Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Las Vegas Nationals outside of Las Vegas..
1 – TOP FUEL TITLE DECISION TO COME AT POMONA – The NHRA Top Fuel championship chase will be decided in two weeks at the In-N-Out Burger Finals at Pomona, Calif., with Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta duking it out. They are separated by just 107 points as the points-and-a-half format returns to the season finale.
Kalitta won a crucial but surprisingly easy semifinal clash Sunday at the MOPAR Las Vegas Nationals with his points-leader teammate Langdon, who launched first but immediately struck the tires on his Kalitta Air dragster. That sent Kalitta, in the MAC Tools dragster, into his 141st career final round and cut Langdon’s lead by 32 points.
The two-time and reigning champion Kalitta went on to defeat Leah Pruett, who moved into fourth place ahead of husband Tony Stewart in the penultimate race before she vacates her driver’s seat once again to focus on family. (Ironically, it was Kalitta who beat her in a winner-take-all showdown at Pomona’s NHRA Finals in 2023, giving her extra motivation to excel when she returned this season.)
Pruett, the Epping, N.H., winner for Tony Stewart Racing, was seeking her second victory of the year in her fourth final round and was going for her 14th overall win in 29 finals.
“We’ve had a tough time in the Countdown,” Kalitta’s 14-time-champion tuner Alan Johnson said after the victory, referring to early exits at the past two events. “We’ve got a deep hole to dig out of. But it ain’t over yet.”
“I have to hand it to my guys. They really had my car on a rail today, running 3.60s all day and .65 in the final,” Kalitta said, referring to the fact he set the low-elapsed time of the race in the final. “We definitely had her hopped up good. And you know the track is incredible out here. I guess that’s the kind of conditions that my car likes. Obviously Alan … just what can I say about him and Mac [Savage]? They’re just really incredible. It’s a great privilege to be in the spot I am, driving this thing.
“It was definitely a sigh of relief to see that win light come on against Shawn, to finally get by those guys. That was what I was hoping for, to get a shot at Shawn in the third round and hopefully beat him, and so it worked out well. I have to admit, [the championship] feels like a long shot,” he said, “but anything can happen with points and a half at Pomona. Pomona is really one of my favorite places to race.
“You never can tell what could happen at that last race. We’ve been there before,” Kalitta said. “We’re definitely still behind those guys, and Shawn’s obviously a great driver. The Kalitta Air guys are doing a hell of a job, but so are my Mac Tools guys. Alan Johnson and Mac Savage – all my guys – everybody’s real hungry. Pomona’s been good to me over the years, so we’ll see what happens.”
2 – HAGAN’S BOBBLE OPENS DOOR FOR WINNER VANDERGRIFF – Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan’s second-round loss Sunday to third-ranked J.R. Todd is making his quest for a fifth title tougher.
Along with Todd, No. 2 Jordan Vandergriff, No. 4 Austin Prock, and No. 6 Ron Capps advanced to the semifinals, cutting into Hagan’s lead with points-and-a-half possibilities in play at the season finale.
Hagan heads to Pomona with a mere 39-point advantage over John Force Racing’s Vandergriff, who defeated Ron Capps in the final round Sunday. Todd is 104 points behind Hagan, with fourth-place Austin Prock’s hopes of a third straight championship dimming at 141 points off the pace.
Ultimately, the day belonged to Vandergriff, who defeated Capps in the final round (3.873 seconds, 331.36 mph to 3.921, 335.15).
After eliminating closest competitor Todd in the semifinals and recording his fourth victory of his rookie year in the class, Vandergriff, who had been feeling slightly ill all day, whipped off his helmet and screamed, “Yesssss!” He said, “We’re going to have a chance [at the title]. I’ve wanted these opportunities for so long in my life, and I find myself in them now.
“I just had a feeling. I had a feeling that if we powered through, we’d have a chance and we knew today could be huge for us as the Cornwell Quality Tools team. Oh, and it’s been huge. It’s been huge. Thank you, John Force. Thank you for believing in me. Without you, none of this is possible. You’re making my dreams come true. I just hope I’m delivering for you, John. I’m trying so hard. I’m trying so hard, and we’re doing it,” Vandergriff said.
Capps, out of legitimate contention as he trails Hagan by 155 points in sixth place, was pragmatic about his performance.
“You get to a final round this late in the season and you’re pretty upset about losing it, but all in all, such a great day,” he said.
3 – GLENN IN PRO STOCK DRIVERS SEAT – Dallas Glenn asserted his control of the Pro Stock class with his third consecutive and fourth overall Las Vegas triumph – his sixth this season. The reigning champion used a nearly perfect reaction time of .002 seconds in the final round to defeat Matt Hartford, who improved from third place to second and needs to close an 87-point gap at Pomona if he’s to upset Glenn and earn his first series crown.
Glenn, the 28-time winner who registered the Pro Stock category’s quickest elapsed time of the meet (6.587 seconds in the quarter-mile) to win, said he and his team have been working non-stop since winning the U.S. Nationals. However, he said, “The Countdown didn’t go how we wanted when we started. But we’re rolling now.
“When we left Michigan [the first race of the Countdown to the Championship, at Martin], we were definitely scratching our heads,” Glenn said. “We came home and we basically tore the car completely down and just checked everything out and started over from scratch. We’ve been working on it, and it’s been getting better every single race.”
He said he began to ratchet up his excitement one race ago.
“When [Greg Stanfield] lost first round of Dallas, it definitely caught our attention,” Glenn said. “Like we have a really good shot to make up a lot of ground. We knew we could really put a hurting on them. I didn’t know it was 87[-point lead], so that kind of makes me happy that it’s kind of close to that 90 mark. If I can get enough points in qualifying over Hartford, then maybe we can squeeze another round against him there, and that will kind of take a lot of the pressure off for Pomona.”
4 – EVERYONE KNOWS IT’S WINDY – Because of treacherous winds that plagued racers all day Sunday, the NHRA decided to postpone the Pro Stock Motorcycle class final round featuring Vance & Hines teammates Richard Gadson and Gaige Herrera to the In-N-Out Burger Finals at Pomona, Calif. The showdown will take place Nov. 14 during the third overall qualifying session.
Strong winds wreaked havoc on Sunday’s eliminations, particularly in the late rounds. Even after a race stoppage for about 20 minutes, they continued to menace the Pro Stock cars and especially the Pro Stock Motorcycles. And one sudden gust blew the waiting championship stage dangerously close to Justin Bond’s Pro Modified entry after he stopped in the shutdown area.
5 – BOND EARNS PRO MOD TITLE IN SHOWDOWN WITH STAVRINOS – In a winner-take-all final round, Canadian Justin Bond claimed his first championship in the JBS Equipment Pro Modified Series, the series he sponsors. “Got a little of my money back,” he quipped after overtaking Mike Stavrinos to complete his first championship.
Stavrinos had a much quicker reaction time (.070 of a second to Bond’s .114) and was ahead much for much of the quarter-mile. But his engine let go near the finish line, allowing Bond to win with a 5.660-second elapsed time at 253.47-mph speed against his foe’s 5.791, 230.69.
The team goal for Bond was not to lose by not being aggressive.
“Yeah,” Bond said, “and I did everything to screw it up. I was on the torque converter for probably three seconds. I wanted to get in before he [Stavrinos] got in and broke the cardinal rule of ‘run your own race.’ And I decided as I was staging [that] I was going in. And so I’m sure it would’ve probably went a little better if I didn’t boil all the oil in the transmission. And it’s just awesome. I’m so excited, and thanks to my team.”
Bond dedicated his trophy to his late friend Shane Molinari, a fellow Pacific Northwest racer who died earlier this year from injuries in a racing accident at Sonoma, Calif. “I’m trying to keep my composure. This one’s for my buddy Shane,” he said.
6 – HAGAN SHARES OUTLOOK FOR POMONA – A disappointed Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan put his best spin on his quarterfinal exit in Las Vegas.
“We qualified well but obviously race day was a little challenging there. With how the ladder was, we really could have set ourselves up to put our foot on their throats but it just wasn’t in the cards today. Wish we could have gotten the job done for MOPAR and Dodge at their title race but the good thing is, we’ll head into the Pomona Finals with the points lead,” he said.
“Last year, heading into the season finale, we felt like we really still had a chance to get it done, and we were 90 points back so to go in with the points lead; nothing to hang our heads about. At the end of the day, we just have to keep digging. There are going to be some tight, close races. I think the biggest thing is, though, we still need to have fun. You can’t lose sight of enjoying what we’re doing, because when you do and you start getting knotted up about it, that’s when you start making mistakes. We’re blessed to just even be here and have the opportunity to race for a championship and make some history. The field is as tight as it’s ever been, and the competition is as tough as it’s ever been. We just have to keep doing the best job we can, and it’ll be all right,” he said.
7 – SPEED RECORD CHANGES HANDS – The first round of Top Fuel eliminations saw the Las Vegas track speed record rewritten twice, as Maddi Gordon lost it to Billy Torrence but earned it back. Gordon spiced up Friday qualifying by rewriting Brittany Force’s 338.85 mph with her 340.56 blast down the 1,000-foot course in the Carlyle Tools dragster.
It held up through qualifying, but Torrence came out Sunday in the first pairing of eliminations and posted a 340.65 mph against Spencer Massey to top Gordon. What’s more, Torrence set low elapsed time of the meet at 3.660 seconds in the Capco Contractors dragster.
Gordon wasted no time recapturing the speed record. In the next pairing, she ran 340.82 mph in a losing effort against Antron Brown.
Later in the opening round, Tony Stewart joined the 340-at-Las-Vegas Club with a 340.13-mph pass.
8 – ONE MORE CHANCE – By six-thousandths of a second, Leah Pruett missed everyone’s long-awaited match-up in eliminations against her husband, Tony Stewart. In the second round, she eliminated Josh Hart and waited at the top end to see if Stewart would defeat Antron Brown in his quarterfinal match. But Brown got the better of Stewart with one of three holeshot victories in that round. Pruett then knocked off Brown in the semifinals to reach her fourth final of the season.
“That was a heck of a race in the second round against Josh Hart — both running 3.68s, and we came up on the right side of it,” Pruett said.
“Going into the semifinal against Antron Brown, the weather conditions changed drastically, which ultimately caught a number of people with their pants down. Both Antron and I had trouble on the track, but I was able to recover, regain traction, and get the win,” she said. “That was a pause in our momentum, but we analyzed it. We are constantly learning and tuning on the fly. We realize we’re not just racing to race. We are constantly analyzing how we’re racing.”
And she said, “I would absolutely be lying if I didn’t say there were some emotions coming into these final races of the season that present an oxymoron. I’m living through moments that feel immediately nostalgic because I will be looking back on them and knowing I gave it my absolute all. I used all the tools in my toolbox — my mindset, my ‘don’t-give-an-f-ness,’ not sweating the small stuff, and being the powerful racer that I know I am. Mentally, I’m more than hungry. I’m starving for the satisfaction of knowing I’m giving it my all every single time.
“Putting a period on that, as we move into Pomona, our learning curve here this weekend will probably be very beneficial to the cool weather and track conditions that the Pomona Finals serve up. We will take this momentum straight into the World Finals.”
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9 – LOOKING FOR A MIRACLE – DHL Toyota Supra Funny Car driver J.R. Todd isn’t the only one, but he said he’s looking for a miracle at the In-N-Out Burger Finals in two weeks: “I had hoped to go into Pomona with a good shot at the championship, but now we’re a long shot.
“Pressure is a privilege,” he said, “and that [quarterfinal race against Matt Hagan] was a high-pressure situation. That’s a great team over there, but I have a great team behind me, as well. It’s not over yet, but going out in the semis didn’t really make up enough ground to overcome that deficit. So now we need a miracle in Pomona.”
Todd’s day was over in the semifinal against eventual winner Jordan Vandergriff. Todd’s car lost traction, and he tried to pedal the car. By the time he could get it hooked up, Vandergriff was far ahead of him.
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10 – SPORTSMAN FINALS PARTIALLY COMPLETED – High winds and falling temperatures limited Sunday’s NHRA Las Vegas Nationals sportsman eliminations to just two completed categories. Jeff Adkinson and Toby Payne managed to collect their Wally trophies before weather conditions prevented the remaining Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series divisions from finishing.
Adkinson collected his seventh career national-event victory in Stock Eliminator, while Payne made his first Super Comp final-round appearance count with his first Wally.
Adkinson edged Justin Lamb in a final decided by thousandths. Lamb had a .045-to-.048 starting-line advantage, but Adkinson’s 9.437 at 138.91 mph on a 9.42 dial-in beat Lamb’s 9.625 at 128.21 on a 9.59 dial.
Adkinson qualified 35th and survived six rounds, including a semifinal victory over Scott Burton, to earn the trophy.
Payne overcame Blu Hayball’s quicker .016 reaction time in the Super Comp final. Payne’s .036 light was enough when he ran 9.086 at 158.76 mph against the 9.05 index, beating Hayball’s 9.196 at 155.19.
At 5:23 p.m., when the Stock final was next to run, the temperature was 56 degrees. High winds and declining temperatures ultimately prevented the remaining sportsman eliminations from being completed Sunday. The remainder will be run Monday morning. – Bobby Bennett
