Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Sonoma Nationals in Sonoma, California.
1 – FATHER KNOWS BEST – Greg Stanfield could hardly hold back his emotions Sunday in Sonoma shortly after beating his son Aaron to score his first NHRA Pro Stock win since 2011.
Stanfield ran 6.552 seconds at 211.49 mph in his Janac Brothers/Rod Shop Chevrolet to capture the Wally at the Denso NHRA Nationals at Sonoma (CA) Raceway. The win not only put him back in the Pro Stock winners circle, he got there by outrunning his son Aaron for the trophy. It was the first Pro Stock final between the father-son duo, and it gave Elite Motorsports its first win of 2025 to halt KB Titan Racing’s season-long dominance.
Stanfield advanced to the final with wins over Stephen Bell, Matt Latino and reigning world champion Greg Anderson. Aaron Stanfield, the defending winner at Sonoma, reached his first final of the year and the 26th of his career by defeating Cory Reed, Cody Coughlin, and No. 1 qualifier Dallas Glenn.
Aaron Stanfield left first in the final with a .016-second reaction time, but slowed to 6.568 at 209.39. Greg Stanfield chased him down to claim his sixth career professional victory and first at Sonoma.
“We both obviously dream about this, so to be able to do it’s incredible,” Greg Stanfield said. “I’m just blessed to be able to have this opportunity to race Aaron, I can’t describe it. Who won doesn’t matter. Our deal was who left first and Aaron got me, so he actually won. The win light came on my side, but he actually won.
“It was just a fun day. How we ended up here, I haven’t figured that out yet. Our job is to do the best we can, so he was just another competitor to me, but deep down, it’s Aaron. He’s better than me, so for me to win, I’m going to have to do some extra.”
Glenn’s points lead is now 37 over Anderson through 10 Pro Stock races.
2 – PROCK ROCKETS TO THE WINNER’S CIRCLE – Austin Prock and his Cornwell Tools team aren’t perfect – except when they need to be.
The Funny Car points leader and reigning champion earned his fifth victory of the season Sunday, defeating rookie Spencer Hyde in the final at Sonoma Raceway. Prock drove to a 3.904-second pass at 333.82 mph for his first Sonoma win.
Earlier in the day, Prock also made the season’s first 340‑mph Funny Car run. He opened eliminations with a 3.833 at 340.90 mph against Cruz Pedregon, then advanced past Paul Lee and Matt Hagan to reach the final. Prock launched first against Hyde and never trailed. The win extended his points lead to 201 over Hagan, continuing a dominant run over the last year and a half.
“We struggled in qualifying and struggled in Seattle last weekend, so we had a lot of work to do,” Prock said. “We went to work, and we had four different setups that we were trying throughout the weekend. We came across something that showed a little potential.”
Hyde advanced to his second career final round after defeating Alexis DeJoria, Ron Capps, and Prock’s teammate, Jack Beckman.
3 – KALITTA GETS BACK IN THE WINNER’S CIRCLE – It’s been a long dry spell for Doug Kalitta in Sonoma – 20 years to be exact.
That all ended Sunday.
Sunday’s triumph was the 56th career win for Kalitta, who ran 3.752 seconds at 334.57 mph to defeat Antron Brown, who posted an off-pace 4.067 in the final round.
The victory marked Kalitta’s sixth career Sonoma win, the most in Top Fuel history at the facility. He had qualified No. 1 six times this season, but had struggled to put together four clean rounds on race day until Sunday.
Kalitta advanced to the final by defeating Ron August Jr. and Josh Hart. Brown, appearing in his third final of the year, reached the last round with wins against Ida Zetterstrom, Justin Ashley, and points leader Shawn Langdon.
“We’ve been trying to get a win for quite a while. Obviously, we’re qualifying well and for me, it’s definitely a confidence builder,” Kalitta said. “Back in the day, when I first started, this was the first place I won, so it definitely has a lot of cool history for me and it’s always nice to come out here.”
“Antron is never easy. I was just happy when the light came on in my lane. It’s been a while. It’s good timing for me and my team going into the stretch here.”
Langdon’s points lead shrank to 48 over Tony Stewart after 12 Top Fuel events this season. Stewart suffered his first opening-round loss of the season when he fell to Hart.
4 – THE PAYBACK – Richard Gadson has 24 hours to stew on the fact that he lost in the final round of the GETTRX All-Star Callout for Pro Stock Motorcycle competitors. And then had to endure the good-natured smack-talk from Matt Smith, his opponent in Saturday’s final round.
Gadson’s redlight was soon forgotten Sunday afternoon as he ran 6.756 seconds at 199.97 mph on his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki to defeat John Hall, who went 6.807 at 196.04. The added satisfaction of driving around Hall proved to be a great salve from Saturday’s disappointment.
The win was Gadson’s second career Pro Stock Motorcycle victory, both of which have come in the past five races. He qualified No. 1 for the first time in his career, and reached the final with wins over Brad Hawkes and Angie Smith.
Getting his nose rubbed in it Saturday served as Gadson’s race-day motivation.
“This is all about getting right back after it following that red light, and I probably couldn’t think of a better way to do it than how this day turned out,” Gadson said.
“Normally, when something like that happens, you’ve got to sit on it for a week or however long until the next race. Luckily for me, I got to go back out the next day and try it again. Today, revenge was on my mind. We all find our motivators from different things, and that’s the kind of guy I am.
“John Hall is a good friend of mine, but he beat me in Norwalk and that one kind of slipped through the cracks. To bring this home is really big.”
Hall reached the final for the second time in three races, advancing with wins over Chris Bostick, points leader Gaige Herrera, and Matt Smith.
Herrera leaves Sonoma with a 70‑point lead over Gadson.
5 – AUGUST IS HOT IN JULY – Last July, Ron August Jr. enjoyed a magical run into the semifinals, losing to Tony Stewart. Sunday’s race started as a bit of deja vu as he met up with Doug Kalitta.
This time, there was no Cinderella moment, but August certainly kept him honest. His 3.826-second elapsed time was no threat to Kalitta’s 3.703, but it was enough to catch the attention of many.
August was just pleased to have a chance.
“We had kind of a rough weekend,” August said of his qualifying struggles. “The clutch cannon was giving us fits. We found there was a leak, and there was some algae in the system. The guys busted their butt. We had some help from some very, very smart [individuals]. I’m very grateful for everybody that’s helped us. Everything finally came together. I’m having a good time, even though I lost, because there’s a silver lining to everything – and an .82 was it and a .054 light.”
6 – BECKMAN GETS NO. 500 – Two-time NHRA champion Jack Beckman captured his 500th career round win Sunday at Sonoma Raceway when he defeated Jason Rupert with a 3.924-second, 329.18 mph pass.
Beckman was called on to replace team owner and 16-time class champion John Force, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in June 2024 at Virginia Motorsports Park. Beckman hadn’t raced since 2020 when he was called back into action.
Beckman stopped racing after his sponsorship with Don Schumacher Racing ended, leaving him 37 round wins shy of 500. Twenty years later after his first round win in a nitro car, Beckman still remembers that it came while driving a dragster for Dexter Tuttle.
“Vegas 2005 against Ben Marshall,” Beckman said. “He was driving Kalitta’s Top Fuel car, StriVectin. I was in the Menards car, Dexter Tuttle, Roger and Karen Comstock, Mail Terminal Services came on as a sponsor, and I got four more round wins that year.”
Beckman returned to sportsman racing after the 2005 season and made his debut in Funny Car at Dallas in 2006. “We tried to put a Top Fuel program together with Don Schumacher for 2006, and we just weren’t able to close the deal on it,” he said.
“To frame this in perspective, I had my last chemotherapy treatment in October of 2024, so I felt like I was on extended play, and I felt like I got a chance to go fulfill my dream of driving a nitro car,” Beckman said.
“I never thought I’d drive a nitro car that would win one round, much less a championship. I got to drive for Don Schumacher, and I’m driving for John Force. For three years and nine months, all I did was fix elevators, and I thought my driving career was over. I had to be accepting and pleased with it that I got more than I ever dreamed of. Now, I’m getting another bite at the apple here.”
Beckman said he had not realized how close he was to the 500-win milestone.
“This marks a full season with John Force,” he said. “This is the last race that I didn’t run last year.”
CLICK HERE – READ THE QUALIFYING TEN
6B – THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY FROM BECKMAN – Beckman was on his way to what appeared to be round win No. 502 when a cylinder let go, and the PEAK Funny Car sashayed over the centerline to hand the victory to eventual runner-up Spencer Hyde.
7 – THAT WAS ODD – In the first-round match between Pro Stock racers Troy Coughlin Jr. and Deric Kramer, there was an odd process. Coughlin staged and then Kramer followed suit, but then things got odd. Kramer’s stage button flickered as he staged, and then the red light came on. Coughlin, apparently distracted by the whole thing, sat and then eventually let the clutch out and eased down the track.
Kramer, apparently miffed, launched and rolled about 20 feet before throwing the car in reverse and returning to the starting line.
“Deric was just trying to be as shallow as possible,” Coughlin said. “He’s doing his job in there. No blood, no foul at all. Really, my goof-up is just not making a lap. I should have just got back on and let the clutch out, bang through the gears in this jegs.com machine.”
8 – THE RUMORS FLOATING AROUND – The 2026 NHRA schedule was on the minds of many, from team owners to sponsors to racers to fans. What we can tell you we are hearing is next year’s schedule could take on the appearance of a revolving door.
If it plays out as we hear it, a couple of venues could be out and two others coming in to replace them. According to multiple sources, the NHRA’s famed Western Swing could be a thing of the past. We found it odd that during the event in Sonoma there were ticket giveaways for the Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, Ca., and the In-N-Out Finals in Pomona, Ca., and not one mention (at least that we heard) of ticket renewals.
9 – A DEVASTATED WILKERSON – For the second time this weekend, second-generation Funny Car racer Daniel Wilkerson exploded an engine and destroyed another Mustang body. Wilkerson fell behind in his first-round race against Bob Tasca III, but kept chase until the engine let go.
As Wilkerson has shown during his relatively short driving career, he’s his biggest critic.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done such a piss-poor job in my entire life driving one of these things,” Wilkerson said. “I was driving with my heart instead of my head because I seen him put a bunch of holes out. I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll catch him.’
“Thing just blew up in my face again. I’m a little beside myself, but I can’t believe how bad I let everybody down. There’s so many people that depend on me. I’m the last straw on the thing, and now twice this weekend, I just did a pitiful job.”
10 – SAY WHAT? –
“Unlike last week, that didn’t suck.” – Josh Hart crew chief Ron Douglas after his driver handed Tony Stewart his only first-round loss of the season.
“We kept dragging this thing up here until it finally went down. They gave me a ball and finally hit it over the pond.” – Crew chief Brian Husen after Shawn Langdon took out No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force. Langdon was unable to make a full run down Sonoma Raceway during qualifying.
“We suck, but the driver doesn’t. I can’t believe I ran that slow. We haven’t made a good run this weekend.” – Justin Ashley crew chief Mike Green, after the SCAG dragster stopped Clay Millican in the first round.
“That’s the second time Jack Beckman has tried to come over and see me.” – Rookie Funny Car racer Spencer Hyde when Beckman crossed the centerline in their semifinal race.
