NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Sixteen Competition Eliminator racers will battle for their share of a $75,000 purse starting Thursday at the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas. For the second time this season, the top 16 racers in the RoofTec Competition Eliminator Bonus Fund will battle it out in a special shootout during the RoofTec Las Vegas Cash Clash. 

Additionally, the $75,000 base purse could increase by 50 percent or more depending on a Calcutta auction, allowing racers or fans to bet on their favorite driver, much like golfing or bowling events.

Regardless, the winner will receive at least $50,000.

Rodger Brogdon, the driving force behind the revitalization of Competition Eliminator through his RoofTec brand, has seen the class grow beyond what he could have envisioned. 

"It's as tough as racing as you will ever see," Brogdon said. "Back when I started racing in Comp, there would be about 40 cars in Division 4. The class is undoubtedly expensive to run, and it fell off, but it's grown back. What you have here are 16 of the toughest racers in Comp Eliminator."

Brogdon ended up seeded third heading into the RoofTec Las Vegas Cash Clash, which is a tough accomplishment in the series considering that to win an event, every champion, whether national or divisional, had to turn on five win lights.

Up until this season, no one driver had won more than one RoofTec Competition Eliminator Bonus event in a season. That is until Don Thomas won the rescheduled Pine Valley NHRA Division 4 event at the Texas Motorplex.  In May, he won one of the double-header races, also at the Texas Motorplex. 

Thomas enters the Las Vegas Cash Clash as the top seed and leads the overall RoofTec Competition Eliminator Bonus Fund points headed into the final event of the ten-race series. If he can fend off Rick Brown, the driver with the best mathematical chance to catch him, Thomas will earn the $250,000 championship payday. 

"I couldn't have dreamed it, honestly, at the beginning of the year," said Thomas, who won last year's inaugural RoofTec Comp Cash Clash at the 2023 NHRA U.S. Nationals. "I was hoping just to be able to drive out here with a chance. So to be in first place, I don't know, it comes with, I guess, a certain amount of pressure, but it feels real good. I can't believe it, honestly."

Rick Brown, whose B/Truck Automatic was the top seed heading into the RoofTec Comp Cash Clash in Indianapolis, is the No. 2 seed entering Thursday's event.

Brown has won multiple events in the series and believes the driver who gets to hold up the Cold Hard Art-designed slot machine trophy will be the one who races to win and doesn't race - not to lose. 

"That's exactly what I did at Dallas," Brown admitted. "I had it tuned slower, and I lost it myself. That was my mistake, but this one won't be that way. I'm already geared to take whatever it takes to get it done and take it to the finish line if necessary. Hopefully, we don't have to do that early, but everybody's going to be thinking about whatever they have to do. 

"I'm the only one in B truck in the country, B/TA. There's a good chance after this, we're going to have to make a change after this race with the way the weather is looking."

Racers in Competition Eliminator will receive two qualifying runs on Thursday. Then, those in the RoofTec Vegas Comp Cash Clash will race the first two rounds. The final two rounds will be contested on Friday. 

The first round pairings will be determined by chip draw. 

At the first RoofTec Comp Cash Clash, Cali Neff defeated Kayla Mozeris, making drag racing by staging the first all-female final round in Competition Eliminator as well as a specialty shootout race.