Photos by Ron Lewis, Burghardt Photography, NHRA
Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip.
1 – BECKMAN CEMENTS HIS PLACE IN JOHN FORCE RACING LORE – At six a.m. Monday, Jack Beckman will be back at his job in the Los Angeles area as an elevator repairman. That’s when he will discover how many people recognize him from his weekend gig as a drag racer, and Sunday he delivered Funny Car win No. 300 for John Force Racing.
“It’s about the team, the PEAK guys. This is about John Force. This is Funny Car win No. 300 for Team John Force Racing. Nine of us got 143, the boss man got 157. This is No. 300. This is a big deal. That is a milestone in drag racing,” Beckman said.
The PEAK Chevy Camaro driver beat first-time finalist Daniel Wilkerson to record his 36th Funny Car victory in 72 finals.
After banking a cool $10,000 Saturday for winning the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus race, Beckman earned his second straight victory at Pomona; he captured the Finals in November.
Beckman has improved in each of the season’s three races. He exited in the second round at the season-opening Gatornationals, reached the semifinals at Phoenix last week, and won Sunday to inch closer to his 500th win in eliminations. The 2012 Funny Car champion is at 488.
2 – FEATS OF CLAY – Clay Millican, the six-time champion and winningest IHRA driver, blew the engine of his Mighty Fire Breaker/Parts Plus dragster at the finish line – “The Mighty Fire Breaker was on fire,” he said. Even so, he earned his eighth NHRA Wally.
After jumping up and down and clapping his hands, Millican said crew chief Jim Oberhofer told him before that final-round run, “‘I’ve got it loaded up. Two things are going to happen: We’re going to win or we’re going to blow it up, and if we lose, we’ll be a footnote in history as the ones to let Tony Stewart win his first race.’ Thank goodness we ain’t that footnote in history.
“Tony Stewart is going to win one of these things very soon. He wins everything. He’s won in everything he’s ever driven,” Millican said. “But look who won today. I knew it blowed up, but I kept my foot in it anyway.”
Millican’s feat completed a successful weekend for Rick Ware Racing (RWR), which swept the honors at a Georgia motorcycle event Saturday.
Stewart advanced to the sixth final round of his drag-racing career in the Rinnai America Corporation dragster.
3 – DÉJÀ VU IN PRO STOCK FINAL – It’s starting to become routine, a Greg Anderson-Dallas Glenn Pro Stock final. The pair of KB Titan Racing drivers have faced each other in four straight showdowns, with Anderson winning three of the four. This time, the results put Anderson in the NHRA history book.
Anderson reset the track’s Pro Stock elapsed-time record for the second time Sunday en route to the Lucas Oil Winternationals event title and career victory No. 108. That broke a tie with sportsman great Dan Fletcher and moved Anderson to second only to John Force in NHRA national-event wins. Force’s perhaps untouchable record stands at 157.
The HendrickCars.com/Summit Racing Equipment Camaro owner-driver, a two-time winner in three events this year, said he was humbled by the company he keeps.
“Just to be mentioned with John Force is amazing. I’ll never catch that record. I’m proud to be second to that man,” Anderson said.
This was Anderson’s 186th final-round appearance. This run with Glenn marks the first time the same two racers have squared off in four straight final rounds since 1980, when Bob Glidden and Lee Shepard dominated. The last time Anderson was not in a final round was Sept. 29, 2024, at St. Louis, when Glenn and Aaron Stanfield took the spotlight.
Anderson has won the Winternationals seven times as part of his 16-victory history here.
Last Sunday, Anderson and Glenn admittedly put on an awful display in the Phoenix final. Despite red-lighting, Anderson won because Glenn left the starting line before the Christmas Tree was activated. Even though Anderson’s car died before he got past the 300-foot mark, the reigning class champion was credited with his 107th victory.
“I think we made up for last week and I apologize for last week. That wasn’t much of a final, but that one (today) was,” Anderson said. “That was pretty cool right there. We both did the best we possibly could do. It was just a great drag race. Thank the Lord, KB Titan has just absolutely come out of the gates smoking this year, and I hope it can last. I know, obviously, we’re not making friends out here, but that’s the name of the game. That’s what you come out to try to do. So far, so good. We’re looking good so far.”
4– STEWART TAKES RESULT IN STRIDE – After falling to Clay Millican in the Top Fuel final, Tony Stewart said, “The day I get upset with losing is the day I retire from racing. But the team is upset because they want to win. These TSR crew guys have done an awesome job and have been very consistent – especially this weekend, having three runs on Friday and four today. These guys busted their butts. There were no mistakes.
“For 20 minutes, we are going to be frustrated,” he said, “but, after 20 minutes, we have to pick our heads up. Same goes for me. My wife (Leah Pruett, a two-time Winternationals winner, in 2017 and ’21) is going to get on my case after 20 minutes, too.
“The last two races, the race car is making solid, competitive runs, and this weekend was better. My lights were better, and the car’s performance was better. We just didn’t get the last little bit. We took down three big guys in a row, all former Top Fuel champions (Antron Brown, Doug Kalitta, and Shawn Langdon). To be the best, you have to beat the best. We just have to stay the course,” Stewart said.
“I’m very proud of the whole team, and it just wasn’t our time yet. Everyone comes here to win, and one driver leaves as the winner, and we raced that guy in the final,” he said. “We are improving, and things are going in the right direction. It is taking a little longer than I had hoped. We didn’t have lane choice all day, and we were consistent in the right lane. So, there was no reason to change, and we had good data from that lane. Track didn’t bite us in the end. We just got a little too aggressive in the final. We have good data heading to Las Vegas now, too.”
5 – SETTING THE RECORD – FOR THE FIRST TIME – Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson set the quarter-mile track elapsed-time record at 6.477 seconds in defeating Mason McGaha in the first round of eliminations. That broke Erica Enders’ 11-year-old record (6.480) that she established at the Finals in Nov. 2014. Surprisingly, inactive driver Drew Skillman’s 213.84 track speed record from November 2015 remains intact.
6 – SON BEATS DAD IN FIRST COMPETITIVE PASS – Matt Latino, in his first professional appearance, trumped father Eric Latino in the opening round of Pro Stock action. And he did it on a holeshot, parlaying a better reaction time (.018 to his dad’s .058) into a victory with a slower elapsed time (6.535 seconds to 6.508).
“I knew the only way to win this race with his faster car and his more experienced driving was on the tree,” Matt said before losing in the second round to Deric Kramer.
Matt Latino debuted a week ago at Phoenix but failed to qualify.
7 – OH, THAT JIM – Just when everyone was giving Funny Car team owner Jim Head warm-and-fuzzy kudos for exemplary sportsmanship, Head gave them a huge laugh. His driver, class rookie Spencer Hyde, was sitting ready at the starting line, waiting for opponent Cruz Pedregon to show up. Pedregon, who at first wasn’t strapped into his car yet, was in the staging lanes as his crew scrambled to tighten the blower belt and deal with a last-minute short-block change. Head said the Snap-on team could take their time: “We’ll wait for as long as it takes.” He said he would not start his car until Pedregon was lined up next to him – a reminder that a drag race requires two cars. Deflecting praise for his kind gesture, Head then said, “If someone left without me, I’d knock him out.”
8 – FUNNY CAR STARTS WITH THREE UPSETS – Three upsets marked the first round of Funny Car eliminations. Despite lurching out of the groove and moving harrowingly close to the wall, Blake Alexander knocked off No. 1 qualifier and reigning NHRA champion Austin Prock.
Ron Capps, the No. 3 qualifier, was the next favored driver to be surprised. He lost traction and clicked off his engine early, as No. 14 Spencer Hyde went on to win the first competitive pass of his Funny Car career. But Hyde made the feat even more memorable, crossing the center line after the 1,000-foot finish line. He wasn’t disqualified because the move happened past the finish line, but was dinged 10 points because it occurred before 1,320 feet.
Seventh starter J.R. Todd also went down, ousted by No. 10 Daniel Wilkerson. Todd moved first when the green flashed, but lost traction and lifted – and had to watch Wilkerson coast to the win after his engine went silent toward the top end.
9 – PROCK LOOKING TO REGAIN FORM – Austin Prock, the reigning Funny Car champion who was so dominant in 2024 in his rookie season in that class, has not had a great start to this year. His performance at the Winternationals was disappointing to him, but he was candid – and optimistic.
“Let’s be honest, (the car) hasn’t been phenomenal. We have been working on it all weekend. We thought we were heading in the right direction. We changed some more things this morning, and it just didn’t do the job,” Prock said.
After Blake Alexander beat him with an off-pace 4.236-second elapsed time, Prock said, “Frustrated in myself. I should be able to run 4.20 pedaling it like that. I missed that first pedal, and that cost us the run. You win and lose as a team, but it’s frustrating. … We’ll regroup, we’ll go to the next one and try and get the job done for John Force.”
10 – SPORTSMAN WINNERS – Jerron Settles, of Waldorf, Maryland, normally races in the Super Comp class, but Sunday he won the Super Gas trophy in his first time ever driving in the class. He was a double-winner of sorts, earning Best Appearing Car honors. “It’s a fast car and a beautiful car,” he said. Joining Settles on the winners podium were: John Winslow, who won his first Wally statue in his first Super Stock final round; Jeff Adkinson (Stock); Bill Webber (Super Stock); Aaron Steinkey (Top Sportsman); Brian Hough (Top Alcohol Funny Car), and Anthony Troyer (Top Alcohol Dragster).
