The unwritten rule in a bar fight says you knock out the biggest one first and everyone else falls into place. Jasmine Salinas has spent enough time around drag racing to know the quiet one standing in the corner is usually the one nobody should underestimate.
Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, Salinas reminded the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series that she doesn’t need to dominate qualifying sheets to become a threat. She only needs four chances on race day.
The second-generation Top Fuel racer advanced to the first final round of her NHRA career by eliminating Josh Hart, points leader Shawn Langdon and Leah Pruett before finally running into reigning world champion Doug Kalitta. Kalitta collected his seventh Sonoma title, but Salinas left Northern California with something equally valuable — proof her part-time Scrappers Racing program belongs among the sport’s elite.
To those paying attention, the breakthrough wasn’t a surprise.
Salinas qualified seventh with a 3.751-second run at 331.77 mph and earned no qualifying bonus points. It looked like another respectable weekend for a part-time team until eliminations began and the Valley Services-backed dragster suddenly became one of the most dangerous cars in the field.
This has become a pattern for Salinas and crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Adem Cave.
“We’ve been working really hard to try to get a consistent car to show up on Sunday,” Salinas said. “We’ve known that we’ve had a good car. Running the other races this year in the IHRA series has really helped us. We just haven’t been able to come show it on the NHRA side.”
“This past weekend, we finally got to do that.”
Their strategy differs from many full-time operations because they don’t have the luxury of unlimited runs.
“What’s been challenging is a lot of teams have close to over a hundred runs more than we do,” Salinas explained. “We’ve had to be very thoughtful and can’t really push it sometimes as much as we’d like to in qualifying compared to the other teams.
“So a lot of times in qualifying, it definitely doesn’t look like we might really have the best car out there, but come race day, I think, with the four qualifiers that we normally aren’t used to compared to IHRA, that really gives us a little bit more time to get more data.”
Her patience paid off Sunday morning as Salinas opened eliminations by chasing down Josh Hart after Hart left first. She followed with one of the closest races of the season, defeating championship leader Shawn Langdon by one-thousandth of a second despite shutting off early.
Pruett was quicker in their semifinal match but Salinas was better when it counted. She used a holeshot to win in 3.772 seconds at 334.98 mph, over Pruett’s quicker 3.751. The margin of victory measured just .002 seconds.
In the final round, Salinas left on Kalitta and was ahead at half-track before dropping a cylinder. Kalitta drove around her with a 3.731-second pass at 339.96 mph while Salinas ran a 3.815 at 319.14 for the runner-up.
The win light belonged to Kalitta, but much of the conversation afterward centered on the driver from nearby San Jose.
“All year, as a team, we’ve been saying that if we can get past the first round, we know we can win the race,” Salinas said. “We got pretty close today, but we’ve been knowing what this car is capable of.
“This weekend definitely showed everybody that we’ve got the right car, the right driver, the right team. When it’s your day, it’s your day, and today was a really great day, but we’re gonna get our day soon.”
The reason Salinas doesn’t generate more headlines before race day is intentional, and the answer can be found in her personality.
“I’ve always been in the mindset that try to learn as much as we can through qualifying, but be prepared for anything on race day,” Salinas said. “We definitely didn’t do anything. I think we qualified at seventh at Sonoma, but it was definitely nothing where it was catching everybody’s attention.
“But I think I’m also that kind of person where I like to go a little under the radar and then come up out of nowhere. And we definitely did that in Sonoma.”
Salinas’ approach extends well beyond the race car.
“I’ll show you versus talk about it kind of thing,” Salinas said. “I don’t really talk about it. I’d rather show you what I’m capable of doing.
“For the most part, I definitely sit back, whether that’s in racing or in my personal life and just watch and observe and stay in my own lane. But when I do have something to say, it’s definitely something that I think is really important and I’m proud to say.”
Sonoma carried additional meaning because it was a homecoming.
Friends, former coworkers and longtime supporters packed the grandstands while members of the Salinas family surrounded the team throughout the weekend. Her nephew Kyrie joined her on the winner’s stage after the semifinal victory, giving the celebration an even deeper family connection.
“It was such a special race weekend to have so many friends and family there,” Salinas said. “It was really cool to hear how many people were sharing that they were from the same hometown as my dad or went to high school with my dad.
“Being able to race then in that same space where people can connect with you on that level, it was really special.”
Sonoma also gave Salinas something to place directly in front of potential sponsors. Operating a competitive Top Fuel program on a limited schedule has become increasingly difficult, yet Sonoma demonstrated exactly what the organization can accomplish when given the opportunity.
“I think this weekend really helped us get us one step closer to really showing other businesses that coming on board with us… we have a proven program,” Salinas said. “We have something that’s really great here. We have something that’s really strong and competitive.
“If there’s the right partners that are bold enough and ready to come over and partner up with us, there’s going to be a lot more of what we did on Sunday in Sonoma.”
Despite reaching her first NHRA final round, Salinas left Sonoma believing the job remained unfinished. That mindset traces directly to her father, Mike Salinas, and the work ethic passed down from her grandfather, Mike Salinas Sr.
“I still look at it as we are losers,” Salinas admitted. “We didn’t take home the trophy.
“Even though going to my first final in Top Fuel is such a huge thing and I’m so proud of our team and I know we’re getting close, I’m still looking at it as like I lost and I want more.”
Doug Kalitta carried home the Wally. Jasmine Salinas carried home something that might matter even more.
Every Top Fuel team in the pits saw exactly what a part-time operation from Scrappers Racing can do when it gets four chances on Sunday.
The next time Jasmine Salinas quietly qualifies seventh, don’t mistake silence for surrender.
“I know that we are going to win someday very soon here, is because we all weren’t just settling for, ‘Oh, that was great. That’s awesome. It’s close enough,’ because close enough isn’t good enough for us,” Salinas declared.
