The checks cash the same whether they come on Saturday or Sunday, but racers have never treated Mission #2Fast2Tasty rounds like side shows.
Not at Route 66 Raceway.
Saturday looked like bonus money on paper, but inside the pits there were drivers carrying more than points into those races. Erica Enders had spent the opening stretch of this season looking for the rhythm that built six championships. Alexis DeJoria had spent months performing like a breakthrough was parked just around the corner.
By the end of the day, both left with something they badly needed.
Shawn Langdon and Gaige Herrera also collected Mission victories, but Enders and DeJoria were the more prominent stories because both suddenly looked a lot more dangerous heading into Sunday’s eliminations.
Enders looked like Enders again.
The six-time Pro Stock champion defeated teammate Greg Stanfield with a 6.563-second pass at 208.75 mph to earn her first Mission #2Fast2Tasty victory of the season. It came one day after she secured her first No. 1 qualifying position in nearly two years.
For most drivers, that would simply be another solid weekend.
For Enders, who has spent years making “normal” mean final rounds and trophies, the first part of this season had looked unfamiliar. Now she heads into Sunday chasing career victory No. 50 at the same track where she earned her first Pro Stock win in 2012.
“It’s super exciting. I love racing here at Joliet,” Enders said. “I started racing Super Comp dragsters here back when I was in high school, so I’ve been coming here an awful long time.
“So, it would be fitting if this was where the tide started to turn and it has so far this weekend, securing the No. 1 spot and then winning the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty deal,” Enders said. “It’s a great start to the weekend. [Sunday is] the day that matters and I really, really want one of those diamond Wallys.”
DeJoria opened the season with a runner-up finish and has spent much of the year showing flashes of a Funny Car capable of making deep runs in eliminations. The speed has been there often enough that people around the pits had started waiting for the results to catch up.
Her final against John Force Racing teammate Jordan Vandergriff barely had time to become a race.
Vandergriff developed clutch problems and shut the car off before staging, while DeJoria shook the tires and clicked her car off almost immediately, coasting to an 8.301-second run at 82.43 mph.
Nobody saves that time slip, but everybody takes that win light.
“I’m finally back in a winner’s circle, and that’s good even though it came at the cost of my teammate, and it was a lackluster final,” DeJoria said. “We got the ‘W’ and that’s all that matters. The win went to a JFR car so that’s great.”
DeJoria said she never stopped believing the win was coming.
“I just had a feeling we were going to win it,” DeJoria said. “I just knew in my heart. It was one of those things. That’s actually the first time we didn’t get down the track. It shook really hard, but we made it three out of four runs.”
Langdon earned his first Mission victory of the season by defeating Justin Ashley with a 3.770-second run at 336.57 mph after spending most of the weekend trying to calm down a race car that looked like it wanted to outrun itself.
Gaige Herrera collected his second Mission victory of the season in Pro Stock Motorcycle, using a .024-second reaction time to edge Angie Smith in the final.
Herrera knew exactly what he was up against.
“It was a good final there,” Herrera said. “I knew I had to try to get any advantage I could on the starting line.”
Then Herrera said what many in the pit area were already thinking about Sunday.
“She’s got the bike to beat this weekend and my hat’s off to her,” Herrera said. “She’s been doing well this year so far and so has Matt and all of team MSR. It’s been making the class much more fun and interesting. It’s going to be a good day of racing tomorrow, for sure.”
