NHRA’s penultimate 2024 season event results from Las Vegas……
Two-time Top Fuel world champion Brittany Force won for the first time in 39 races at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, defeating reigning world champion Doug Kalitta in the final round of the 24th annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals.
Austin Prock (Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won the 19th of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season and the fifth of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
The event’s championship final rounds, were rescheduled to Monday from Sunday after a major oil down related incident delay on Sunday.
Force went 3.703-seconds at 332.54 mph in her 11,000-horsepower Chevrolet Accessories dragster to defeat Kalitta, who smoked the tires off the starting line. It is Force’s 17th career win and her first since the fall race in Las Vegas in 2022. The victory also comes on a weekend when her father, 16-time world champion John Force, returned to the track for the first time since his crash in June at Richmond.
After qualifying No. 1 and running three times in the 3.60s, Force continued to flash the form that led to a world title two years ago. She defeated Josh Hart, Shawn Reed and Clay Millican to reach the finals and then powered the win in the final round, culminating in an emotional celebration on the top end and a John Force Racing double-up.
Brittany Force ended a frustrating winless streak with a convincing victory at NHRA Las Vegas Nationals.
“We’ve been piecing this together since the Countdown began and we were seeing this progress with No. 1 qualifiers and going rounds on race day. We knew it was coming,” Force said. “We knew we were closing in on it and we were getting close, and I had a good feeling about Vegas. We’ve been successful here in the past, and it’s one of my favorite tracks on the circuit and my whole family was here. My dad was here. I just had a good feeling about it, and to come here and win, our team needed that. We’ve always stayed positive, always stayed confident, but it does hurt when you go two seasons without winning.
John Force
“Having my dad here for the first time since his crash, it wasn’t pressure, it was more heart behind every single person on the team. We always want to come out here and win, but with him being here this weekend, after everything he’s been through, there was definitely more heart behind it. We wanted to get him in that winner’s circle.”
Kalitta advanced to the finals for the sixth time this year and 118th in his career after defeating Ida Zetterstrom, Antron Brown and Shawn Langdon. Justin Ashley remains in the points lead and he’ll take a 44 and 45-point advantage over Brown and Langdon, respectively, into the finale.
In Funny Car, the championship is a mere formality now for standout Austin Prock, who moved closer to his first career world title by defeating Paul Lee in the championship round with a run of 3.830 in his 11,000-horsepower Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS. It gives Prock his eighth victory this season in the midst of his incredible and dominant 2024 campaign, and he’s on the cusp of a Funny Car world championship. Prock now leads teammate Jack Beckman by 188 points and will officially clinch the world title at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona when he makes his first qualifying run in two weeks.
Austin Prock moved to the cusp of the 2024 NHRA World Championship title with his 8th win of the season in Funny Car.
Prock qualified No. 1, breaking Force’s single-season Funny Car record for No. 1 qualifiers, and lived in the 3.80s all weekend, rolling past Tim Gibbons, Cruz Pedregon and Blake Alexander. That set up the matchup with Lee, who was seeking his first career Funny Car win, but Prock and his team made their best run of eliminations, handing Prock his 12th career win.
“It was a long weekend, an odd weekend, for sure, but a great weekend to have John back,” Prock said. “We heard he was coming this weekend, and all you want to do is put a smile on his face, make a good team effort, and we did exactly that. All three of our John Force Racing race cars were on fire this weekend. I won three races before I ever got in this car this year, and now I’ve got eight in one season. It’s pretty crazy.
“The job’s not finished until the [championship] trophy is in our hands and when it gets to my hands, it’s going straight to my dad’s hands, but we’re getting really close, so I’m excited that we won today. We still haven’t won the championship and that’s our main goal this year. When I got in the race car at the beginning of the year, my dad said he wanted to win a world championship and this team has just been lights out this year, outstanding job by each and every one of them.”
Lee advanced to the final round for the second time this year after defeating Steven Densham, Daniel Wilkerson and Beckman.
There’s a new points leader in Pro Stock and Aaron Stanfield managed to finish the job in Las Vegas as well, holding off Greg Anderson in the final round with a holeshot win and a run of 6.606 at 206.13 in his Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage/Janac Brothers car. Stanfield moved into the points lead with a semifinal victory and then made an emphatic statement a round later on Monday, picking up his sixth victory of the 2024 campaign and the 14th in his career.
Aaron Stanfield’s 6th win of 2024 moved him to the NHRA Pro Stock points lead – with one event remaining. He beat Greg Anderson in this final round.
After Dallas Glenn’s shocking first-round loss on Sunday, Stanfield took advantage and now leads Glenn by 32 points heading into the finale in Pomona. To get to the final round this weekend, Stanfield got past Eric Latino, Jeg Coughlin Jr. and David Cuadra in a wild semifinal. In the finals, Stanfield posted a strong .023 reaction time, which was enough to hold off Anderson’s 6.591 at 206.39.
“When Dallas went out ahead of me in round one and I knew it’s time to time to take advantage of the situation, I missed the tree a little bit and got away with it,” Stanfield said. “I got a little pissed off after that and got my head back together and drove well for the rest of the weekend.
“The pressure meter is maxed out, but pressure is a privilege and I’m not afraid of it. I feel like the majority of the time I do well under pressure, and we did exactly what we needed to do this weekend. We had some luck go our way, and we took advantage of it.”
Anderson advanced to the finals for the fifth time in 2024 and 181st time overall thanks to round wins against Chris McGaha, Camrie Caruso and Cristian Cuadra. Anderson trails Stanfield by 56 points heading into Pomona.
With a second straight championship in reach, Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader Gaige Herrera made an emphatic statement in Las Vegas, going a weekend-best 6.798 at 197.16 on his RevZilla/Mission Foods/Vance & Hines Suzuki to roll past Angie Smith in the final round. It is Herrera’s 10th victory of the season and the 21st in his career and after a slow start in the Countdown to the Championship, Herrera has returned to his dominant self, winning his third straight race.
In Las Vegas, Herrera qualified No. 1 and then knocked off Kahea Woods, John Hall and Hector Arana Jr. to reach the final round, turning it up even more against Smith in the final round. He’ll head into Pomona with a 123-point lead over Matt Smith, putting Herrera in prime position to reel in a second straight world title.
“To run that 6.79 in the final, the bike’s just been on rails. It has been all season, and as long as I do my job, Andrew [Hines, crew chief]and the guys always do their job to a T,” Herrera said. “They’re always about being perfect as possible, which pushes me to do the same.
Gaige Herrera moved to prime position to reel in a second straight world title – with another victory in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
“If I’m able to win the second championship — and anything can still happen — this one would mean a lot more than the first. I had to earn it a lot more this season. We kind of ran away with it last year, but this year it was definitely a lot tighter racing, and there wasn’t much room for error. It’s going to mean a lot more for sure.”
A. Smith reached the finals for the second time this season and the ninth time in her career after defeating Ryan Oehler, Geno Scali and Chase Van Sant.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series closes out its 2024 season on Nov. 14-17 with the 59th annual In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Pomona, Calif.
Pro Mod Pinnacle Weekend!
A day after winning the championship in the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by LearnEV+, Canada’s Jordan Lazic finished off the 2024 season on an incredible note, winning in the final round on Monday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as part of the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals.
The event was the final of 10 races in NHRA Pro Mod and the last of the category’s four-race “Road to the Championship” playoffs was powered by JBS Equipment.
The final round was delayed until Monday and Lazic made the most of it to cap off a dream weekend in his supercharged Bahrain 1 Racing Camaro. Mike Janis went red in the finals, handing the victory to Lazic, who went 5.729-seconds at 251.53 mph in the championship round.
Canada’s Jordan Lazic won both the event and the NHRA World Championship for Pro Mod class cars!
Lazic clinched his first career world championship on Sunday in a winner-take-all semifinal against former world champion Kris Thorne. That made for a memorable day and on Monday, Lazic finished the job to pick up his first victory of the season and the second in his career.
“Mike is one of the baddest dudes out there and we knew we had to be crazy on the light,” Lazic said. “It’s a crazy weekend and this is just the crazy cherry on top. We tried to make a plan going in and it just worked out. To go .008 (on the starting line), you can’t ask for much more than, so we’re all just so excited. This is great.”
To reach the final round, Janis, a former world champion who qualified No. 1 in Las Vegas, got past Dmitry Samorukov, Ken Quartuccio and Mike Thielen.
Editors Note: More details on Jordan’s exceptional weekend success will be posted to our Smokies Garage Pro Mod Portal – coming soon!
The Ford Performance Las Vegas Nationals also featured the concluding season round for Mountain Motor Pro Stock as well by another appearance for the very popular Legends Nitro Funny Car presented by Modern Warriors circuit — which both featured 8-car fields.
The MMPS division saw Johnny Pluchino with both the event win and the season championship for the Horsepowered Garage sponsored season series.
Pluchino, from NY, raced his Ford Mustang to a final round 6.300, 221.56 mph to defeat Randi Lyn Butner’s Chevy Camaro which went 6.437, 220.15 mph.
Johnny Pluchino was dominating while winning the Mountain Motor Pro Stock event and season championship title.
For Pluchino, who had qualified #1 at 6.315 secs, the final round ET was low ET of the event.
Popular Canadian driver Tim Boychuk, from Edmonton Alberta, was the Legends Nitro Funny Car presented by Modern Warriors champion.
Boychuk’s “Happy Hour” Chevy Camaro racked up the win with a final round 4.851 secs at 235.60 to defeat Shane Westerfield who slowed to 11.428 secs 59.22 mph. Westerfield had been the quickest and fastest car in the feature race (which was run to 1000 ft) setting both low ET 4.662 secs and top speed 242.45 mph in qualifying.
Canada’s Tim Boychuk won the event’s nitro Nostalgia FC feature.
Boychuk, who qualified 7th, outran Mike Peck and Derrick Moreira in rounds one and two.
Sportsman Racing Final Round Results Summary
Top Alcohol Dragster — Shawn Cowie, 5.600, 244.60 def. Julie Nataas, 19.145, 34.34.
Canada’s Shawn Cowie (near lane) won TAD at Las Vegas – beating Julie Nataas in the final. It was his milestone 25th career NHRA national event level win!
Top Alcohol Funny Car — (*delayed to Pomona Finals) will feature Sean Bellemeur versus Mike Gordon.
Competition Eliminator — Taylor Chomiski, Chevy Cobalt, 8.962, 100.61 def. Scott Linder, Pontiac Gran Am, Foul – Red Light.
Factory X – Greg Stanfield Chevy Camaro, 6.983, 193.05 def Chris Holbrook, Ford Mustang, 7.274, 181.62.
Stock Eliminator — Joe Sorensen, Chevy Camaro, 11.161, 97.09 def. Chad Langdon, Plymouth Barracuda, 11.267, 101.45.
Super Gas — Josh Dalrymple, Chevy Camaro, 10.019, 153.04 def. Rodger Sauder, Plymouth Barracuda, 10.008, 154.86.
Summit Super Pro — Zach Meziere, Mullis, 7.668, 172.23 def. Jeff Krushinskie, Chevy Camaro, Foul – Red Light.
Summit Pro ET — Alvie Merrill, Chevy Camaro, 10.196, 119.06 def. Tim O’Moore, Camaro, 9.155, 143.00.
Summit Sportsman — C W Hoefer, Pontiac Firebird, 11.923, 91.59 def. Josh Carroll, Chevy Camaro, 12.388, 87.10.
Summit ET Motorcycle — Jimmy Paulson, Suzuki Hayabusa, 9.234, 133.84 def. Jason Drnach, Kawasaki ZRX, 8.102, 163.73.
Summit Street Legal EV — Omar Leon, Polestar, 12.969, 100.54 def. Michael Webster, Telsa, 12.413, 108.92.
Posted with files by NHRA Communications & Bruce Biegler
Photos by Les Puchala and Courtesy of NHRA
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