Photos by Alex Owens, Adam Dobbs, Ron Lewis
Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.
1 – ANTRON’S WALKING THE WALK – The scariest thing in Top Fuel at this moment might not be the two-car Kalitta juggernaut. It might just be Antron Brown no longer sinking.
Jesus walked on water. Brown walks on quicksand.
For much of the 2026 season, the four-time NHRA Top Fuel champion felt like he was fighting his way through a swamp while Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta stacked wins, points and trophies. The performance was often close, but close doesn’t count when you’re accustomed to competing for championships.
“You feel like the quicksand is making you sink, sink ’til you get down to where your head is almost below the quicksand,” Brown said. “Then, finally, you start taking little steps where you start coming up and coming up. Now we’re at feet level now. Now we’re there, now we got to start walking, and then we can start running.”
On Sunday at Bristol Dragway, Brown defeated points leader Shawn Langdon in the final round of the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals with a 3.788-second pass at 331.61 mph. The victory was his first of the season, the 82nd of his career and, remarkably, his first at Bristol.
The win carried significance beyond another trophy.
To reach the winner’s circle, Brown defeated Will Smith, Shawn Reed, and reigning NHRA champion Doug Kalitta before stopping Langdon in a side-by-side final round. In one afternoon, he beat the two drivers – Kalitta and Langdon – who have largely controlled the Top Fuel narrative this season.
“I tell you what, man, that Kalitta team is no joke. I’m telling you, no joke,” Brown said. “They are definitely the giants out here. And to sneak and get around them and get a win out of this race here, and we started off with a great qualifying and getting up in the top five like we wanted to, ended up No. 2 – that’s just transcendent where we just kept on getting runs and getting better and better.”
Brown never lost confidence that his team would eventually crack the code to victory. The challenge was surviving the frustrating weeks before the breakthrough arrived.
When asked how dangerous it is for competitors to count him out, Brown delivered the answer that should resonate throughout the Top Fuel pits.
“I knew once we hit our stride, I know how consistent our team can be,” Brown said. “We’ve done it before, but you have to get to that realm first. Right now, the Kalitta team’s been showing everybody the way, brother. They can qualify wherever they want to qualify. You’ve got to get that dangerous to compete against them. And I’m feeling that we’re coming there. We’re getting there. We’re there, we won today, and we won in a good fashion, but we’ve got to keep that going and we’re going to stay humble and hungry.”
The first half of the season was spent searching for answers. Brown said crew chief Brian Corradi and the Matco Tools team kept digging even when results suggested futility.
“What I’ve known from all the experience that we’ve been in, the only way you beat resistance is with persistence,” Brown said. “You got to stay persistent and you got to stay the course.”
Brown isn’t talking about championships yet.
The veteran understands the points reset changes everything, and he knows Langdon and Kalitta remain the teams everyone is chasing. What changed Sunday was the feeling inside his camp.
For the first time all season, Brown looked less like a team trying to find itself and more like a team preparing to make a championship run.
“And once we start running, then we’re going to be up there,” Brown said. “We’re going to get dangerous. And I think we’re getting to that point right now.”
2 – THE OLD PLOW HORSE GETS IT DONE – Before Matt Hagan had a chance to carry his NHRA 75th Anniversary Wally to the winner’s circle at Bristol Dragway, sponsor Jason Johnson had already absconded with the commemorative trophy.
The trophy may have briefly disappeared, but Hagan never lost sight of the job at hand.
The four-time Funny Car champion put together a workmanlike performance Sunday, defeating Daniel Wilkerson in the final round of the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals with a 4.125-second pass at 310.91 mph. The victory was Hagan’s second of the season, 57th of his career, and his first Bristol win since 2015. It was also his 100th career final-round appearance.
For Hagan, the day was less about dazzling performance numbers and more about doing what he has done throughout a Hall of Fame-caliber career.
“Man, I always call myself, you know, when you hook to that old plow horse,” Hagan said. “You know what I mean? I’m just that old plow horse that goes out there and gets it done. I’m not pretty like Leah and famous like Tommy, but I just … You go out there and you look at the end of the day and the field’s plowed.”
That approach carried him through a difficult race day.
Hagan never posted a run quicker than 4.079 seconds during eliminations, but he consistently made the right moves at the right times. He defeated Jon Capps and reigning two-time NHRA champion Austin Prock before stopping Wilkerson’s bid for a first career Funny Car victory. Hagan had a bye run in the second round thanks to his No. 1 qualifying position.
The win also capped a successful weekend for Tony Stewart Racing.
Leah Pruett won the rain-delayed New England Nationals on Friday in Top Fuel, and Hagan followed with a Bristol trophy two days later.
“I tell you, to have Leah win this weekend on Friday to finish up the deal here at Bristol, and then us come out here and win with JHG here and then us just beat the rain,” Hagan said. “It was a special weekend for TSR.”
Bristol remains one of the most meaningful stops on Hagan’s schedule.
“It’s been a minute since I won here,” Hagan said. “And last time I won here, it was like Father’s Day weekend and I was crying like a freaking sobbing kid. It was so emotional.”
3 – LONE WOLF HOWLS AGAIN – Matt Hartford pulled into Bristol Dragway with a four-person team, a leased KB-Titan engine and a race car that has become one of the hottest in Pro Stock.
He left with another trophy and more evidence that his operation belongs squarely in the championship fight.
Hartford defeated defending event winner Greg Anderson in Sunday’s final round of the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, posting a 6.672-second run at 205.60 mph in his Total Seal Chevrolet Camaro. The victory was his third of the season, 11th of his career, and first at Bristol after racing there since the early 2000s.
The win completed a standout weekend for Hartford, who also claimed the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday.
“To win at Bristol is something … I’ve raced here since the very early 2000s, never been able to actually win Bristol,” Hartford said. “So to win at Bristol, it’s an awesome feeling. We had a great car all weekend this weekend.”
Hartford’s route to the winner’s circle required victories over Shane Tucker, Cody Anderson, and Aaron Stanfield before facing Greg Anderson in the final. Beating the winningest driver in Pro Stock history added another layer of satisfaction.
“Greg’s beat me a lot more than I’ve ever beat him,” Hartford said. “I think there’s still a few more that we’re going to try to do.”
The victory continued what Hartford believes is the strongest start to a season his team has ever produced.
“I was really bummed after last weekend because I thought we could have won the final last weekend too,” Hartford said. “To win a round is difficult, let alone to win a race. To win three is … It’s our best season that we’ve ever had right now.”
What makes the run more impressive is the size of the operation behind it. While larger teams bring extensive personnel and resources to the racetrack, Hartford prefers a close-knit approach centered around four people who know their responsibilities and trust one another.
“I love the fact that we’re a four-person team,” Hartford said. “We each have a job to do. No one does anybody else’s job and it’s a routine, so that way we always know every step has been completed.”
Even though Hartford leases engines from KB-Titan, he says there is no sharing of tuning information or race-day data between his team and the powerhouse operation.
“I couldn’t tell you one thing about any part of their tuneup, set up, anything,” Hartford said. “There was not one ounce of data shared on any level between the two teams.”
The biggest difference this season, Hartford said, has been learning what information to ignore. It has allowed him and crew chief Eddie Guarnaccia to achieve the desired result more frequently.
“What we’ve done is we’ve taken certain things off my plate and certain things off [Guarnaccia’s] plate to where we actually don’t communicate about them,” Hartford said. “We give each other all the high-level notes, everything that we need for the run, but we don’t get into all the minutia to get ourselves confused, so to speak, and it helps me keep my head clear.”
4 – NOT AS EASY AS IT USED TO BE – Not long ago, Gaige Herrera made winning in Pro Stock Motorcycle look routine. These days, even the rider who transformed the category understands every trophy must be earned.
Herrera drove around defending NHRA world champion Richard Gadson in Sunday’s final round to win the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. The victory was his second of the season, 30th career national event win, and second career Bristol triumph.
His 6.838-second run at 198.47 mph overcame Gadson’s starting-line advantage and delivered a result that carried more significance than another addition to an already crowded trophy shelf.
“After Maryland, me and Andrew [crew chief Hines] both were kind of beating our heads against the wall, wanting to know what happened or who’s got some voodoo doll and just doing stuff, whatever,” Herrera said. “But we just had a bunch of bad luck. All in all as a team, Richard’s got the points that he’s doing good, but I’d just been struggling. So to come here to Bristol, and I wouldn’t say I’m back, but it feels good to get the win.”
At Bristol, they found the form that made Herrera the dominant rider of the last three seasons.
Gadson left first with an .018-second reaction time to Herrera’s .033, but Herrera chased him down by half-track and pulled away for a victory margin of .0308 seconds, or roughly nine feet.
The all-Vance & Hines final brought a familiar dynamic back into the spotlight. Herrera and Gadson have become one of the sport’s most competitive teammate pairings, with the riders pushing one another while continuing to raise the level of the category.
“Especially with me and Richard in the final there, it was kind of like last year when he got his first win,” Herrera said. “We were in the trailer, and last year was always a joke. He’s like, ‘Just give me at least a .30 light.’ But, unfortunately, I was in the trailer. I said, ‘Right, now you owe me, give me a 30 light,’ but I still had a .30 light against him.”
Herrera believes today’s Pro Stock Motorcycle class is stronger because competitors were forced to respond to the standard his team established in 2023.
“When I came out here in ’23 we kind of, I would say, wrecked class to a point,” Herrera said. “But I feel like it was good. It gave the whole class a facelift as far as all the different competitors coming in, people stepping up the program.”
That is why victories carry a different meaning now.
“It’s almost like getting these wins now almost feels like when I win on my other bike, that there seems so much harder to come by so you can’t take it for granted for sure,” Herrera said.
5 – WELL HE DID HAVE A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB – Movie scripts have been more believable than what played out for Jason Collins on Sunday in Bristol.
The JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod Series driver damaged his car in the second round, nearly crossed the centerline in the final round and still left Bristol Dragway with a trophy, a playoff berth, and one of the strangest victories of the season.
Collins defeated Mike Stavrinos in the final round of the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals when the No. 1 qualifier fouled by .005-second on the starting line. Collins’ Camaro then got loose and drifted toward the centerline before he gathered it up and drove to the finish line.
The victory was Collins’ second win in the last three races and his third consecutive appearance in a final round.
What made the win remarkable was everything that happened before the final.
In the second round against Travis Harvey, Collins lost control during the burnout and struck the center guard wall near the starting line. The incident appeared certain to end his day and potentially damage his playoff hopes before the postseason field was finalized.
Instead, Collins backed up, staged, and won the round.
He followed with a semifinal victory over Stan Shelton and suddenly found himself racing for another Wally in a category where survival can sometimes be as important as performance.
“I wasn’t supposed to win today, but my car was really good,” Collins said. “I didn’t mean to tear it up and that was a little close in the final. This one is all because of my crew. I had some luck and my crew did a great job.”
Collins admitted the day felt more like a dream than a race.
The veteran credited his team for keeping the car together after the wall contact and giving him a chance to continue racing when many would have loaded up and headed home.
“I’m just out here chasing a dream and it was unbelievable,” Collins said. “Now, we’re in the playoffs and who knows what can happen.”
Stavrinos reached the final round by defeating Alex Laughlin, reigning series champion J.R. Gray, and veteran Rickie Smith. Despite the runner-up finish, he heads into the postseason second in points behind regular-season champion Derek Menholt.
Collins enters the five-race Road to the Championship playoffs in fourth, but with momentum few drivers can match.
5B – WHAT DID WE JUST WATCH? – Pro Modified has a history of producing moments that seem too bizarre to be real.
In the category’s NHRA debut in 2001, one driver crashed into another during the burnout, and both racers backed up and made the run anyway. Years later, three of four racers were disqualified in a Four-Wide final round, creating one of the strangest outcomes in NHRA history.
Then came Jason Collins at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.
Collins entered Saturday’s quarterfinal round against Travis Harvey needing points and round wins to strengthen his position in the race for a spot in the NHRA Pro Mod championship playoffs. What unfolded looked more like a blooper reel than a playoff push.
The steering wheel came off Collins’ Scott Tidwell-owned Camaro during the burnout.
Without steering control, Collins slid into the concrete barrier surrounding the Christmas Tree, damaging the front end and appearing to end his day before the race even started. Instead, crew members helped get the steering wheel back in place, and Collins backed the wounded Camaro to the starting line.
Then things got stranger.
Collins accidentally double-bulbed Harvey during the staging process, creating confusion before the race was underway. When the tree dropped, Harvey drifted toward the centerline and lifted, allowing Collins to drive away with one of the most unlikely round wins of the season.
“This is crazy. I’m really embarrassed to be honest,” Collins said. “The steering wheel came off in the burnout and I can’t blame nobody but myself because I’m the one that had it off, and obviously I didn’t lock it on. I’ve never had that happen in all my years of racing.”
Collins admitted the situation left him helpless.
“The steering wheel came off in the burnout and all I could do is lock the brakes up,” Collins said. “I couldn’t get the steering wheel back on. I was trying to get it back on and I had to call [a crew member] on the radio to come over there and help me put the steering wheel back on it.”
The front-end damage only added to the frustration.
“Chris is going to be so mad,” Collins said. “He just fixed this front end from where it was pushing down in the big end. He just fixed it. And now I’ve tore it up again.”
Questions quickly followed about the double-bulb, but Collins insisted it wasn’t intentional.
“It wasn’t on purpose,” Collins said. “I was sitting there holding the brake and then it was creeping and I kept mashing it harder. When I saw it stuck the second one on, I just grabbed the trans brake. I was like, all I can do is just sit here and do it.”
6 – IT’S RAINING, IT’S POURING – Race officials moved up Sunday’s start time by two hours – an unprecedented move at Bristol Dragway – in an attempt to get one by Mother Nature, who reportedly has season tickets for the track located in the rolling hills of eastern Tennessee.
The first round of thunderstorms, complete with heavy rains and wind, rolled in at about 11:15 a.m., stopping action after four pairs of Pro Stock Motorcycle. Two hours later, racing resumed with Top Fuel.
6B – NO PUNCTUATION NECESSARY – Just a spoiler alert for those who have never witnessed a Maddi Gordon interview after a win, there are usually no commas, semi-colons, or periods … just an exclamation mark at the end of the excitement-filled response.
Her first-round win came when she drove around a quicker reacting Billy Torrence with a 3.817, 329.26 when his dragster slowed.
QUESTION: You guys seem to do so well in the opening round where a lot of drivers will admit they have a lot of anxiety. Do you?
ANSWER: Oh, heck, yeah. Getting into the race car, of course, it gives you anxiety, but breaking out the cowboy hats only for good runs and that’s what this is. So, car’s been giving us little struggles, but you know what? We got Rob [Flynn] and Troy [Fasching] and I got all the confidence in them – so just so pumped, man. I love stepping on that gas – I’m so happy to get back out there, do it again and man, good run – that’s just cherry on top!”
Then she exhaled.
Meanwhile, her male counterpart, Dan Wilkerson, was all words and no punctuation following his semifinal win over Ron Capps.
“I’m almost losing it, dude,” Wilkerson said. Do not give [father] Tim [Wilkerson] too much time – he’ll figure it out. This is supposed to be our jam ride. It’s hot. It’s nasty. We’re up at altitude. These boys have worked their asses off, they’ve dealt with me screwing up in the past. I can’t say enough about these gentlemen that tune me up and keep me safe. My family’s at home, they’re supposed to come and they wussed out at the last second because of the rain. I love my family, my kids. My dad, Randy Glady and Maria are like family now to me, they’re more than a sponsor-owner. I mean, this is everything, dude. This is everything.”
6C – HE SAID WHAT THE FANS ARE THINKING – Neal Strausbaugh, the crew chief for No. 1 qualifier Leah Pruett, made a profound statement rarely heard from crew chiefs in starting line interviews. Though his driver benefitted from a short-field bye run, they likely would have won a head-to-head match up with anyone.
Pruett ran a 3.770-second time at 332.43 mph to briefly hold low elapsed time of the opening round. They were clearly going for lane choice.
“That makes it a little easier on us not having an opponent there, but we need more cars out here,” Strausbaugh said. “I was calling out Scott Palmer the other day via text and just said, ‘Get your butt out here.’
“He said that he wasn’t going to come out to be a filler. He was going to wait ’til he was ready to come out and compete, but I agree with that, but we need more cars.
7 – WE NEED MORE TOP FUELERS, BUT NO STINKIN’ BURNOUTS – Leah Pruett’s first-round 3.77 would hold as low E.T. for five pairs until Shawn Langdon’s 3.764, 335.40 stole the show in more ways than one. The drama wasn’t at the finish line. It was on the starting line, where Langdon rolled through the water to do the burnout, whacked the throttle on his Kalitta Air Services dragster and nothing happened.
Per NHRA rules, according to Langdon’s crew chief Brian Husen, the throttle arm, which is designed to combat any issues when there is an oil-pan pressure problem to automatically shut the car off, wasn’t latched in the full throttle position, Husen said. After it was re-engaged in the proper position, Langdon performed a very abbreviated burnout.
Credit Langdon’s sportsman experience for creating the proper response that not only resulted in a round-one victory, but also low elapsed time of the event through that point.
“Normal procedure, everything was fine, and I went to hit the gas and there was nothing there,” Langdon explained. “So at that point I just stopped because I’m like, ‘Alright guys, I’m waiting for instruction. What do we do here?’
“So I kind of backed up a little bit just to get them back, trying to speed everything up so we’re not holding up Jasmine [Salinas] and their team. But they tell me to do the burnout, I was worried that I was out too far and the tires were dried up, in case it hooks the tire. So there’s so much stuff going on. Luckily, I had a little bit of a sportsman background, so I’m used to the short little burnouts like that. Got it back. Great job to the guys for picking up on the problem, getting it done, getting the round win.”
7B – NOW WHAT???? – Langdon’s oddball Sunday continued in the quarterfinals, when another apparent throttle arm problem caused a staging issue for Langdon as he matched up against Leah Pruett.
As Husen thrashed on the dragster, Langdon was feeling the pressure of needing to stage.
“They were setting the idle, and I was getting my foot rested at my spot on the pedal,” Langdon explained. “And then, at one point, I just felt the pedal go away. So, at that point, I know Brian is going to tell me to go in at some point after he sets the idle. So, I was waving my hands at him just to get his attention, and I was pointing at the pedal trying to tell him what it was, and fortunately they got it. He told me to go in, and at that point, I didn’t think I even had a [clutch] pedal going into pre-stage.
“We didn’t want to lose to that team twice this week, and that would’ve been pretty devastating, but we also don’t want to win that way either. Everything was within the rules, and we try to keep it that way. But we got lucky there.”
8 – NOT A GOOD WEEKEND FOR THE CRUZER – It wasn’t the worst weekend Cruz Pedregon has ever endured, but it certainly wasn’t the best-ever for the Snap-on Tools-sponsored driver. He made the field at 11th with a 4.304, 224.51.
After starting the weekend Friday with an oildown on the burnout, Pedregon’s Funny Car developed an unusual idle that resulted in the two-time champion being shut off on the starting line in Sunday’s first-round race against Spencer Hyde.
“If it wasn’t for bad luck, we probably wouldn’t have any at all,” Pedregon said. “But driving these cars, veteran like I am, when these cars start revving up and start going lean, what you don’t want to do is go out there and blow it up, and you’re literally playing with fire, literally and figuratively. So I just decided as a driver, I’m either hallucinating or this thing’s revving up like it’s running out of fuel. So I just decided, ‘Hey, man, I’m going to shut this thing off,’ as much and as bad as we wanted to win that round.
“We felt like we had a 3.98, .97 in the car, but we just decided to be safe and go back and see what happened.”
8B – REMEMBERING CHRIS – On January 28, 2026, CompetitionPlus.com lost a beloved team member and drag racing lost a goodwill ambassador. Photographer Chris Haverly was killed in a single-car accident in Wytheville, Va., while performing a rescue-pet transport.
The NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals was Haverly’s home race, and teams adorned their cars and race trailers with memorial stickers
Haverly was a longtime contributor whose work reflected a deep respect for drag racing and its people.
By his own description, Haverly was “just an average guy” who grew up in the coal camps of eastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia. His love for animals began while working in the coal mines, where stray dogs were a constant presence on job sites.
9 – OFFICIALLY A LEGEND – In Sunday’s pushed-up schedule, Ron Capps was officially named to his place in the Legends of Thunder Valley fraternity. Capps was quick to point out his was not a solo accomplishment.
Now the winningest pro racer at Bristol Dragway, Capps loves the place and didn’t need a Legends appointment to appreciate the drag strip carved out of the mountains.
“I said years ago, maybe the fourth or fifth win, I’m just going to buy a little house here somewhere because I feel like this is kind of a home,” Capps said. “It’s the people, man. It’s the people that come here, it’s the people around this place, it’s the people in the grandstands right now watching. It’s just, I can’t explain it. I’ve done it with some fantastic legendary crew chiefs, and two awesome owners, I did as a team owner myself. It’s been crazy. …
“I feel like I should crawl up in the grandstands with a Sharpie and just write in every crew member, every crew chief, every team owner up on my name because I’m not as good as I am perceived to be with all these Wallys. I’m really not, just surrounded by fantastic people.”
10 – THE SPORTSMAN REPORT – Jonathan Allegrucci continued his winning streak Sunday, leading a group of sportsman champions crowned at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.
Allegrucci claimed his third consecutive FlexJet Factory Stock Showdown victory and fourth career Wally after defeating Raymond Nash in the final round. Jacob Delaune, Michael Brand, Chris Childress, Lauren Freer, and Gerard Milette also secured national-event victories during the final day of sportsman competition.
Allegrucci used a .024-second reaction time and a 7.851-second pass at 176.14 mph to defeat Nash, who encountered trouble after a wheelstand. Nash’s car moved toward the centerline and struck the centerline markers, while Allegrucci drove straight down the groove for the victory.
The win further strengthened his position in Factory Stock Showdown competition. He qualified second and defeated Michael Lloyd, David Davies, and Matt Hartman before advancing to the final.
In Super Stock, Jacob Delaune earned his first Wally in just his second final-round appearance. Delaune’s .016 reaction time and 9.824-second pass at 135.44 mph were enough to hold off Hayden Trumble.
Michael Brand collected his sixth career Wally and second of the season in Stock Eliminator. Brand took the win when Doug Lambeck fouled with a red light in the final round.
Chris Childress captured his first national event victory in Super Comp. Childress sealed the win after opponent Colby Fuller left the starting line too soon, giving Childress a free ride to his Wally.
Lauren Freer earned the ninth Wally of her career in Super Gas after defeating Rob Stigall. Stigall held the starting-line advantage, but took too much finish-line stripe, allowing Freer to drive around for the victory.
Gerard Milette closed out the day in Top Sportsman using a near-perfect .001 reaction time to defeat Jeff Brooks and earn his second career national event Wally.
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – STOP US IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS BEFORE – KALITTA WINS AGAIN
1 – IT’S THE KALITTA SATURDAY RERUN – If Doug Kalitta can ever translate Saturday success into Sunday trophies on a consistent basis, the rest of Top Fuel might find itself racing for second place.
The reigning world champion continued his grip on the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday at Bristol Dragway, defeating Leah Pruett to earn another specialty-race victory as part of the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.
Kalitta’s latest Saturday triumph added to a growing collection of Mission Challenge wins that has quietly become one of the season’s defining storylines. While the spotlight often shines on Sunday eliminations, Kalitta keeps collecting bonus points, bonus money and momentum.
Pruett ran a solid 3.918-second pass at 325.45 mph, but Kalitta’s .065 reaction time gave him the edge from the starting line coupled with a 3.922 elapsed time. The victory continued a season-long trend that has left competitors searching for answers and Kalitta searching for a way to duplicate the formula on race day.
“If you figure it out, make sure you come over and tell us,” Kalitta said. “But, no, it’s competitive out here. Some days you need a little bit of luck, but for the most part, just assembling a great team and continuing to just keep doing what we’re doing, I think.
“For whatever reason, we obviously are trying to win these things on Sunday, and hopefully we can even the score one of these days with the Saturday results.”
Kalitta isn’t blaming bad luck for the imbalance. Instead, he believes success comes from preparation and execution, even if a little fortune occasionally finds its way into the equation.
“I think you just got to make your own luck really,” Kalitta said. “It’s just a matter of just everybody doing their job and just having a burden and desire to win these things.”
Funny Car belonged to Jack Beckman once again. Less than 24 hours after claiming a delayed New England Nationals victory over Jordan Vandergriff, Beckman defeated the John Force Racing rookie – and teammate – for a second straight day when Vandergriff crossed the centerline and struck a timing block in the final round.
The victory leaves Beckman with a rare opportunity.
After winning the completed Epping final Friday and adding a #2Fast2Tasty trophy Saturday, Beckman entered Sunday eliminations with a chance to leave Bristol carrying three trophies from one weekend.
“Sometimes these cars are amazing to drive, and sometimes they’ll do anything except what you ask them to do,” Beckman said. “I think both of us experienced that in the final.
“To close out the Epping race, win the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, and still have a shot at the Bristol trophy tomorrow — it’s an unbelievable opportunity. I’ve never been in a position where I could win three trophies in one weekend.”
In Pro Stock, Matt Hartford earned a measure of revenge.
One week after Dallas Glenn beat him in the New England Nationals final with a near-perfect .002-second reaction time, Hartford watched the points leader leave too soon and turn on the red light. Hartford capitalized with a 6.671-second run at 206.95 mph in his Total Seal Chevrolet Camaro to secure his first Mission Challenge victory of the season.
“The Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge is one of the best things NHRA has done,” Hartford said. “The drivers love it, the fans love it and it adds a whole new level of adrenaline on Saturday.”
Richard Gadson rounded out the winners by returning to the racetrack where his championship march gained momentum a year ago.
The reigning Pro Stock Motorcycle champion defeated Jianna Evaristo with a 6.855 at 197.65 mph aboard his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki, earning his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory of the season.
2 – TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT – Thunder Valley gave the field two more chances Saturday to chase down the leaders.
Nobody got the job done.
Leah Pruett, Matt Hagan, Greg Anderson, and Gaige Herrera remained exactly where they ended Friday night — atop the qualifying sheets — as the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals locked in its ladders for Sunday’s eliminations.
For Pruett, holding onto the Top Fuel lead capped one of the strongest stretches of her return season. Less than 24 hours after winning the delayed New England Nationals final, she backed it up by securing her second No. 1 qualifier of the season with Friday’s 3.794-second run at 332.43 mph in her Rush Truck Centers dragster.
“This is probably the No. 1 qualifier we’re most proud of all season,” Pruett said. “We raced for a final-round win Friday night, took everything the track had to give us, and still put up the number.
“The momentum is tangible right now. Winning races and proving you can beat the points leader reinforces what we already believed about this team.”
Antron Brown qualified second with a 3.801, 329.50, while Tony Schumacher landed third at 3.803, 326.16.
If Pruett protected momentum, Hagan protected territory.
The four-time Funny Car champion watched challengers take their best swings Saturday, but nobody could improve on his Friday-leading 4.009-second pass at 319.60 mph. The run delivered his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and completed a nitro qualifying sweep for Tony Stewart Racing.
“These No. 1 qualifiers mean a lot because they’re really for the crew guys,” Hagan said. “They’re the ones working over a 3,000-degree race car in brutal heat and putting a great machine underneath us.”
Alexis DeJoria qualified second with a 4.010, 326.00, while Jack Beckman’s 4.017, 318.54 put him third after collecting trophies in both Epping and Bristol over the last two days.
The story in Pro Stock looked familiar.
A rebuilt Bristol racing surface may have removed many of the challenges veterans once used to their advantage, but it didn’t stop Greg Anderson from ending qualifying where he’s spent much of the season — on top. His 6.651-second run at 206.86 mph secured his sixth No. 1 qualifier in nine races.
“I’ve had a good run here,” Anderson said. “I messed up this morning, made a bad run, but we dug deep and got her back on the last run.”
Herrera rounded out the quartet of No. 1 qualifiers.
The two-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion entered Bristol without a No. 1 qualifier in 2026. He left qualifying with one after improving to a 6.831 at 197.88 mph aboard his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki, leading teammate Richard Gadson and Angie Smith into Sunday’s eliminations.
3 – MOTHER NATURE AT IT AGAIN – The race against weather begins before Sunday’s final eliminations are scheduled.
With forecasts calling for potential inclement weather across northeast Tennessee, series officials moved Sunday’s eliminations at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals to an earlier start time in an effort to complete racing before conditions become a factor.
The revised schedule shifts the opening round of NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series eliminations from noon to 10 a.m. EDT at Bristol Dragway. Top Fuel will lead the charge, followed by Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle.
For racers, crew chiefs and fans, the adjustment is another reminder that Thunder Valley has long operated on its own terms. The facility’s mountain setting can create weather challenges unlike many stops on the NHRA tour, forcing officials to remain proactive when forecasts become uncertain.
The schedule change affects more than just the professional categories.
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series competitors will also do battle Sunday, along with racers in the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, and the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown. With multiple categories still on the property and championship points on the line across the board, completing the event became the priority.
Bristol officials announced parking lots will open at 7:30 a.m., giving fans an earlier opportunity to enter the facility and settle in before race day begins. Spectator gates will open at 8 o’clock.
The SealMaster Track Walk and driver introductions remain on the schedule and are set for 9 a.m. Those activities will serve as the final pre-race ceremonies before eliminations begin an hour later.
4 – PATIENCE MY ***, I’M GONNA DEVELOP SOMETHING – Richard Freeman didn’t come to Bristol looking for sympathy.
He came looking for horsepower.
While KB-Titan Racing has spent the last year and a half setting the pace in Pro Stock, the Elite Motorsports owner arrived at Bristol Dragway with new engine combinations, new cylinder-head developments and a belief that his team is finally beginning to narrow the gap.
The effort wasn’t born in a machine shop months ago. It started the minute the team left Epping.
“As a program, we’ve run better the last three or four races and here we have three new engine combinations that got done,” Freeman said. “The guys, we flew home on Sunday from Epping. We got home at three o’clock in the morning.
“Monday morning, those guys were there working on some new combinations and the stuff got [driven] here, left on Wednesday, got here last night. So we’re excited to see how that goes.”
The latest package centers around cylinder-head work developed with Carl Foltz and CFE. Freeman isn’t making bold claims yet, but he liked what he saw from Erica Enders’ car during qualifying.
“Erica made a really nice run right there with it,” Freeman said. “Looks like we probably could have went .65. So we’ll see. If we could do that, I’d be happy with it.”
Not every Elite car received the new pieces.
“We only could get about three of them done,” Freeman said. “We hurt one in Aaron’s car last night, so right now [Enders] and [Troy Coughlin Jr.] are the only ones with it in.”
The objective is simple.
“We’re just moving the power around, trying to catch up with our competitors who travel really well and have done a great job for the last year and a half for sure,” Freeman said. “So we’re closer, we’re closing in and just trying to get ready for the Countdown.”
Freeman also revealed Elite Motorsports continues exploring the possibility of adding another nitro operation alongside its Top Fuel effort with Tony Stewart, though finding qualified people remains the biggest hurdle.
5 – THEY’LL READ ABOUT THE CAPPS LEGEND – Ron Capps spent his childhood reading about Thunder Valley Dragway. This weekend, his name became part of its history.
The eight-time Bristol winner was announced as the 24th inductee into the Legends of Thunder Valley during the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. He joins an exclusive group recognized for its impact on Bristol Dragway and the sport of drag racing.
Bristol Dragway president and general manager Jerry Caldwell said the honor was overdue for one of the facility’s most successful competitors.
“It’s very rare that we induct an active driver, but you’re in rare company when you’re with Ron Capps,” Caldwell said. “The other two that have been inducted as active drivers are John Force and Tony Schumacher.
“So we are thrilled to be able to induct someone who it’s kind of long overdue, but you’re trying to see how much he’s going to accomplish and how many things he’s going to do. And eventually you have to say, ‘He’s going to keep going, but we need to induct him.'”
For Capps, the recognition carries a connection that predates his professional career.
Long before he drove for Don Prudhomme or won Funny Car championships, he was a Southern California kid reading about Larry Carrier, Bristol Dragway and the battles that helped define the IHRA and NHRA rivalry.
“I read about Larry Carrier, all the history,” Capps said. “For me as a kid, I read more about the Pro Modified, Modified Production and Pro Stock history because back in that day that was big out here. It was all I read about as a kid.”
The honor struck Capps because he spent years looking up at the names already displayed around the facility.
“When I got the call from [Bristol Dragway’s] Anthony Vestal, I had to sit down,” Capps said. “I was like, ‘God, I can’t even believe I’m going to be up on that grandstand.'”
The numbers alone justify the induction.
Capps remains the winningest NHRA driver in Bristol history, a distinction made even more meaningful because it came at the expense of John Force’s record.
“I will retire and be old in a rocking chair someday watching NHRA and have grandkids running around and be as proud as ever to say, ‘I’m the second winningest to a guy named John Force at everything, right? But I did win more than John at a certain place.’ That’s probably the coolest feather in my cap for sure.”
6 – THE MAMA BEAR PRINCIPLE – Leah Pruett isn’t the same driver today that she was when she stepped away after the 2023 season.
She’s also not the same person.
Friday’s victory in the delayed New England Nationals provided validation for a process Pruett said began when she realized her return to Top Fuel wasn’t going to be as simple as climbing back into a race car and picking up where she left off.
The speed was there. The challenge was learning how to manage a different version of herself.
“In the offseason for sure I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s start out strong, been preparing for this for years,'” Pruett said. “And I found myself a couple races in not really knowing how to collect my new self, emotionally manage myself, and also from a physical ability. So I got pretty beat down.”
Rather than chasing immediate results, Pruett and her team shifted their focus to smaller goals and measurable progress.
The objective wasn’t to become the driver she used to be. It was to become the driver she needed to be now.
“We said, ‘Let’s work on progression. Let’s work on hitting some marks that are obtainable for me and how I’m doing them, doing some right things to doing some wrong things,'” Pruett said.
The changes weren’t limited to the cockpit.
During her two years away from competition, Pruett spent more time listening to crew chiefs, studying how decisions were made and developing a greater appreciation for the teamwork required to win in Top Fuel.
“Because I was on the sidelines for two years listening and working with them all,” Pruett said. “It just has grown such an incredible, greater appreciation for what they do and what other crew chiefs of teams do.”
That perspective showed itself Friday after she defeated Shawn Langdon to earn her first victory since returning to competition.
“The Diamond Wally is super cool and this is incredible, but to see the smiles on my crew, my crew chief’s face is like, that’s all time, all time,” Pruett said.
Some of the changes happened in the race car. Others happened at home.
Pruett admitted race day looks different now than it did before she became a mother, even if she is still learning which habits to keep and which ones to leave behind.
“I’m super proud that I’m going to be able to go down there and hold our child and get this Wally in his hands, because he’s been touching all Tony’s Wallys that are on the countertop the past two years,” Pruett said.
“I specifically don’t see Dom as much during the day so I can stay focused and not have this softer side come out in me. I’m proud of myself that I’m not harnessed by old superstitions. I’m making new ones.”
For Pruett, the victory wasn’t proof that she had returned to where she was before. It was confirmation that the journey had taken her somewhere better.
“I think I’m in a better spot, not just because I just got a Wally down there, but I think I’m in a better spot than I’ve ever been as a driver because I have a systematic approach with a team that’s unwavering behind me,” Pruett said.
7 – ANDERSON LOSES HIS EDGE – For years, Bristol Dragway was the place where Pro Stock crew chiefs earned their money.
Horsepower mattered. Driving mattered. But if a team couldn’t navigate Thunder Valley’s bumps, transitions and imperfections, none of the rest of it mattered much. Bristol had a way of exposing weaknesses that other racetracks never found, and few drivers learned how to exploit those challenges better than Greg Anderson.
The six-time champion built plenty of success at Bristol by understanding what the racetrack wanted and, just as importantly, what it wouldn’t tolerate. When Speedway Motorsports, the owner of Bristol Dragway, rebuilt the racing surface during the offseason, many wondered what would happen when one of Anderson’s biggest advantages disappeared.
Friday provided an answer. The bumps are gone, the rough edges have been smoothed over and the notebooks crew chiefs spent years building suddenly became less valuable. Yet when qualifying ended, Anderson was still sitting in the familiar spot at the top of the sheet.
“We’re a bunch of whiners and we got what we asked for now,” Anderson said. “So, can’t complain about that. We asked for it, we begged for it and now it’s here.
“And all it’ll do, it’ll even the class out. There’s no question, everybody will be able to make quality runs out there. So that’s good for Pro Stock, good for fans.”
The old Bristol demanded compromise. Crew chiefs spent years balancing aggression with survival because the quickest setup wasn’t always the smartest setup. Sometimes simply getting down the racetrack clean was the difference between qualifying near the top and loading up early.
“You basically had to try and do everything you possibly could to try and keep the race car on the racetrack before,” Anderson said. “And whoever did it best could run fast and win.
“So it was a great challenge. I’ve always liked that about different racetracks. Some are tougher challenges than others.”
That particular challenge has changed.
“It was definitely a different experience,” Anderson said. “As far as the chassis end of it, the crew chiefs are going to have a little bit easier weekend.”
What hasn’t changed is the mountain itself. Bristol still takes horsepower away from naturally aspirated Pro Stock engines, forcing teams to search for speed in gear ratios, setup changes and weather data.
Every year teams arrive wishing they brought another hundred horsepower with them. Since that’s impossible, they look for other ways to make the car think it has more power than it actually does.
“We wish we had another 100 when we rolled in the gate, but when you come up the mountain here, it saps the horsepower,” Anderson said. “So you’ve got to make your car think it’s got it by other means. And the number one way that we have, the tool that we have is gear ratio, but it makes it tricky in low gear.”
Anderson’s Friday performance proved the new Bristol may be smoother, but it still rewards execution. The driver made the shifts, the crew chief made the calls, and the engine builders found the horsepower when conditions became tricky late in the day.
“The driver,” Anderson said when asked who deserved the credit. “I didn’t do a whole lot wrong or right today, I guess. I just made it down through the goalposts fine and I didn’t screw the shifts up too bad.
“So I did my part and the race car certainly did its part and the engine certainly did its part. I’ve said it before. You got three key main ingredients: You got the driver, you got the horsepower under the hood and you got the chassis set up. And if all three don’t go right, you don’t run those numbers. So all three went right today and we’ll at least take 33 percent of the credit.”
The smooth surface was supposed to level the playing field.
For years, Bristol rewarded racers willing to wrestle with it. Crew chiefs filled notebooks trying to solve its quirks. Drivers learned where the racetrack wanted to move a car around, where it wanted to shake the tires and where a good run could disappear in a hurry.
Anderson spent decades learning those lessons, building an advantage from experience and repetition. Then the bulldozers arrived and erased much of what made Bristol different from every other stop on the tour.
The bumps are gone. The transitions are gone. The rough edges that once separated veterans from newcomers have largely been engineered out of existence.
Everybody got what they wanted.
The funny thing is that when qualifying ended Friday, the scoreboard looked a lot like it did before the reconstruction crews showed up. Greg Anderson was still on top.
8 – THE REGULAR SEASON FINALE FOR PRO MOD – While the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series regular season continues through August, the Pro Mod regular season effectively reached its finish line Saturday at Bristol Dragway.
With qualifying complete at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals and points-and-a-half on the line, the category arrived at its final regular-season turning point before the Road to the Championship begins later this month in Norwalk.
Mike Stavrinos emerged from qualifying with the top spot after a 5.774-second pass at 250.51 mph in his Camaro. Just .019 seconds separated the top five qualifiers, underscoring how little room for error exists in a class where races are often decided before half-track.
Brazil’s Sidnei Frigo qualified second with a 5.776 at 248.84 mph, while Travis Harvey – the recipient of the $125,000 top prize in IHRA action a week ago – landed third at 5.779, 249.07. Chip King put his Dodge Charger fourth with a 5.787, and veteran Rickie Smith rounded out the top five with a 5.793.
The qualifying sheet was tight. The points battle is tighter. Derek Menholt arrived in Bristol holding a 44-point advantage over Justin Bond after becoming the first two-time winner in the category this season. Stavrinos, Billy Banaka, and Stevie “Fast” Jackson remained firmly in the hunt as the series prepared to transition into its playoff phase.
Further down the standings, the pressure only increased.
Defending champion J.R. Gray entered the weekend eighth in points, while Stan Shelton occupied the ninth position with several drivers close enough to erase the gap in a single round. With points-and-a-half available, every qualifying position and every elimination-round victory carries added weight.
For some teams, qualifying represented an opportunity to strengthen their position before the reset. For others, it became a last chance to keep championship hopes alive heading into the five-race playoff stretch.
The category has produced five different winners in five races entering Bristol. Menholt remains the only driver with multiple victories, a statistic that speaks to both the depth and unpredictability of the field.
9 – BARNEY REDUX – Like father, like son.
Thirty-one years after the original Barney left Bristol Dragway with an IHRA Spring Nationals victory, the next generation returned to Thunder Valley and quietly carved out a respectable chapter of its own.
Tommy Wilson ended qualifying as 10th quickest in the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod field with a 5.804-second pass at 244.87 mph in Tommy Franklin’s “Son of Barney” 1941 Willys. At a facility where the original Barney became one of the most celebrated Pro Modified cars of its era, the run carried more significance than a spot on the qualifying sheet.
The original Barney won the 1995 IHRA Spring Nationals and later captured the final IHRA Pro Modified event contested at Thunder Valley Dragway before the facility’s transformation under Speedway Motorsports’ Bruton Smith. Shannon Jenkins, who now tunes Wilson’s car, was part of that original program and later returned to Bristol to win the IHRA Autumn Chase Nationals in an all-nitrous final round against Quain Stott.
For Wilson, the weekend started with modest goals.
“Yeah, we come here just hoping to qualify and we’ve made three runs to the finish line,” Wilson said. “We’ve sped up every run, and we’re really, really happy with what we’ve got. Tommy’s car is performing flawlessly. I mean, this thing does no wrong and Shannon’s on the tune and motor’s happy, so we just keep picking away at it and hopefully we can go some rounds tomorrow.”
Around the pits, the car has earned a nickname: SOB, short for Son of Barney.
The comparison is unavoidable. Barney wasn’t merely successful, it changed the trajectory of Pro Modified racing. Wilson knows attaching himself to that legacy comes with expectations.
“It was the absolute worst decision I could have ever made because it puts me in a spot where I feel like I’ve got to live up to that other car, the O.G.,” Wilson said. “I have to live up to that and it’s going to take some time for us to get there with this car. The O.G. Barney was so far up, up – just up, I don’t know what to say. It was just so much a better car than what was out there at the time.
“Everything has progressed so much over the last 30 years. These cars are all very competitive. So it makes it harder, but I think we’ve got a good chance to run good here in Bristol. I think we got a good chance in NHRA with the platform with the big nitrous motor team.”
The deeper Wilson digs into Barney’s history, the more appreciation he gains for what Franklin and Jenkins built.
“Oh, yeah, I didn’t know that,” Wilson said when told Barney won the final IHRA Pro Modified race at the facility. “That car has so many stories. And just listening to Tommy and Shannon talk about the car and what it did and just how far advanced it was is amazing — what they’d done with that car in that amount of time.
“And you got to think that car run all the way up till 2007 or 2008 with Ben Ledford and they went 3.80s with that car and that was competitive at that time, and that was the same car it was in ’95. This car here is built on the same damn jig that car was. I mean, there’s not a lot of difference, just some small minor upgrades that’s happened over 30 years, but it’s built on the same jig as that car.”
Wilson isn’t trying to replace Barney’s place in drag racing history. He’s trying to honor it while creating a few stories of his own.
“I’ve raced with Tommy for so long,” Wilson said. “He’s so calm in the cars. He’s made so many runs down the racetrack. If I could be half the driver he is and half the tuner Shannon is, that’s all I could ever ask for. These guys have made so many laps down a racetrack. It’s just unbelievable what they’ve been able to accomplish in their timeframe.”
10 – NASH HEADLINES SPORTSMAN LOW QUALIFIERS – For three years, Raymond Nash has chased the same goal in the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Series. On Saturday at Bristol Dragway, he finally caught it.
Nash powered his Team Underdawg Racing Dodge Mopar Challenger to the first No. 1 qualifier of his career at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, posting a 7.827-second pass at 176.30 mph in the final qualifying session. The run vaulted him past points leader Jonathan Allegrucci and reigning champion Mark Pawuk in one of the toughest fields assembled this season.
The accomplishment carried extra meaning because it came with family at the center of the operation. Nash credits much of the success to the support system behind him and the efforts of Ray Barton Racing Engines.
“We’ve worked hard on this racecar. David Barton has done a great job. The guys at Ray Barton Racing Engines,” Nash said. “Ray Barton himself and all the guys back at the shop, they’ve done an awesome job of working hard on the car.
“My family has been amazing supporting me from my son, to my dad, and especially my wife. They are moving a car back and forth and we have lots of support back at home. Thank goodness, my wife, who allows us the opportunity to do this, and she’s a big help. She cleans the rig, loads food, and does the whole thing. That’s why my name’s not on the top of the car. It says ‘Nash Family’ for a reason.”
Nash knows the hard part starts now.
“It’s awesome. The fact that we were fans walking around the racetrack not long ago, and now we can race this car in the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown class,” Nash said. “We’re not here for number one qualifiers, we’re here to win a race. We only want to win a Wally, and that’s what I care about most.”
While Nash celebrated a milestone, Bristol’s sportsman ranks produced familiar names at the top of the qualifying sheets.
Andy Fogle led Super Stock with a -1.016-under performance in his Cavalier. Craig Gualtiere qualified second at -0.930 under, while Don Barber completed the top three at -0.852 under.
Stock Eliminator belonged to Steve Johns, who paced the field with a -1.004-under run in his Camaro. David Barton followed at -0.981 under, while Doug Duell’s Barracuda secured the third position at -0.942.
In Top Sportsman, John Benoit claimed the top spot with a 6.369-second run at 218.80 mph in his Corvette. Allen Firestone qualified second at 6.397, while Jeff Brooks rounded out the top three with a 6.480 in his Henry J.
The quick-door-car category once again demonstrated the depth of competition that has become a staple of Bristol’s sportsman program. Every round Sunday promises to be a test of reaction times, consistency and survival.
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – TSR LEAVES THEM SEEING DOUBLE, EPPING CROWNS CHAMPIONS, THE NEW SURFACE DELIVERS
1 – BANNER DAY FOR TSR – No matter the bumps or bruises, Tony Stewart Racing proved Friday it can deliver the kind of nitro double-up usually associated with the sport’s established superpowers.
Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan ended the day atop the Top Fuel and Funny Car qualifying sheets at Bristol Dragway, giving the organization control of both nitro categories heading into the final day of qualifying at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.
Pruett’s path to the provisional No. 1 position came with an added reward.
Her 3.794-second pass at 332.43 mph served a dual purpose: It not only put her atop the charts after two rounds, it was in the rain-delayed final from last Sunday at the New England Nationals against Shawn Langdon. It was her first win since returning to competition this season.
“I’m happier than I thought I would be,” Pruett said. “Now I finally get to take a breath and enjoy it. This race didn’t come by accident. It didn’t come by somebody falling short or smoking the tires. We earned this.
“To see the smiles on my crew and my crew chiefs’ faces — that’s all-time. The Diamond Wally is super cool, but seeing what this means to my team means even more. We’re chipping away at it, and that’s what gave us confidence coming into this final round. I think I’m in a better spot than I’ve ever been as a driver.”
For a driver who stepped away following the 2023 season to start a family with husband Tony Stewart, Friday represented another milestone in an already impressive comeback season. The speed has been there since the opening race, but now there is a victory to match it.
The confidence level inside the Top Fuel camp appears to be growing with every race. Pruett has consistently shown the ability to qualify near the top of the field, and now she has the results to back it up.
Hagan completed the TSR sweep in Funny Car.
The four-time champion powered his Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Dodge to a 4.009-second pass at 319.60 mph to take the provisional No. 1 position. If it holds through Saturday, it would be his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 55th of his career.
More than the number, Hagan was impressed by what he experienced on Bristol’s rebuilt racing surface.
“The racing surface itself is a massive improvement from what we’ve had in the past. I couldn’t even feel the bumps for the tunnel or anything like that,” Hagan said. “Hats off to the whole group that put a really good racetrack under us.
“I think it will only get better as we go. As the rubber comes around and we’re able to apply more power to it, you can really see those lanes starting to fill in. This track is a really good track now, and as these crew chiefs get more runs under their belt with it, you’ll see faster numbers.”
The comments echoed what many racers have said throughout the weekend. After years of serving as one of the most challenging surfaces on the NHRA tour, Bristol’s extensive offseason renovation has dramatically changed the conversation.
Jack Beckman sits second in Funny Car, while Spencer Hyde rounds out the top three entering Saturday.
2 – UNFINISHED BUSINESS FINISHED – When rain stopped the NHRA New England Nationals before the Funny Car and Top Fuel finals could be completed, Jack Beckman and Leah Pruett left Epping knowing they had race-winning cars. Seven days later in Bristol, both finally got the chance to prove it.
“To get a win like this, it was very gratifying,” Beckman said. “I wouldn’t have cared if we ran this final round Friday night or next Tuesday. Our PEAK team left with the trophy and that’s all that matters.”
“I’m happier than I thought I would be,” Pruett said. “Now I finally get to take a breath and enjoy it. This race didn’t come by accident. It didn’t come by somebody falling short or smoking the tires. We earned this.”
The delayed final rounds were completed Friday at Bristol Dragway, where Beckman earned his first Funny Car victory of the season and Pruett collected her first Top Fuel win since returning to competition this year.
Beckman defeated John Force Racing teammate Jordan Vandergriff with a 4.017-second pass at 318.55 mph. The victory was the 38th of his career and the reward for a team that has steadily climbed back into championship form over the last month.
“Before you can be quick, you have to be consistent, and to be consistent, you have to be predictable,” Beckman said. “I think we’re back in that window right now. We hadn’t won in over a year. We had some struggles, but now we’ve made it down the track on 14 of our last 17 runs. That’s the kind of consistency that wins races.”
The unusual circumstances added another layer to the victory. Drivers are accustomed to weather delays, but completing a final round at a different track a week later was new territory.
“I’ve never raced a final round at a completely different venue a week later,” Beckman said. “I’ve raced late Sundays and Mondays, but never this. It was definitely unique.”
Pruett’s victory carried its own significance.
After stepping away following the 2023 season to start a family with husband Tony Stewart, she returned this season determined to prove she could still win at the highest level. The performance had been there all year, including a runner-up finish in Phoenix, but victory lane had remained elusive.
That changed when she drove her Dodge//SRT dragster to a 3.794-second run at 332.43 mph to defeat Shawn Langdon.
“To see the smiles on my crew and my crew chiefs’ faces — that’s all-time,” Pruett said. “The Diamond Wally is super cool, but seeing what this means to my team means even more. We’re chipping away at it and that’s what gave us confidence coming into this final round.”
Pruett believes the victory validates the progress made throughout the first half of the season.
“I think I’m in a better spot than I’ve ever been as a driver,” Pruett said.
3 – ANDERSON ENJOYS A FAMILIAR VIEW – Greg Anderson spent years complaining about Bristol Dragway’s bumps.
On Friday, after racing to the provisional No. 1 position in Pro Stock with a 6.673-second pass at 204 mph, he almost sounded nostalgic about them.
The six-time champion led both qualifying sessions at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals and left the track impressed by the extensive offseason resurfacing project. The run was the quickest of either session and continued a relationship with Bristol that dates back to his first NHRA national event victory in 2001.
“Well, for me, it’s a feel-good place to come race, really,” Anderson said. “It’s where everything started for me. I got my first win back in 2001 and it’s been a great ride ever since coming back here. Some great memories and last year with the 1000 Round Win, joining the 1000 Round Win Club, that was pretty damn cool. It’s a pretty neat place for me. So yeah, today was wonderful.”
The veteran admitted the margin didn’t matter nearly as much as leaving Friday atop the qualifying sheet.
“Doesn’t really matter how much we did it by,” Anderson said. “We squeaked by a nose, but we did. So we’re number one for the day and we can try again tomorrow. So got all the points they had to give today. Did all we could do. So perfect day.”
For decades, Bristol’s defining characteristic was its notoriously bumpy racing surface. Crew chiefs and drivers treated the track as a yearly challenge, forcing suspension changes and careful chassis tuning just to get a car down the groove.
Now that challenge is largely gone.
“My hat’s off to Steve Swift and all the guys at the racetrack,” Anderson said. “They did a great job at a racetrack here. So you really don’t feel the bump going down the racetrack. It’s kind of funny because we used to complain and complain and complain about it with all the bumps.”
Anderson laughed when discussing the irony of finally getting what racers had demanded for years.
“It was the toughest challenge in the year for us as far as negotiating bumps,” Anderson said. “So we complained every year and begged for a smoother racetrack. And now we got it and now it’s like, you know what? It’s really kind of a neat challenge.”
The smoother surface figures to benefit the entire class.
“We asked for it, we begged for it and now it’s here,” Anderson said. “Like I said, it’ll even the class out. There’s no question, everybody will be able to make quality runs out there. So that’s good for Pro Stock, good for fans.”
As for who deserved credit for Friday’s top qualifying effort, Anderson wasn’t about to take all of it.
“You got three key main ingredients,” Anderson said. “You got the driver, you got the horsepower under the hood, and you got the chassis set up. And if all three don’t go right, you don’t run those numbers. So all three went right today and we’ll at least take 33% of the credit.”
4 – ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE FOR HERRERA – There was a time when it appeared Gaige Herrera could do no wrong. There was also a time when the Pro Stock Motorcycle field appeared to be racing for second place to him. Once upon a time he could do no wrong. Lately, those moments have been few and far in-between.
On Friday in Bristol, Herrera rode the Vance & Hines Suzuki to the provisional No. 1 spot with a 6.867 elapsed time at 196.59 mph to edge Ryan Oehler’s 6.898, 198.52. NHRA Potomac Nationals champion Angie Smith landed third with a 6.899, 197.54,
The Pro Stock Motorcycles got in two full sessions on a weather-delayed Friday.
“I would say luck has not been on my side for a lot of things,” Herrera said. “Andrew [Hines] keeps looking at me and says, ‘When you stop hurting parts.’
“But it’s been a rough go this season for us as far as me with the parts wise and just failures, little mishaps, but I’m glad to come here to Bristol. I love coming here, racing between the mountains and everything.”
Herrera said the new dragstrip in Bristol provides a much better experience.
“It’s notably different,” Herrera said. “It’s way better. And I’m glad to be on the pole at the moment, but it could change at any minute.”
It’s that little bit of apprehension of what could go wrong that keeps the normally reserved Herrera from getting the least bit excited amid a dry spell that could end in his first 2026 No. 1 qualifier if it holds through Saturday.
That’s a far cry from his rookie season when he reached the finals in eight of 10 races, winning seven. He qualified No. 1 six times and amassed a 33-3 win-loss record. After winning seven in his rookie season and ten in his sophomore year, he won “only” seven in 2025.
This season, he’s got one win in five outings. He clearly knew a time was coming when the wins would come at a slower pace and did his best to drive the negativity away.
“It’s tough for sure, but you know, I think with my background, racing motocross and you know, doing other drag racing besides, you know, I’ve always been taught, especially by my grandfather, he said, once you’re on top, there’s only one way you can go and that’s down.
“So I knew the day was coming. You know, we can’t always be on top and it’s not good for any sport or any class to always have one person always win. It definitely made me go out there and dig a little harder and get in physical, better physical shape myself.
“The whole field right now, it’s definitely stacked now compared to what it used to be. I’m happy that I kind of got knocked down because it makes me and the team, everyone drive harder to get back on top.”
5 – THE SWAG RUN (Q-1) – Darrell Gwynn used to define SWAG as a Sophisticated Wise-Ass Guess, and Friday’s first nitro qualifying session at Bristol Dragway fit the description perfectly.
Crew chiefs rolled to the starting line armed with notebooks full of theories and very few answers. What followed was a session where most of the runs were neither sophisticated nor wise, but racers left convinced the rebuilt Bristol surface is better than the numbers suggested.
Only two Top Fuel dragsters reached the three-second zone and topped 300 mph during the opening session. Doug Kalitta led the way with a 3.927-second pass at 311.99 mph, while Chad Green paced Funny Car despite coasting to a 4.189 at only 242.84 mph.
The scoreboard reflected uncertainty.
The feedback from the drivers told a different story.
Matt Hagan, who ended Friday as the provisional Funny Car leader, said the surface showed signs of significant improvement despite the modest elapsed times.
“This track is really smooth, man,” Hagan said. “I know we ran four flat out there and that don’t sound very impressive, but as the rubber comes around and as we’re able to apply more power to it, and we make more runs down through there, you can really see those lanes starting to really fill in.
“The racing surface itself is a massive improvement from what we’ve had in the past. I couldn’t even feel the bumps for the tunnel or anything like that. So hats off to Kirk and that whole job that they did over there to put a really good racetrack under us and I think it will only get better as we go.”
Hagan believes the challenge wasn’t the track. It was figuring out how aggressively to attack a surface nobody had raced on before.
“These crew chiefs, they have to kind of throw a dart,” Hagan said. “And then when you go out there, when it’s 140-degree track temperature, it’s kind of like, where do you throw the dart at?”
Leah Pruett experienced the same uncertainty in Top Fuel. Her team smoked the tires early, but the sensation inside the car told her everything she needed to know.
“We smoked the tires on Q1 right there,” Pruett said. “But I’ll tell you what, about this track, when I got to about 200 feet in the right lane, Q1, I was like, ‘This is the smoothest thing I think I’ve ever been on. This is incredible.'”
Perhaps the strongest endorsement came from Greg Anderson, who spent decades navigating Bristol’s notorious bumps.
“My hat’s off to Steve Swift and all the guys at the racetrack,” Anderson said. “They did a great job at a racetrack here. We complained every year and begged for a smoother racetrack. And now we got it now and no excuses.”
The numbers may not have looked spectacular Friday. The racers who have spent years bouncing across Bristol’s old surface believe the best runs are still coming.
6 – STEWART ACCEPTING THE HARD TRUTHS – Tony Stewart built his Hall of Fame career on the belief that if something went wrong, he could usually do something about it. Whether it was NASCAR, IndyCar, sprint cars or midgets, Stewart spent decades relying on instinct, aggression and experience to change the outcome of a race.
Top Fuel racing doesn’t work that way, and the adjustment remains one of the toughest challenges of his motorsports career.
After winning eight rounds in the first four NHRA events of 2026 and collecting his first national-event victory at the Winternationals in April, Stewart has cooled. The driver of the Elite Motorsports dragster has lost in the first round of eliminations three times in the last four races, a reminder that success in NHRA often depends on factors beyond the driver’s control.
For a competitor accustomed to controlling his own destiny, that reality can be difficult to accept.
“I think at around 11:20 last week it was pretty hard to accept,” Stewart said. “So, just depends on how the day’s going. When you’re used to being 70% of the equation at the end of the day and ultimately at the end of the day you’re in control of it, it was a lot different scenario than what I’m in now. …
“It’s more of just adapting to it and getting used to it whether you … Sometimes you don’t like it, but it’s like it is what it is. They all know it every time we go up there. Every one of us that get in a car knows that we’re only going to be able to do what our car’s going to let us do. So you can want more than that, and you can want to be able to use all these tools you’ve learned over the years, but there’s about 5% of the tools I know that I actually get to use when I drag race.”
That admission reveals how different NHRA competition is from the forms of racing where Stewart earned championships and victories. In Top Fuel, reaction times matter, but once the car leaves the starting line, much of the outcome belongs to the crew chiefs and the race car itself.
Stewart said his focus now is simply doing his job and trusting the people around him.
“So it’s just about sticking to the things that I’ve learned from these three of what to do right and make sure I’m doing my job right and the rest of it’s in the tuners’ hands,” Stewart said.
His move into a different team environment this season has also eased some pressure. Stewart joked that instead of directing frustration toward crew chiefs, he now keeps it to himself.
“I just go in a closet and yell normally because I don’t want to yell at the crew chiefs because they got enough pressure running me,” Stewart said. “I mean, I’m not driving for guys that I write their paychecks … I mean, I’m just their hired driver and we’re all the same.”
Stewart also said NHRA’s culture stands apart from every other form of racing he’s experienced. While he believes all racing fans share the same passion, drag racing fans benefit from unprecedented access.
“What I truly like versus over on the NASCAR side, I mean, if you were walking and didn’t matter where you were going, if they could get to you, they’d almost tackle you to get an autograph,” Stewart said.
“Over here, when you buy your ticket, you get to go to all the pits. I mean, you’re around all the people. And I think that’s what I like about this atmosphere is everybody’s a lot more laid back, but I think it’s the culture and the atmosphere that NHRA has created.”
7 – STACKING THE DECK – If success is where preparation meets opportunity, then J.R. Todd and the Yella Fellas stacked the deck months before the season ever began.
When Kalitta Motorsports rolled into preseason testing at Gainesville Raceway, crew chiefs Dickie Venables and Todd Smith weren’t focused solely on building a race-winning Funny Car. They were building insurance. More importantly, they were building confidence in two race cars capable of carrying a championship-caliber program.
That decision paid immediate dividends when Todd’s primary car sustained damage following the second, and semifinal, round at Charlotte. Instead of scrambling to prepare an unknown backup, the team had a second car waiting in the trailer with a full notebook of data and a proven track record.
Todd entered this weekend second in NHRA Funny Car points despite not yet reaching victory lane in 2026. Consistency has carried the former class champion into the semifinals in half the events this season and one final round appearance, keeping him firmly in the championship conversation.
The foundation for that consistency was laid during those Gainesville test sessions.
“Yeah, it’s definitely important to do,” Todd said. “You don’t want to roll out a spare car like in the situation that we had there in the final in Charlotte and not knowing what you have. So yeah, we made sure that we got a couple of days on the primary car then rolled out the backup car and ran it for a full day, then put it away as it was. That way the fuel system, the clutch system, all that, they have notes on that and can pretty much just drag it out and have confidence that it should run similar to the primary car.
“And testing, it ran within a few thousand. So that speaks a lot to PBRC, the chassis builder and then the Yella Fellas putting together two cars over this off-season back at the shop and just doing a flawless job and Dickie [Venables] and Todd [Smith] having the confidence to tune them both just alike.”
In a sport where a failed parachute, parts breakage, or a trip through the sandtrap can alter a season, having a proven backup car isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity.
Todd said the similarities between the two race cars are uncommon even by professional drag racing standards.
“I’d say they’re pretty close to being twins, which is rare to have two cars go out there and run pretty close like that,” Todd said. “Typically, no two cars are the same. So, like I said, great job to the guys in Brownsburg knocking those things out over this winter and the guys on our team putting it together. So yeah, that’s pretty rare to have clones like that.”
The progress reflects a larger evolution within Kalitta Motorsports. While the organization’s Top Fuel program has become the benchmark in recent seasons, Todd believes the Funny Car side is finally beginning to mirror that trajectory.
Last season’s addition of Venables didn’t immediately produce the turnaround many expected. Instead, the team endured another season of searching for answers before making additional offseason changes that included new equipment and the return of Smith alongside Venables.
“It is definitely hard to be patient,” Todd admitted. “After the success that we have with winning the championship, you kind of think to yourself like, ‘Alright, we have a car that can go out there and win races and compete with all these guys.’ And then we kind of just fell on our face after that. We weren’t consistent and that’s when your patience really starts to wear thin.
“So I kind of told myself then, ‘Just trust the process and be patient.’ So that’s where I’m at now and I’m happy with the way that things have been going. And like I said, yeah, we want to win every race that we show up to, but we learn from every race.”
8 – STANFIELD’S A BUSY MAN – There’s busy, and then there’s what Aaron Stanfield expects to be in August when he climbs behind the wheel of an Elite Motorsports Top Fuel dragster to begin the licensing process.
Stanfield, who recently was named as the Pro Modified driver for Elite’s Pro Modified entry previously driven by Mason Wright, doesn’t expect to drive Top Fuel, Pro Stock and Pro Modified at the same event – at least not this year largely because NHRA rules prohibit competition in two Mission Foods Series events, plus there’s no sponsorship for the nitro opportunity at this time.
“Our plans right now for Erica [Enders] and myself is just get in the car and go through the license process and get ready if that opportunity comes,” Stanfield said. “We’re set to test sometime here in the near future.”
Sometime in the future means August in Indianapolis. As far as Stanfield is concerned, a nitro car has four wheels, and that fits his criteria for willingness to drive it.
“I’m super excited about it and looking forward to learning,” Stanfield said. “I always say as long as it’s got four wheels, I’ll race anything. Of course, I’m a little bit of a speed freak, so going over 330 miles an hour does sound pretty fun. But I think it definitely ranks up there. The way I look at it is I want to race at the highest level and I want to be at the forefront of the highest level.
Up until the driver seats were poured for he and Enders, Stanfield questioned whether the opportunity would actually come true.
“I think that’s the point Erica and I looked at each other and said, ‘I don’t think we’re very intelligent,” Stanfield. “We got the seats poured and got nice and comfortable and all those … guys, they were very welcoming to both of us. It was a great process.”
And once he hits the track, he understands there’s another task he must undertake.
“We got to talk NHRA into letting us run Pro Stock and Top Fuel at the same race,” Stanfield surmised.
9 – CALAMITY TAKES CENTER STAGE – Two significant oildowns threw NHRA’s already stressed schedule into over an hour delay. NHRA had already moved the schedule up to get the edge on forecasted rain expected to hit the Tri-Cities area just ahead of qualifying’s original start time.
The first significant delay came when Lee Hartman’s Factory Stock Showdown Mopar broke the adapter on the oil filter, sending the filter flying and gushing oil onto the racing surface. The clean up took roughly 31 minutes.
While the Pro Stock classes were relatively issue-free, the second pair of Funny Car halted the action for 38 minutes when Cruz Pedregon’s Funny Car developed an oil leak on the burnout and left a trail out past the tree.
A little after 5 p.m., a rain shower stopped racing just ahead of Pro Stock, adding almost two hours to the schedule.
10 – THE SORDID MEMORIES OF THUNDER VALLEY – Ron Lewis has spent more than 60 years documenting drag racing through a camera lens, but some of his strongest memories of Bristol Dragway were never captured on film.
The veteran photographer, whose drag racing images date back to the mid-1960s, said the old Thunder Valley was as much about what happened off the racetrack as what happened on it.
“The race fans were up close and personal with the track,” Lewis said. “That came with its own kind of circumstance. There was the occasional drunk who tossed his cookies in the photographer area or the occasional daredevil who tried to climb the fence. People would throw beers and other things on the track.”
Lewis compared the atmosphere to a four-wheel version of Woodstock, complete with colorful characters in the grandstands and some of the biggest names in drag racing on the racing surface.
“I considered this as Woodstock, with a bit of the Wild West,” Lewis said. “It was like the East versus West Funny Cars at Lions Drag Strip back in ’66, ’67. You had everybody in the country. They were all handmade, one-off, questionable-design cars.
“But this really flashed me back to the Lions and Pomona back then.”
Lewis first began publishing drag racing photographs in 1967 and has since built one of the sport’s most extensive collections of historical imagery. Yet Bristol remained one of his favorite stops because of a setting unlike any other facility in drag racing.
“The only thing that comes closest to it is Bandimere Speedway because it’s got some mountains around it, but it’s not like this,” Lewis said. “The character and the whole place here, it’s just a real pleasure to come here and spend a weekend in this part of the country.”
Part of that character came from Bristol’s unusual layout. Lewis remembers arriving for the first time and being surprised he couldn’t see the end of the racetrack because of the famous dogleg and uphill shutdown area.
The noise made an even bigger impression.
“The acoustics completely lived up to its reputation,” Lewis said. “You could hear the sounds bouncing back and forth and echoing out here.”
And then there were the unexpected interruptions.
“The other thing you don’t see in the pictures is every Saturday night or Friday night when we had a power outage, a couple hours every night,” Lewis said with a laugh. “But it just added to the character of the whole experience.” – Adam Dobbs
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