NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

For the fifth straight day, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park roared to life at 8 a.m. with the sound of Stock Eliminator cars. With qualifying long completed, sportsman racers are well into eliminations and Sunday’s early action includes the third round of Stock and Super Stock, the second round of Comp, and the first round of Right Trailers Top Sportsman and Top Dragster.

Later, the alcohol cars will take center stage with the first round of Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car with a busy morning topped off by the opening round of the FlexJet Factory Stock Showdown.

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 Comp racer Chelsea Tindle lost control of her D/Dragster Automatic entry in a losing round-two race against Tim Ratliff and crashed. She was able to exit the car under her own power and was evaluated by the NHRA medical team.

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MISSION FOODS POINTS UPDATES

This is the final event of the regular season to earn a berth in the six-race Countdown to the Championship. Racers qualify for the playoffs in two ways: either by being among the Top 10 in points or by making at least the minimum required number of qualifying sessions at the 16 regular-season events, which is three of five at Indy.

Top Fuel

The following have clinched a spot in the Countdown by making the minimum number of runs this weekend:
Josh Hart
Billy Torrence
Justin Ashley
Clay Millican
Tony Schumacher
Will Smith

Shawn Reed still needs to earn enough points to secure a spot in the top 10 to clinch a spot in the Countdown.

Funny Car

The following have clinched a spot in the Countdown by making the minimum number of runs this weekend:
Austin Prock
Chad Green
Alexis DeJoria
Daniel Wilkerson
Spencer Hyde
Dave Richards

Cruz Pedregon thus far has only run two qualifying sessions; if he makes at least one today, he will secure a spot in the Countdown.

Pro Stock

The following have clinched a spot in the Countdown by making the minimum number of runs this weekend:
Aaron Stanfield
Erica Enders
Matt Latino
Jeg Coughlin Jr
Cody Anderson
Eric Latino
Kenny Delco

Troy Coughlin Jr. still needs to earn enough points to secure a spot in the top 10 to secure a spot. 

Pro Stock Motorcycle

The following have clinched a spot in the countdown by making the minimum number of runs this weekend in Pro Stock Motorcycle:
John Hall
Chase Van Sant
Ryan Oehler
Jianna Evaristo
Geno Scali

Steve Johnson thus far has only run two qualifying sessions; he needs to make at least one today to secure a spot in the Countdown.

Clayton Howey still needs to earn enough points to secure a spot in the top 10 to clinch a spot in the Countdown.  Others in contention for the top 10 by points only are Kelly Clontz, Marc Ingwersen, and Wesley Wells.

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PRO QUALIFYING PREVIEW

Two shots to get into the biggest field of the year, with the Top Fuel bump spot sitting at 3.934 and six Top Fuel drivers still battling past polesitter T.J. Zizzo. Only five of the 23 Top Fuel cars have run in the three-second zone on two of three passes; no one has made it down the track on all three to date, and with prime conditions, this is the session to make some hay. 

Dylan Winefsky has the bump in Funny Car with a 4.119 with six drivers not in the show, Mason McGaha's 6.711 in the No. 16 spot in Pro Stock with three drivers unqualified, and Hector Arana Sr.'s 7.091 in the bump in Pro Stock Motorcycle, which also has 19 entries.

The air temperature is 75 degrees and the track temp is at a decent 114, both bests of the weekend for Pro sessions

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TOP FUEL Q4

Two-time and reigning world champ Doug Kalitta, who was 13th in the field when he staged his Mac Tools car, raced to a 3.746 to jump deep into the top half of the field in the No. 3 spot.

Ida Zetterström also jumped into the quick half of the field with a 3.778 in the Bandero Tequila dragster, the third best of the session.

Billy Torrence, who was 0-for-3 to this point, raced to a top-half spot with a 3.767 that turned out to be the second-best run of the session behind Kalitta. Torrence was also competing here in Super Comp but lost in round two. Billy’s son, four-time world champ Steve, is serving as color commentator in the announcing booth and got to enjoy that run from a unique perspective.

Shawn Langdon (also an early-round loser in Super Comp) and crew chief Brian Husen, confident of their positioning, look like they took a shot at a first-round Monday tune-up and went a little too far, losing traction a few hundred feet out after a great launch. They’ve made just one full-power run to the stripe in four qualifying attempts. Prior to this event, the Langdon team had a great 73.8% run-completion record (eliminations and qualifying), second only to teammate Doug Kalitta’s 76.3% mark.

Shawn Reed and Krista Baldwin, who both ran Friday night and skipped both of Saturday’s hot sessions, were back on the track and made solid respective runs of 3.784 and 3.887. Reed’s run was the session’s fourth best.

Jake Sanders continued to impress in his NHRA Top Fuel debut, bettering his Friday run of 3.878 with a 3.862 but it’s just outside the field.

Twenty-one of the 22 entered drivers made a run in that session (only Jacob Opatrny sat out) and the bump spot now sits at 3.855 with 2024 event winner Clay Millican.

Tony Schumacher. Indy’s winningest Pro driver, is outside the field with one run left, sitting 20th with a 3.920 best.

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FUNNY CAR CALLOUT ROUND 1/Q4

The PlayNHRA All-Star Funny Car Callout kicked off the day's Funny Car action, with this round also counting towards U.S. Nationals qualifying.

Matt Hagan had low e.t of the round with a 3.94 to 3.97 victory over Spencer Hyde and thus got the chance to call out his second-round opponent, which will be Alexis DeJoria, who got by tire-smoking Ron Capps. After her blowup in yesterday's final run damaged the Night Stalker body, DeJoria was back in the Bandero Cafe colors, but the team is hard at work in the nearby John Force Racing headquarters to put a Night Stalker wrap on a backup body for Monday's final eliminations.

In a rematch of yesterday's Mission Challenge final round, J.R. Todd got some revenge on Austin Prock with a 3.98 to 4.05 decision and will face Jack Beckman, who took out Chad Green but had to step off before the finish line after the car started spinning the tires and heading to the centerline.

With both defending Callout champ Prock and 2022 winner Capps out, Paul Lee (2024) not in the field this year, and Robert Hight (2023) retired, we'll have a new Callout winner this year.

There were no new three-second runners in that session, so we're stuck at nine, and those hopes of an all-three-second field are fading faster than a New Year's resolution. Still, there are at least 10 three-second-capable cars that can get us there.

John Smith, who lost his Friday pass after coming up light at the scales, then sat out both Saturday passes, got down a solid 4.089 lap.

After a 4.13 in Q3, Bobby Bode put down a better 4.098 that has him on the bump.

On the outside looking in are Chris King, Blake Alexander, Dylan Winefsky, Justin Schriefer, Dave Richards, past Top Alcohol Dragster world champ Julie Nataas, who crossed the centerline for the second straight pass, and Terry Haddock. Schriefer, whose 4.005 at the 2019 event remains the quickest bump spot in class history, clocked a 4.188 then had no 'chutes but masterfully brought the car to a stop inches from the sand trap.

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PRO STOCK Q4

Finally, the Pro Stock field dipped into the 50s for the first time this weekend as the temperature held steady at 78 degrees. However, only three drivers found the key tune-up to reach those numbers.

Matt Hartford (6.594 at 207.91) took over the provisional No. 1 spot, while Cody Anderson moved up to No. 2 (6.594 at 207.37). Matt Latino was the only other racer in the class with an E.T. in the 50s - a 6.596 - which landed him in the No. 3 position.

Dallas Glenn, who stated at the top end that he expected to run much quicker based on the data from last year, scored the much-needed bonus point from being fourth quickest in the round when he ran a 6.603.

Meanwhile, as the battle for the regular season championship continues between Glenn and Greg Anderson, G. Anderson left this round of qualifying with a zero in the column and seventh on the qualifying sheet.

Chris Vang moved from the No. 9 spot to No. 5. Troy Coughlin Jr., who needs every point possible to punch his way into the Countdown, climbed from No. 13 to No. 6. 

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Q4

Heading into the fourth of five qualifying sessions, the bump spot in Pro Stock Motorcycle was a 7.091 and the quickest pass of the weekend is Gaige Herrera’s 6.841 from Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge.

Given the across-the-board improvement in Pro Stock, it seemed likely that both numbers in Pro Stock Motorcycle would also fall, and it didn’t take long for that to happen.

Matt Smith set a new benchmark early with a 6.782 aboard his Denso Buell while his teammate, Michael Ray, who is subbing for an injured Jianna Evaristo, also made a solid run with a 6.894.

Later in the session, Angie Smith threatened to take the lead with a 6.787, and then Gaige Herrera leaped back into the lead with a 6.891, claiming the provisional pole by a thousandth of a second.

It also didn’t take long for the bump to plummet into the sixes as 14 of 19 riders improved their best elapsed times from Friday and Saturday.

After working throughout the night to address several issues, Steve Johnson made a huge jump with a 6.896 while Ryan Oehler, Chase Van Sant, Clayton Howey, and Richard Gadson also found the 6.80s.

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PLAYNHRA ALL-STAR CALLOUT SEMIFINALS

After barely surviving his first-round race, Jack Beckman will have the chance to become the third John Force Racing driver to win the Callout after defeating J.R. Todd, 3.96 to 4.04, in the opening half of the semifinals. Robert Hight won the 2023 Callout, and Austin Prock won it last year.

He'll take on Matt Hagan, who beat Alexis DeJoria with a 3.97. Hagan has been in two previous Callout finals, in 2022 and '23, but finished runner-up to Ron Capps and Hight.

This round of the Callout does not count towards overall U.S. Nationals qualifying. 

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TOP FUEL Q5

There were questions about whether 2024 U.S. Nationals champ Clay Millican would even qualify for this event, entering the final session on the bump with a 3.844 best from Friday night, but after the six drivers outside the field failed to better that number, he was locked into the field.

Unfortunately for Millican's Rick Ware Racing team, the bad news was that Millican qualifying meant that his teammate, Tony Schumacher, the 10-time Indy winner, did not make the field despite his event-best run of 3.883. It's Schumacher's first DNQ since the 2003 Englishtown event, a span of 457 races.

"I started here 30 years ago and I've still got a lot of years left, but I feel terrible for my sponsors, but I learned a long ago this is entertanment, and if you don't run good enough to qualify, you don't qualify," he said. "I feel bad for my team, but we just didn't perform. We found out the things we were doing wrong earlier in the race, but there just wasn't enough time to make up."

Shawn Langdon's Friday night pass of 3.727 survived the next four sessions and remained No. 1; Langdon ran a 3.848 on his final pass after three shutoff passes between, but that was just the session's sixth-best pass behind Leah Pruett (3.799), Tripp Tatum (3.807), Justin Ashley (3.824), Maddi Gordon (3.825), and Will Smith (3.828). Langdon will take on Millican in round one Monday.

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FUNNY CAR Q5

After back-to-back block-scattering passes, Julie Nataas kept it between the lines on her final pass and went from outside the field to in with her Del Worsham-tuned Toyota with a 4.089 that matched the number run in the previous session by Mike Smith, but Nataas had the higher seed with a better speed. None of that ultimately mattered as the unqualified cars, including incoming bump sitter Bobby Bode, couldn't get back around either of them.

Jordan Vandergriff, racing for the event sponsor Cornwell Quality Tools, did give us a 10th three-second car with an impressive 3.948 on the track that most others could not get down, but we ended up well short of the much-anticipated all-three-second field.

Ron Capps, already the low qualifier, stunned everyone with a 3.936, and Spencer Hyde also ran in the threes with a 3.982, not better than his earlier 3.944.

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FUNNY CAR CALLOUT FINAL

Jack Beckman became the fifth different winner in the five-year history of the Callout, pounding out a solid 3.98 to make tire-smoking Matt Hagan a three-time Callout runner-up. Beckman and crew will reap an $80,000 bonus for winning the special event.

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PRO STOCK Q5

It was clear that during round five of qualifying, Pro Stock racers were starting to figure the track out because more drivers started to dip into the 50s and run their best elapsed times of the weekend.

Taking back the No. 1 spot and solidifying his position on race day, Matt Hartford laid down a blistering 6.572 at 208.97 mph run.

Dallas Glenn, who we mentioned before needed all the bonus points he could get to overtake Greg Anderson in the regular season championship chase, collected three bonus points for his qualifying efforts that landed him in the No. 2 spot. However, G. Anderson is just on the outside looking in on bonus points from the fifth qualifying spot, and it will be his title to lose tomorrow.

NHRA Brainerd Nationals runner-up Chris Vang’s 6.583 propelled him to the fourth spot, which showed that the momentum hasn’t stopped since the land of 10,000 lakes.

Erica Enders made a massive jump from 13th to the top half of the ladder and landed at sixth. Mason McGaha bumped his way in to race on Sunday but, in doing so, bumped out Deric Kramer. The bump ended up being 6.646, and Alan Prusiensky and David Vaseloff were not able to run a better time to get into the field for race day. 

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Q5

The fifth and final qualifying session in Pro Stock Motorcycle began with a very respectable 6.98-second bump spot, and that’s where it stayed, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t drama.

Matt Smith delivered the first 200-mph run of the weekend with a 200.98 blast on his Denso Buell, and also took over the top spot in qualifying with an impressive 6.757-second run. Gaige Herrera made the second-best run of the round with a 6.806 while his teammate, Richard Gadson, was close behind at 6.818.

A total of seven riders improved their performance during the final session including Ryan Oehler, who made the biggest jump with a 6.825 to secure a spot in the top half of the field.

Clayton Howey also found the 6.8s with a 6.865 as he continues to fight for his spot in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. Oehler will have to hold off Steve Johnson, who overcame problems earlier in the event to post a 6.878.