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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – RAIN WASHES OUT SECOND NITRO SESSION AS SOME FRONTRUNNERS STUMBLE; GLENN STILL CRUISING; BIKE BATTLE INTENSIFIES BETWEEN GADSON, HERRERA
1 – CHAMPIONSHIP SCENARIOS IN SPOTLIGHT – Like math or not especially fond of it, everyone is doing it as this In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals opened Friday at Southern California’s In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
Here’s what will decide championships in each of the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series classes at this last of 20 races on the 2026 calendar:
Top Fuel: Shawn Langdon – with eight victories in 11 final rounds and nine No. 1 starts this year – has a 107-point advantage over No. 2 Doug Kalitta, the reigning champion. If Langdon can stretch his lead to 120 during qualifying (if he earns 13 or more qualifying points), he can clinch his second title (and first since 2013) Saturday. If not, he simply would need to win his first-round match Sunday to clinch.
Funny Car: Matt Hagan is chasing a fifth title, which would tie him with Top Fuel’s Joe Amato and Pro Stock’s Jeg Coughlin and make him the only Funny Car driver besides John Force to record five or more championships in the class. In order to achieve that, Hagan has to hold off Jordan Vandergriff, the No. 2-ranked driver and latest winner. In the Countdown, Vandegriff has won twice, at the Michigan opener and two weeks ago at Las Vegas, and been runner-up once (at St. Louis). Hagan lost to Vandergriff in the Countdown kickoff, won at Rockingham, and was runner-up at Dallas.
Heading into this event, Hagan leads Vandergriff by 39 points. If he can reduce the gap to less than 30 points, whichever one of them goes farther in eliminations Sunday earns the championship. If everything remains the same, Hagan can clinch by advancing to the final round Sunday. Vandergriff would need to last two rounds farther than Hagan.
Pro Stock: Leader Dallas Glenn isn’t feeling much pressure. He’s 87 points ahead of No. 2 Matt Hartford and 99 ahead of No. 3 Greg Stanfield. And if he can boost his lead to more than 90 points during qualifying, the KB Titan Chevy Camaro driver would just have to win in the first round Sunday to score back-to-back championships. If not, he can clinch by reaching the semifinal round in eliminations.
Pro Stock Motorcycle: And drama in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class? Say it isn’t so! This weekend, it’s all in the RevZilla/Motul Vance & Hines camp. The title showdown between current champion Richard Gadson and his two-time champion teammate Gaige Herrera depends in large part on who wins the final-round make-up from Las Vegas. That was postponed for safety’s sake because of high winds and dropping temperatures. If Gadson wins the Las Vegas final, which will take place during qualifying Saturday, he stretches his 55-point gap. If Herrera wins and gets the gap to less than 30 points, the bike champion will be which one of them advances farther in eliminations Sunday.
For those who prefer to do their own calculations (or not to take our word for it), here are the point structures for this weekend:
Qualifying per-session bonus points this weekend give one more driver a chance to earn an extra point. At each session, the four quickest earn points, using this scale:
Low elapsed time of each session – 4 points
Second-quickest – 3
Third-quickest – 2
Fourth-quickest – 1
(Customarily, the scale is 3-2-1, with only three drivers earning points)
Qualifying-order points:
No. 1 qualifier – 10 points
No. 2 – 9 points
No. 3 – 8 points
No. 4 – 7 points
Nos. 5 & 6 – 6 points each
Nos. 7 & 8 – 5 points each
Nos. 9-12 – 4 points each
Nos. 13-16 – 3 points each
(Customarily, the scale is 8-7-6-5, then 4 for both fifth and sixth, 3 for both seventh and eighth, 2 each for ninth-12 th , and one each for 13th -16th.)
Each elimination round Sunday is worth 30 points. That means the event winner is awarded 150 points and runner-up 120. A third-round finisher gets 90 points, second-round finisher 60 points, and first-round finisher 30 points. (Customarily, the scale is 100-80-60-40-20.)
2 – KALITTA TENTATIVE TOP FUEL NO. 1 – Shawn Langdon lost traction early in the first Top Fuel qualifying session, and Doug Kalitta zipped to the top of the first-day leaderboard with a 3.677-second elapsed time at 340.39 mph that nudged Maddi Gordon out of first by two-thousandths of a second. Gordon set the track speed record, though, at 342.11 mph. “Holy smokes!! And we’ve got three more qualifiers to go!”, she said.
Make that two more qualifiers.
Rain washed out the second session of Top Fuel and Funny Car qualifying Friday. Right now, Kalitta has earned four qualifying bonus points, trimming Langdon’s lead from 107 to 103 points. No. 3-ranked Antron Brown was fourth-quickest early Friday, and his single bonus point didn’t change his situation significantly. Leah Pruett was third-best Friday.
But both championship contenders Langdon and Kalitta talk about the “magic” that happens in the Kalitta Motorsports garage at Ypsilanti, Mich., and in the pits. And at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals that kicked off Friday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, “magic,” as is customary, just might result in surprise of some kind.
Top Fuel’s Shawn Langdon – with eight victories in 11 final rounds and nine No. 1 starts this year in the Kalitta Air dragster – is hoping Kalitta doesn’t surprise him. Langdon has a 107-point advantage over No. 2 Doug Kalitta, the two-time and reigning champion.
If 2013 champion Langdon can stretch his lead to 121 or more during qualifying (if he earns 14 or more qualifying points), he can clinch his second title Saturday. If not (and he leads by 91-120 points after qualifying), he simply would need to win his first-round match Sunday to clinch.
To have a chance for his third championship in four years, Kalitta must trail by 89 or fewer points after qualifying. But even if he does, Langdon would earn the title if he reaches the semifinals.
“Whatever the scenario, we’re prepared for it,” Langdon said. “I just want to keep the same mindset, keep the same mentality, keep the same focus and the same energy that we have all season. This season definitely exceeded the goals I had in mind for our team this year. What we’ve accomplished means a lot, but you have to win the championship. We have to do that – that’s our goal, so that’s our focus, and that’s where our heads are.”
Ironically, Langdon won the championship in 2013, with Alan Johnson as his crew chief. Today, Johnson tunes the Mac Tools dragster of Langdon’s keenest rival Kalitta. Together, Johnson and Kalitta won the 2023 and 2025 titles.
“I do feel some similarity between what this team is doing and what our [Alan Johnson Racing] team did in 2013. We had a really good car in 2013, but this one’s pretty good, too. Brian [Husen, his current tuner] and I were both on that team, so it’s definitely about the vibe,” he said. “If things go right this weekend, we’ll have an opportunity to do that again.”
Langdon said a second championship “would mean a lot for a lot of different reasons. Brian getting the opportunity to be a championship crew chief is at the top of the list, but the Kalitta Air Careers guys have just done such a great job giving me a good race car every week. If we can close the deal this weekend, they’ve earned it. They deserve it. My mindset is still, ‘Just don’t mess it up, don’t make mistakes, let the guys do their work.’ They’re the ones that make the magic.”
But also, ironically, when Tony Schumacher aced out Kalitta on the final pass of 2006 with the feat known in drag-racing lore as “The Run” – setting the national elapsed-time record for 20 extra points and beating Melanie Troxel to win the event in a do-or-die moment – Johnson was the architect. So Kalitta, ambushed, if you will, in 2006, has a chance 20 years later to rob Langdon.
Meanwhile, across the team shop at Ypsilanti, Mich., Kalitta said, he has watched his crew chiefs, Johnson and Mac Savage, “do their magic tuning this [Mac Tools dragster].”
Kalitta, a seven-time winner in 15 final-round appearances at this historic suburban Los Angeles dragstrip where he made his first start in 1998, said, “Alan has been out here for years [with 14 Top Fuel titles], and Mac was on my team when I first started. So these guys have a ton of experience in these situations. Shawn’s car has been incredible all season, so we know we have a lot of work to do at Pomona, but my guys are hungry. We’ve been here before.
“Alan Johnson is the creator of all this stuff, and even having him on my team, I have to admit, it [another championship] feels like a long shot for us. It’s hard, but anything can happen with points and a half at Pomona. That’s really one of my favorite places to race, so we’ll definitely be up on the wheel. Having this opportunity is all you can hope for,” he said.
“We all work together to chip in on whatever needs to happen. It would be one hell of an opportunity, Kalitta said, admitting the two teams definitely have a rivalry. “They share the shop, so it’s bragging rights. To me, having a chance is just an incredible opportunity to even be able to have this conversation. We’ll just have to let it play out and see what happens.”
3 – PROVISIONAL FUNNY CAR NO. 1 QUALIFIER – Out-of-contention Ron Capps scrambled the plans for both Nos. 1- and 2-ranked Matt Hagan and Jordan Vandergriff, both of whom lost traction on their lone passes and neither of whom earned a point Friday.
And J.R. Todd, still hopeful in third place, helped his however-faint cause by claiming three bonus points.
“I don’t feel like the pressure’s on us, because nobody’s including us in the [championship] conversation to make a run at this thing,” Todd said.
Going into Saturday’s sessions, Hagan still has a 39-point advantage over Vandergriff, and Todd is 101 points behind Hagan.
Capps said he’s looking forward to Tuesday, the day after the awards ceremony and the first free day of the offseason.
Hagan, armed with a new Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Hellcat chassis and new parts this weekend, said he wants to pass Don “The Snake” Prudhomme’s and Kenny Bernstein’s four Funny Car championships and carve a special place in class history.
“I’m excited to come back to Pomona for the finale. We put our Dodge in the winners circle in April with the prestigious 1,000th Funny Car race. I’m tied with ‘The Snake’ and ‘King Kenny’ at four championships, and I really want to be second to John Force with Funny Car titles,” he said. “We have been running very well in the Countdown. We know what is on the line at Pomona. It’s time to perform and take the championship.”
Vandergriff has other plans. After seeing everything he needed to have happen at Las Vegas actually happen two weeks ago, he said, “Now we can go to Pomona with a chance. That’s all I wanted. Every driver out here dreams of being in this scenario, tight points. I grew up playing sports – you want to be in the championship game. Pomona’s now a championship race. The pressure’s on – let’s go for it.”
The Brea, Calif., native made a trip to Atlanta in the down-time to attend a celebration of life for grandfather Bob Vandergriff Sr. and spend some time with family. But he said he definitely is “back into race mode, because this deserves my full attention. I’m 100-percent focused on this championship.”
Although Jordan Vandergriff said he has dreamed of this opportunity for much of his life, “Now that I’m here, it’s like ‘Wow, I guess this is what it actually feels like.’ So, to be here is truly a dream come true. The Cornwell Quality Tools team did exactly what we needed to do at Las Vegas. We got as close as we could to Hagan by winning the race and he went out in the second round. But the job is not finished. We have to close that gap and gain 10 or more points in qualifying to be within one round when eliminations start. That would make things much easier.”
And he said success “starts at the top” with crew chiefs Chris Cunningham and Jason Bunker. Cunningham, he said, “is the guy we all respect and look to as our leader. He leads us with strength and confidence. When he comes on the radio, he sounds so confident in his decisions. He is not second-guessing himself and, when I hear that, it lets me know we have the right guy leading us. Jason Bunker [co-crew chief] is right by Cunningham’s side and he has done such an unbelievable job. We couldn’t do it without them. They deserve the most credit for where we are. They’ve tuned the Cornwell Quality Tools Chevy to all the round wins and our completion rate is up there with the best. This is the best team on property every weekend and, if all goes well, we’ll be the best team on the property in Pomona.”
Todd enters the weekend in third place, 65 points behind Vandergriff and 104 off Hagan’s pace. Todd still is in contention mathematically, but he must be fewer than 90 points behind Hagan entering eliminations Sunday if he is, in his words, “to make a run for it.” If Hagan’s lead is more than 90 points after qualifying, Todd will be eliminated from championship contention.
“We won’t quit fighting until somebody tells us we’re done. We need a perfect weekend, and we need some help from the guys in front of us. With points and a half, almost anything is possible,” Todd said.
4 – IT’S GLENN AGAIN – No one who follows the Pro Stock class was surprised by the opening-day leader. Dallas Glenn, closing in on a repeat championship, was quickest in Friday’s first session and second-quickest to Matt Latino in the second session. That allowed him to expand his lead slightly over Matt Hartford, who’s in second place in the standings. Hartford slipped from 87 points to 92 going into Saturday’s action. Greg Stanfield went from 99 points back in third place to 101 overnight.
Glenn said his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro has “been getting better every single race. Not only is the car running really good numbers, but it really adds to my confidence. When you know you have a good car under you, you relax a little bit and it actually helps you drive a little bit better.”
But he knows he can’t be overconfident if he is to become the first back-to-back champion since Erica Enders was dominant in 2022-23.
“We just have to keep our heads down, keep working, keep trying to improve and keep making good runs, because if I know anything about Pomona, it’s that you definitely can’t relax no matter how much of a points lead you have,” he said.
Hartford recognizes that math simply is a reflection of performance. “Math,” he said, “is a wonderful thing. It’s been around since the history of man. So it doesn’t matter what the numbers say. If we simply execute and qualify well and go rounds, the numbers will shake out where they will. And our goal is to qualify No. 1 and win the race.”
And Greg Stanfield said, “I’m not someone who is going to obsess over points – not saying I don’t look at them, but it’s not my focus. My focus is to do what we’ve been doing all season long: come out here and be the best we can, work hard, and keep at it. If we win the race, then we’ve given ourselves the best chance at the championship.” No matter what, he said, “it’s been an amazing season.”
5 – BIKE BATTLE INTENSIFIES – Vance & Hines racers Richard Gadson and Gaige Herrera can’t separate their achievements, it seems. They’re a matched set, Nos. 1 and 2 in the standings and also in both Friday qualifying sessions. Herrera, going for his third Pro Stock Motorcycle title in four years, swiped the spotlight from points leader and teammate Gadson. Herrera led both sessions Friday and trimmed Gadson’s gap on him from 55 to 50 after opening day.
Gadson was second to Herrera in both sessions.
“It’s going to be emotional,” Herrera, a three-time event winner this season, said of the weekend’s outcome. “It’s going to be heartache. We’re both going to be sweating the whole weekend. So we’ll see what happens. At the end of the day, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
And they’re going to claim the lion’s share of the class’ attention Saturday, as well. In addition to jousting for elimination supremacy, they’ll be facing each other in the early Saturday session, the third overall session, to run the final round of the Las Vegas race. That result will factor heavily into the championship points count.
If Gadson wins, he makes a 20-point gain. Same for Herrera. Whatever happens, it will set the stage even more for a Sunday thriller.
“I don’t know what it’s going to be like. We’ll have to see,” Gadson said. “Obviously, we all saw in Vegas [Herrera’s] performance. His bike is fast. So for me, to look at the rear-view mirror and see what’s coming behind me, it’s hard to watch.
“I’m going to just do a lot of praying and see if Eddie [crew chief Krawiec] has any tricks up his sleeve. It’s going to be fun,” he said. “This is what we were born for. This is what we were built for. This is the way it should have been last year. So now, Pomona is a doubleheader for all the people who didn’t get to see last year. Now we kind of made up for it. Now you get to see two finals in one race, and it’s going to be a long Saturday and Sunday.”
6 – ‘WORLD’S FASTEST FARMER’ DOCUMENTARY DROPS – John Denver’s song “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” claims that “life on the farm is kind of laid-back.” For Tony Stewart Racing’s Matt Hagan, the four-time Funny Car champion and southwest Virginia farmer, it isn’t, really.
But it is, compared to the bustle of his drag-racing life, with long airplane flights, constant photo and autograph requests, seemingly perpetual sponsor and media obligations, and inescapable noise – not to mention being launched on a violent three-second blast in an ear-splitting, 12,000-horsepower, engine-in-your-lap, nitromethane-powered beast than in a nanosecond can detonate, and has exploded, in his face with a wall of hellish flames.
How Hagan, the points leader as the final race of the season started Friday to unfold in championship suspense at Pomona, Calif., balances those two wildly different environments is the subject of the newly released “World’s Fastest Farmer” documentary from Marshlight Stories/Marshlight Studio.
The North Carolina trio of cinematographer-producer Ben Wester, photographer-graphic designer Zach Wiggin, and drone-helicopter camera operator Spencer Hart bring Hagan’s extraordinary “ordinary day” to life in the short-video project. It is available for viewing online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyonCzyZlRY.
Crew chief Mike Knudsen provides an especially impressive explanation of exactly how a Funny Car operates. The video might not provide new content for longtime drag-racing fans, but it’s first-class in informing potentially new fans and well-produced from start to finish. It definitely is worth all 11 minutes, 12 seconds of viewing time.
7 – ‘LUCKY KID’ SUBBING FOR A LUCKY DAD – Few people can catch Bobby Bode without a broad smile at the dragstrip. “He’s a lucky kid,” his dad Bob Bode said. He is. This weekend he’s substituting at Jim Head Racing, in the Head Contractors and Engineering Ford Funny Car, for new dad Spencer Hyde. Hyde and NHRA announcer wife Courtney Enders Hyde welcomed 6-pound, 5-ounce daughter Ellie James Hyde into the world last Saturday morning.
“With the birth of our daughter last Saturday, I needed to be here with Courtney. Of course, I wanted to race the final race of the season and do my best to hold onto our spot in the top 10,” said ninth-ranked Hyde. “We appreciate Bobby being available to get into the seat. I will be pulling for him and the rest of the Head Racing team.” On his social-media outlet, he wrote, “Sitting out the #NHRAFinals this weekend because some things are just more important.”
Displaying a photo of his baby girl, he added, “I will say, this might be the first time you’re seeing the next Erica Enders or Maddi Gordon.”
“I was not expecting this at all,” Bode said of the opportunity. “I put my plans on hold to help Spencer and the Head Racing team. I am very grateful to get the chance from Jim Head to fill in for Spencer to close out the season. It is just cool to get to race at the In-N-Out NHRA Finals, because teams will be racing for championships and you never know if we could have a hand in deciding who gets the trophy at the end of the season.”
Bobby Bode has extensive experience in the Funny Car class, racing for his family’s team as well as veteran team owner Del Worsham. Bode’s first runner-up finish came in 2022, in Houston, and his most recent appearance was last month at St. Louis.
8 – ‘THE RUN REVISITED – It’s hard to believe that two decades have passed since Top Fuel ace Tony Schumacher earned the fourth of his class-leading eight championships with “The Run” at this event. In order to win the championship that year, Schumacher’s tall order for the final pass of the season was to win the race – and in the process, set the national elapsed-time record. He delivered, edging Doug Kalitta by 14 points – after Kalitta had entered that event 45 points ahead of Schumacher.
Schumacher, whose likeness is on the admission ticket to this event to commemorate the achievement, quipped Friday, “When you buy a ticket, it’s got my 20-year-old face.”
This weekend, Alan Johnson, Schumacher’s crew chief at the time, has the chance to spoil Shawn Langdon’s anticipated second championship – as Kalitta’s tuner.
And Schumacher remembers watching Kalitta earn his first of two titles and reminiscing about the details with Johnson there on the starting line in 2023.
“When he won with Doug in the right lane, after he did. [Wife] Summer and I were up on the starting line waiting for Doug to win his first championship and he wins the race. And Alan looks at me, he goes, ‘Can you believe it? They put me in the right lane. Do they not have a TV?’ It was really funny, because we were in the right lane when we did it. And he’s like, ‘This is where we did The Run,’” Schumacher said. “So, had some great moments in that lane. He’s had some. I’ve had some. It’s just one of them things. But, yeah, if Shawn would have to lose, there’s no longer a record for points. But if he does, Doug can win the race. He’s got a team capable of doing that. Shawn’s got an unbelievable car, but it’s those little things that you can have a car all year long, but it always comes down to this. Now this is the thing – and Doug is one of the best drivers I’ve ever seen – and he’s had to win the race to be the champ. This is a tough one. If Shawn loses first round, Doug will have to win four rounds. And that is when you find out that’s a crazy moment.”
The NHRA stopped granting the 20-point bonus for an elapsed-time national record in 2016. It also at that time eliminated the longtime “one percent backup” requirement for certifying national records.
Perhaps more amazingly, Schumacher pulled off something similar the following year, in 2007, at this track, on the final pass. He arrived at Pomona in fourth place in the standings, 67 points behind Hot Rod Fuller. Schumacher won his first-round match-up. Fuller came up after that, and all he had to do was win that round in 2007 [to become champion] and he smoked the tires. Schumacher said, “Alan Johnson turns around and looks at me. He goes, ‘He smoked the tires against [Bob] Vandergriff.’ So then he comes up to me, he looks at me, he goes, ‘We just got to win the race,’ – just that nonchalant: ‘We just got to win the race.’ But I ran [Brandon] Bernstein, if he beats me, he’s the champ. But we beat him. And I mean, it was a close race. Those are great moments, but that’s what we show up for. Nobody wants to show up trying to get in the field. You show up waiting for that moment. It’s got to all go right.”
Champions don’t show up, just trying to make the starting grid. Some racers do it, but champions don’t do that.
“We show up thinking, ‘What a great moment, perfect opportunity. We look at our team and we go, ‘Team capable of doing it. Track conditions are phenomenal. Everything about it is great. That’s it,”’ he said.
Schumacher is switching from Rick Ware Racing to Tony Stewart Racing after this season ends.
“I’m super excited, man, but I’m enjoying this moment too,” Schumacher said. “I’m going to enjoy the moment for Shawn. I’m going to enjoy the moment for whoever wins Funny Car. Kalitta, if he can come back, I’m going to enjoy sitting back and watching it and not feeling the pressure this year.
“I joked and I said, ‘I have not lost on a holeshot this year, all year long. I haven’t had a car quick enough to outrun the other car. That’s just the way it is. We haven’t had the luck. Great people, hardworking, haven’t had the luck in any way, shape, or form where we could even put ourselves in a position where that could happen. Next year the pressure will be back up. I love it. I drive better that way,” he said.
Schumacher has won his eight crowns with three different crew chiefs (Dan Olson, Alan Johnson, and Mike Green). “I try to point that out every now and then, because everyone goes, ‘It’s Alan Johnson.’ I go, ‘It was, but I beat him twice, three times.’ I beat him with two different crew chiefs. So it is Alan Johnson. And when we were together, we were unbeatable. We were. We were a really good unit. So it is. Alan’s one of the best in the entire world that we’ll ever see – ever have, and ever will,” he said. “And I got to be a great part of it. Both sides of it. I had to beat him at the beginning. I had to beat him at the end. I had to work with him in the middle. It was fantastic. He’s a great guy to work with, because you learn so much about driving flawless.”
9 – CAPPS REFLECTS ON 2026 – The final weekend is here for the NHRA at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. For the two-car team owner and his Top Fuel teammate Maddi Gordon, both California natives, it’s special – and they are making a lot of noise in a return to their home track. Capps led the first session of Funny Car qualifying, and Gordon grabbed the No. 2 Top Fuel spot with a run powered by the class track speed record at 342.11 mph.
“There are just so many reasons to get excited for Pomona. It’s such a historic track, on top of it being the place where world championships are decided,” Capps said.
He is a four-time winner, nine-time runner up, and seven-time No. 1 qualifier here, but he never has won the NHRA Finals at Pomona. Capps, although never winning the final race, has had five of his seven Pomona No. 1 qualifier times come in the finals and has two runner-up finishes. Capps has clinched all three of his championships in the Finals here.
“When I look back at a lot of the races throughout my career, there are some that just blend in. But I can tell you without a doubt, if not every NHRA Finals event, at least most of them have stood out in one way or another,” Capps said. “For me personally, battling for a championship and to come up short a handful of times and then finally win it in 2016, and then to go on and do it two more times has been pretty spectacular, especially when we’ve come from behind and won it on the very last day of the season.”
The three-time champion came into the Finals this year sixth in the standings. Although not able to win the title this season, it has still been a strong year for the NAPA Auto Parts team: three wins, two runner-up finishes, and four No. 1 qualifiers this year for Capps. Capps is now looking to move up in the standings and finish with a solid weekend at Pomona.
“It has been a great season for our NAPA Auto Care team and the entire Ron Capps Motorsports organization as a whole. We’re not in the championship chase this year, but as any team will tell you, you still want to end your season on a great note, and there would be nothing better than closing out the year with one last 75th anniversary diamond Wally trophy. Guido [Dean Antonelli] has got the eye of the tiger headed into Pomona.”
And Top Fuel rookie teammate Gordon, the leading candidate for the NHRA Rookie of the Year Award that will be announced Monday evening at the end-of-season banquet, is finishing the season at her home track.
“It is pretty crazy to think we’re headed back to Pomona to compete in our final event of my rookie season,” Gordon said. “I have quite literally grown up at Pomona, watching my dad race his Alcohol Funny Car since I was eight days old. I raced Jr. Dragsters there, Alcohol Funny Car, and now Top Fuel dragster. There’s so much history for me at that track, and it’s beyond exciting to be able to close out my rookie season there,” she said.
Gordon got her first career win this season at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. Norwalk would be Gordon’s only win of the season, with two runner-up finishes and a tie for sixth in the Countdown standings beside SCAG Racing’s Will Smith.
“It’s incredible to look back at how far our team has come this year. We’ve all learned so much and grown as a team. I’m so impressed with what Rob [Flynn], Troy [Fasching], Chuck [Grospitch], and every one of our Carlyle Tools boys have built, and I couldn’t be prouder to go out there and race with this group every weekend. For Ron Capps Motorsports, it’s pretty awesome that we’ve been able to achieve so much in our first year together, and it just makes us all extra pumped for next season knowing we’ve got a really solid foundation to build off of. I can’t wait for one more great outing with our team before we head into the off-season and get to work on our 2027 program.” – Connor Sechrist
10 – DID YOU KNOW? … Alex Laughlin made his debut in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class Friday, becoming the first to license in all four pro classes. The White Alligator Racing rider was 15th in the provisional order after the first session but sits on the bump overnight. Malcolm Phillips rode his Pro Stock Motorcycle into the sand at the end of the track. He said he didn’t panic because of his experience on bump, “backyard” tracks during his no-bar racing days. “Just pumped the brakes as much as I could. I didn’t do no damage to it. I’m a little dirty. We’ll get it fixed and we’ll be back tomorrow.”
