Photos by Dave Kommel, Burghardt Photography, NHRA
Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The In-N-Out NHRA Finals in Pomona, Ca.
1 – NEW CHAPTER FOR AB – When Antron Brown clinched the 2024 NHRA Top Fuel championship, he didn’t walk to the podium – he ran. The previous championships he had earned, the check was written to team owner Don Schumacher. Brown’s name will be beside the Pay to the Order Of lingo for the first time.
Brown finished off his fourth championship season by taking out the defending champion Doug Kalitta in the final round for his 80th career victory.
Brown was much like his assistant crew chief, Mark Oswald, in that he remained cool, calm, and collected on a day that demanded pure focus. He needed it on a day when he beat points leader Justin Ashley, Shawn Langdon, and Brittany Force to reach the final round.
“If you saw me all day, I brought the Iceman back, and I was just cool, calm, steady,” Brown said.
And Brown being Brown, he brought a unique twist to being steady-handed. He admitted it was Oswald who gave him the inside tip to keeping cool.
“Mark goes, ‘AB, you know they called me the Iceman? You know why? You got to stay chill.’
“I said, ‘Well, you know what’s more dangerous than you being an Iceman? I said, ‘I’m Black Ice, baby. You don’t see me coming.’”
But Oswald had a little something most didn’t see coming. He announced 2024 would be his last season.
“He’s been a huge impact,” Brown said. “And to go out like this for Mark, he’s definitely a follower of God. Always kept me accountable, kept me straight. But what a man. He has such a career, a true champion, and he’s what made us all champions.”
2 – THE JACK YOU KNOW – If Sunday was to be his final ride in a nitro car, Jack Beckman couldn’t have written a better exit: He stopped the seemingly unstoppable Austin Prock in the final round.
Beckman secured second place in the championship point standings in addition to his 35th national-event victory.
While Prock was snagging headlines right and left, Beckman, who qualified No. 3, quietly worked his way past Terry Haddock, Blake Alexander, and Ron Capps. Beckman was racing injured when he twisted his ankle jumping off the team’s Chevrolet Suburban.
“Lot of ice and Ibuprofen,” Beckman said of his throttle foot. “You have a job to do. These are the guys who make it happen, Peak, Chevrolet, Cornwell Tools. These sets of hands, these minds, and John (Force) for having the trust in me. He gave me a pep talk before the final … pretty sure we didn’t need a pep talk against Austin Prock and company.
“It’s awesome, we are back.”
And for Beckman, he can only hope he is.
“If you’re asking about 2025, John … the answer is, ‘Yes!’”
3 – JUST THE WAY THEY DREW IT UP – The rich get richer.
Greg Anderson, NHRA Pro Stock’s winningest driver, picked up his sixth world championship and his 106th career national-event title, beating teammate Dallas Glenn in the final round.
The Pro Stock duel was winner-take-all. Despite a season that favored Elite Motorsports, the KB Titan team delivered a decisive champion Sunday in Pomona.
“The last three, four months, I have not been able to close the deal,” Anderson admitted. “I have not been able to win a race. I’ve had a great, great car and something crazy has happened every weekend and it’s like a slug to the gut. You got to take it, you got to go home, but you got to pick yourself up and go back to work and figure it out for the next race. We kept doing it, we kept doing it, we kept doing it, kept dreaming that maybe one day the gods will shine on me and things won’t happen wrong. And today was that day.”
Anderson admits he’s probably his toughest critic. One has to wonder why all of the self-doubt for one of the most successful drag racers ever.
“Do you watch these guys?” Anderson responded. “They’re relentless. It’s effortless for them. They cut double-O and teen lights like it’s nothing to it. I have to dig down and try and find a way, and I usually can’t, but I have to come up with an out-of-body experience basically to do that. It’s crazy.”
WANT TO SEE “THE TEN” FROM QUALIFYING? – CLICK HERE
4 – THINGS ARE A CHANGIN’ – Gaige Herrera won the war, but Matt Smith clearly won the battle under the lights of In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip.
Herrera left on Smith by .001, but Smith made up the difference and pulled ahead by the 60-foot mark. He never looked back en route to a 6.705, 202.12 victory. It’s the first time Smith has beaten Herrera in a final round.
While Smith spent much of the year trying to get an angle on the seemingly unbeatable Hererra, he pointed out that next year, with the introduction of a new official fuel for 2025, the field will be shuffled.
“It’s all going to be different,” Smith said. “Hopefully [NHRA] gets the parity a little closer for us. This new fuel coming in next year is going to change everything all around. We have a lot of testing to do … lot of dyno work.”
Smith’s victory placed him second in the final championship points.
5 – JUST WHEN YOU’VE SEEN IT ALL – The In-N-Out NHRA Finals was put on hold as a single-engine airplane crashed on the drag strip’s property. The incident happened at 11:10 a.m. PST during the first round of Top Fuel eliminations.
The single-engine airplane was on approach to Brackett Field when it crashed short of the runway. K-Cal CBS in Los Angeles reported that firefighters revealed three injuries in the incident. NHRA confirmed that the three injured were transported with non-life-threatening injuries.
“The airplane struck several vehicles on the ground, but no bystanders were struck or injured,” a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
The NHRA had the cars in the staging lanes return to the pits and stated there was no timetable for the race to resume. Members of the NHRA’s Safety Safari raced to the scene and assisted in the rescue operation. The race did resume at 1 p.m.
NHRA Funny Car driver Ron Capps confirmed his motorhome was one of those in the area where the plane crashed. The area is normally filled with fans, and Capps was the only racer.
“Strange day and that just got stranger,” Capps said. “That camping area, it’s small and it’s a group of people. I’ve been in there and I’m the only professional racer in there with a bunch of fans, which I love because I’m a fan, right?
“With the people that looked after my mom and my kids and everybody that was standing right there just moments before it, thankfully everybody in the plane was okay and they were hurt, but nobody got killed and it’s amazing. I was getting my firesuit on, and I got a bunch of phone calls and that’s a scary feeling. So my kid ran in and got our dog out with fuel everywhere, and there’s some campers that ran and helped get people out of there before things, and it could have been really bad.”
6 – WHAT A DEBUT – It’s highly likely that Gary Pritchett could have never imagined a Top Fuel debut like he managed to pull off in Pomona. Driving a car honoring his late godmother Carol “Bunny” Burkett, Pritchett not only qualified for a stout Top Fuel field, but also won his first round of competition.
The first round was not just a regular opening round of competition as Pritchett lined up against his former employer, Steve Torrence. He not only left the starting line first in his Scrappers Racing-prepared dragster, he also ran a 3.715, his quickest run of the weekend.
“You’re literally living every second” of the experience, Pritchett said. “I mean, to do it against those guys, that’s family over there. I got CAPCO on my firesuit. But none of this would be possible without the guys on the side of my car: Spell Paving, J&A Services, Knapp Brothers, Cecil County Dragway. All those guys, I really got to thank, and like I said before, I was a crew guy once before and I’m out here with a chance to drive and living the dream.”
Torrence, who reiterated he’s not retiring, was happy for Pritchett.
“For Gary Pritchett to come out here and race and have been part of my team for so long and we won championships together, to see him doing well I’m proud of that,” Torrence said. “He’s a force to be contended with, and I’m proud to see that and just happy for him.”
WANT TO SEE “THE TEN” FROM QUALIFYING? – CLICK HERE
7 – WELL, HE IS DRIVING A ROCKET – Austin Prock wasn’t the first to exceed 340 miles per hour in a Funny Car; Bob Tasca III did that on February 9, 2024, during the PRO Superstar Shootout. However, he was the first to do it at an NHRA event.
In winning the first round over Jason Rupert, Prock uncorked a 341.68 at 3.823. He also had the quickest run of the year in qualifying, a 3.804.
The 340-mph run shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but father/tuner Jimmy Prock wasn’t expecting that one.
“I didn’t expect that.” Jimmy Prock said. “But maybe it ran faster at half-track than the last run and it helped to do it. I don’t know. Got to take a look at it.”
The younger Prock took in the moment at the end of the run to reflect on what he and his team had done.
“To run 380 last night in this Chevrolet Camaro and then back it up with 341, it just is a testament in how great this team is,” Prock said. “I mean, right when you think we’re done, we just keep one-upping everyone and it’s just such a fun race car to drive. I’m so proud of my family, so proud of this team. What a great opportunity. But, yeah, I’m getting pretty comfortable in this Chevrolet.”
8 – THE RELUCTANT BUT GRACIOUS WINNERS – The first-round battle between point leader Justin Ashley and contender Antron Brown wasn’t just a championship battle, but one between friends who have been connected for decades.
Brown’s crew chief Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald were Ashley’s father’s tuners during Mike’s time in fuel Funny Car. When Mike Ashley bought the Matco Tools team from Dave Powers, he gave Antron Brown his start as a Top Fuel driver.
Mike sold the assets of the team to Don Schumacher, who kept the team intact. When the second-generation Ashley began drag racing, he did so first in Top Dragster and later Top Alcohol Dragster for Randy Meyer.
Ashley started making moves towards Top Fuel, and it was Brown and Corradi, with Schumacher’s blessing, who provided an opportunity to get his license. Once Ashley teamed with Dustin Dave Motorsports, they formed an alliance with Brown.
That’s why when Brown stopped Ashley and the microphone was thrust in Corradi’s face, he sounded almost apologetic.
“It kills me because I love that little kid over there that we just beat,” Corradi said. “And I love that whole team. I love his father because he got me where I’m at. And in my mind, I would’ve been happy either way, but, obviously, I’m happy for my team to win that, because they were a teammate of ours in the past, and we’ve always wanted to be one and two in the points.
“That was the toughest run I think I’ve ever raced because of who I was racing and what I was racing for.”
Brown added, “To race Justin first round, I mean, to shape it up this way, I was cheering for the kid to get the championship. I ain’t going to lie to you.”
Ashley was gracious in his defeat, congratulating Brown on his run for a championship.
“The sport’s very humbling. But, look, that’s life,” Ashley said. “We’re going to bounce back. We knew nothing was going to be handed to us. If we wanted to win the championship, we were going to have to take it. Kudos to Antron and his team, man. They just did a better job than we did that time.
“I don’t want this one race to be a reflection on the season as a whole because I think our whole SCAG Power Equipment Toyota team worked tirelessly just to be in this position. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
9 – TONY STEWART GETS A SON AND TOP TEN FINISH – Motorsports icon turned Top Fuel racer Tony Stewart flew back to Arizona on Saturday to welcome the birth of his son with wife Leah Pruett. Stewart stopped Billy Torrence in the first round to finish in the Top Fuel top 10 during his rookie season.
“I think I’ve ran on adrenaline all day with two hours of sleep,” Stewart said. “I haven’t done near the amount of work my wife has done all year, especially the last 10 months. I’m so proud of her and love her to death. I will go down in history until the day I die saying she is a stronger woman than I will ever be as a man. I firmly believe that. I’m proud to be her partner in life, and I’m very proud to bring this little boy into the world.
“The short three hours I got to spend with him overnight was amazing. You couldn’t put a price tag on it. He did so much to make me laugh and pull on my heartstrings. I didn’t win a race or a championship today, but I feel like I put today in the category of wins and championships because we had a good day at the track. In the big picture, I had a great day as a human being and I’m very excited about that. We have a lot to look forward to in the offseason.”
10 – ABOUT BUDDY HULL’S DISQUALIFICATION – Buddy Hull drove his way into the Funny Car field Saturday night with a 4.076 elapsed time at 305.29 miles per hour. It was his best run of the weekend, and in one fell swoop, it disappeared. The NHRA’s Technical Department removed the run during a random post-run inspection due to improper header angle measurements.
An NHRA official informed CompetitionPlus.com that the header angle was outside of the acceptable dimensions, although specifics on the extent of the discrepancy were not provided.
Hull, who will not face disciplinary action, raised concerns regarding the inspection process. He believes the variables taken into account during the measurement were applied unfairly.
“The surface where the angles on my headers were measured was uneven,” Hull stated. He criticized the measuring device used by the NHRA, calling it flimsy and incapable of providing dependable readings.
“An unreliable measurement means absolutely nothing,” Hull said in a press conference Sunday morning. He emphasized that he understands the importance of using stable and accurate equipment for precise measurements as a contractor.
He proposed serializing headers, measuring them off the race car in a jig, and recertifying them if they change throughout the season. “Everyone’s race car sits differently, and all act differently going down the racetrack,” Hull noted.
While Hull acknowledges the NHRA’s intent to maintain a level playing field, he stressed the need for improved measurement protocols. He highlighted the significant impact of weight differences on header angles during inspections, emphasizing, “There’s no consistency in the policies and the rules in measuring these cars.”
