NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

When Austin Prock, Alexis DeJoria, and Gaige Herrera finished Friday’s under-the-lights qualifying session in Sonoma as the leaders in Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock Motorcycle, respectively, they had every reason to feel confident that those rounds would stand up through both of Saturday’s daytime qualifying sessions and that almost proved to be the case as Prock and Herrera will lead the way into Sunday’s final eliminations while DeJoria yielded the top spot to Bob Tasca III.

There were some solid runs on Saturday, but only a few were able to challenge the incoming leaders as the fields were set for the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals, the final event of the Western Swing that includes stops in Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma.

Surprisingly, Prock had only qualified in the No. 1 spot once in his career at the 2022 Dallas event. He doubled that number in Sonoma after driving his Montana Brands/Rocky Mountain Twist dragster to a 3.704, 331.36 on Friday. Prock struggled to get down the track on Saturday, but he’ll have the benefit of a round one bye on Sunday morning which gives his Chris Cunningham-led team an additional run to sort their combination.

“This is only my second [low qualifier]. They are hard to come by,” said Prock. “This is good for the team and it’s the first time that [crew chiefs] Chris Cunningham and Joe Barlam have done this as a tandem.”

“We ran pretty well today even though the car dropped a cylinder early in the run on Q4,” Prock said. “We’ll go back, do our homework and be ready for first round tomorrow,” said Prock. “I’d expect that we’ll see similar conditions as today. The right lane has been tricky. My guys had me running a chicane down the track but it worked and it was fun.  We get a bye run but whether there is someone in the other lane or not, we need to make a good run. I’ll take that freebie in the first round and then hopefully earn the other three ones. This has been my best season so far and it keeps getting better and better.”

After Prock, the top of the field includes Steve Torrence, Antron Brown, Josh Hart, Shawn Langdon, and Clay Millican, the Denver winner. Torrence, fresh off of his first 2023 win last week in Seattle, is also primed for a long day on Sunday as he’s in line for a quarterfinal bye run if he can get past No. 13 qualifier Ron August in round one. Torrence also made Saturday’s best run with a 3.765 in his Capco Contractors dragster en route to a win in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge.

DeJoria made two solid runs on Friday to lead the Funny Car field including a 3.942 and that wasn’t bettered until late in the day when Bob Tasca III ran a 3.938 to steal the top spot. Tasca’s weekend did not begin on a positive note when he was unable to make the first night run after the bracket that holds his starter broke. His team, led by Aaron Brooks and Todd Okuhara, rallied to make the best run of the weekend in what were arguably not the most favorable conditions.  

Like Prock, Tasca will also benefit from a bye run due to the odd number of entries in Sonoma.

“We struggled a bit out of the gate especially after Seattle where we lost a clutch controller,” said Tasca. “In 13 years, I’ve never cracked a clutch controller but that’s what happened last week. We came here, smoked the tires in Q1 and then never got a chance to race in Q2 which might have been a blessing because of the conditions. We smoked the tires again today on Q3 and Aaron and Todd [Brooks and Ohuhara, tuners] pulled it back for Q4. They said they pulled it back to far that they crippled it but that run was so smooth that I didn’t think it ran 3.93. Honestly, if we had the data, I think we could have run 3.900.

“No one wants to go into Sunday after four bad runs in a row so that run gave us a lot of confidence,” said Tasca. “It’s just good to have a run like that in your pocket when you need it.”

The only Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to challenge Gaige Herrera’s 6.728 from Friday was Herrera, who made the quickest pass of the day on Saturday with a 6.732 on his Vance & Hines Mission Foods Suzuki Hayabusa. Herrera has been nearly unstoppable in all facets of the sport this season, but he’s been particularly effective in qualifying, where he has been the No. 1 seed in seven of eight events and has often put considerable distance between himself and the rest of the field.

“I thought it might be close today. I knew it would be hotter than yesterday, but I also thought Matt [Smith] might be a threat. Honestly, I was surprised to see him go out [in the Callout event]. I haven’t thought much about it but to win tomorrow and before the first [Pro Stock Motorcycle racer] to sweep the swing would be awesome. I’ve raced here a bunch, maybe 20 times when I was running the [Division 7 Sportsman Motorcycle series] and I like this place.”

Herrera was just a thousandth of a second quicker than reigning champ Matt Smith, but that was enough to seal the top spot, and a round one match with Scott Bottorff.  Matt Smith will be paired with Lance Bonham while No. 3 qualifier Eddie Krawiec has drawn John Hall. Perhaps the most intriguing matchup of the round will pit No. 7 qualifier Jianna Evaristo, who has been consistent all weekend, with Steve Johnson.