Competition Plus’ random water-cooler topics from the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Minnesota’s Brainerd International Raceway
1 – COMING ON STRONG – Doug Kalitta, winless in the first 11 races of the season, has scored back-to-back Top Fuel triumphs and is threatening Kalitta Motorsports teammate and points leader Shawn Langdon for the regular-season championship. With $150,000 at stake in the chase for that first-time distinction, Kalitta is lurking just six points behind No. 2 Tony Stewart and only 51 behind Langdon.
The 2023 series champion earned the 100th Top Fuel victory for Kalitta Motorsports and the 57th of his career. He passed Steve Torrence on the category’s all-time victories list, jumping to fourth place (behind Tony Schumacher, Antron Brown, and Larry Dixon). It also made him the No. 12-ranked winner in NHRA history.
“This is the time of year to get hot,” Kalitta’s crew chief, Alan Johnson said after his driver defeated Clay Millican in the final round.
After winning at Sonoma and taking Brainerd to capture back-to-back victories, Kalitta said, “I’ve just got to do my job. I’ve kind of let the guys down on occasion. Really proud of this effort we’ve got going on.”
2 – PROCK ROCKET STILL SOARING – Austin Prock said he was amped up for the Funny Car final round. And after winning for the sixth time in eight finals rounds through the first 13 events, the John Force Racing standout still was wound tight as though he still had a few more rounds to go Sunday.
Talking almost as fast as boss John Force after he climbed from his car – and onto his car – Prock said, “Jordan Vandergriff told me I was tied for the best reaction time when he was at my house this week, and I ain’t havin’ that. So I had to come out and play today.” Prock noted his crew “gave me a great race car underneath me, and I didn’t need those lights to win today. This Prock Rocket was flyin’.
“This is a big win,” Prock said. “Some of my guys are from Minnesota, and [car chief] Nate Hildahl has never won here. And this [Wally trophy] is going home with him.” Hildahl is from Northfield, Minn.
Nothing seems to be slowing down the dominant reigning champion, points leader, and Sunday’s No. 1 starter. Prock beat J.R. Todd, spoiling a Kalitta Motorsports double victory Sunday. Prock, who will turn 30 years old Thursday, heads to the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis with a 29-7 race-day record on the season. However, crew chief dad Jimmy Prock cautioned, “A lot of these cars are way closer to us than they were last year. We’ve got our work cut out for us in the Countdown.”
3 – BRITTANY FORCE POSTS ANOTHER 340 – Brittany Force recorded her 10th 340-plus-mph speed in the past 10 races as she knocked off points leader Shawn Langdon in the second round. Her 3.679, 341.25 pass broke Mike Salinas’ 2023 mark of 338.26 mph. However, she lost to Clay Millican in their semifinal matchup.
4 – BATTLE FOR $150K – The Top Fuel points battle between Shawn Langdon and Tony Stewart will come to a head at Indianapolis, thanks to a couple of surprising Round 2 results. By the end of the first round, which both won, Langdon’s advantage over Stewart was 45 points. And Doug Kalitta, who earned a bye run into the semifinal round with his victory over Terry Totten, also passed first-round drop-out Justin Ashley to move into third place. Langdon and Stewart both lost in the quarterfinals, opening the door for Kalitta to pull within six points of Stewart and 51 of Langdon as the race for the bonus comes to a close at the U.S. Nationals in two weeks. The six-race Countdown to the Championship begins Sept. 11-14 at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania.
5 – RECORD RUN – Greg Anderson shattered the 10-year-old track elapsed-time record by two-hundredths of a second with a 6.521 first-round victory over Chris Vang. It eclipsed Erica Enders’ 6.541 clocking in August 2015.
6 – YEP, SAME SHOW IN PRO STOCK – Little suspense about the regular-season championship remains in the Pro Stock class. The crown is a tug o’ war between KB Titan Racing teammates Greg Anderson and Dallas Glenn. They once again put on a show Sunday – for the sixth time this year in the final round, with Duluth native Anderson winning for his fourth time at Brainerd. The victory was Anderson’s 111th – best among active drivers and second only to inactive John Force’s 157. It was the 10th time in 11 Pro Stock appearances on the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series calendar that the final round included at least one of those Chevy Camaro drivers. Just nine points separate Anderson and second-place Glenn heading into Indianapolis. The regular-season crown will go to whichever driver lasts farthest in Monday eliminations Sept. 1.
7 – JV TEAM WINS – In the opening round against debuting Kyle Satenstein, Jordan Vandergriff won his first Top Fuel elimination round since he defeated Austin Prock in Round 1 at the November 2019 Finals at Pomona, California. Vandergriff fell out in the second round.
“It was an unbelievable weekend,” said Vandergriff, an NHRA on FOX broadcast team member and former Bachelorette TV show contestant. “It started off with a little excitement, and the excitement kept building because we started making clean runs and started setting my career-best speeds. I’ve never been that fast before, and it felt amazing.
“It’s crazy to me that I was holding a microphone a few weeks ago and setting career-best speeds a few weeks later. I’m just super grateful to Shawn for the opportunity. He couldn’t have made this any better for me. It really means a lot to me that he picked me, and gave me the chance to strap back into one of these Top Fuel cars.”
Reed, whose Countdown effort teetered on the brink at the No. 10 position in the standings, said, “Jordan did a great job, and it was good to get him back in the seat. He needs to be back in there. It’s hard for me to get used to watching my car go down the track, but that’s what the future’s eventually going to be for me. I have another few years in me, and then that’s what I want to do. I’d like to be a team owner and a car owner and stay in this business of NHRA drag racing and watch the younger people come up and drive these cars. That’s what the sport needs.”
8 – LUCAS OIL SERIES WINNERS – Sportsman winners Sunday were Anthony Troyer (Top Alcohol Dragster), Sean Bellemeur (Top Alcohol Funny Car), John DeFlorian (Mountain Motor Pro Stock), Larry “Spiderman” McBride (Top Fuel Motorcycle), Matt Harris (Comp Eliminator), Michael Chitty (Top Sportsman), Jason Kenny (Super Gas), Mark Grame (Top Dragster), Ryan Hutar (Stock), Donnie Durenberger (Super Street), Brian Johnson (Super Comp), and Edwin Wirbel (Snowmobile).
9 – REED’S FEARS EASED – Shawn Reed, with some help this weekend from fill-in Jordan Vandergriff, remains in 10th place in the Top Fuel class. Reed, still healing from a serious hand injury during Seattle qualifying, had been concerned about part-timer Ida Zetterström’s presence with a last-minute entry. Zetterström, who was 11th in the chase for the last Countdown spot, went out in the opening round, losing to another part-timer, Billy Torrence, while Vandergriff went a round farther.
In Funny Car, Austin Prock, Jack Beckman, and Matt Hagan lead the standings heading into the U.S. Nationals in two weeks. Behind them, in order, are Ron Capps, Paul Lee, J.R. Todd, Dan Wilkerson, Spencer Hyde, Chad Green, and Alexis DeJoria. Prock is a commanding 242 points ahead of Beckman. The U.S. Nationals pays 150 points to win.
10 – RAIN DIDN’T DO TOO MUCH DAMAGE – Sunday’s eliminations began an hour early because rainy weather was expected to roll in. But the action paused for showers after the first round of the Mission Foods Series was completed, along with the second round of Top Alcohol Funny Car and part of the Top Alcohol Dragster line-up. The program wasn’t interrupted after that.
