Points standings (top 10) following the 11th annual NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway. The race is the seventh of 20 in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series:

Final round-by-round results from the 11th annual NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway. The race is the seventh of 20 in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series:

Chip King was uninjured following a hard crash during the third Pro Modified qualifying session Saturday at the New England Nationals.

John Force powered to the win in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday at New England Dragway, claiming the bonus event win in front of a sellout crowd as part of this weekend’s 11th annual NHRA New England Nationals..

Steve Torrence (Top Fuel) and Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) also won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge at the seventh of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.

Force went 4.048-seconds at 320.81 mph in his 11,000-horsepower PEAK Chevrolet Camaro SS to defeat Blake Alexander’s 3.994 at 320.51 on a holeshot in the final round, giving the 16-time world champion his first specialty event win of the season. It’s another impressive moment in what has been a standout season for Force, who is currently third in points. He’ll get a chance for an event win on Sunday and a double-up weekend, looking to continue his strong 2024 campaign.

After an uncharacteristic first-round loss in Chicago, NHRA Pro Stock star Erica Enders wasted no time in finding her groove at the next national event: Epping, N.H.

Enders clocked a 6.488-second elapsed time at 211.79 mph in Q2 Friday, and the ET held through Saturday giving her the No. 1 qualifying position at the New England Nationals.

Enders, a six-time world champion (2014-15, 2019-20 and 2022-23) collected her 37th career No. 1 qualifier and third this season to go along with those from Gainesville and Chicago.

Doug Kalitta finally added an elusive NHRA Top Fuel championship to his stellar resume last season.

This weekend, he’s trying to check another career accomplishment off his bucket list.

New England Dragway in Epping, N.H., the site of this weekend’s New England Nationals, is the lone NHRA national event track that Doug Kalitta has yet to win.

Kalitta took a step in the right direction to reach that goal, qualifying in the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot with a 3.702-second elapsed time at 332.84 mph Friday in Q2.

The torrid pace Austin Prock has been on in NHRA’s nitro Funny Car ranks in qualifying shows no sign of slowing down.

Prock, who pilots the AAA/Cornwell Tools Camaro for John Force Racing, clocked a 3.837-second elapsed time at 336.23 mph in Q2 Friday night to capture the provisional No. 1 spot at the New England Nationals in Epping, N.H.

If Prock’s time holds through Saturday’s final two qualify sessions it would be his fifth No. 1 qualifier of the season in seven races.

“It's pretty surreal. I'm just holding onto the wheel. It's all the kudos to this AAA team this weekend and Cornwell team in the past,” Prock said. “They're just doing such a great job, and my dad (Jimmy) and brother (Thomas) just making really smart decisions and the team is putting the car together the same way every time. It's really impressive watching this team work. It really is cinematic. Everyone's in the right spot at the right time and they just get the job done.”

From the onset of Funny Car qualifying, John Force staked its claim at the top of the Funny Car leaderboard. First, the boss, John Force, and then the freshman flopper phenom Austin Prock, made things right with his crew after apologizing for a mistake on the first run. 

Prock was joined as a provisional leader by defending NHRA champions Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Erica Enders (Pro Stock).

It’s too bad Prock has already used up his Rookie of the Year status on a lesser Top Fuel season than he’s experiencing in the first season of driving a Funny Car. 

Prock went to the top in the second session with a 3.837 elapsed time at 336.23 miles per hour. 

There are better-suited race cars that Jason Ochoa could have chosen than a 1972 Vega to run Competition Eliminator. But for the second-generation drag racer from  Amarillo, Texas, there was no other ride he wanted to drive.

Ochoa races the Vega in NHRA Competition Eliminator's D/Super Modified division with a small block and a five-speed. But this is no average version of Chevrolet's gas-friend compact from the 1970s.

"We built this car back in 2015 because my dad owned this car since I was about eight years old," Ochoa said. "When my dad passed in 2015, we decided to send it down to EasTexas Race Cars and have it converted to a Comp car."

Next weekend, during the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., drag racing pioneer Shirley Muldowney will be inducted into The Legends of Thunder Valley at Bristol Dragway. Track officials will place her name high above the track, on the grandstand suite fascia, alongside the other members of the esteemed group of 20 male members.

As she has done so many times in her career in other instances, Muldowney is the first female inducted into The Legends of Thunder Valley. Muldowney, 83, is the 21st inductee.

 “I’m overly excited,” Muldowney said. “I’ve always looked up at those names and wondered, ‘Hey, why isn’t my name up there?”