NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

GREATNESS HAS NO EXPIRATION DATE

Greg Anderson often jokes about the difficulty he has keeping up with the younger generation of Pro Stock drivers, but who is laughing now? Anderson won his sixth world title on Sunday in Pomona and did so in convincing fashion with a winner-take-all final round against his teammate, Dallas Glenn. 

Anderson’s reaction times on race day were solid if not spectacular, and in the final, he left within .013-second of Glenn and then let his HendrickCars.com Camaro do the rest. 

To be sure, Pro Stock is not for the faint of heart, but Anderson still appears to have a few miles left, and it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising to see him become a seven- or eight-time champion before he’s done. 

THE PROCK ROCKET IS A REAL BLAST

At the end of a long season, it’s usually time to ponder the run of the year, and in this case, one might not have to look too far back to find it. On Sunday, Prock dropped a bomb in Pomona when he recorded NHRA’s first 340-mph speed with a 341.68 blast in his win against Jason Rupert. 

Unlike the previous day’s 3.80 elapsed time, no one saw this coming, including Prock and his Auto Club team. 

Yes, we know Bob Tasca III ran a similar (actually identical) 341 speed earlier this season at a non-NHRA-affiliated event in Bradenton, Fla., but this is the first time it has been done in front of an NHRA national event crowd, and it will be recognized as an official NHRA national record. 

WINNER-TAKE-ALL FINALS ROCK

The finals are exciting because they are winner-takes-all. For the second straight year, an NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series championship was decided via a winner-take-all final round, and we’d like nothing more than for that to become an annual tradition. 

Last season, Doug Kalitta got his long-awaited first Top Fuel title when he defeated Leah Pruett, and this time, it was Greg Anderson’s turn as he topped Dallas Glenn in what was arguably the most pressure-packed run of his career. 

The drama extended to the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, where Val Torres pulled off a similar feat when he beat Kris Whitfield in the Super Gas final. It wasn’t exactly winner-take-all, but Torres had to win the race in order to secure the title, and he did just that with a 9.919 to force Whitfield into a 9.887 breakout. Had Torres lost the final, the championship would have gone to Keith Mayers, whom he had defeated in the semifinals.

When one thinks about it, there are nearly 70 events held each season that include the Super Gas class and nearly 700 competitors that run at least one event, so for the title to come down to the final race of the season is indeed remarkable. 

PINCH-ME MOMENTS FOR PINCH HITTER

Jack Beckman had an extremely tall order to fill when he was asked to replace John Force in the Peak Camaro Funny Car after Force’s season-ending crash in Virginia, and one could say that it was an almost impossible task.

Not only was he jumping into one of the best cars in the class but also trying to live up to the GOAT’s legacy both on the track and in the pits, but “Fast Jack” was up to the task.

In any other season – i.e., one in which Austin Prock wasn’t shredding the record books – Beckman probably would have earned Force a 17th world championship, which would have been a fairy-tale story, but this one still had a pretty good ending, winning for the third straight time at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.

“It doesn't get any higher than this,” Beckman said. “It's just magical at your home track. This season has just been pinch-me moment after pinch-me moment.”

Beckman had won his last two trips to Pomona. He won the 2019 Finals over Robert Hight and then won the 2020 Winternationals, beating the man for whom he now is driving, Force, in the final round during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. After that, sponsorship dried up, and Beckman was on the sidelines, back to fixing elevators until the call came in July.

The win was also magical for the history-loving Beckman as the win, his 35th in Funny Car, matches the number of Funny Car wins by class legend Don “the Snake” Prudhomme.

“I’m not Don Prudhomme,” he said humbly. “He was 8-feet tall when I was 7 years old, and I still think he's 8-feet tall. It's still a pinch-me moment that he even knows my name. Thirty-five [is] a number, and it puts us on the same row as him, but I ain't the same column as him. I'm just not it, and I'm totally OK with that, and maybe my career is not over. I was at 35 national event wins four months ago. I'm at 37 now [two in Super Comp], and 35 in Funny Car is pretty freaking cool. Whatever that number is, it’s pretty cool.”

SPORTSMAN RACERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO

Sometimes as we watch them do their thing race after race, season after season, it’s easy to forget that the talented racers of NHRA’s Sportsman ranks are way more than amazing double-oh-cutting, dead-on-running robots behind the wheel. Their ability to drive both ends of the track continue to amaze us, and their stories touch us.

Justin Jerome won in Super Stock just two months after losing his wife, Lindsay, to lung cancer, and hoisted the Wally in her honor, his voice cracking as he thanked her.

Stock winner John McLaughlin was wearing the T-shirt of his mentor, Lynn Engels, all race day and scored the win in honor of Engels, who passed in June.

Top Alcohol Funny Car winner Shane Westerfield made it back to the winner’s circle in memory of his late car owner, Rick Jackson, scoring his first win in more than two years and collecting a trophy that will go to Jackson’s wife, Kathy.

Congratulations to the winners in every class, in every series, and at every race in this 2024 season.