [They] covered me. Super-safe, super-quick response. And we will live to fight another day. Might not be tomorrow. We’ll see. But very, very, very exciting. I’m OK. So, life is good. Glad I didn’t cause any problems in the other lane. That’s racing.”
Although he had experienced a similar situation in a Pro Mod car, it was scary nonetheless.
“Well, it was just exciting that the flames kept coming up front from around the cockpit and stuff. And it’s like, ‘That’s probably not good. We’ve got a lot of fuel here going, and yeah, we need to get this thing stopped.’ So yeah, really exciting,” he said.
That one Friday appearance was not representative of Farley’s potential. After struggling to qualify in previous years – he made one of two races in both 2023 and 2024 – Farley has qualified at three of his previous four events in 2025 and recently clocked a career-best 3.973-second elapsed time.
The turning point came when co-team owner Michelle Torromeo, Farley’s wife, stepped up with a more hands-on management approach and brought veteran nitro crew chief Bob Peck aboard. That helped boost him to that 3.973-second pass during the Norwalk Nationals earlier this summer.
“The transformation has been incredible. Going from struggling to qualify to consistently making the show and running career-best numbers – it’s validation that all the changes Michelle made are working,” Farley said. “Bob’s influence on our program has been transformative. We’re not just hoping to qualify anymore, we’re expecting to compete.
Even with the incident Friday, Farley was 10th in the line-up – at the time ahead of surprisingly uncharacteristic bottom-halfers Doug Foley, Antron Brown, eventual provisional leader Clay Millican, Justin Ashley, and Shawn Langdon. Despite not being able to recover for the second session, Farley hung onto the No. 13 spot overnight, ahead of Foley and Brown with two Saturday sessions remaining before the fields are set for Sunday’s eliminations.
“The goal is simple: Continue my development as a driver and show everyone that ScottRod Racing is here to stay. That 3.97 at Norwalk is just the beginning,” Farley, of Ellington, Connecticut, said.
8 – REED RELISHING RETURN – NHRA on FOX reporter Jordan Vandergriff, who filled in for Shawn Reed when the Top Fuel owner-driver was injured in an on-track accident at his Seattle home track in July, congratulated Reed on his return to action.
Reed missed three races while mending from several broken ribs and the amputation of his index finger. Vandergriff then teasingly asked if Reed might want him to get back in the Reed Trucking and Excavating dragster and make the Q2 qualifying run. Reed told him, ‘N-O. No,’ laughing. Reed clearly was enjoying his comeback, which came on the heels of his IHRA victory last week at Hebron, Ohio. He finished the day’s action with the tentative No. 4 berth in the order. Crew chief Rob Wendland quipped, “He’s driving the car better than he did when he had 10 fingers. It’s best to get this guy down through there and just give him some runs. I mean, he’s doing great.”
9 – ENDERS PUSHES BACK – During an episode of the NHRA Insider podcast Friday morning, Pro Stock champion Erica Enders rejected speculation that her U.S. Nationals victory in Indianapolis came with help from manipulated rounds. The exchange with analyst Tony Pedregon and NHRA lead announcer Brian Lohnes underscored the ongoing sensitivity of team orders in drag racing.
Enders opened the interview by praising her team’s resilience following a difficult season. “We’ve won the championship six different times. I have the best guys in the universe under the banner at Elite Motorsports,” she said. “We’ve had some serious health issues this year with Mark Ingersoll and Jake Hairston. We finally had the band all back together, and I just feel like everything’s gelling at the right time. What will happen? I have no idea, but you can bet your butt, we’ll fight our butts off for it.”
Moments later, Pedregon pressed her on whether opening-round wins against teammates Greg and Aaron Stanfield raised questions. He noted that Greg appeared ahead before slowing and that Aaron’s car failed to leave the starting line. “My job as an analyst is I have to point out what we see in front of us,” Pedregon said. “Some of it’s conjecture. That’s what an analyst does.”
Enders firmly rejected the notion. “Did you hear it in the burnout and backing up, when it was running on half the cylinders? I could show a picture of his piston,” she said. “To have a teammate dive first or second round is not cool at all.”
The six-time champion said any accusations of team orders are offensive. “We don’t have team orders at Elite Motorsports,” Enders said. “Greg Stanfield and Aaron Stanfield pay over a million dollars each for the cars that they drive, so if you think that they’re going to write checks like that and then take dives, I take it highly offensive.”
The subject carried extra weight because of past controversies in NHRA. At the 2009 U.S. Nationals, Pedregon clashed publicly with John Force after a round that appeared to aid Robert Hight’s Countdown berth, a confrontation that nearly came to blows. In 1997 at the NHRA Finals, when Pedregon drove for John Force Racing, he was on the other end of accusations when Force’s car stumbled against him in a race that influenced the final standings.
Enders countered that facts should take precedence over conjecture. “Let’s base our opinions on education. Come over to our pit and see what’s going on. Come take a cylinder head off of our race car,” she said. Team owner Richard Freeman, she added, confirmed Aaron’s broken engine over her radio during the round, telling her, “Aaron’s engine is broken. Don’t mess up.”
The debate shifted to NHRA’s technical department, which both Pedregon and Lohnes said could reduce doubt by immediately inspecting questionable runs. Enders agreed but urged accuracy. “Do a better job,” she said.
Her Indianapolis win, ending a 30-race drought, also carried symbolism. Enders defeated KB Titan Racing’s Dallas Glenn and Matt Hartford to secure her fifth U.S. Nationals trophy. Lohnes, serving in his role as NHRA lead announcer, pointed to similarities to 2019, when she lost the Indy final after a transmission failure despite being in control of the race.
Enders admitted that luck played a role but said it works both ways. “Sometimes things go your way for you to win a race, but I promise you I’ve been on the opposite end where you do everything in your power and you deserve to win that round, and you don’t,” she said. “Did we have some breaks last week? Absolutely.”
As the discussion closed, Pedregon credited Enders for addressing the issue directly. “With you as a driver, with the team that has found the performance, the U.S. Nationals was an indication it’s not going to be a free pass like they had earlier in the season,” he said.
Enders embraced the challenge. “It’s more fun when it’s tight,” she said. “Anytime. That’s what we do.” – Bobby Bennett
10 – REMEMBERING JUNGLE JIM – New Jersey native Paul Lee has watched drag racing at this facility since 1975, and one of his favorite racers to watch then was the popular, flamboyant “Jungle” Jim Liberman. And during qualifying Friday, Lee reminded everyone that it was Liberman’s birthday. He said, “Jungle Jim would have been 80 years old today. Happy Heavenly Birthday to Jungle Jim Liberman.”
BOBBY BENNETT: THE REALITY NO ONE WANTED TO FACE AT POMONA