A post season salute to NHRA’s Pro Champions for 2025….
Top Fuel’s Doug Kalitta earned his second world championship in three years for NHRA — finishing off a stellar showing in the playoffs. He advanced to the finals at the first four Countdown events, winning races in St. Louis and Dallas to take command of the points race. It led to his second world championship in Pomona, finishing off what has been an incredible three-year run in his Mac Tools dragster. After waiting years to win a championship, Kalitta and crew chief Alan Johnson have proven to be a lethal combination for Kalitta Motorsports in the Top Fuel ranks. He won the 2023 title in a winner-take-all final round in Pomona and then rolled to four wins, seven final rounds and eight No. 1 qualifiers in 2025, including career-best performances of 3.628-seconds at 341.34 mph in Seattle.
Funny Car’s Austin Prock rolled to a second straight world title in dominant fashion in his JFR Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS, picking up an incredible nine wins this season. That gives the standout 17 victories over the past two seasons, marking a remarkable first two seasons in the Funny Car ranks. Prock won five of six races at one point this season, capped off by a second straight Indy victory. He added two more wins in the Countdown to the Championship, holding off four-time champ Matt Hagan to become just the seventh Funny Car driver in NHRA history to win back-to-back championships, and only the third this century.
In Pro Stock, Dallas Glenn was brilliant from start to finish, reversing last year’s heartbreak and clinching his first world championship in his (Canadian founded) RAD Torque Systems-presented Camaro. Glenn, who fell in a winner-take-all final round to teammate Greg Anderson a year ago in Pomona, pulled away in the playoffs, winning four times over a five-race stretch, including in Vegas to cap off the championship run for KB Titan Racing. Glenn was nearly unstoppable in 2025, winning eight races and advancing to 13 final rounds en route to a near-flawless 50-9 record during eliminations.
For the first time, Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Richard Gadson is also a world champion, holding off teammate Gaige Herrera to take the crown. Gadson earned his first career Pro Stock Motorcycle victory in June in Bristol and rolled from there, picking up four total wins. Two of those came in the playoffs and paved the way for the championship run, as Gadson picked up wins at the Charlotte four-wide race and then Dallas, holding off Herrera by 21 points. As part of a breakout year on his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki, Gadson advanced to six final rounds and also earned the first two No. 1 qualifiers of his Pro Stock Motorcycle career.
Posted with files by NHRA Communications & Bruce Biegler
DragRaceCanada File Photos by Dave DeAngelis & Les Puchala
