Photos by Dave Kommel, Todd Dziadosz, Bob Snyder
QUALIFYING NOTEBOOK – A WILD FRIDAY SETS UP FOR AN INCREDIBLE SATURDAY WITH PLENTY OF LOOT ON THE LINE –
1 – FROM HEARTBREAK TO THE TOP – The last time Dale Creasy Jr. raced at Darana Raceway, he left with a memory he’d rather forget.
A failed qualifying effort at the relocated IHRA Spring Nationals knocked the previously undefeated Funny Car driver out of the points lead, ended his streak of momentum, and handed rival Del Worsham an opening he gladly accepted.
That frustration ate at Creasy for over a month before he returned to the track in Hebron, Ohio.
“Until I ran here on Thursday,” Creasy said when asked how long it took him to get over the DNQ. “As soon as I left here, before we left, I told my brother, I said, ‘I think I know what’s wrong – and I know what we did wrong.’”
Whatever lessons were learned worked. Creasy led qualifying from the opening session with a 4.00-second pass, then lowered the boom Friday night with an IHRA-record 1,000-foot run of 3.962, 315.19, to claim the No. 1 qualifying position.
Bobby Bode qualified second with a 3.976, while points leader Del Worsham landed third with a 4.010.
The timing couldn’t be better for Creasy’s resurgence. With a $1 million bonus available to any driver in five qualifying categories who can sweep all three IHRA Triple Crown races, Creasy knows the only race that matters right now is the one immediately in front of him.
“Tomorrow morning, first round is the only thing that I’m thinking about right now,” Creasy said Friday. “I don’t look at the ladder because anything could happen. We are capable of running as good as anybody here and we proved that today, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen tomorrow.”
The breakthrough came after the team identified what caused the qualifying disaster at the previous Hebron event. According to Creasy, the problem wasn’t mechanical, it was information.
“We got over center at the last race and we figured out what we did wrong,” Creasy said. “There was nothing wrong with the car. We just got over center, and we bought a grip meter – next step teaching us things that we don’t know – and that seems to be helping because we got a little more information.”
The investment came from a simple realization. The teams winning consistently were using tools Creasy’s team didn’t have, and he had to face the fact that he was playing catch-up on the data front.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you have a track meter? Does the best guy out there have one?’” Creasy recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Then you should.’”
The pursuit of improvement is one reason Creasy isn’t spending much time thinking about the million-dollar prize. Winning this bonus money would be life-changing, but as he quickly pointed out, it wouldn’t change who he is.
“Oh, my God, I don’t know,” Creasy said. “It would just give me an opportunity. I could shore up my house and my wife’s future, and then I could put a whole bunch of money in the race car – but I don’t plan on quitting.”
2 – REED CALLS HIS SHOT – The moment the IHRA announced a $1 million bonus for any driver capable of sweeping its Triple Crown series, Shawn Reed didn’t need a committee meeting to decide whether to take a shot at it.
While others weighed schedules and commitments, Reed became the first NHRA Top Fuel top-10 finisher to raise his hand and commit to the program.
On Friday night at Darana Raceway, that decision paid its first dividend.
Reed thundered to the quickest 1,000-foot elapsed time in IHRA Top Fuel history, posting a 3.767-second pass at 332.35 mph to claim the No. 1 qualifying position for Saturday’s eliminations. More importantly, he kept alive the possibility of chasing a prize that could change a team’s future.
The run came in a qualifying session where certainty was hard to find.
When Reed rolled into the water box, he wasn’t worried about records. He wasn’t even sure where he stood in the field.
“Yeah, I mean it’s pretty cool,” Reed said. “I mean anytime you can get No. 1 anywhere you are, NHRA or here, it’s still pretty cool, man. The guys did great and it was kind of sketchy. We didn’t know when we were sitting in the water box if we were No. 8 or No. 9 or what we were. The leadership over here had no fear and said, ‘Send it.’”
The decision worked and so did Reed’s right foot.
“I drove the s*** out of it and lucky I didn’t hit another wall or something,” Reed said.
Behind Reed, the field proved exactly why he isn’t spending much time thinking about seven figures. Tripp Tatum qualified second with a 3.797, winning a tiebreaker over Jasmine Salinas, who posted the same elapsed time, while points leader Gary Pritchett qualified fourth at 3.811.
That’s the reality of this Top Fuel field.
As Reed sees it, there are enough proven race cars in the ladder to turn a
championship favorite into a spectator before lunch.
“It’s just one round at a time,” Reed said. “You can’t even think about that. That’s so far down the road and you got to get through round one tomorrow and then you got to get through number two and then you got to get through number three.”
Reed knows the million-dollar conversation sounds good on Friday night. The race car doesn’t care about the bonus, and neither does the driver in the other lane care about Reed’s desire for it, either.
“I mean there’s a lot of good cars over here, man,” Reed said. “There’s seven, eight, nine good cars and then there’s two or three or four more that can ruin your day just because. You just got to do what you got to do.”
3 – HARRIS QUALIFYING RECORD REMAINS UNBLEMISHED – Jason Harris found himself in unfamiliar territory Friday night at Darana Raceway.
For a driver who has spent most of the season looking down at the rest of the field from the No. 1 position, Harris entered the final qualifying session sitting 25th on the ladder and in danger of losing a streak that has defined his season.
By the end of the night, he was right back where he’s been all year.
Harris powered to his fifth No. 1 qualifier of the season with a 3.595, 209.69, edging Jacob McNeal’s 3.615 and Melanie Salemi’s 3.618 in one of the tightest qualifying battles of the weekend.
The result looked familiar but the path to get there did not.
“As I was going into that round, I was a little worried,” he said. “I was just trying to be 10, and Brandon Stroud got me where we needed to be. We made an educated decision together and we ended up No. 1.”
That wasn’t the plan when qualifying began. After experimenting with tires and struggling to make clean runs, Harris entered the final session hoping for a solid position in the field rather than another top spot.
In his mind, a top-10 effort would have been enough.
“We had struggled,” he said. “We had put new tires on and scuffed those in and then we hadn’t been down the racetrack. We put old tires back on to go Q1. And then Q1 it should have went down the racetrack, but it just didn’t.”
By half-track, Harris knew the car had finally responded the way he expected.
“I haven’t aborted that many runs this year, and I just had to trust in that it was going to come around and it did,” Harris said. “About half-track when it had the wheel still hung, I knew it was on a good run. I didn’t think it was on a 59 run, but I knew it was on a good run.”
The qualifying success is nothing new but turning those No. 1s into race-day success has proven more difficult. Harris has reached the final round at every event this season except Pro Mod Mania, collecting one IHRA victory and two runner-up finishes.
Now he faces a loaded field on race day.
“Just got to go round by round,” Harris said. “There’s a lot of heavy hitters here. This is almost kind of winter-series vibes here, it feels like this weekend. But I think you’re just going to have to go round by round.”
4 – THE NUMBERS ADD UP FOR DEFLORIAN – John DeFlorian understands the math behind the IHRA Triple Crown better than most.
Nobody wins a million-dollar bonus without first winning Race No. 1.
On Friday night at Darana Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, DeFlorian took the first step toward that goal, driving his Total Seal Mountain Motor Camaro to the No. 1 qualifying position in a field packed with some of the quickest doorslammers in the sport. His best run came during the second qualifying session, where he posted a 4.078-second elapsed time to secure the top spot heading into eliminations.
It wasn’t a runaway performance, but enough to drive around Australian standout Jason Grima, who ended qualifying second with a 4.086, while Johnny Pluchino was right behind at 4.087.
“Yeah, we’re pretty happy about that,” DeFlorian said. “It’s a big deal. There’s a lot of really good cars out here. I mean, a lot of really good cars.”
The Mountain Motor field delivered one of the toughest qualifying ladders of the weekend. Twenty-four cars showed up looking for one of 16 spots, and a 4.126-second run was required just to make race day.
DeFlorian entered the second qualifying session believing his team had an opportunity to improve on a solid opening effort. Instead of playing not to lose, he played to win.
“We felt like we had an opportunity, because after the first qualifying session, we were solid,” DeFlorian said. “So, it opens up the door for the second qualifying session. So, we’re like, ‘You know what? We’re going to swing.’”
The gamble paid off as DeFlorian crossed the finish line and saw the 4.07-second run, and he knew it would take something special to knock him off the pole.
“And I went through and I seen the 07,” DeFlorian said. “I’m like, ‘All right, that’s pretty good. That’s pretty solid.’ And there’s still a couple cars behind us and I’d be curious to see what happens.”
Nothing did.
The run held through the remainder of the session and delivered more than bragging rights. Lane choice could prove valuable as eliminations unfold Saturday.
“A big deal,” DeFlorian said. “And like I told them, that it’s an even bigger deal because going into tomorrow, it gives you lane choice, it gives you a lot of things that’s going to be a benefit, or what potentially could be a benefit for tomorrow.”
The reward for surviving the weekend is substantial. This race pays $50,000 to the winner, while also serving as the opening chapter in the race for the IHRA Triple Crown’s $1 million sweep bonus.
DeFlorian’s pursuit begins against Richard Cowger in the opening round.
5 – FATHER KNOWS BEST, NITRO EDITION – The first IHRA Triple Crown race carries a $1 million incentive for any driver who can sweep all three events. Mike Salinas is returning to Top Fuel for a different reason.
After spending the last two seasons away from competition, Salinas climbed back into a race car this weekend at Darana National Trail Raceway and compete alongside his daughter Jasmine for the first time in the same category.
Two years away from the cockpit taught Salinas something many racers spend a lifetime resisting; i.e., the sport moves on whether you’re there or not.
That realization made it easier to step away when a serious heart issue and growing business interests demanded his full attention. There was no halfway commitment and no watching from a distance.
Salinas said he shut racing completely out of his life and focused on getting healthy before considering a return.
“I’ve been really busy with business,” Salinas said. “And to be totally honest with you, I turned it off. I just turned it completely off, and I have that ability like a light switch to turn it on and off and that’s what I did for the last two years. Take care of business, get my health in shape, and I couldn’t come back when I was not right.”
Now he’s ready to compete and ready to make his mark again.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” Salinas said. “My cardiologist said we’re perfect. You can do anything you want.”
The comeback nearly happened earlier this season before a postponed event delayed plans for Scrappers Racing to field two Top Fuel entries. This weekend, the father-daughter pairing finally gets its opportunity.
Ask Salinas what matters most about returning and the answer comes quickly – and t isn’t the million-dollar bonus.
“Beat my kid,” Salinas said. “I just want to race with my daughter. That’s it. The money is money. It doesn’t matter. Race with my kid. That’s more important than anything else. Well, we got a little bit of time. Time is more important than money.”
Jasmine Salinas said seeing her father back behind the wheel is something the team has worked toward since he stepped away at the beginning of 2024.
“I’m excited to compete in the first IHRA Triple Crown race this weekend in Hebron,” Jasmine said. “Having my dad back in the driver’s seat with us and fielding a second Top Fuel car is a big deal for us, and something that we’ve been working tirelessly to make happen.”
Salinas said this weekend is only the beginning.
“We’re going to do the Triple Crown,” Salinas said. “Race with the kid and have fun with it. Harass her as much as I can and just have fun with it.”
Jasmine qualified third in the field while her dad was sixth – meaning that they will square off against each other in the opening round of eliminations.
6 – UH-OH – Looks like the Salinas family will get their wish, much to the chagrin of the NHRA, who wanted the honor of hosting the first father-versus-daughter Top Fuel race in drag racing history. Sure, John Force match-raced Brittany Force at the Pro Winter Warm-up at Palm Beach International Raceway over a decade ago, but the 16-time NHRA champ was in a Funny Car. It’s not the first time a father and daughter have raced one another in nitro, either. Yep, the Forces did that, too.
But in Top Fuel, the Salinas family will do that Saturday. And guess who will not get a father’s day present or give his daughter a gift.
“I’ve never been one to let my daughters win,” Salinas said. “And they’ve never let me win either. That’s not how life works, and it’s not how racing works. After being out of commission for almost a year and seeing what Jasmine can do, I know it’s going to take a lot of work to beat her. She stepped up and showed who she is as a driver and a team leader.”
Jasmine has no interest in being part of family gifting, either.
“Trust me when I say that while I’m excited to have my dad coming back to competition, I’m even more excited to beat him for the first time,” Jasmine said. “In reality, I’m just really glad that he’s returning to the cockpit because I know how much he’s missed it.”
7 – GET THE BAIL MONEY READY – What do you get when you put Bob Gilbertson, Nicky Boninfante, and Jon Capps together?
“Usually an arrest report,” Capps said with a laugh. “No, I think you get a lot of knowledge and hopefully some good time slips.”
The joke falls into IYKYN (if you know, you know) territory because everybody in nostalgia drag racing knows the backstory.
Long before social media documented every misstep, Gilbertson and Boninfante built a reputation for finding trouble, horsepower, and memorable stories, sometimes all on the same weekend. A rental-car story alone has survived longer than some race teams.
This weekend at Darana Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, they’re together again.
Boninfante didn’t need a moment to consider what happens when the three names end up under the same awning. History has already answered that question.
“Chaos for sure,” Boninfante said. “We’re going to have some fun but we’re trying to make some good runs. Bob wanted me to come in and help out and it’s kind of like old times. It’s hard to believe though that it was 20 years ago when I worked for Bob, but I just wanted to come have some fun and see if we can get it qualified.”
Boninfante stepped away from his Rick Ware Racing responsibilities for the weekend to help Gilbertson’s operation at the opening race of the IHRA Triple Crown.
The goal is simple enough. Get qualified, make some runs, and pull off what they are capable of.
“We’ve just been reminiscing on all the old times and we’re a little older now, so we’re a lot calmer, but we definitely had some good times and made some pretty good runs,” Boninfante said.
Gilbertson hopes the car makes enough clean passes that he can eventually put himself back behind the wheel.
For now, Jon Capps gets first crack at it.
“We’re hoping to qualify to start with,” Gilbertson said. “And we’re hoping that we can get you a thousand feet, get a couple of good runs so then old worn out Bob can get in there and make a couple runs himself. But I’m going to let Capps burn it up first and get all the bugs worked out.”
Gilbertson’s recent trips to Hebron have followed a familiar pattern.
Something breaks and it’s usually something expensive.
“So I already burnt the motorhome up on the last trip up here on the way back,” Gilbertson said. “They totaled it and on the trip up here we threw the camshaft and the gear drive out of the Kenworth. So I lost the truck and the motor home all on the same weekend, the last time we were here. But we went one run to the eighth mile and we qualified number two and the car didn’t burn at all. So I felt that was a good weekend.”
Capps understands the history standing around the car. More importantly, he understands what comes with it.
“It’s pretty cool,” Capps said. “You look around and all the laughs you guys have made and the mistakes they’ve learned from and I just try and make sure that I don’t screw up and then lose a run because it’s something I haven’t learned from.”
9 – PALMER’S PREMONITION – Scott Palmer saw it coming, and in the end he looked more like Nostradomas than the “People’s Champion” Top Fuel driver that won the first race of the rejuvenated IHRA.
Palmer knew the Triple Crown purse would bring out the claws of his competition.
“There’s definitely some heavy hitters showing up for this,” Palmer said before qualifying began Friday. “There’s probably four to six heavy hitters in each class. I don’t consider us one of those, even though we run pretty good, but you got guys … A heavy hitter to me is someone who runs the full circuit. If you run the full circuit, you have an advantage over us guys who run 10 or 12 races a year just from making laps. And I consider them heavy hitters because we mostly have part-time crew guys as far as testing.
“We couldn’t really come out here and test. A lot of us guys who run the full IHRA circuit don’t have full-time crew guys. They can’t take off all week for us to show up here and test. So the guys who can, let’s say [Mike] Salinas and those guys who can come out here, Paul Lee, and make some test runs before the race, they’re already at an advantage over us because we just couldn’t physically get everybody in place to test, so that kind of puts us at a little bit of a disadvantage. But, hey, it’s drag racing, we all drag our stuff up there, the starting line, with the same parts. Everybody here has got quality parts. We just have to use them right.”
Unfortunately for Palmer and his team driver Lee Callaway, neither qualified for Saturday’s final eliminations, thus removing them from the $1 million bonus contention. And that might have been just as well for Palmer.
“A million dollars would look pretty good in my bank account,” Palmer said. “It wouldn’t last long though. I promise you, I’ve already got it spent.”
10 – SPIDERMAN’S NEW WEB – When it comes to chasing speed on two wheels, few names carry more weight than Larry McBride.
The longtime Top Fuel Motorcycle star spent decades making believers out of anyone willing to stand near the guardwall when one of his motorcycles left the starting line.
Now McBride has found a new place to race. With NHRA electing not to continue Top Fuel Motorcycle competition in 2026, McBride and many of the sport’s biggest names have landed in the IHRA, where the class has become part of the sanctioning body’s growing lineup.
For McBride, the move isn’t rooted in resentment. It’s business.
“Absolutely – 100% business,” McBride said. “And I think that the IHRA’s growing. They got their teething problems, and I think anybody that starts a new business and jumps in and has all of these big new projects that he has going on and this vision that he’s seeing is a tough deal to put together. But I think it’s coming together.”
McBride admits he misses the NHRA side of the sport and the relationships built over the years. At the same time, he believes the IHRA presents an opportunity for the class to continue moving forward.
“Well, fortunately I’ve known [IHRA owner] Darryl [Cuttell] for a long time and he talked to me about putting the deal together,” McBride said. “Do I miss the NHRA? Absolutely. A lot of friends over there. Unfortunately it just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to work out.”
One issue centered around race distance. McBride has long preferred racing beyond 1,000 feet or more, while many competitors favored the shorter eighth-mile distance.
“Some of the other guys wasn’t following the series like we needed to support,” McBride said. “And they all wanted to kind of run an eighth-mile stuff and that’s not what Larry wanted to do. I’m a quarter-mile guy – or a 1,000-foot quarter mile professor preferably – but I liked 1,000.”
In the end, McBride was willing to compromise if it meant keeping the class together.
“Unfortunately, the other boys wanted to run eighth mile,” McBride said. “If that’s what it takes to get them to come to the track, that’s what I’m going to do. I mean, I love racing, whether it’s eighth mile, 1,000 foot, quarter-miles – as long as we’re at the racetrack.”
The veteran racer believes the IHRA’s investment is already showing signs of growth. According to McBride, strong participation numbers suggest the class has momentum.
“I think we got a great bunch of cars here and I think we got 18 or 20 Top Fuel Harleys,” McBride said. “We got eight long supercharged motorcycles. So I’m definitely happy in the direction it’s going.”
For all the discussion about race distances and sanctioning bodies, McBride knows what many outside the sport focus on most and it’s the danger. His answer leaves little room for misunderstanding.
“Absolutely not,” McBride said when asked if someone worried about danger belongs in the class. “Yeah, you should not be out here.”
McBride has spent a lifetime riding motorcycles at speeds most people cannot comprehend. His perspective on risk was formed long ago.
“Life is dangerous, as you know,” McBride said. “We’ve lost some great people. I’m a firm believer. We all got a number. We just don’t know when God’s wanting to bring us home. So when he’s ready to bring us home, no matter what we’re doing, he’s going to bring us home.”
Qualifying
