Home is where your heart is; for two of the NHRA’s top nitro racers, their hearts were in Seattle. Steve Torrence went back-to-back as NHRA Northwest Nationals champion, and for Funny Car rookie Austin Prock, he picked up another Seattle win.

Joining them in the Mission Foods Series winner’s circle were Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) and Chase Van Sant (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

Funny Car points leader Austin Prock powered to his fourth win of the season for John Force Racing on Sunday at Pacific Raceways, defeating first-time finalist Paul Lee in the final round of the 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals.

For a driver who used to win Top Fuel races at will, the trip to Pacific Raceways was a somewhat painful reminder to the multi-time champion of how long it had been since he won a race. Even though he finished second in the 2023 championship chase, Torrence hadn’t won a national event since last year's Northwest Nationals. 

Torrence, a four-time world champion, beat Shawn Langdon in the final round despite running an off-pace 3.963 at 279.79 in his Capco Contractors dragster in the finals against Shawn Langdon. Sunday's victory marked the 55th career win for Torrence.

Torrence ran the table on the field, qualifying No. 1 and then rolling through Ron Smith and defending world champion Doug Kalitta to reach the final round. 

“I think we left pretty close to each other and I could hear him right there with me, and then I heard him start to go away. But you’re trying to hold it straight and you’re waiting on that light on the wall to come on and it took me forever to finally see it. We’ve been trying to win one of these for a long time,” Three-time Seattle winner Torrence said.

“Our car definitely has shown a lot of promise to go out there and throw down when it needs to go fast. We’ve had a difficult time managing the power, so I think this weekend was exemplary of what we can do and what we need to do.”

Langdon came into Sunday's eliminations with longshot odds after qualifying No. 15.He scored wins against Justin Ashley, Josh Hart and Clay Millican. Langdon is second in points while Kalitta stayed comfortably in the points lead.

Prock made history at Pacific Raceways by becoming only the fourth driver to win in both nitro classes. By stopping first-time nitro finalist Paul Lee in the final round, he joined an elite club of drivers Del Worsham, Ron Capps, and Tommy Johnson Jr. 

Prock went 3.875 seconds at 334.57 mph to get past Lee, who smoked the tires early in the race. Prock picked up his eighth career win on the strength of four consecutive 3.8-second passes. He defeated Cruz Pedregon and J.R. Todd earlier in the day.

Prock remains the solo John Force Racing Funny Car in competition while team owner/teammate John Force recuperates from injuries sustained in an accident on June 23, 2024, outside of Richmond, Va.

“This whole Cornwell Tools team is just doing such a great job and given me an opportunity to go out and compete for wins every weekend, and we’ve been going a lot of rounds lately. I just hope we can keep it up throughout the rest of the year,” Prock said.

“I didn’t drive all that hot this weekend. I was consistent but consistently slow on the starting line, so they did an outstanding job and they really carried the team. They’ve been doing a great job of that this year, and it sure has been fun.”

In advancing to his first career final round, Lee got past Jeff Diehl, defending world champion Matt Hagan and Blake Alexander.

A 68-time professional winner, Pro Stock's Jeg Coughlin Jr., picked up his third win of 2024, stopping local favorite Dallas Glenn. He posted a run of 6.536 seconds at 209.95 to hand Elite Motorsports its fifth consecutive victory.

Coughlin beat Jerry Tucker, Eric Latino, and Chris McGaha to reach the final round. 

“It feels fantastic. It’s just kind of a corny statement, but the team, as a whole, has obviously done very well,” Coughlin said. “We’ve won all but three of the events this year, which is a real testament to our stamina and our abilities. 

“We’ve been struggling with some consistency and we really feel like we’ve turned the corner in multiple ways in the last two or three weeks, not because we’ve won the events, but because the cars have become more efficient, they’re accelerating better, and printing better time slips. So, you know, a real tip of the hat to our whole crew.”

Glenn remained the point leader and advanced to the finals at his home track for the sixth time this season and the 23rd time in his career.

Van Sant made history and also ended a historic run in Pro Stock Motorcycle on Sunday, picking up his first career victory with a run of 6.720 at 201.31 on his Trick Tools Suzuki over defending world champion Gaige Herrera in the final round. It snapped Herrera’s record-breaking run of 12 straight victories and 46 consecutive round wins, a string that dated back to last September.

Van Sant, though, was impressive throughout eliminations, taking down Brandon Litten, John Hall and Matt Smith. Van Sant left first on Herrera and led wire-to-wire in a rematch of the final round in Chicago this year. This time, though, Van Sant, the 2023 NHRA Rookie of the Year, got the best of Herrera, denying him any chance of an undefeated season and picking up a victory he won’t soon forget. Van Sant also moved to fourth in points with the win.

“I got down to the top end and saw my win light on, and I was just shaking my head,” Van Sant said. “We were down in the shutdown, and Gaige yelled something at me, and he pointed, and I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know. Like is this real?’ I’ve gone up against Gaige five times and lost all five times, so to cut a light and get away early and outrun him just speaks volumes to how hard this team has been working kind of silently in the midst of all the drama in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

“Gaige and I have known each other for a while and every time we raced, it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed it. I was super happy for him to break all of those records, but I told him, “If I can end your streak, I will be the happiest person in the world.’”

Herrera maintained a dominant points lead, advancing to his seventh final this season and 19th in his career after defeating Eiji Kawakami and Jianna Evaristo.

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action July 26-28 with the 36th annual Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

In the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Maddi Gordon became the 100th different female winner in NHRA history, picking up her first career national event victory in Top Alcohol Funny Car. Gordon is in her rookie season in the Top Alcohol Funny Car ranks.

“This is amazing. It doesn’t get any better than this,” Gordon said. “This is a dream. I’m a brand new driver, and this is amazing. I couldn’t be more thankful, and it just feels great.”