NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2025. The new season is just about two months away, kicking off with the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, March 6-9, and there are a whole lot of interesting storylines to look forward to.

Here’s 25 things we’re thinking about and questions we have ahead of the season launch.

TOP FUEL

How much will Antron Brown miss the Mark?

The 2025 season will be the first in 16 years that Antron Brown and crew chief Brian Corradi will be without Mark Oswald on the team because the veteran nitro racer retired from the road after A.B.’s fourth Top Fuel world championship last season.

Oswald was a big part of Brown’s 62 Top Fuel wins, 36 No. 1 qualifying positions, and four NHRA world championships, balancing Corradi’s go-for-the-throat mentality. “Mark will be missed, that’s for sure,” Brown said. “Mark truly was the Robin to Brian Corradi’s Batman, the Yin to his Yang. They balanced each other so well.”

Brown promoted car chief Brad Mason to be Corradi’s new right-hand man, and Mason had been an active part of the collaboration, so we’ll have to see if or how much Oswald’s absence is obvious.

Kalitta will be in the hunt again

After finally breaking his bridesmaid’s championship role with his first Top Fuel championship in 2023, Doug Kalitta was right back in the title fight again in 2024 and finished second for the seventh time in his career, and as late as the semifinals of the last race, he was still in the title fight.

That’s quite a turnaround from 2021 and 2022 — where he finished a disappointing 10th in back-to-back seasons in which he didn’t win a single event and reached just two final rounds over those 42 events — and it’s clear that he’s going to be in the fight every year now thanks in large part to Alan Johnson.

Langdon and what coulda been

Leaving the starting line in the semifinals of the penultimate race of the season in Las Vegas, the world seemed to be Shawn Langdon’s oyster. In the hunt for his second Top Fuel championship, he was long gone against teammate Doug Kalitta, who blew the rear end, and looking for a win light that would have moved him past Antron Brown and into second place in the standings and a chance in the final round to close the gap on points leader Justin Ashley. Then the car started to wander toward the centerline, then clipped the lights and blew a rear tire, costing him the round and, ultimately, probably the championship.

With the way things turned out at the season finale with Ashley going out early and then Langdon banging the blower in a second-round pedalfest with Brown, you can’t help but think that Langdon will enter 2025 with a big get-even chip on his shoulder.

Torrents of Torrence speculation

The rumor mill has been swirling around the four-time championship-winning Capco Contractors team of Steve and Billy Torrence this offseason, with much speculation surrounding their 2025 plans. The team has yet to make an announcement, but we’ve heard rumors of everything from partial to no seasons for one or the other or both. Steve-o is now a father of two young daughters and has exactly zero left to prove anymore, and Billy certainly didn’t have a lot of fun in his full-pull campaign last season (just 13 round-wins in 20 events), so you can see why there’s a lot to unpack here.

The Hart of the matter

Josh Hart and crew chief/partner Ron Douglas announced an addition to their tuning braintrust over the winter in the personage of Jason McCulloch, who most recently was with the Capco team (his departure further fueling the Capco speculation above) but who has a ton of experience around fuel racing.

That help was needed was obvious throughout last season, where the R+L Carriers team spent exactly two races in the Top 10 of points and finished a disappointing 12th after notching just eight round-wins all season and failing to qualify in Norwalk, the first DNQ of Hart’s Top Fuel career.

The driver certainly did his part, leaving on 23 of his 27 opponents (85.1%, best in the class), but the car completed just a hair over 50% of its runs (53 of 99, 53.5%) under full power.

Reed is back for another full pull

After sitting out since 2020, Shawn Reed impressed in the first full-season campaign of his career. It took him and tuner Rob Wendland a while to find their footing — they won just two rounds in the season’s first 16 events — but came on like gangbusters in the stretch run with a semifinal in St. Louis and round-wins in Dallas (where they qualified No. 2) and Las Vegas.

Reed finished the season with backing from GESi that may continue into 2025, and as evidence of its commitment, the team has had another new chassis built by MLR.

How much better will a sophomore Stewart be?

Although he was named NHRA Rookie of the Year after his first season in Top Fuel, it’s clear that Tony Stewart expected more from his year, especially after his wife, Leah, almost won the 2023 championship in the same car. 

Stewart finished an impressive fifth in reaction-time average behind noted gunslingers Justin Ashley, Josh Hart, Antron Brown, and Shawn Langdon, but the car was only, on average, the 11th quickest in Top Fuel and eighth in completed runs. He finished ninth in points after a 17-20 round record and was runner-up in Sonoma, but he’s used to much more success in motorsports, and with a full season under his belts now, he knows what to expect, and while he’ll continue to learn, now he’ll be able to use his accumulated knowledge better in 2025.

Waiting for the Shoe to drop

Top Fuel’s winningest driver, Tony Schumacher, scored two wins last season, a mark he hasn’t reached since 2016 as he’s spent more time battling for sponsorship than race wins, and “the Sarge” again is out looking for partners to continue that momentum. Schumacher ranked an impressive fifth in the “Left First” stat, leaving ahead of his competitors more than 50% of the time. The car, unfortunately, only made it down the track under power on half of its 111 passes last season, so there’s still work to be done if funding can be secured.

What’s next for Ida?

Ida Zetterström didn’t get her rookie season started until Brainerd and ran the final eight events of the year, and she never matched the promise shown by a semifinal finish in Brainerd and won just one more round over the next seven races. Like her JCM Racing teammate Schumacher, Zetterström is on the hunt for sponsorship partners with the hope of running a full season, but the team will have to be better on both ends of the track in 2025.

Team Salinas: Mike or Jasmine or both?

After health reasons forced Mike Salinas to the sidelines after last year’s opening race, daughter Jasmine took over well ahead of her expected part-time debut in the class and flew the Scrappers Racing flag with pride. After solid success in Top Alcohol Dragster, she didn’t have the kind of season she’d hoped for or what we expected. She struggled at the Tree and the car also just wasn’t always there for her, but we fully expect a bounce-back 2025 season for her now that she and the team have a year under their belts.

So, who drives in 2025? There’s every reason to expect that Mike has fully healed from his setback and is not done driving, but is he up for a full campaign? The team reportedly has a second dragster (the one driven last year primarily by Travis Shumake) that undoubtedly will hit the track, too … but who will be driving? And how often?

More female Top Fuel debuts

Top Alcohol Dragster world champ Julie Nataas made her Top Fuel debut in a one-shot appearance last season in St. Louis in the second Scrappers ride and made it clear that 2024 was her last season in Top Alcohol Dragster as she devotes herself solely to advancing her Top Fuel career. We expect her to run some more races this season, but how many?

Three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle world champ Angelle Sampey, who made the transition from two wheels to four in Top Alcohol Dragster at the end of 2023, had a great 2024 in the AB Motorsports A/Fuel Dragster, including a win in Reading and a runner-up in Indy, and the team plans to put her into a Top Fueler this year on a very limited basis to get seat time for a possible full season in 2026.

We also could see Top Alcohol Funny Car wunderkind Maddi Gordon getting some seat time in testing in a Top Fueler in anticipation of a proposed 2026 move to the class. Gordon, who finished as championship runner-up in her first season in Top Alcohol Funny Car after taking over the controls from her three-time world champion father Doug, has widely been associated with Ron Capps Motorsports as their future Top Fuel driver, including some not-so-subtle hints from Capps himself. Nothing is signed or sealed (let alone announced), but it’s something to keep your eyes on as the year progresses.

FUNNY CAR

What can the Procks do for an encore?

Austin Prock dominated Funny Car racing in 2024 with his famous father Jimmy tuning him to eight wins, a record 15 No. 1 qualifying berths, and the first 340-mph pass in NHRA history. That’s a pretty high bar to try to top this season, and it’s unlikely they can, but you have to remember that Austin was pretty green in the class in March and only got better as the year went on.

Is Jack the giant killer?

To be honest, the only team that looked like they could hang with the Procks in 2024 was their team car, the Peak Camaro driven by team boss John Force up until his crash in June and by Jack Beckman from August on. Although Beckman hadn’t driven in a few years, the former world champ looked to be on his game almost from the jump, and with Force still sidelined and three-time Funny Car champ Robert Hight electing to sit out for a second straight year, “Fast Jack” will try to climb the Prock beanstalk and take down the giant.

What happens to Hagan without Venables?

While Matt Hagan won his first Funny Car world championship in 2011 with Tommy DeLago twirling the iron, his last three world championships and 47 of his 52 wins since 2013 have come with Dickie Venables turning the knobs, but that long and successful partnership ended in 2024 with the announcement that assistant crew chief Mike Knudsen and Phil Shuler would take over the tuning chores in 2025 from Venables, who was leaving the team.

Knudsen was there for all of the 2013-on glory and obviously has a solid knowledge of how to run the car, while Shuler has tuned for so many successful drivers and teams and has worked with Knudsen in the past.

Hagan’s car suffered from a lot of inconsistency last year — they made it down the track under full power less than two-thirds of the time compared to 80% for the two JFR cars — but still won three races and finished fourth, but clearly, the chemistry that had worked so well was lacking.

Todd primed for a championship encore?

While Austin Prock had all of the performance numbers, the only one he didn’t own was reaction-time average, which went to 2018 world champ J.R. Todd, who averaged a .059 light (compared to Prock’s .062) and left first on 31 of his 43 matchups (72%, better than Prock’s 69.2%).

The remaining 999 feet of the course was where the problem lay for the DHL Toyota as it made it down the track on average fewer than six of 10 runs and was, on average, just the seventh quickest car in the class. 

While an official announcement has not yet been made, it’s all but been confirmed that Dickie Venables will take over tuning the DHL car in 2025 with team veteran Jon Oberhofer. This rumor crystallized in November when Jon O.’s right-hand man, Todd Smith, left the team.

Is Venables the missing ingredient to carry “the Yella Fellas” back to the top of the flopper pack? 

Tasca still looking for 340

Although Bob Tasca III was no doubt disappointed that he didn’t win the Funny Car championship, he was probably equally (or more) frustrated when he saw Austin Prock light up the scoreboards in Pomona with the sport’s first official 340-mph-plus run.

Tasca had cracked 340 at a preseason event in Florida, and few doubted that he’d be the first to do it on an official timing system. He ran 338 mph five times in 2024 (best of 338.77 in Seattle) and 10 of the season’s 12 fastest speeds but never got back to the magic number that he promised he could and one that hadn’t been approached since Robert Hight ran 339.87 in Sonoma in 2017.

Team Green is growing

Blake Alexander parted ways with Jim Head at the close of last year and landed with Chad Green Motorsports, where he’ll split duty in a second car with Green’s son, Hunter, while Chad runs a full season again.

While we haven’t seen a schedule of how the duo will split the season (beginning in Phoenix, they say), Alexander has said he’ll run 12-13 and Hunter five races, so obviously, neither will make the Countdown to the Championship, which is probably fine for Top Alcohol Dragster standout Hunter as he gets his feet wet in the class (a pivot from his expected path to Top Fuel), but for Alexander, who has been a solid contender the last several years, he’ll be a great mentor and instructor for Hunter rather than a championship hopeful. We’ll see how both blossom in these roles as we wonder if it’s all a path to a full-time second car or even a three-car team.

Wilk’s new warrior back for more

Daniel Wilkerson did a tremendous job in his first full season taking over for his famous father, Tim, allowing their rabid fan base — Wilk’s Warriors — to continue to root for the popular team. 

Daniel had less than a dozen starts under his belts spread out over multiple seasons but took to a full-time role exceedingly well and finished seventh in points. He did struggle a bit at the Tree — finishing ninth in reaction-time average and leaving on just a third of his opponents — and the car was only middle of the pack performance-wise, which is a bit surprising because Tim could focus only on tuning and not splitting time between wrenching and driving.

With a full season in his rearview, there undoubtedly will be less learning and more confidence for Daniel.

PRO STOCK

KB/Titan vs. Elite chapter next

For the last 10 seasons, the balance of power in Pro Stock has teeter-tottered between the KB/Titan Racing team and Elite Motorsports — favoring the latter recently — and that will only get more heated in 2025.

KB’s Greg Anderson and Dallas Glenn finished 1-2 in 2024 with Elite’s Aaron Stanfield and Erica Enders in third and fourth, marking the first time since 2017 that an Elite driver did not finish first or second in the championship race, which probably did not make for an easy offseason.

While six-time world champ Enders had a star-crossed season (see below), Stanfield looked for all the world ready to claim Elite’s seventh championship until he lost to Anderson in the semifinals at the season finale.

Anderson had been publicly wondering if he still had the chops to fight off the youngsters and proved that he did at the final-round expense of teammate Glenn, who will only be hungrier for the championship that barely slipped through his fingers, and the whole (and growing) Elite team will be looking to get back to the top.

Enders ready for bounceback season (and win No. 50)

The 2024 season was not kind to Erica Enders, especially on the starting line, one of her traditional strengths. She suffered nine holeshot losses — it’s usually nine holeshot wins — and admitted that she was lacking confidence behind the wheel of her new car. She still finished a respectable fourth, but she hasn’t finished that low since 2018 when Tanner Gray, Jeg Coughlin Jr., and Drew Skillman all finished ahead of her.

She had finished ninth in 2016 (in a disastrous experiment with Dodge-powered cars) and sixth in a rebuilding 2017 back with Chevy, then won four of five championships between 2019 and 2023, so she knows the pendulum can swing both ways. Our bet is that she’ll be back to “Mean Erica” in 2025 and finally get that elusive 50th career win. With six championships, she’s really got nothing left to prove to anyone but herself.

Welcome back, Greg Stanfield

Greg Stanfield will join son Aaron as one of the newest members of the Elite Motorsports team in 2025, and we’re all anxious to see if he can add a seventh world championship in a third different class. Stanfield, who won five championships in Super Stock and clinched last year’s Holley EFI NHRA Factory X crown over Aaron, has yet to win a Pro Stock championship but was a force in the class and the championship runner-up behind Anderson in 2010 — the same year he won the NHRA U.S. Nationals Pro Stock crown — and was a regular Top 10 finisher from 2006-2011. We’re anxious to see how it plays out this year.

"The Caveman" cometh

Cory Reed was a pretty solid contender in Pro Stock Motorcycle until a devastating top-end crash in Charlotte in 2021 severely broke his left leg. When he returned to the track last year on four wheels instead of two in Pro Stock, not many people expected much from the shaggy-haired and -bearded phoenix that led to his self-anointed “Caveman” nickname.

But he looked right at home in his class debut in Seattle and cut an .028 light in a losing first-round effort, then went to the final round in Sonoma the very next weekend. What kind of club will the “Caveman” swing this year?

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

No pressure, Gaige

Like Austin Prock in Funny Car, what can Gaige Herrera possibly do to top this year’s championship, his second straight in the class? After winning the final five events of 2023, he won the first six in 2024 to set a new record for consecutive victories (11) in NHRA history, left on nearly 73% of his opponents (next closest was Chase Van Sant, at 55.5%), appeared in 12 of 15 final rounds (10 wins), scored nine No. 1 qualifiers, won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge championship, and became the quickest driver to accumulate 20 wins (33 starts).

How do you top that?

E-Gads(on). He deserved better. Now what?

Even NHRA Rookie of the Year winner Tony Stewart seemed a bit apologetic that Richard Gadson wasn’t named 2024’s best rookie after a season in which Gadson scored three runner-ups (to Stewart’s one) and finished third in points (to Stewart’s ninth-place finish), but the criteria for the award favored Stewart. Voters are also asked to consider a racer’s media presence and outreach to promote the sport (where Stewart was everywhere and Gadson did respectively little), and because the wide assortment of media members who vote on the award isn’t always as dialed into the bikes as they are the nitro cars, it swung Stewart’s way (barely) in what was the closest balloting in the award’s history.

A bit more salt may have been thrown into that wound when Ida Zetterström was voted Best New Talent in fan balloting for the NHRA National Dragster All-Star Team in what may have represented appreciation for her journey from Europe and her outgoing nature.

Either way, Gadson deserved better, and he knows it. How that translates into better performance this year remains to be seen.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, reloaded

No, not the 2005 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie in which “Brangelina” played married hitpeople, although you could say that Matt and Angie Smith ("Mangie"?) certainly will enter 2025 carrying a hit list topped by their Vance & Hines rivals Gaige Herrera and Richard Gadson. 

After Herrera dominated the early season, the Smiths seemed to close ground late in the season, where Matt’s bike was about on performance par with Herrera, and Angie’s new bike, which debuted in Indy, also looked good. Breakage slowed Matt, and you have to wonder if tending to four bikes simultaneously and trying to ride exposed some cracks, but Matt said at the PRI Show that they may be trimming back to three full-time bikes — his, Angie’s, and Jianna Evaristo's with a possible part-time fourth rental — which may help the overload.

So, there you have it, 25 questions and question marks for the 2025 season. We hope to start getting answers as soon as the season opener, while others may take months to determine. Buckle up!