Five days ago, Jasmine Salinas left Sonoma Raceway with the strongest showing of her NHRA career. On Friday at Pacific Raceways, she made sure no one would mistake that breakthrough for a one-weekend story.
Joining her atop the leaderboard were Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car) and Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock).
Salinas continued the hottest stretch of her Top Fuel career by racing to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position Friday at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals, delivering a 3.794-second pass at 328.38 mph in her Valley Services dragster. If the run survives Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions, it will earn the second-generation driver the first No. 1 qualifier of her NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series career.
The performance also changed the conversation surrounding the part-time NHRA team. A week after reaching her first national-event final by eliminating championship contenders Shawn Langdon and Leah Pruett before finishing runner-up to Doug Kalitta, Salinas arrived in Seattle carrying confidence in addition to momentum.
“This is something that I knew we’ve been capable of doing,” Salinas said. “We’ve been seeing the numbers and we’ve been knowing our capabilities. We just haven’t had the shot to really go and show it to everybody else. Sonoma was a really good eye-opener, I think for a lot of other people, and, honestly, for myself, too. It’s something where I’ve been telling myself I know I’m going to get better and there’s a lot of things I’m working on. But to do it kind of so consistently that weekend, that’s awesome.
“Top Fuel is by far the hardest class that I’ve ever raced, and there are a lot of people whose job it is to wake up and win races. That was a huge thing and mind shift for me, and that was a huge part of why I decided to leave California five years ago and move to Indiana because I knew I was competing against people who wake up, live, breathe, eat, sleep drag racing, and that has become my life the past five years. It’s starting to kind of show or pay off a bit.”
Antron Brown closed Friday in the second position with a 3.798, 329.67, while reigning world champion Doug Kalitta remained close behind at 3.802, 331.69. With cooler conditions expected Saturday, none of the leading teams believes the top spot is secure.
If Salinas supplied Friday’s biggest story in Top Fuel, Cruz Pedregon reminded the Funny Car field why experience still matters. The two-time NHRA champion posted a 3.926-second pass at 325.61 mph in his Snap-on Tools Dodge Hellcat SRT to grab the provisional No. 1 qualifying position.
The provisional No. 1 couldn’t have come at a better time for the two-time NHRA champion. Pedregon has spent much of the 2026 season searching for consistency, but Friday’s performance suggested his team may finally be turning a corner entering the second half of the schedule.
“That was a great run,” Pedregon said. “The track temperature was 130 degrees, so I want to look at our records and see what low E.T. for a Funny Car is on a 130-degree track, because that usually is a great neutralizer as far as the grip level is concerned, so, yeah, hats off to the guys. We had the right setup.
“Honestly, I wish it was going to stay like this tomorrow. There are more cars that can go fast when the conditions are fast and less cars that can thread the needle and hit the clutch just right when the track’s like this. We think it’ll take about [3.]85 or .86 to get back up in this chair here tomorrow at the end of the day.”
Alexis DeJoria finished the opening day second with a 3.955 pass at 326.56, while reigning Funny Car champion Austin Prock was third after running 3.960, 318.84.
Pro Stock points leader Dallas Glenn wasted little time proving Sonoma was an exception instead of the beginning of a trend. After suffering his first opening-round loss of the season a week ago, Glenn answered with the quickest run in both qualifying sessions, including a leading 6.527-second pass at 210.34 mph in his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro.
The defending Seattle winner has enjoyed success at Pacific Raceways. One year ago, Glenn rewrote portions of the track record book while claiming the event victory, and Friday positioned him to add another chapter to that success.
“Leaving Sonoma, I knew we had some momentum going and were heading in the right direction, so I was actually kind of eager to quickly get out of Sonoma and get up here, and see if we can continue building on the progress that we have made. So to come out here and put two good laps down, it felt really good. I’m not saying that Sonoma is completely out of the mind because I’m using it as motivation.
“The only thing that’s not good about running good today and then having the air be better tomorrow is every run I’m going to be fending off the entire field trying to steal the No. 1 spot. If the air was going to be a lot worse tomorrow, then I might have this No. 1 qualifier locked up, but I can tell you for sure, it’s far from locked down.”
Rookie Cody Anderson continued his impressive season by qualifying second at 6.536, 210.18, while Sonoma winner Greg Stanfield ended Friday in the third position with a 6.539, 207.05.
Qualifying continues at noon PDT Saturday.
Friday’s results after the first two of four rounds of qualifying for the 37th annual Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, 12th of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. Qualifying will continue Saturday for Sunday’s final eliminations.
Top Fuel — 1. Jasmine Salinas, 3.794 seconds, 328.38 mph; 2. Antron Brown, 3.798, 329.67; 3. Doug Kalitta, 3.802, 331.69; 4. Leah Pruett, 3.819, 323.12; 5. Tony Stewart, 3.822, 327.66; 6. Shawn Langdon, 3.823, 320.97; 7. Shawn Reed, 3.837, 325.14; 8. Maddi Gordon, 3.839, 318.99; 9. Tony Schumacher, 3.866, 320.58; 10. Justin Ashley, 3.882, 312.06; 11. Will Smith, 3.893, 309.27; 12. Josh Hart, 3.939, 290.51; 13. Clay Millican, 4.069, 239.48; 14. Billy Torrence, 4.292, 198.47.
Funny Car — 1. Cruz Pedregon, Dodge Charger, 3.926, 325.61; 2. Alexis DeJoria, Chevy Camaro, 3.955, 326.56; 3. Austin Prock, Ford Mustang, 3.960, 319.98; 4. Jack Beckman, Camaro, 3.975, 322.73; 5. Chad Green, Mustang, 3.977, 322.19; 6. Matt Hagan, Charger, 3.988, 322.04; 7. Paul Lee, Charger, 3.996, 318.62; 8. Blake Alexander, Charger, 3.997, 325.22; 9. J.R. Todd, Toyota GR Supra, 4.000, 323.89; 10. Daniel Wilkerson, Mustang, 4.001, 313.37; 11. Dave Richards, Mustang, 4.083, 320.28; 12. Spencer Hyde, Mustang, 4.098, 271.08; 13. Jeff Arend, Charger, 4.108, 309.13; 14. Ron Capps, GR Supra, 4.206, 233.76; 15. Jordan Vandergriff, Camaro, 4.495, 193.77; 16. Tim Gibbons, Charger, 5.283, 141.06.
Pro Stock — 1. Dallas Glenn, Chevy Camaro, 6.527, 210.34; 2. Cody Anderson, Camaro, 6.536, 210.18; 3. Greg Stanfield, Camaro, 6.539, 209.56; 4. Matt Latino, Camaro, 6.548, 210.08; 5. Greg Anderson, Camaro, 6.551, 209.62; 6. Matt Hartford, Camaro, 6.555, 209.62; 7. Aaron Stanfield, Camaro, 6.562, 208.94; 8. Stephen Bell, Camaro, 6.566, 209.07; 9. Chris Vang, Camaro, 6.571, 208.17; 10. Eric Latino, Camaro, 6.572, 209.85; 11. Jeg Coughlin, Camaro, 6.573, 209.92; 12. Mason McGaha, Camaro, 6.582, 209.95; 13. Troy Coughlin Jr., Camaro, 6.582, 209.30; 14. Joey Grose, Camaro, 6.599, 207.53; 15. Shane Tucker, Camaro, 6.630, 209.30; 16. Kenny Delco, Camaro, 7.480, 149.58.Â
Not Qualified: 17. Erica Enders, 8.149, 121.10.
