NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

How close did Jimmy Hidalgo Jr. come to winning both the Super Stock and Stock world championships this year?  

One stinkin’ point. Just one. 

In a bizarre turn of events, Hidalgo went from being almost a lock to win the Stock title to second place. He scored 711 points in his Pontiac Stocker but finished second to Joe Sorensen’s 712. It’s the first time in NHRA history that a driver has crested the 700-point plateau and not delivered a title. 

While he was making unwanted history in Stock, the news was much more favorable in Super Stock, where Hidalgo pulled off a memorable comeback to win the title. Ranked No. 4 going into the final events of the season, Hidalgo went to the final round of the Division 7 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series race in Las Vegas to seal the deal. 

At the end of the day, Hidalgo is now a two-time NHRA Lucas Oil Series world champion, and that’s all that matters. 

“I would have been devastated if I had lost both championships, but it still hurts to miss in Stock because I had the opportunity to do it and came so close,” Hidalgo said. “The round that cost me the championship is going to be one of the most unforgettable losses of my career, but winning [in Super Stock] does take the sting out of it. 

“Getting 700 points and not winning, that’s just numbers, really,” Hidalgo said. “Every year, you have championships that go all the way to the end, and this happened to be one of them. I was sitting in my Super Stock car in the water box in Las Vegas when Joe won ahead of me in Stock. That was the semifinals, and he had a heads-up race in the final that he was almost sure to win. That was maybe the toughest moment for me.” 

Hidalgo’s season in Super Stock also started on an ominous note with a round-two loss at his home track, No Problem Raceway Park in Belle Rose, La. He followed with a quarterfinal at the “Baby Gators” in Gainesville and a shocking round-one loss at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. At that point, Hidalgo likely wasn’t making plans to attend any postseason awards banquets, but he has also been racing long enough to know that fortunes can turn quickly. 

Hidalgo did indeed find his footing in the spring with a pair of wins in Lucas Oil Series events in Reynolds, Ga., and Ennis, Texas. At the same time, he was rolling in Stock with a season that would ultimately include four wins in six final rounds.  

Understandably, Hidalgo made the decision to focus primarily on Stock, rather than Super Stock.  

“I still don’t know exactly, but we had some electrical problems with my car, so we took time off in the summer and rewired it and changed batteries. We went from one end to the other to fix the problem. My first race back was the divisional in Tulsa [Okla.], and I doubled up there, so I felt a lot better at that point.”  

After a summer break, Hidalgo picked up his championship pursuit in the fall and didn’t skip a beat with a win at the Division 4 doubleheader in Tulsa, followed by an uplifting national event win at the NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis. By that point in the season, he was firmly entrenched in the points battle in two classes, but he believed he had a better shot of winning the Stock eliminator title.  

“Early in the year, I don’t look too closely at points, but by midseason, I did feel the opportunity was there,” Hidalgo said. “I just needed to make headway, and St. Louis was the key. I hoped I could win Stock there as well, and we’d be talking about two championships, but I was happy with the way that race worked out.” 

With two championships to his credit in the last three years and a host of top-10 finishes, Hidalgo has firmly established himself as one of NHRA’s best class racers, and he competes primarily in the South Central Division, which generally features some of the best racers in the country. 

“After a while, you’re going to find yourself in a few high-stress situations, and I don’t think it could get any more stressful than it did this year,” Hidalgo said. “You just have to learn not to get distracted and not let what happens with one car affect the other. That was a big thing this year.”  

Hidalgo’s biggest supporters include his parents, Jimmy and Denise, his fiancée, Hannah, and children Brayden and Josie, Phil and George Acosta, Michael Bryant, Stan and Sheila Holt and Jarrod Grainier of Lupe Tortilla, Kip Rhoton, Don Pellicino, Sid Bonnecarrere, Engines Inc., Goodyear, Pro Trans Bullet Racing Cams, Fast Fuel Injection, Fastshocks and VP Fuels, and Accelerated Graphics. 

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