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THURSDAY NOTEBOOK – PRO ;LIGHTS UP THE SKY IN EXCEPTING KICKOFF OF PRO SUPERSTAR SHOOTOUT
1 – THE FOG – If only a Funny Car had a defroster that didn’t require it being set on fire.
While Austin Prock made it look so effortless to run the quickest of any Funny Car this week, it no doubt looked just as easy. If only the backstory was known.
“[My crew] dropped the body when we fired it up and my windshield was completely fogged, couldn’t see anything on the burnout,” Prock explained. “And when we backed up after the burnout, I could vaguely see my crew guy’s hand to get the thing lined up and got backed up. They wiped the windshield off and it cleared some of it off, but staging, it was half-fogged still.
“So once we got some mile an hour under this Chevrolet SS, it cleared up a little, but you got to have your eyes on the racetrack the whole time. The thing got inside a little bit, made an aggressive move and car was a little unsettled going over those bumps down track and just was hopping around down there, got a little inside, but it was still good enough for a 381. These cars are handfuls, are definitely not easy to drive and we like that challenge every now and then.”
Prock ran a 3.816 elapsed time at 332.84 to secure the provisional No. 1 qualifying position. In the opposite lane in the final pair of the session, teammate Jack Beckman was No. 2 with a 3.836.
Prock had to really lean on his nitro training from many years back when the late Frank Tiegs, formerly his sponsor, impressed upon him to, “never let them see you sweat.”
“He taught me to never show your cards,” Prock recalled. “Don’t let the competition see you when you’re nervous or weak or at a low point or angry, frustrated. I try and keep all that to myself. I obviously express my excitement quite a bit, but when you’re excited like that, I feel like the competition can’t really get underneath your skin when you’re happy. They can definitely poke at you when they see you frustrated or defeated.”
It was clearly an apples to oranges scenario this time.
“It was a little hectic up there, for sure, because you’re wondering are they going to be able to get it cleared up,” Prock explained. “Obviously, anytime you’re running, have a 13,000 engine running in front of you, you want the windshield clear. “It was a little bit out of routine, everything in this sport for me being comfortable and definitely got me a little bit out of my routine, but not too much. Had a .054 light and ended up No. 1 qualifier. So we’ll take it.”
2 – DOUG GOES TO THE TOP – A drag racing fan participating in PlayNHRA’s betting system, would have watched Doug Kalitta’s performance in the private portion of testing, and wouldn’t have dared bet on the 2023 NHRA Top Fuel champion.
Let the record reflect Kalitta is as efficient at playing the rope-a-dope as he is at thundering down the drag strip.
Kalitta passed Brittany Force in the last pair of cars to run in the night, nailing down his best run of the week with a 3.658 elapsed time at 332.84 miles per hour. Force finished the night in second with a 3.675. Kalitta’s teammate Shawn Langdon was third with a 3.683.
“The conditions were just really good,” Kalitta said. “We’re real happy with the run I was just talking to him. Alan Johnson was real happy with the tune-up.”
Kalitta is running the same sponsor he had on his dragster, Applied Innovations, when he won last year’s inaugural event.
“Super excited to have those guys out here with us this weekend and it’s just nice coming to a place like this facility,” Kalitta said. “The track is really nice. Great place to test and then to be able to put on a race with an eight-car show and have some fun with it. There’s some strong running cars here, so we got the low qualifier at the moment, but we’re going to have to work at keeping it.”
3 – IT’S CALLED TESTING FOR A REASON – Dallas Glenn, just like Top Fuel low qualifier Kalitta, didn’t lay down any glory runs. In fact, on the surface, the two-and-a-half days prior appeared rather unglorious.
Glenn ran a 6.515, 210.28 in Thursday’s lone session to drive around Erica Enders’ 6.519, 209,67.
“We didn’t want to show our full hand until it mattered,” Glenn admitted. “We’ve been testing, we’ve been trying some few things here in testing. I think we made seven runs. We made a couple of good runs, so I think we knew we had something for them, but you still have to come out here and perform, and we made a really nice run. Dave Connolly, Rob Downing, and everybody there, as well as the crew chief, definitely did their job on that one. That was a really nice smooth run, and they’ve been working really hard in the engine shop over the wintertime, and I think it’s good to come out here and try to drive well for them and show what their hard work has done.”
Glenn considers the PRO Superstar Shootout to be a springboard to hit the ground running in Gainesville.
“It’s kind of like that first F1 pre-season test where everybody brings out all the stuff that they’ve been working on over the wintertime to see where they stack up,” Glenn said. “If you come out here and you run good and you’re sure you’re at the top of the heap out here, it’s going to translate right over to Gainesville. We’re not far from Gainesville and horsepower definitely shows, so they’ve been working hard. We’ve been working hard in the shop on the cars, and I think whoever comes out on top with a good car here is you’re going to see them have a good car there in Gainesville too.”
4 – TESTING SUPERSTARS – Austin Prock, Brittany Force, and Erica Enders concluded two-and-a-half rigorous days of testing at the head of their respective divisions.
Their best runs came in Thursday’s morning session as Brittany Force with a 3.635, 335.07 followed Shawn Langdon’s 3.657, 333.33. Justin Ashley’s Wednesday run of 3.662, 338.94 stood as third quickest while Antron Brown rounded out the 3.6-second runners with a 3.694, 329.99.
Prock continued his grip on the Funny Car leaderboard as Bob Tasca III’s 3.844 closed the gap to less than .05. Ron Capps and Jack Beckman had a 3.847, with the NAPA Toyota’s 336.23 winning the tiebreaker. Matt Hagan rounded out the top five with a 3.875.
Pro Stock finished out with Erica Enders as the top runner with a 6.525, 209.69. She was followed by Tuesday’s leader Greg Anderson (6.530, 208.88), Troy Coughlin Jr (6.550, 210.05), rookie Matt Latino (6.552, 199.49), and Deric Kramer (6.544, 209.23).
5 – GETTING HIS CHANCE – Shawn Reed had a completely believable reason: he simply wasn’t ready. He wasn’t invited, either.
“It was something I wanted to do last year when I was going full-time and buying all the stuff,” Reed said. “But when I’m like [to crew chief Rob Wendland], ‘Hey, man, do you think we can make that Shootout thing?”
“He’s like, ‘Well, I don’t think we’re invited to that thing, but we’ll be lucky if we make it to Gainesville.”
Reed knew running in Bradenton would acclimate him quicker to the rigors of running for a championship instead of a limited, part-time budget.
“Last year, just coming back racing, it’s like you don’t know what you don’t know,” Reed said. “You think after the Gainesville race in 2024, I thought I was ready for the season, and then six races in, you realize that the first race, you didn’t know nothing again. I didn’t feel comfortable until probably 10, 12 races into the year. And even then, I don’t even know. I think it was a sense of blur.”
Reed admits he’s in a much better place this season, and participating in Bradenton will put him in a great position.
“We’re just so much better prepared this year, and we know what to expect,” Reed said. “We know what the car is going to do. We haven’t really changed anything. I am bringing out my second car, a new car, but it should go just like the first one. I’m really excited about it, that’s for sure. People think it’s easy, and it’s not. I’ll tell you that.”
6 – JUST LIKE RIDING A BICYCLE – Greg Stanfield is back in the saddle driving a Pro Stock Camaro in 2025.
Stanfield, who was crowned Factory X world champion, is returning to NHRA Pro Stock racing after years out of the Pro Stock ranks. Greg will race under the Elite Motorsports banner alongside his son, 2024 championship contender, Aaron Stanfield.
“I don’t know about that one,” said Greg to CompetitionPlus.com when asked if driving a Pro Stock again was like riding a bike. “I’ve never raced with fuel injections, so that’s a little different. Motors accelerate way faster. But all in all, pretty close, pretty close to the same.”
Greg made his long-awaited first lap behind the wheel of a Pro Stock machine Friday at the second annual PRO Superstar Shootout in Bradenton, Fla.
“It felt great. It felt great, yep; just getting sped up to it as far as how fast the cars are, so I think it’s going to be good,” Greg said.
Greg wasn’t part of the initial NHRA mandate in July of 2015 that made all Pro Stock racers convert to electronic fuel injection.
“They got it lined out for me,” Greg said. “Oh yeah, we’ve kind of seen how it all evolved, but yeah, no, they’ve got it way more refined right now.”
Greg started racing in Pro Stock in 2002 and several Top 10 finishes. In 2008 he secured his first Pro Stock win at the Texas Motorplex and in 2010 he won the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in in Indianapolis on the way to finishing runner-up in the Pro Stock championship chase to Greg Anderson.
Greg is a drag racing seasoned veteran having competed and won in six
different classes including Pro Stock, Pro Stock Truck, Super Stock, Stock, Competition Eliminator, and Factory X.
He was Super Stock Champion in 1990, 1992-1994 and 2021.
Greg has put together a multiyear deal to represent Janac Brothers Racing and The Rod Shop along with associate sponsors PJQ and Roasters as well as the rest of the Elite Motorsports family of partners beginning at NHRA’s season opening Gatornationals at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway March 7-9 in Florida.
And he will inevitably square off against Aaron at some point in Pro Stock this season.
“He’s probably going to beat me up pretty good, so we’ll see,” Greg said.
Aaron won a career-best six races in 2024 in Pro Stock, advancing to the final round 10 times. He finished third in the season points standings. – Tracy Renck
7 – ELEVATING FROM WITHIN WORKS FOR HAGAN – Let the record reflect that Matt Hagan believes the best way to grow a team is to promote from within.
On December 4, Tony Stewart Racing announced the promotion of Mike “Stretch” Knudsen to the role of crew chief with the departure of longtime tuner Dickie Venables.
“It’s been a good transition,” Hagan said between testing runs. “The thing about it is I’ve been able to see Stretch come up from a bottom-end guy all the way to clutch guy through assistant crew chief and now into crew chief. I’ve been very, very blessed to win championships with two different crew chiefs, and obviously we want to win some races and hopefully one day win a championship with Stretch. Just blessed to have a group of guys around me that we’ve kept together for so long.”
Knudsen is in his 16th season working with Hagan. And while he’s writing a new chapter as a driver with Knudsen, Hagen wishes his longtime teammate the best in his new world at Kalitta Motorsports.
“I hated to see Dickie leave,” Hagan said. “I know he’s going to do really well over there with JR. JR and those guys run strong, and Dickie was going to be a great add anywhere he was going to go. But yeah, man, it’s nice to come out here and know that hey, we’re going down the racetrack where we just went 3.85 out there, clicking it off at 800 feet, you know what I mean? And the car’s really working well. The guys are really jiving. We got four guys doing four different positions this year, and I picked up a bottom-end guy.
8 – THE KID IS HOT THIS WEEKEND – If Matt Latino can secure major sponsorship this season, it will determine how many races he will race. But for now, with his father Eric Latino nursing a sore knee, the newly licensed Pro Stock driver slipped into the role of a superb substitute.
Latino was in the top five in testing over the first two-and-a-half days of private testing. Not bad for a second-generation drag racer who has never raced on the level of NHRA national event drag racing. He ran a best 6.55 elapsed time in ten runs down the Bradenton Motorsports Park dragstrip.
“I’m not going to say I kicked my out of the seat,” Latino said in jest. “But, that’s kind of what happened.”
Latino’s goal was to make as many full pulls as he could, to gain as much experience as he could when his number is called to compete in NHRSA Pro Stock.
“I’m grateful that I get to jump in the car,” Latino said. “I think this is an excellent opportunity. There’s three full days of testing, plus four qualifying runs. Even if I don’t make it in a single round, that is a lot of testing to get in before Gainesville. So, I’m very excited about it. And besides, I’m being told by our guys that the track is prepped very similar to how it’s going to be prepped in Gainesville, so yeah, this is very important.”
Latino said the chances of him competing in Gainesville are slim, but not impossible. Regardless of whether it happens or not, he will be ready.
“I still don’t have funding,” I’m working on it. I have a couple of really good leads. I think the better I do here this weekend, the higher chances I have of running in Gainesville. If I don’t run in Gainesville, really, it’s not the end of the world. I’ve been saying I’m not focusing on any rookie of the year or this or that. It would be great. But I really just want to do well. I want to get the funding, I want to do it right, and I want to do it well. And whenever it starts, that’s when it starts.”
9 – FROM BIG WHEELS TO THE BIGGEST WHEEL OF THEM ALL – J.R. Todd was only eight years old when the late Scott Kalitta drove his burgandy Funny Car to the 1989 NHRA Supernationals crown. The kid was an avid drag racer who envied the Kalitta’s ride.
Envy turned into reality at the PRO Superstar Shootout on Thursday when a well-kept secret was held from the team and Connie Kalitta as the new scheme was unveiled at Bradenton Motorsports Park in the team’s pit area.
“I was definitely ripping Big Wheels and a little bicycle by that time,” Todd admitted. “In fact, I think I even had a Honda 70 four-wheeler by then.”
The kid who would work his way from Junior Dragsters to Super Comp to Top Fuel. While some might believe such an honor comes with tremendous pressure, Todd says he will keep on doing what he does best, and that is honoring Scott Kalitta with everything he does behind the wheel of the Toyota Funny Car.
” his car. And I’m just fortunate to be able to drive it and try to represent him the best that we can. But to have his scheme from back in the heyday, the ’89, ’90, that time era, it’s pretty awesome. I’m all for throwbacks. I’ve always been jealous of Capps and his Snake bodies for the last couple of years, but I think this ranks right up there with those.”
And what better place to unveil than at a track closest to where Kalitta lived.
{Scott’s wife] Kathy and the boys, they still live in this area and they’re out here with us this weekend. So it was cool to unveil it in front of them and Connie, to see the smile on Connie’s face, and to hear him say how cool it was. It’s special.”
10 – THE DEL AND BOBBY SHOW – Two days after NHRA fuel racers had made numerous runs up and down the Bradenton Motorsports Park dragstrip, a non-descript black 18-wheeler with only small Toyota/Gazoo stickers pulled in and parked in a reserved pit area.
Who got out was the shocker of the weekend. Past champion Del Worsham had driven the rig from his home in Southern California, and this wasn’t the surprise. When popular independent driver Bob Bode Jr., walked up with his firesuit bag in hand caught many off guard.
The two revealed on Thursday they’d be racing together this weekend and at the NHRA Gatornationals, with the potential for further races. Last month, it was revealed that Worsham and DeJoria had agreed to a mutual split. She is now driving for JCM Racing.
“Following our separation with Alexis, I was just at home just sitting around and just thinking about my life and putting it all together,” Worsham said. “All I’ve ever done is just drag race. That’s all I know. And I really need to go to Gainesville. I have some business I need to do there with my car anyways. I need to go there. And I’m just wrestling around with what to do next. Do I just take time off? Do I run the car a couple of times? What do I do?
“The only thing I really know is drag racing. So I’m like, I really need to just go ahead and just run the car and just see how I feel about it and just take it out and just run the thing. I really didn’t think me driving it was really much of an option right now.”
A lot has changed for Worsham since he last competed in November 2023, Gone is longtime co-crewchief Nicky Bonifante, as well as other key team members. Adding to the changes, his dad Chuck Worsham, couldn’t travel with him as well.
“I’ve been outside of the car for so many years now, to jump back in there and my dad can’t be here and I don’t have Nicky and all my people with me here,” Worsham said. “It just didn’t seem like a really good idea for me to be driving. So I just started just going through different drivers and looking through and if I was going to run it, who would I have drive it?”
Worsham went though his mental list of those who drive, including Jeff Arend, but one name kept crossing his mind over and over.
“Bobby Bode’s name just kept coming up,” Worsham said. “Every time I looked, every time I went through stats and looked at drivers and they’re young and they’re hungry, and I’m like, man, I think this guy could probably do a pretty good job at this. And I talked to my wife about it and she’s like, “Well, I don’t know, maybe just give him a call.”
It wasn’t the first time Worsham had reached out to Bode about driving. Ten years ago, Worsham, who has never driven any race car not powered by nitro called the young Bode about driving a Junior Dragster for him at the Western Conference Finals.
“We needed a driver for one of our Junior Dragsters,” Worsham said. “So here we are, over 10 years later, history repeats itself and here he is. I called his dad first, talked to his dad about it, asked him what he thought about it, and I said, ‘Well, give me a little bit of time to work some things out here and see if I can do this. If I can do this, I think we should go to Bradenton and make a few runs and kind of get him kind of in the car and feeling good about it and see what he thinks about it. And then if everything works out, then we take him to Gainesville and see what we got.”
Bode said the call from Worsham was one that he couldn’t have imagined.
“it was just that call you just dream about getting since you’re a little kid,” Bode said. “I was actually working on our car. I was building a rack because I thought we were racing our car in Gainesville. And then I just see a call, it’s from Del Worsham and I’m like, “Huh, what could this be about? And I picked it up and he told me what he wanted to do. It just all came together super quick. I came out to their shop last weekend to get fitted for the car and I’m just really grateful.
