Photos by: Alex Owens, Auto Imagery
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – SELLOUT CROWD SEES LANGDON, BECKMAN, TROY COUGHLIN JR., HERRERA SECURE NO. 1 STARTING SPOTS; GORDON SETS TRACK SPEED MARK; HARTMAN WINS MARTIN FINAL IN FSS; KING MAKES HISTORIC PRO MOD RUN
1 – PACKING ’EM IN – NHRA announced its 11th sellout crowd of the 2026 season Saturday at the NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals.
It was the third consecutive Saturday sellout during the Countdown to the Championship. The event gives World Wide Technology Raceway its sixth consecutive Saturday sellout at this event.
Ron Capps was among the drivers who thanked the fans. The Funny Car driver said, “You fans, man, you’re the best. You pack this place every time. I heard it sold out. It’ll probably sell out tomorrow. Love you guys.”
The crowd saw Shawn Langdon, of Kalitta Motorsports, keep his No. 1 qualifying position in the Top Fuel class. It was his 29th time to lead the field into eliminations and his seventh time this season. The points leader has won three times this year from the No. 1 starting spot, and he’ll see if he can make it four, starting with Tony Schumacher in the opening round.
Joining Langdon at the top of the leaderboard were Jack Beckman (Funny Car), Troy Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock), and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
2 – WALLACE BRINGS GORDON LUCK? – NAPA dragster driver Maddi Gordon, of Ron Capps Motorsports, will start from the No. 3 berth in the Top Fuel order, with the boss sitting directly behind her at the head of the Funny Car qualifying line.
She set the World Wide Technology Raceway speed record at 340.65 mph – with some inspiration from a NASCAR personality who generates as much energy as herself.
Kenny Wallace, a guest of Ron Capps Motorsports at this third of six Countdown to the Championship drag races at Madison, Ill., warmed up Gordon’s 12,000-horsepower, nitro-fueled dragster Saturday. She then registered her monster run on the 1,000-foot course across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.
“That’s the most insane thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Wallace, a native of St. Louis. “I raced in Japan, you name it, and being in Maddi’s Top Fuel car was intense, nerve-wracking. But we pulled it off, and then she went out and ran 340 mile an hour. I’m off the hook. I brought her some good luck.
“Ron Capps has got me talking to going to Hawley’s drag school, so I might go down and learn how to do it, but I don’t think I’m going to race him. I’ll stay in my lane and run my dirt car,” he said. However, Wallace did throw a leg over Steve Johnson’s Pro Stock Motorcycle for fun.
Gordon paid tribute to Wallace on the top front panel of her car with his nickname of “Herman” emblazoned on it. Wallace got the nickname as a youngster from Lake Hill Speedway promoter Bob Mueller, who compared Wallace to Herman the German, a boisterous cartoon character.
Rookie Gordon’s boss, Capps, was sitting directly behind her at the head of the Funny Car qualifying line. He said he was excited to “watch Maddi in front of us stretch all the wrinkles out in the track with that NAPA Top Fuel car.”
3 – BECKMAN CAUTIOUSLY CONFIDENT – No. 1 Funny Car qualifier Jack Beckman expressed confidence in his car and crew, saying that “relative to the conditions, that pass was probably one of the best runs of the year” and “We’ve got a car that’s basically good enough to win all the time.” But he cautioned himself about the details that can derail a winning agenda.
The PEAK Chevrolet Camaro driver for John Force Racing began Saturday qualifying by running a class-best 3.866-seconds at 332.59 mph, and he held on for his 36th career No. 1 qualifier.
He said, “We weren’t pushing to run an .86. We got everything there was out there, maybe a little bit more. The racing gods gave us a hundredth in Q3. We weren’t pushing to run an .86, but we got everything there was out there.
“We’ve got a car that’s basically good enough to win all the time. It’s just about eliminating that small stuff — that hundredth of a second, that five-thousandth of a second, that can eat you alive. Every qualifying run matters. We’ve got to keep doing stuff like that.”
He’ll start Sunday’s quest for a second St. Louis victory in three years against upstate-Illinois veteran racer Dale Creasy Jr., of Beecher. Beckman began the event fifth in the standings, 126 points behind leader Matt Hagan.
Alexis DeJoria, Hagan, and Austin Prock ran identical 3.882-second elapsed times, but DeJoria had the fastest speed of the trio. Hagan took third place and Prock fourth.
For the Prock-watchers … He was asked to describe the Friday night post-qualifying conversations among his braintrust, and Prock said, “There wasn’t very many of them. The success window just gets so small when the track’s that cool and that tight. And this Prock Rocket did exactly what we told it to do and it just didn’t stick. We were trying to run 3.84, which we believed was out there. Everything looked perfect [but] just not enough traction out there for this Ford Mustang. So I was really proud of that. It’s pretty nerve-wracking going up there when you watch three or four cars in front of you not even move, blowing the tires off. So to go 3.91 at 332, that’s some really good speed for us [in Q3]. So I’m proud of the progress we’re making.”
Thomas Prock, Austin’s brother and co-crew chief with their dad Jimmy, said, “A few of those cars started blowing the tires off, and we really had to use the real estate here. And that’s a really good [Q3] run for us, really about what we were targeting. Last night, we were really close to making a big one and ended up in smoke. So we got to fix those runs. We’re good in the heat, it looks like.”
4 – CAPPS SQUEAKS IN – Funny Car contender Ron Capps had entered the fourth and final qualifying session not in the field on other occasions, but it never is a fun position to be in. And when he found himself in that spot Saturday, he didn’t push the panic button. Instead, he said, “McKay NAPA – everybody knows around here, that’s where you go to get your parts … TerrePower and OE TurboPower are on the side of the car, and we can’t let them down. Obviously, there’s something weird going on. You don’t have a crew chief named Guido [Dean Antonelli] that doesn’t know what he’s doing. So I have all the trust. When you pull into a NAPA Auto Care, that’s what you get, right? You get somebody that knows what they’re doing. He’s going to figure it out. So, no worries there.”
None from Antonelli, either. He said he doesn’t feel pressure in pressure situations: “No, not really. I don’t get too wound up.”
Staring down his possible first DNQ as a team owner and one that would have snapped his streak of 221 consecutive race starts, Capps knew his confidence was well-placed. Antonelli gave him a tune-up that allowed him to make a 3.994-second effort at 327.35 mph. It was good enough for the No. 13 spot, setting him up for a first-round meeting Sunday with aggressive Austin Prock, who’s seeking a massive resurgence for a third straight championship.
5 – BUMP DAY – Ron Capps and a pair of Illinois natives used the fourth and final qualifying session to barge into the starting line-up.
Bobby Bode, of the Chicago suburb of Deer Park, bumped his way into the Funny Car field on his fourth and final chance. And his dad, former Funny Car driver Bob Bode, immediately exclaimed happily, “What a relief! We’ve been here all weekend, and we haven’t done anything right. So that was at least halfway right. The kid’s been nervous for the last 10 minutes. He keeps changing everything. But what he guessed worked out.”
Moving into the 15th spot in the elimination order in his last scheduled appearance of the season, Bobby Bode said, “I said a lot of prayers before that round, and it paid off. We were pretty lost. We just kind of threw something at it. Maybe we can screw up the playoffs for some of these guys tomorrow.” He’ll take on Alexis DeJoria in the opening round.
Daniel Wilkerson also had been outside the top 16 when he came to the starting line for his final chance. But he zipped into the top half of the field, at No. 8, for a Round 1 date with No. 9 Dave Richards.
Left unqualified were Chris King and 50-year drag racer Jack Wyatt.
6 – COUGHLIN GOING FOR IT ALL – While most Pro Stock observers were buzzing about Greg Stanfield going up against the likes of KB Titan Racing’s Greg Anderson, Dallas Glenn, and Matt Hartford, Elite Motorsports’ Troy Coughlin Jr. sent everyone the message this weekend that his Martin, Mich., victory was no fluke or frivolous one. He’s going for all the marbles.
Coughlin earned the class’ top-qualifying award with his 6.473-second pass at 211.69 mph Friday night, and said Saturday after it held up for his first No. 1 start of the season, “We’re definitely going to make a run for the championship. Whether we were 10th or fifth, we were going to be gunning for it. Right now, we’re going to put our best foot forward every lap that we make and just be consistent and persistent, kind of as we’ve been the past month or so.
“Confidence for tomorrow’s eliminations is at an all-time high, for certain. But on race day, anything goes. You’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to take it one lap at a time, focus on the task at hand, and enjoy our day.”
He said, “It’s a lot of fun to see everybody’s work pay off. It takes cycles—everything comes and goes. To see the perseverance, persistence, and consistency that these JEGS guys all possess and their attitudes in the process, it’s fantastic. Struggle brings growth. They’re stepping stones for growth. The fruits of their labor are starting to show.”
With his 41-race drought behind him he’s fifth in the Pro Stock standings, just 105 points out of the lead. In addition to the eight points for his No. 1 starting sport, the six-time Pro Stock national-event winner earned seven bonus qualifying points in four qualifying rounds.
7 – HERRERA GETS HOT AGAIN – In Pro Stock Motorcycle action, Matt Smith blasted to the top of the order in the third overall session Saturday, but Gaige Herrera responded in the fourth session and made Smith’s 6.663-second pass look almost pedestrian. Herrera’s 6.644-second performance matched his fifth-best E.T. in class history.
He’ll start race day against Malcolm Phillips Jr., with the winner receiving a bye into the semifinals.
Second in the standings to Vance & Hines RevZilla/Motul teammate Richard Gadson, Herrera claimed his third No. 1 qualifying position of the year, setting up a late-season run at a third title that Gadson denied him last season.
He said Saturday’s feat “felt really good. It stuck, and I was kind of waiting for it to spin the tire a little bit, but it didn’t. I could feel like it was really moving. To go .64 and only be two-hundredths off the national record I set in Dallas a couple years ago is pretty crazy. I thought maybe a .65 if everything aligned, but not a .64. That’s a testament to Andrew [Hines, his crew chief and six-time champion] and his tuning ability and all the guys at the shop. Those numbers on the board are bragging rights for them. I’m just happy I get to ride the motorcycle.”
8 – KING LAYS DOWN HISTORIC PRO MOD RUN – Chip King made JBS Equipment Pro Mod Series elapsed-time history, becoming the first to dip into the 5.5-second range.
The Dreamworks Motorsports Dodge Charger driver from Roxboro, N.C., reeled off a 5.596-second pass at 257.24 mph on the quarter-mile course. He leaped from 10th place to first in the line-up and earned a $1,000 bonus.
But Justin Bond, who praised King as “the People’s Champion,” claimed the $7,500 Aeromotive Challenge payout for having the best average E.T. (5.628 seconds) across all four qualifying sessions.
King said he “absolutely” did not think he would be the one who’d be first into the 5.5s: “Absolutely not. We were just hoping to get into the low .60s. Got to credit my crew, my team, and the Good Lord. It has not sunk in. St. Louis has always been good to me. I can’t even believe it.”
9 – HARTMAN MAKES HAUL – A lot happened to Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown driver Lee Hartman in 7.511 seconds early Saturday in his match-up against David Janac.
Hartman reset his own national elapsed-time record, easily defeating the tire-spinning Janac to earn the rain-rescheduled Dodge Great Lakes Nationals victory from Martin, Mich. It was the first of his career. Hartman two weeks ago captured the No. 1 starting position at Martin with a 7.558-second quarter-mile pass in his Dodge Challenger Drag Pak that at the time was the quickest in class history.
This make-up final round was folded into the third qualifying pass of the current NAPA Midwest Nationals, and it gave Hartman the top starting spot in the order for Sunday’s eliminations.
The Canfield, Ohio, independent team owner whose power comes from Stanfield Racing Engines, said, “I can’t be more ecstatic how this day has gone. Just so thankful. God, give Him all the glory.”
So, this weekend, Hartman lowered the elapsed-time national record and led two rounds of eliminations in back-to-back runs. He credited Stanfield Racing Engines for his Dodge’s performance. “The car’s running good. We shouldn’t have to change anything, and I think we’re in a good place. My attitude is let’s see how the next four rounds play out,” he said.
Hartman is expected to improve from sixth place in the standings. The No. 2 qualifier, Raymond Nash, whittled a few points off the lead of No. 5 starter and points leader Jonathan Allegrucci.
Also hoping to overtake Allegrucci are U.S.Nationals champion Scott Libersher and Janac, the Nos. 3 and No. 13 qualifiers, respectively. But Allegrucci controls his own destiny as he eyes his first Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Series title.
10 – THEY SAID IT – “Heck, I don’t know – they just told me to get in and hold on. The trick is getting me not to screw it up. We’re coming around with the car. They’re starting to be able to tweak and tune the car and kind of call their shots. If they can call what I do, then we’ve got this thing whipped already.” – Billy Torrence, regarding what the trick was to coaxing a 3.727-second run at 338 mph from his Capco Contractors Top Fuel dragster in the third overall session
“Chris Blair, thank you for making everything happen. Thank you for not making me walk out with farm animals or drop watermelon or all the other crazy stuff that Chris Blair comes up with. But you cannot not love the guy for the ideas he has.” – Funny Car driver Ron Capps
10B– AS GOOD AS IT GETS – Brian Inouye knew his way around a nitro-burning race car. He also knew enough about them to understand that none of his previous experience made climbing into an NHRA Top Fuel dragster just another day at the office.
This was different.
Inouye made his Top Fuel debut in Luigi Novelli’s National Machine Repair dragster at the NAPA NHRA Midwest Nationals, taking a career that began as a kid working around the Hirata Motorsports A/Fuel team into drag racing’s professional ranks.
“It’s one thing to drive an A/Fuel car – and those are pretty serious – but driving a Top Fuel car, that’s the big show,” Inouye said.
Inouye began driving A/Fuel in 2018 after years of working with the Hirata family. He later spent five years competing in the Nitro Chaos series behind the wheel of a front-engine Top Fuel dragster.
Those cars provided plenty of education, particularly the front-engine dragster, which Inouye discovered didn’t always respond to steering input with the cooperation of its rear-engine counterpart.
“You put in a request for steering and sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t,” Inouye said.
For Inouye, however, the biggest concern wasn’t proving he could handle the horsepower. It was doing the job correctly for a team filled with people he had known most of his life.
“I wouldn’t say it’s so much just the big show,” Inouye said. “It’s just the car itself and I don’t want to go out there and embarrass the guys or do anything to embarrass myself. So just, I guess, having all the T’s crossed, the I’s dotted and just go through and do everything procedurally correct.”
Novelli’s operation wasn’t some unfamiliar team handing Inouye the keys. Inouye had worked on the car for the previous couple of years and had known Novelli most of his life. The same was true of many of the people surrounding him for his Top Fuel debut.
“They’re my heroes growing up,” Inouye said. “So I feel like it’s come full circle, honestly.”
There was another connection in the Novelli pipeline. Will Smith, one of Inouye’s best friends and the best man in his upcoming wedding, previously drove for Novelli before earning his current Top Fuel opportunity.
Inouye had watched Smith put everything behind chasing that opportunity. He wasn’t ready to say he was beginning the same journey. In fact, he was saying almost the opposite.
The kid who once tagged along with his father, washed parts and installed body panels on the Hirata A/Fuel dragster wasn’t treating his Top Fuel debut as an audition for whatever might come next.
He was treating it as something he never expected to reach in the first place.
“Honestly, I just take it one day at a time,” Inouye said. “I look at this opportunity that I have and for me, this is the end. I never thought I was going to get this opportunity.
“So for me, this is as good as it gets.” – Bobby Bennett
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – HOT DOG! LANGDON, DeJORIA, TROY COUGHLIN JR., HERRERA LEAD QUALIFYING AT ST. LOUIS; CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLES SHAPING UP
1 – PASS THE MUSTARD – In the unofficial rivalry among NHRA national-event tracks to offer the coolest Friday-night quick-qualifier bonus prizes, drivers have competed for such rewards as lobster dinners, custom-carved axes, Tag Heuer watches, and gaming laptop computers.
But World Wide Technology Raceway at Madison, Ill., facility owner Curtis Francois and Executive Vice President/General Manager Chris Blair wanted to put their own unique spin on the giveaway program. So they decided for the NAPA Auto Parts Midwest Nationals to give those drivers an experience and a keepsake they really could relish.
Francois and Blair teamed with UsedHotDogs.com – a spoof website that hat company HatLaunch, from nearby Collinsville, Ill., made up as a marketing stunt – to present cash awards and a “Crown of Wieners” as part of the inaugural Top Dog Award.
Winning $2,500 each and all the gaudy hot-dog paraphernalia were Shawn Langdon in Top Fuel and Matt Hagan in Funny Car. (Hagan, incidentally, also won the Ice Cream Eating Contest in June at Norwalk, Ohio. He’s 2-for-2 in the food-related free-for-alls this year.)
In Pro Stock, $1,500 went to Troy Coughlin Jr. And Gaige Herrera pocketed an extra $1,000 for having the quickest elapsed time of the second session of Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Langdon, Coughlin, and Herrera were the provisional No. 1 qualifiers Friday, but Hagan was not. Alexis DeJoria was the early Funny Car leader overnight. Two more qualifying sessions Saturday will determine the field and pairings for Sunday’s eliminations.
The entertaining program called for the tentative top qualifier in each professional class to be escorted to a stage to be seated on the “Top Dog Throne.” As the session unfolded, competitors who eclipsed the previous elapsed-time leader “dethroned” him or her and claimed the throne. The Top Dog Award winners also received a custom Hot Dog Trophy, Used HotDogs.com swag, a ceremonial winner’s check, and cash.
Announcers Jason Galvin and Brian Lohnes added a little mustard to the quirky Friday night show by congratulating themselves. Galvin said, “We somehow successfully navigated this [wienermania]. I don’t think any of us had any fireable offenses.”
Lohnes said, “We did receive the cautionary text message from our boss. He was sitting at home, sweating bullets like a guy with his finger over the nuclear code.”
2 – TRACK E.T. RECORDS FALL – Favorable conditions produced eight elapsed times in the Pro Stock class that improved the previous track record of 6.492 seconds Greg Anderson set in 2015. But Coughlin’s 6.473 quarter-mile E.T. topped them all.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Gaige Herrera reset his own 2023 track E.T. mark of 6.701 seconds in the quarter-mile at 6.666 seconds. Three others, all from Matt Smith Racing – John Hall, Joey Gladstone, and Angie Smith – erased the 2023 mark, but Herrera ultimately reclaimed the distinction.
3 – CHASES SHAPING UP – This third race of the Countdown to the Championship marks the halfway point in the playoffs.
Shawn Langdon and Matt Hagan, Friday’s low qualifiers, lead their respective standings in Top Fuel and Funny Car.
Doug Kalitta, who trails Langdon by 25 points in the Top Fuel standings, sits ninth overnight, with two more Saturday chances to improve in his Gerber Collision and Glass dragster. In Funny Car, where the top six championship contenders are separated by 144 points, seventh-ranked Alexis De Joria led both qualifying sessions Friday.
Hagan, of Tony Stewart Racing, clocked an identical 3.882-second elapsed time as DeJoria, but the John Force Racing driver’s faster speed gave her the top spot Friday.
“The conditions here are really good, and I wasn’t sure if a 3.88 would stick,” she said. “Every time a good run went down the track, I kept asking the guys if we were still No. 1. Our car is set up exactly the way it should be, and this is the right time in the season. We have the consistency, but we needed to step it up and run those quicker numbers. We’re off to a good start. Right now, every point matters. I’m just so glad we didn’t get rained out today. This was a beautiful day, a beautiful day to be the No. 1 qualifier. Friday-night qualifying sessions are key. You want to throw down Friday night, and we’re grateful we did that.”
Pro Stock leader Greg Stanfield was second to Coughlin in the Friday lineup.
“Anybody can win in this class right now. It is incredible how tight it is, so the
points battle is going to go all the way to the end. It’s going to come down to who makes a good run at the right time,” Stanfield said. “If we can just keep surviving and try to close out when we should, it’s going to be a good end of the year.”
Stanfield, winner at Rockingham this past Sunday, earned his fourth career victory in the Countdown to the Championship, and that tied him with son and Elite Motorsports teammate Aaron Stanfield for the seventh-most Countdown wins in Pro Stock history.
“Anytime you can hold a Wally, it’s a great day, especially against all the tough competitors we have in the class,” the elder Stanfield said. “I’m blessed to be here, thankful to be here, and humbled to be here, doing what I get to do the way that we get to do it. Back in the day, we did it all ourselves. Now, with Elite, I can just really try to focus on my part behind the wheel, and I’m not trying to crew-chief it myself, build the engines, drive the car, and drive the truck from race to race. It’s nice not having to worry about what the next call is. I’m enjoying it. I love racing with Aaron, so I’m having a blast.”
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, No. 1-ranted Richard Gadson had to settle for seventh place Friday, while his Vance & Hines teammate Gaige Herrera took the spotlight again.
4 – LANGDON KEEPS KALITTA SUPREMACY ROLLING – Top Fuel points leader Shawn Langdon’s 3.679-second pass at 339.87 mph on the 1,000-foot course didn’t set a track elapsed-time or speed record Friday. Those still belong to Clay Millican at 3.631 seconds from 2017 and to Brittany Force for her 340.47-mph run last September.
But it was enough to keep his personal and team momentum rolling. Langdon, who has won the past three races, including the first two Countdown events, is poised to capture his seventh No. 1 starting spot of the season. He is aiming for his eighth victory of 2026.
He said Friday, “I just try to do the task at hand, take each run for what it is, and address each run in that moment. The records and the speeds and all that are cool to see, but more importantly, you just want the points.”
His crew chief, Brian Husen, said the same, insisting that “the points are more important than the numbers on the scoreboard.”
Langdon has just one victory at World Wide Technology Raceway, and it came in the Funny Car class. Teammate and closest challenger Doug Kalitta has five triumphs at this dragstrip that’s across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. So does Antron Brown, who took the No. 2 berth in Friday’s provisional order.
5 – GAIGE-ING HIS SUCCESS – It’s no surprise that Gaige Herrera is leading the Pro Stock Motorcycle class overnight. The two-time class champion posted a 6.666-second elapsed time at 202.03 mph on the Vance & Hines RevZilla/Motul Suzuki.
He entered World Wide Technology Raceway as the three-time consecutive winner here. If his effort holds up through two Saturday passes, it will be his third No. 1 qualifying position of the campaign.
“My bike’s been on rails,” Herrera said. “It’s just coming down to me doing my job. Running a 6.66 here in St. Louis is very cool, especially at night under the lights. Tonight was the premium track conditions where we could lay it all out. Tomorrow is going to get us ready for Sunday.”
Herrera’s crew chief, Andrew Hines, said, “The track is pretty phenomenal here in St. Louis. You run at nighttime, you get good conditions, they prep the track phenomenally like they have the last few races, you get big E.T.s like that. We tried to make the most of it. It’s nice to get the Top Dog Award and get that $1,000. We can buy a lot of hot dogs with that.”
6 – TWO TIE FOR LOW E.T. IN PRO MOD – Pro Modified qualifying had a thrilling end Friday, with Justin Bond and opening-session leader Billy Banaka posting matching spectacular 5.619-second elapsed times to top the charts. But Bond was awarded the national E.T. record, based on speed. His 256.06-mph performance outdid Banaka’s 254.76. Derek Menholt, close behind in third place at 5.627, predicted that the national record could fall again.
“We were just racing,” Bond said, indicating he wasn’t trying to set a national record. “We put on a different set of tires and thought it’d be a little faster, and away it went.”
Mike Stavrinos leads the JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series standings and is sixth after two qualifying sessions.
Aeromotive is funding a $7,500 bonus for the Pro Mod driver with the best average elapsed time across four sessions this weekend.
7 – MARTIN-MAKEUP FINAL ROUND SET – David Janac and Lee Hartman will square off Saturday in the final round of the rain-delayed Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown event from the Great Lakes Nationals two weeks ago at Martin, Mich.
Janac, driving his Ford Cobra Jet Mustang, defeated David Davies in the first semifinal match Friday, using an excellent reaction time of .011 seconds, while Davies rattled the tires on his Dodge Challenger Drag Pak.
Bristol winner Janac is seeking his second victory of the season, Hartman his career-first. Hartman advanced past Raymond Nash in the other semifinal, registering a 7.548-second E.T. that is the quickest in Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown history.
Points leader Jonathan Allegrucci has a chance to secure his first championship in the series, and Nash’s loss in the Martin semifinals Friday made him breathe easier. Nash entered this weekend ranked No. 2, 57 points off the pace. A total of 118 points maximum are awarded for each national event. If Allegrucci can gain a 119-point lead over Nash and the rest of the field during eliminations, he’ll be crowned champion.
“Nothing is guaranteed in this class,” Allegrucci said. “The race cars and the drivers are too good. You look at the last two races. Scott [Libersher] beat me in the U.S. Nationals finals, and Taylor [Dietsch] got me in Norwalk. You can’t take any rounds off. It will be an exciting weekend, no matter what.” So far, he’s the No. 3 qualifier.
Allegrucci lost in the first round at Michigan, so he is looking to regain the magic that brought him three victories in five consecutive final-round appearances. He and his Ford Mustang Cobra Jet have been the class of the field.
8 – NEW FACES – The Top Fuel class, with an overflow of five for the 16-car field, has a couple of new drivers.
Chuck Loftin, of Seguin Texas, made his NHRA Top Fuel debut in his patriotic dragster with “Made It Happen” emblazoned on the rear wing. Unfortunately, Loftin’s first and so far only pass resulted in a 10.778-second elapsed time. He shared on his social media platform that he “blew the tires off at the hit.” In the opening session, but was “working hard to make a second attempt in Q2.” He said he “had [the] car together for Q2 but … didn’t like how the blower felt. Opted to not run Q2, so we can change out the blower for tomorrow. Hope to make a respectable run tomorrow.”
Loftin has competed in Top Fuel in the IHRA and has driven a Fuel Altered at Funny Car Chaos races.
Another newcomer – as a driver – is longtime Luigi Novelli crew member Brian Inouye. With his chance to slide into the driver’s seat of Novelli’s National Machine Repair dragster that Will Smith drove before he joined the SCAG group, Inouye got close to the left-side wall but posted a 4.159-second run at 247.47 mph. He’s unqualified so far, with two more chances Saturday to make the cut.
“It was pulling pretty good. Left the starting line fine. The clutch came in. It started making a move towards the wall. I had it pretty well cranked and just decided to click it off. It was a good baseline run, I think,” Inouye said. “What a great day.”
Still trying to break into the Top Fuel field, along with Loftin and Inouye, are Keith Murt, Cameron Ferre, and Scott Palmer.
9 – FUNNY CAR STRUGGLE – Chicago firefighter Chris King had a tough time in Funny Car qualifying but made the field at No. 13 in his Howard Cams entry. His first-session attempt was disqualified because he crossed the center line, darting suddenly behind Terry Haddock after flicking the 330-foot timing cube. His second try was a 4.265-second time with a tardy .215 reaction time with a flash of fire underneath the car after he zipped across the finish stripe.
Also with a close call in the first session of Funny Car action Friday was Blake Alexander. The independent team owner-driver nearly had his run nullified. The exhaust from his Pinto Toyota Supra blew over the top-end timing block but his car didn’t touch the block and he didn’t cross the center line until after he had posted a legitimate 4.115-second elapsed time.
The biggest shock of Funny Car qualifying Friday was Ron Capps’ failure to qualify so far. He and Bobby Bode have two shots Saturday to get in the show. Capps is fourth in the standings and can ill afford to miss this pivotal race.
10 – BIG JIM DUNN HONORED – Jim Dunn Racing wasn’t entered at this race, but the boss had a solid excuse for his absence. The legendary Funny Car driver and current team owner was inducted Thursday into the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame’s 2026 Pioneers of Speed.
Dunn, a Southern California native, has been a drag-racing fixture for more than 70 years, campaigning some of the most iconic Funny Cars in history and earning his fair share of trophies. And he has provided driving opportunities for some of the sport’s regulars: Jim Campbell, Buddy Hull, and current driver Jeff Arend.
Dunn became smitten with drag racing at age 15. That’s when he asked for parts for his birthday to get his race team started. He drove one of the West Coast’s most-feared cars in the mid-1960s. But most notably, he won the Funny Car title at the 1972 World Finals in the first and only rear-engine Funny Car. As the NHRA celebrates its landmark 75th season in 2026, Jim Dunn Racing is celebrating 76 years of success in the sport. He received the NHRA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024.
“I’m honored to be inducted into the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame’s 2026 Pioneers of Speed along with many other motorsports legends,” Dunn said. “I fell in love with drag racing very young, and I never wanted to do anything else. I started drag racing when I was 15 years old, and I have loved every day at the track and in the shop since. I’m 92 now, and I will keep going as long as the good Lord lets me.”
Inducted Oct. 1 at Las Vegas along with Dunn as the 2026 Pioneers of Speed were: IndyCar chief mechanic Clint Brawner; multi-series driver Jimmy Bryan; team owner Al Dean; Bill Deschamps; Vic Edelbrock Sr.; Joe and Walt James, the Morales Brothers; Ed Pink, and George and Harold (Hal) Robson.
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