NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals marked the midpoint of the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series regular season, with 10 races down and 10 to go until the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals.

Three drivers in Top Fuel are leading the charge, but others are certainly within striking range. Let's take a look at the season's first half with a combination of stats and analysis.

Ten takeaways

• Who would have thought that points leader Tony Stewart would go from mid-pack last year to the top this season? He scored his first career Top Fuel win at the Las Vegas NHRA 4-Wide Nationals and then won again in Chicago and hasn't lost in the first round all year after 10 first-round exits last year. Where's there "smoke," there's fire.
• After his opening win in Gainesville, defending world champ Antron Brown has made just one final in the next nine races and has sunk to fifth in points after first-round losses at the last three races before the break.
• After Brown's season-opening win in Gainesville, Stewart and Shawn Langdon have been the only points leaders. Langdon led for four, and Stewart has now led the last five. The gap has been as big as 99 points after Charlotte and as small as three points one race later in Chicago. Langdon has two first-round losses, while, as mentioned earlier, Stewart has a clean slate in the opening stanza.
• Justin Ashley has been in six of the last seven rounds with two wins and three runner-ups (plus a third-place finish in the Vegas four-wide event). As recently as that Vegas event, he was a distant eighth in points, and now he's third, just 25 points behind second-place Langdon and 77 behind Stewart. Ashley has left first (or with) on his opponents in 27 out of 28 rounds; the only time he didn’t was in Phoenix in the second round against Langdon.
• Two-time world champ Brittany Force is languishing in sixth place with just one final-round appearance (her win in Epping) in the first 10 races. Force is, however, the class' performance standout after becoming the ' first 340-mph Top Fuel driver in Epping, where she ran that speed twice en route to victory.
• 2023 world champ Doug Kalitta has owned racing on Saturday with four wins in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge, but his Sunday results are not great, with just one runner-up, to teammate Langdon in Phoenix.
• After Stewart, Langdon, Ashley, and Brown, Clay Millican is the only driver with a win, scoring at the NHRA Winternationals. Millican and the Rick Ware team entered the break with a big runner-up in Norwalk but still sit eighth in points thanks to five first-round losses.
• Four-time world champ Steve Torrence has had a checkerboard year with a big win in Bristol and a Mission Challenge win in Richmond, but he's in "have fun" mode, racing at his choosing. Reports are he won't come west for Seattle and Sonoma, but it looks like he's still a virtual lock for a Top 10 finish and another Countdown to the Championship berth.
• After a tough rookie season, Jasmine Salinas started 2025 on fire with three semifinal finishes and ranked as high as fourth before the car was parked. Word is filtering down that the Scrappers car might return in Indy, but for how many races? She's 11th in points but 127 points back of 10th-place tour regular Shawn Reed, so it's doubtful that an Indy return will yield a Countdown berth. It's a shame after her great start.
• Ida Zetterström was hot on Reed's heels in 11th place after Bristol, about six rounds behind the former drag boat champ, but after sitting out the last two events, her chances of making the Countdown have thinned.

Probable regular-season finish: 1. Justin Ashley; 2. Shawn Langdon; 3. Tony Stewart. With four races until the Countdown, no one is hotter than Ashley with no sign of slowing, and Langdon's big-race reputation, and both of their stellar starting-line reactions, move them ahead of Stewart for now, especially if Stewart's Norwalk mechanical woes continue, but there's no reason to believe that Stewart won't finish strong and could win the championship.

Dark-horse contenders: With eight championships between them, it's hard to call any of them "dark horses," but Doug Kalitta, Brittany Force, and Steve Torrence are all legit contenders. Kalitta is the class' most experienced driver and an iceman at crunch time. Force has the performance capabilities that could play out in the cooler climes of the Countdown. Torrence is the only driver to win all six Countdown playoff events; he knows when to step on the gas.

Next
Tuesday: Funny Car
Wednesday: Pro Stock
Thursday: Pro Stock Motorcycle