Photos by Robert Richard, Adam Dobbs, Tracy Waters; Videos by Les Mayhew
FINAL NOTEBOOK – CROWNING THE WINNERS UNDER THE LIGHTS
CAPPS DELIVERS IN THE CLUTCH – Ron Capps had many storied battles with multi-time Funny Car champion Robert Hight. Then when Hight stepped out of the car ahead of last season, it might have seemed like the rivalry was done.
Sometimes things aren’t always what they appear to be.
Let the record reflect, the rivalry is still intact, with only a different name on the John Force Racing Camaro SS Funny Car.
“That’s Robert Hights’ car and I love Austin Prock,” Capps said. “I love the proudness that he brings to that car, but I’ve been racing that car for world championships for a long time and that team, and if you ask anybody on that team, win or lose, when we’ve had battles for the championship with Robert driving it, I’m the first one to go over and shake their hands and tell them how much they push us and how much they push me and how good a team they are.
“That’s been going on for years, but that is still the team that I’ve battled for championships for the last decade. Robert Hight, to me is probably one of the toughest. If anybody asks me who the toughest, not even John Force, believe it or not, it’d be Robert Hight. We’ve had some unbelievable races and him and I race the same, for the same respect.”
There was plenty of respect on display as Capps clocked a 3.870-second elapsed time at 330.47 mph to defeat reigning the NHRA’s world champion Prock’s 4.003-second elapsed time at 316.16 mph. In winning the race, Capps pulled off the seemingly unattainable as Prock dominated everything on the track throughout the week.
“When they put Austin in that car, it now brings a whole new element and it’s been fun to watch and it reminds me of my rookie year with Don Prudhomme with the Copenhagen car,” Capps explained. “So I see a lot of myself in Austin, he dirt raced, he raced midgets, all the same things that I did coming up and I love it. I love that Jimmy has his son driving for him. And God, he’s a lightning bolt in the seat. I’m not sure you can outdo him.
“You can try, but he has got something, something about him that really makes it tough to beat. We saw what they did last year and Guido knew that they could throwdown. He even said we might have to try to go 3.80 flat and just see what we can do. It did try to mow through the clutch and I saw Austin’s nose out there about 300 feet and it just stayed there and then all of a sudden it’s disappeared.
“When I hit the ‘chutes, he still came by me with his chutes out. So I didn’t know if we’d won or lost. I actually really thought we lost until I came around the corner. But I said it last year, I don’t think we’ve seen a dominant season like we saw last year from start to finish with that team over there with Austin and Jimmy.”
Capps’ road to the final round included wins over Daniel Wilkerson and then Jack Beckman.
DON’T SLEEP ON SHAWN REED, EITHER – Shawn Reed has shown he can win rounds as a Top Fuel driver, but his performance Saturday was definitely a career highlight.
The Puyallup, Wash., native claimed the coveted title at the 2025 SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout in Bradenton, Fla., and took home the victory.
“Well, the lights are coming around, and my crew has got a handle on the car, which started last year,” Reed said. “And this is a brand-new chassis, but boy, it’s working well. The guys are working, and I’m really happy about this. I don’t even know what to think right now. I’m pretty ecstatic. I couldn’t even write this up better to tell you the truth.”
Reed’s march to his improbable victory consisted of wins over reigning NHRA world champion Antron Brown, Brittany Force, and Josh Hart.
“Yeah, I think it still takes a little bit of luck to win one of these things or any NHRA race, you know, got to have a little bit of luck,” said Reed, who has made one NHRA final round in his career. “We weren’t really that strong against round one against AB (Antron Brown), but he smoked the tires, and we did a lot of smoke in the tires last year and our focus is to go down the track and try to race the track and do what we can do. And if AB can go faster, or (Doug) Kalitta can go faster, or (Sean) Langdon can go faster, then so be it. We lose that way, but at least we will not give it to them anymore. We’re focused on that this year, and I’m really happy about that.
“I think it’s a good strategy, and we don’t test, and we don’t have all the parts and pieces that they have, but we’re going to make the best of what we got, and hopefully, we get a few more win lights this year.”
In the finals, Reed clocked a 3.699-second time at 330.39 mph to defeat Hart’s 3.724-second elapsed time at 321.27 mph.
“I mean, I’m just trying to be in the .060s and .070s this year instead of the .080s and .090s,” Reed said. “And if I can do that and the car runs like it does and nobody never wants to lose first round, then that’s my goal. But I know it’s going to happen. I mean it; everybody will lose the first round throughout the year, but I’m just trying not to lose the first round and stay in it. Hopefully, I’m someone they’re talking about when it comes to the (NHRA) Countdown (the final six races of the season), and I have a chance to win a championship because that’s what we all do it for.”
Reed acknowledged he just hoped to make the star-studded eight-car field in the PRO Superstar Shootout – and was asked by a media member if he would have been told on Tuesday he would win, what his response would be.
“Yeah, that’s funny s*** right there,” Reed said. “That’s funny, funny, funny. Excuse my language. That’s funny. Yeah, well, I knew there would be 11 cars, and it turned up being 9; there’s one man out. And even coming here Friday night, we had an oil pressure problem. We didn’t get to make that hero run Friday night. And my goal is to make it to the show. And we did that, and what an incredible weekend.” – Tracy Renck
DON’T SLEEP ON TJ – Just when people try and forget about Troy Coughlin Jr., he shows why he one of the top Pro Stock drivers in the sport of drag racing.
Coughlin’s latest statement came Saturday when he cashed in with a huge win at the star-studded 2025 SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout in Bradenton, Fla.
Coughlin, driving a Camaro for Elite Motorsports, claimed the $125,000 top prize when Cory Reed recorded a redlight in the final round.
“You know, we’ll take them any way we can get them. Had a lot of great fortune today, these Jegs.com Elite (Motorsports) guys, they worked their tails off, getting this thing to work, and my gosh, we just had great fortune,” Coughlin said. “Between Cory going red in the final, who just had an awesome day of driving, which he’s an excellent dude. I’m really happy to race with him too. Man, in the semis, I was 60. I didn’t really drive my very best. I know I could do better, but we got away with it tonight.”
Coughlin’s victory parade in the 16-car field consisted of wins over Bo Butner, reigning NHRA world champion Greg Anderson, David Cuadra and then Reed. Against Anderson, Coughlin clocked a 6.609-second pass to edge Anderson’s 6.619-second effort.
“These guys, their hard work has showed off on the car. The semis against David, I got there two thou (6.571 seconds to 6.598 by Cuadra because of the car. So, you live and die by it, but we’ll go back home. We’ll get on the simulator and keep digging, keep working.
“You’re going for blood every run you make. You got to be a gladiator in these cars. You got to from Q1 to E4, you got to be on kill.”
No matter how Coughlin was turning on win lights he was happy with the most important result.
“It’s a lot of fun, especially for such a tremendous group at Elite Motorsports and the family that we have and the relationships that we build over the years,’ he said. ‘It just makes it that much more meaningful to come out here and win with each other, for each other. Team Yellow is a very tight-knit group within Elite Motorsports, along with the entire team. There’re so many people to thank, it’s difficult. You got Mark Ingersoll, Tim Freeman, Anthony Lum, Chase Freeman, who’s incredible, Kyle Bates. I mean, everybody on my car, Alex Laney, Kelly Murphy, Stevo. I’m absolutely humbled and so blessed, and God is great.”
Coughlin also isn’t taking anything for grant
ed as he prepares to compete at NHRA’s season-opening Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., March 7-9.
“The mental side of drag racing is just absolutely awesome. I love it. I’ve always loved the sport psychology side of it,” Coughlin said. “We’re going to keep digging at it. We’re going to keep working. I just can’t wait to get to Gainesville.” – Tracy Renck
HART DELIVERS BETTER PERFORMANCE IN BRADENTON – This year was much better for Josh Hart, who has encountered more than his share of hiccups with engine explosions and fires at the annual preseason testing event. This time, it all came together, resulting in a runner-up finish in the Top Fuel portion of the PRO Superstar Shootout.
Hart, and his R + L Carriers Top Fuel dragster made 15 passes in the test session, more than he’s ever turned in since he started in drag racing.
“I can’t really put it into words. The team did 14 or 15 passes, and that’s more than I’ve ever done in my career in one session,” said Hart. “The fact that nobody complained, and everybody kept working. We were up at seven, we were going to bed at midnight, and essentially, we never really got a break to get much sleep. It was constant. To see the car go from a 3.79 to a 3.75 to 3.74, 3.73, 3.72, we’re right there. We knew when it got cool out, we needed to bring it. And we’re working on that, that’s what I’m trying to tell everybody. We’re very, very happy with where we’re at.”
Hart beat Tony Stewart and Justin Ashley to reach the final round.
“We didn’t hurt a bunch of stuff, other than a rear end breaking,” said Hart. “It’s a great group of guys, the morale is different. The vibe is different. It was a lot more fun. As a team owner, I’m hoping that it just went full circle, and now we’re riding the wave up.”
SHAWN LANGDON BRIMMING WITH CONFIDENCE – At last year’s PRO Superstar Shootout, Shawn Langdon beamed at the performance potential that he and new crew chief Brian Husen had based on their past championship season together at Al-Anabi Racing in 2013.
Last season was an adjustment one, and though it had some bumps and bruises along the way, Langdon and Husen finished third in the standings and contenders until the last days of the season.
“We had a really good year, two wins, seven finals within a couple rounds of the championship,” Langdon said. “It was a great year. We feel like we set the standard with how we did last year. We’re looking for more wins, and competing for the championship again. We feel like we have a great team. The guys have been doing a good job. Last year, no mistakes from the guys. And Brian in his first year with being crew chief made some great calls, and gave me a great race car at all times.”
Don’t let the first round exit in Bradenton paint a bad picture. Langdon’s team lost a tough first round match against Justin Ashley, but his commitment to high standards will be just as high when they roll into Gainesville in a few weeks.
“I always come in with confidence,” Langdon said. “I feel like I excel with confidence. So whether it’s fabricated confidence or self-made confidence, but I try to instill confidence in myself and promote that to the team and to the sponsors and everything. Whether it’s really there or not, but you always have to have confidence. I always try to be a confident person and just build off of that. It’s evident, it’s a different type of confidence now.”
JEGGIE’S WILD RIDE – During the second round of the SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout, multi-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Jeggie Coughlin made an uncharacteristic run that put his Pro Stock Camaro up on two wheels and had a glancing blow against the right lane retaining wall. He was uninjured, but the car suffered some structural damage.
Coughlin faced tire shake, and as he employed counter-measures to iron out the angry tires, the car made an abrupt “Pro Modish” right turn toward the wall. While the incident could have been a lot worse, Coughlin admitted it could have been a lot better.
“Just as soon as I let the clutch out, I could feel it starting to shake, and I got it into second gear pretty as quickly as I could with the way it was accelerating, and third gear, even,” Coughlin recalled. “Typically, when you can row it through a couple of gears really quickly, it’ll kind of knock the breath out of it and drive down through there. It’s not going to be fast, but you don’t know what’s going on in the other lane. Didn’t know Cory was running low ET of the round over there.”
Coughlin has had experience with angry Pro Stockers before. But this time, Coughlin said there was no getting this one to calm down, no matter the proven tricks applied to inspire it.
“I’ve stuck with them longer and got away with it, and I’ve never hit anything, so I guess I’ve stuck with them shorter too and got away with it,” Coughlin said. “It just was definitely oscillating. I think I had it in third gear by that time, and it was starting to come around, and then it just kind of, as I was pushing the clutch in and it bit all at the same time, and that just kind of cocked and sent me toward the wall.
“What went through my mind real quick is there’s not enough room between me and this wall for this thing to set down. I was like, “Son of a bitch.” Obviously knocked it into the wall.”
Coughlin feels that after 27 years of racing Pro Stock, the incident bruised up his feelings.
“The first time to physically run into something was pretty painful,” Coughlin said. “It sucks. I hate it for obvious reasons. One, we lost the round. Two, we hurt a really good car. Will get fixed, but it creates a lot more work in the meantime as we prepare for Gainesville.”
Until the team gets back to the Elite shop, it can only take inventory of damage to the Camaro’s quarter-panel and parts of the front-end.
“We’ll put her on the jig and get her fixed up,” Coughlin said. “When it comes off there, and it’ll have some new pieces on it, and we’ll be ready for Gainesville.”
NOT EXACTLY THE NO-BULL SHOWDOWN, BUT… – Last year, those who missed out on the eight-car fields of the inaugural PRO Superstar Shootout were invited to participate in the Don Schumacher Award that pitted Top Fuel dragsters versus Funny Cars.
Doug Foley won the event this year, beating J.R. Todd in a one-run winner-take-all.
There was also an intramural skirmish for Tony Stewart Racing, mimicking the battle that took place in 2022 when the event was in Phoenix, Az.
While Leah Pruett beat Matt Hagan in that match race, this time Hagan got his revenge by beating Tony Stewart.
BOGAN, THE TWO-TIMER – This is the one instance where being a two-timer is a good thing.
Bogan, the past IHRA World and NHRA Divisional Champion, stands as the only two-time winner of the PRO Superstar Shootout. Only three sportsman categories are invited to participate in the event, Top Sportsman, Super Stock and Bogan’s stomping grounds, Stock Eliminator.
Bogan’s monumental win came at the expense of sportsman veteran Joe Santangelo.
Bogan, running as a D/Stock Automatic in his first-gen Camaro, had an .010 reaction, and broke out -.024 against Santangelo’s .039. The difference of .037 on the starting line fell in Bogan’s favor.
“Last year we won it and we said, ‘Man, that’s awesome,” Bogan said. “Then come back, do it two times is something we couldn’t have imagined. I think this time was more exciting though, because I was just having a good time. No pressure. No points. Just have a good time. Yeah, it was fun.”
Bogan’s road to the title included wins over Tony Fagnilli, Jack Line, Jeff Longhany, Gage Burch and a bye run into the finals.
The win gives Bogan a big positive headed into a March, which always is tough on his heart. Three years ago, Monty Bogan Sr passed away on March 22, and many years earlier was preceeded by his mother.
“Those two days, are pretty tough on me,” Bogan said. “Dad always loved my drag racing and he made it to where I could go racing after he left. We are honoring them with what we are doing out here with this WT of Jonesville Camaro.”
Winning the FTI Top Sportsman division was the supercharged shoebox of Andrew Johnson, stopping the Pontiac of former Pro Modified racer Tommy D’Aprile.
Santangelo redeemed his Stock Eliminator runner-up when he took Super Stock crown over Hayden Trumble.
TESTING ISN’T ALWAYS EASY – Daniel Wilkerson, who had to pull out a backup car after the parachutes on his SCAG Ford Mustang didn’t deploy during a test run, ended up with a first-round matchup against eventual race winner Ron Capps. The pair had identical reaction times of .087 seconds, but Capps would pull away to run a 3.863 at 333.41 bettering Wilkerson’s 3.892 at 315.34.
“I would say this team made an excellent recovery from the test session from hell. The early part of the week definitely did not go the way we wanted. Because of it, we have a lot of work to do before heading to Gainesville for the NHRA Gatornationals,” Wilkerson said. “But we ran a career-best 3.86 in qualifying and put up a great 3.89 first round and just got outran by Capps running low of the round. We have a great foundation to stand on for the Gatornationals.”
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – ANTRON SHINES IN THE PITS, THEN TRACK, A.B.A = AUSTIN BEING AUSTIN
HOLLYWOOD MEETS DRAG RACING – Hollywood couldn’t have written a better script.
Antron Brown, who had been among the top of the testing teams from Tuesday until Thursday morning, was on what appeared to be a strong Friday qualifying pass during the Q-2 session at the PRO Superstar Shootout when the car moved around on the top end. Then a slick exploded, sending rubber shrapnel into the sky and his three-wheeled dragster to a screeching stop in the Bradenton Motorsports Park shutdown area.
Immediately, the Antron Brown Motorsports, led by Brian Corradi and Brad Mason, began taking parts off the bruised new dragster and moving them over to the championship-winning dragster, hoping at least to make a check-out run in the final session.
Brown, who is excellent at making time for the media and fans, politely asked for a timeout as he processed what had happened.
As difficult as this was to understand, an hour later should have really had him scratching his head.
Brown was scheduled to make a half-pull and coast to a stop, but instead, he kept the pedal to the metal and delivered his best run since he made his first run in Tuesday’s private testing. In fact, the 3.644 second elapsed time at 322.11 was his best run since joining the Top Fuel ranks.
“My hats off, man. I’m going to be honest with you, brother. Just kept the faith, brother,” Brown said. “Lord knows that hard work always pays off, and we got the right group of people, and that right there proved to me and everybody else, like I always said, that we have this group. We’ve been fighting all last year. We won the championship. And we’ve been looking for those runs to run in the 3.60s.”
Brown believes the new car will be good once they get it broken in, but in a pinch, “old faithful” has always seemed to deliver the goods for him.
“We’ve been pushing really, really, really hard, and to bring out our car from last year, we had a new front half on it, and we’ve been running our brand new race car out here, and then we had that mishap where something just got into the tire, or the tire let go on us, and we tore that new race car up,” Brown said. “We have our work cut out for us to go back home and get it back, to have our PBRCs ready to go.”
Brown admitted that making the “hero” runs race fans clamor for in testing was low on the priority list as he and the team were trying new parts and pieces. He had little indication the hero run would come following one of his darkest moments in the event.
“We were just planning to run to half-track; we weren’t going to lean on it a whole lot,” Brown said of the replacement for the Q-4 session. “But then, knowing how Brian is, he tells me, “Do what you want to do. Now, if it feels good, don’t shut it off.
“It was one of those times when that thing was getting after it, then I was like, ‘This thing’s on a mission.”
A driver knows when a car is cooking, and Brown knew whatever came up on the scoreboard, his hot rod had more to deliver.
“It still shut off just a little early. It shut off probably at 850 feet,” Brown admitted. “That’s why it ran 322, and we ran a 71 back half. That’s a low 3.63. I should have run. So, all in all, that .64 popped on the board, and that was our quickest pass by far. We went 298 miles an hour in a half-track. So with that being said, is that now we’ve been pushing. We’ve got our clutch pack together. And we actually finally get something that we always wanted to do, is run that hard and that fast.”
PROCK SHOWS HIS CARDS – It’s hard to fly under the radar when you live in the headlines. This is exactly what defending Funny Car champion Austin Prock has done since private testing kicked off on Tuesday.
Prock, the defending event champion, made the quickest run in Funny Car history during Friday’s final qualifying session, stopping the timers in 3.791 seconds at a speed of 331.53 miles per hour. The run exceeded the previous mark held by the driver he subbed for, Robert Hight, who ran 3.793 seconds back in 2017 during the laid-back header era.
When you consider his hit parade of runs for the week included a 3.805, 3.861, 3.882, and a 3.860, it should come as no shocker a 3.7-second pass was lurking.
“That thing was trucking down there,” Prock said. “I had my hands full. I got really close to the centerline and that might have scrubbed off that three-thousandths we needed to go (3).78. But I’m really proud of this team.
“It’s been eight years since someone has run (3).79,” he continued. “The race cars and rules were much different (then), so to get back to that number says a lot about this team, says a lot about my dad (crew chief Jimmy Prock), Thomas (Prock) and Nate (Hildahl). They do a really good job and it sure is fun.”
CORY REED DELIVERS – It’s hard to believe that it was last July when former Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Cory Reed made his first run at an NHRA national event on four-wheels in Seattle. A race later he reached the final round in Sonoma.
After that start, it shouldn’t be so hard to believe.
Friday evening at the PRO Superstar Shootout, instead of being the chaser, he evolved into the chasee.
Reed ran the quickest elapsed time of the three sessions, stopping the timers in 6.494 seconds, edging out his teammate Greg Anderson, who ran 6.498 seconds. It was a career-best run for the sophomore driver.
“i didn’t realixe I was No. 1, but when Greg Anderson was behind me I didn’t get excited,” Reed said. “I automatically thought, ‘Yeah, Greg’s going to f’ing drag my ass’”, and he didn’t,” Reed explained. “It’s cool, and it’s different. I don’t know. I was telling Joey [Gladstone], “Never in my wildest dreams have I ever thought that I would’ve been a No. 1 qualifier.”
As much as Reed could take credit, he deflected the praise to his crew.
“I’ll tell you that right now. I got a good team, and it’s a giant help,” Reed said. “It’s a cheat code, and I’m happy to use it. So they deserve it too, man. They proved that they can make an old race car, a new race car, one that sucked at the beginning of the week, come back around and be really good. It’s all them, really. I just get to drive the thing and it’s fun, but they make all the decisions.”
HOW THE CHIPS STACK UP – Saturday’s eliminations were determined by chip draw immediately following the final qualifying session in each category.
Top Fuel
Doug Kalitta (2) vs. Brittany Force (3)
Josh Hart (7) vs. Tony Stewart (8)
Antron Brown (1) vs. Shawn Reed (6)
Justin Ashley (4) vs. Shawn Langdon (5)
Funny Car
Chad Green (7) vs. Bobby Bode (8)
Ron Capps (4) vs. Daniel Wilkerson (5)
Matt Hagan (2) vs. Jack Beckman (3)
Austin Prock (1) vs. Bob Tasca III (6)
Pro Stock
Matt Latino (7) vs. David Cuadra (9)
Dallas Glenn (3) vs. Jeg Coughlin Jr. (6)
Greg Anderson (2) vs. Erica Enders (5)
Aaron Stanfield (4) vs. Chris McGaha (16)
Fernando Cuadra Jr. (11) vs. Cristian Cuadra (12)
Deric Kramer (8) vs. Greg Stanfield (13)
5 – WHEN CALAMITY HITS – Sometimes the worst thing for an event is to get ahead of schedule and this was exactly where the event was headed headed into Friday’s Q-3 session, then Greg Stanfield’s Pro Stock Camaro apparently broke an oil line on the burnout, spilling fluid on the right lane. The subsequent clean-up took just short of an hour.
A seamless session of Funny Car ensued, but the first pair of Top Fuel cars had Antron Brown’s dragster lose a tire in the lights. The multi-time world champion was able to keep the car straight, until it stopped in the shutdown area.
“It’s tough on it TJ,” Brown told FloRacing’s Tommy Johnson Jr.. “I mean we’re out here testing and having a good time at the PRO Shootout, but the hard part is the brand-new car. The good thing is that PBRC builds a great race car and all our safety features and everything else. I felt it try to come up off the ground and I was like, ‘oh I just lost a tire.”
“Once I felt the back end dip down and the good thing is the wing still staid intact so it gave me some down force, got her stopped. My biggest concern was I felt a pop and I was like ‘Don’t go in Doug’s lane. Don’t go in Doug’s lane, because if you lose control of it, like crazy things happen.”
“We’re safe and sound so everything’s all right, so we’ll go back and assess the situation and see what was going on and we’ll go from there. The good thing is that, walked away, and everything’s fine. That’s the good part.”
Brown’s team worked to get the team’s back-up chassis ready for the Q-4 session.
WHO DIDN’T MAKE IT – Doug Foley, J.R. Todd and Dave Richards failed to qualify in the nitro divisions. Two of the three will run in the traditional, dragster versus Funny Car match on Saturday.
In Pro Stock, Larry Morgan and Brandon Miller missed the 6.574 bump.
MARKED TESTING IMPROVEMENT – It wasn’t for lack of effort.
Justin Ashley and his SCAG Power Equipment team made the equivalent of two (winning) national event’s worth of runs to prepare for the 2025 season. The good thing about testing is while it withholds celebrations for the most part, it threw the team a bone on Wednesday, a 338-mile-per-hour run.
“It was definitely the fastest speed I’ve ever been a part of,” Ashley said. “It was an impressive feat, but breaking records isn’t the ultimate goal.”
It’s about the NHRA championship—a prize that has remained just out of reach despite his consistent performances over the years.
Last year, the driver and his team showed consistency with 32 round wins and 4 race wins but struggled to find that “upper deck shot”—the performance that could push them into the winner’s circle when it counts the most. The team managed to be solid but needed that extra push to turn their consistent efforts into big wins.
Ashley is focused on taking that next step—tuning into the right conditions and making the most of them. “We want to be ready when the conditions are right, running a 64 or 65,” he explained. Testing new strategies is key to being ready for those crucial moments during the season. It’s not just about speed; it’s about capitalizing on the right opportunities.
Ashley understands racing has a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time. Reflecting on their near-misses in Las Vegas and Pomona last season, he pointed out that both races were decided by mere feet. Those small margins of loss have fueled his determination to improve.
As the new season approaches, Ashley is shifting his mindset. “We want to shorten the season, create as much of a gap as we can by Vegas, and make it a five-race countdown,” he said. The goal is to create an early points gap, giving them more breathing room for the final stretch which sounds like a solid initiative. The Pomona race, with points and a half, becomes even more crucial. “There’s a big difference between playing to win and then playing not to lose,” he added.
With veterans Mike Green and Tommy Delago tuning the car—both of whom have multiple championships—Ashley feels confident in his team’s ability to perform under pressure. Their experience and leadership are invaluable, and “they know how to do it,” Ashley added – Allie Hartman
LARRY THE TESTING GUY – Larry Morgan rolled in early Thursday to Bradenton Motorsports Park, a place he’d likely have a frequent tester card if one existed. For decades, he’s made hundreds, if not thousands, of passes down the track outside of Tampa, Florida.
The reality hit Morgan front and center on Thursday morning.
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Morgan admitted with a smile.
The reality is that Morgan is only one of two Pro Stock racers in competition who raced in the Super Bowl of Pro Stock test session at the late Houston Raceway Park in the 1990s. With the exception of Kenny Delco and Jeggie Coughlin, Morgan is the only one in today’s Pro Stock who pulled the levers of a Lenco transmission in the 1980s.
The Super Bowl of Pro Stock dates back to the days when Nitro and Pro Stock tests were largely segregated. Today with a little help, they all test together in events like the one this weekend.
“Those guys are different,” Morgan said. “It takes a different track for those guys. I never thought we would ever both get together, but with the rotators and all that stuff we got now, you can do that, but it is a little different, a little challenging for us at the other end of the track. The track’s not as good here for us, so to speak, as it should be, because of the nitro cars.”
INTIMIDATION FACTOR DIMINISHED – Last year, Dave Richards said the intimidation factor of participating in the SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout on a 1 – 10 scale, was somewhere near 18.
Entering the second season as a full-time competitor thanks to SCAG’s Randy Gloede, it’s not so bad.
“It was really intimidating last year,” Richardson said. “Just being here, really considered myself just a nobody part-time racer to be lined up with the best of the best was very intimidating and just all the variables that went into that year with everything being full-time and putting cars together way fast, super fast before the season and everything. It was very intimidating. So glad to be here this year. I feel like I belong a little more, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”
Richardson admitted even this year, he still says to himself, “Don’t screw this up.”
“The first lap today, my nerves were on full just because you don’t want to screw anything up. You don’t want to “eff” it up. It’s just so much time and effort and dollars go into this thing and you don’t want to be the guy that screws it all up.”
Last season, Richards made a little over 80 laps year, and there were a few buttpuckers, but the biggest one always comes from the first run of the season.
“It’s like almost three months seems like an eternity of not being in the seat. “Just kind of visualize it a lot and try to, but nothing adrenaline-wise compares to this. So home life isn’t an adrenaline like this.
Richards isn’t sure he’s become one of the boys yet, but a good season might get him in the clique.
“I think once we have some good race days, I’ll feel like I’ll be joining the club,” he said. “But with one round win last year, it was kind of frustrating. We ran good but didn’t have any racing luck either. Just a lot of guys that we wound up would win the damn whole race so I feel like we get a little race in luck and increase the performance a little bit and then I plan on being one of the boys.”
THURSDAY NOTEBOOK – PROS LIGHT UP THE SKY IN EXCEPTIONAL KICKOFF TO 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.
