NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

FUNNY CAR FINAL

Matt Hagan will have the chance to win alongside team owner Tony Stewart after racing to a 3.88 victory over up-in-smoke J.R. Todd. After winning Saturday's Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, he can get his stated wish of walking out with three trophies, including the Wally and the 1,000th Funny Car event trophy.

Hagan will cede final-round lane choice to Ron Capps, who now has collected seven straight win tickets after powering to low e.t. of the meet 3.86, to end Jordan Vandergriff's dream day despite a 3.88 pass. No matter what happens in the final, Capps will leave Pomona at a minimum in a tie for the points lead. If Hagan beats him, they'll be tied atop the pack with 251 points; if Capps wins, his lead will be 40 over Hagan.

FUNNY CAR SEMIFINALS

Matt Hagan will have the chance to win alongside team owner Tony Stewart after racing to a 3.88 victory over up-in-smoke J.R. Todd. After winning Saturday's Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, he can get his stated wish of walking out with three trophies, including the Wally and the 1,000th Funny Car event trophy.

Hagan will cede final-round lane choice to Ron Capps, who now has collected seven straight win tickets after powering to low e.t. of the meet 3.86, to end Jordan Vandergriff's dream day despite a 3.88 pass. No matter what happens in the final, Capps will leave Pomona at a minimum in a tie for the points lead. If Hagan beats him, they'll be tied atop the pack with 251 points; if Capps wins, his lead will be 40 over Hagan.

FUNNY CAR ROUND 2

Like Langdon in Top Fuel, Phoenix Funny Car winner Ron Capps collected his sixth straight win light, powering the NAPA Toyota to a 3.88 to end Alexis DeJoria's day. Jordan Vandergriff reached the semifinals for the second time in three starts this season with a 3.91 conquest of Chad Green's game 3.97 but will cede semifinal lane choice to Capps.

Jason Rupert was an astounding .013 on the Tree against Matt Hagan, but his machine lost traction early, and Hagan bashed his way into the semifinals for the second straight race with a 3.90. Hagan will have semifinal lane choice over low qualifier J.R. Todd, who ripped to a 3.91 to beat Jack Beckman.

Capps is the new points leader and Todd and Hagan both move past Spencer Hyde into third and fourth place in the standings.

Semifinal pairings (lane choice first): Matt Hagan vs. J.R. Todd; Ron Capps vs. Jordan Vandergriff

FUNNY CAR ROUND 1

Jack Beckman, who had lost in the first round of the season's first two events, turned on his first win light in style with a 3.890, low e.t. of the meet, to defeat Jim Campbell and Gary Densham's team, which rebounded from a trip into the sand trap yesterday. Beckman didn't hold low e.t. for long as low qualifier J.R. Todd took it back with a 3.889 in besting Blake Alexander. Todd earns second-round lane choice over "Fast Jack" by .001-second.

Beckman's John Force Racing teammate, Funny Car rookie Jordan Vandergriff, also looked sporty with a 3.894 to oust Daniel Wilkerson. Seven years ago at Pomona, Vandergriff, then racing in Top Fuel, defeated Austin Prock, in whose two-time Funny Car championship-winning car he now competes. Matt Hagan added his name to the 3.89 list with a 3.892 to beat Spencer Hyde, avenging his loss to Hyde in the semifinals in Phoenix.

Both Todd and Hagan leapfrogged third-place Hyde in the standings, sending the reigning Rookie of the Year down to fifth (for now), and could plummet all the way to seventh.

Reigning world champ Austin Prock's woes continued as he was upset by local favorite Jason Rupert's 4.28. Prock's PPG Ford went silent at 330 feet with an apparent lead, the result of a reported safety-system malfunction, and he remains winless through the year's first three events.

"It was running pretty good, and it started spinning the tires, and out of my peripheral vision, I looked over and didn't see him, and I thought I'd better get back on the gas and get to the finish line," said Rupert. "To beat a team like that is pretty special. I mean, those guys are really, really good, and we're a part-time team, and we have a really good team also, with Rahn Tobler leading us. I'm just happy to go to the next round."

Gatornationals champ and points leader Chad Green also avenged his second-round loss from Phoenix by sending Paul Lee home with a strong 3.96.

Both Ron Capps and Dylan Winefsky lost traction early, but Capps pedaled and coasted to the win after shutting the car off (or having the crew shut it off) with a cylinder-dropping 4.97. It ends a great weekend for Winefsky's Nitro Moose team, which reset both ends of its career bests here.

Alexis DeJoria joined her JFR teammates in round two with a 3.90 to beat Dave Richards as the battle for the special 1,000th Funny Car race trophy continues.

Second-round pairings (lane choice first): J.R. Todd vs. Jack Beckman; Matt Hagan vs. Jason Rupert; Alexis DeJoria vs. Ron Capps; Jordan Vandergriff vs. Chad Green

Crew Chief Confidential: Chris Cunningham

SUNDAY PRE-RACE NOTES

Before we dive into final eliminations for the first four-wide race of the season, let’s take a little time for a download of notes that we’ve been collecting throughout the weekend.

Matt Hagan is one of three Funny Car drivers with a trio of four-wide wins — the other two, John Force and Robert Hight, are not competing this year — so its seems the perfect place to extend his amazing streak of having won at least one event in each of the past 12 seasons, the longest active streak among professional racers. He has won multiple events in 11 straight seasons

“It’s funny when you think about winning races,” said Hagan. “You look at someone like Ron Capps, who won back-to-back world championships and then didn’t win a single race last year. You have to be grateful for every win light that comes on because they are so hard to come by nowadays. I think Funny Car is probably the most competitive class in the field. It’s dog-eat-dog with all 16 cars now. Getting a round win, let alone a race win, is huge. I would love to keep our streak going, but there’s no guarantee with what we do out here. It’s very humbling.”

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After earning at least one qualifying bonus points as one of the three quickest cars in the 10 qualifying sessions at the three races prior to this one, Jack Beckman was only fifth quickest in Q1 and earned just two points for having the second quickest car of Q2 and then smoked the tires on both runs Saturday.

“Our Peak Chevy all year long had gotten qualifying bonus points, 10 straight sessions,” Beckman said. “But [Saturday] we had a little hiccup. We actually didn’t make it down the track two runs in a row. But, the last time that happened was the Pomona Finals in 2024 and we ended up in the winners’ circle.”
 

***

Ron Capps, who’s had an up and down last three races — a big explosion and crash in Phoenix, a Mission Challenge win in Pomona, and barely qualifying for the field here — also has fond memories of Las Vegas. It was at this event three years ago that Capps earned his first event win as a team owner.

Capps has won the four-wides twice, with his other triumph coming at the 2017 Charlotte event.

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Interesting note brought to us by WFO Radio host and NHRA announcer Joe Castelo: The first-round Funny Car quad consisting of Austin Prock  Ron Capps, Jason Rupert, and Cruz Pedregon: Rahn Tobler. The former Top Fuel world champion crew chief has tuned for all four of the Funny Car drivers in the quad.

Tobler tuned Cruz Pedregon's Snap-On Tools entry to the 2008 world championship; wrenched Ron Capps' NAPA Funny Car  from 2013-20 and to the 2016 world championship; was Prock's crew chief on the Montana Brand Top Fueler in his first years in the class in 2021-22; and has been the steadying hand for Rupert the last three seasons helping the privateer Southern California run in the three-second zone and compete for round wins.

***

MISSION CHALLENGE FINAL/FUNNY CAR Q4

Four-time world champ Matt Hagan got more than 60% of the fan vote to beat Paul Lee in the Mission Challenge final, and they got it right this time as Hagan steamed to a 3.94 to 4.19 victory.

J.R. Todd continued to look good, taking the No. 1 spot while clocking a 3.896 at 335.32 mph (top speed of the meet). Phoenix winner Ron Capps checked in with a 3.919 from the second-best run on the frame, with Friday leader Jordan Vandergriff slipping to third despite matching his 3.925 Friday pass.

Two-time and defending world champ Austin Prock made his first three-second pass of the season with a 3.967. After failing to qualify at the season opener in Gainesville and ranking just ninth in Phoenix, the No. 3 spot has to look pretty good right now. Alexis DeJoria looks really good, having made three-second passes on three of her four attempts in the Bandero Cafe Chevy, and is seventh behind Todd, Capps, Vandergriff, Hagan, Prock, and Chad Green.

Jim Campbell booted SoCal favorite Gary Densham's car to an impressive 3.99 to qualify, but was late getting the parachutes out and ended up in the sandtrap. Team owner Densham allowed that the parachute levers in his car are located differently from Campbell's previous ride, which may have caused the delay.

Two-time world champ Cruz Pedregon shockingly missed the field with a 4.31 best against the 4.14 bump spot held by Blake Alexander, Cruzer's first DNQ since the 2018 Norwalk event.

MISSION CHALLENGE ROUND 1/FUNNY CAR Q3

Matt Hagan won his opening round of the Mission Challenge with a 3.997 victory over Arizona Nationals runner-up Spencer Hyde and will take on Paul Lee, who flirted with the centerline before crossing after the finish line in defeating Ron Capps with a 4.024

J.R. Todd and Jack Beckman joined the three-second parade with respective passes of 3.97 and 3.98 that were the two best passes of the session, while Alexis DeJoria ran her second straight 3.99 pass.

The session opened with a casting change as veteran wheelman Jeff Arend, who lives about a half-mile from the track, jumped into Jim Dunn's Mooneyes entry, replacing Todd Lesenko, who crossed the centerline yesterday. There's no real word on why the change was made (the Dunn camp is being pretty coy) or if it's permanent. Stay tuned. Arend, who got the call early this morning from Jon Dunn and had to borrow safety equipment to run,  shut off early on his run, but was an impressive .067 on the Tree.

World champ Austin Prock's team, who had stated that this was the first race of the season where they had the parts they needed to run fast after some supply-chain issues, continued to struggle a bit, running just 6.00, but are safely in the field with Friday's 4.01 pass.

The bump spot is 4.337 with Spencer Hyde in the final spot and Jim Campbell and Arend on the outside.

Feature: Ron Capps returns to Brainerd as NHRA 75th Anniversary honoree

Ron Capps is no stranger to the Brainerd International Raceway winner’s circle, and the three-time world champion will have his eye on another NHRA Brainerd Nationals win on a weekend where he will be honored for his addition to NHRA’s Top 75 Drivers list. [Read full story]

FUNNY CAR Q2

There was no doubt that Jason Rupert's Q1-leading 4.24 would not hold up, and it surely didn't as 10 drivers (including Rupert) went quicker.

Mike Neff and Jonnie Lindberg were the first to crack the code, tuning Alexis DeJoria to a 3.989 that led the field until her new teammate, Jordan Vandergiff, raced to the pole with a 3.951.

Ron Capps was a solid third with a 4.00, and reigning world champion Austin Prock, whose team tested in Phoenix, cracked off a cylinder-dropping 4.01 for the No. 4 spot.

Nine cars ran in the 4.0s or better, setting the table for Saturday's promised go-fast conditions, where we'll see a lot more three-second passes.

Daniel Wilkerson, everyone's best bet to be one of the sport's next first-time winners, had a forgettable moment when his Scag machine grenaded the blower just off the starting line.

“It’s just one of those things,” Wilkerson said. “It just blew up in my face. I didn't hear it spinning or didn't feel it lay over or anything; it just went boom. I’m a very self-deprecating individual, so the first thing I always do is, ‘Did I do something wrong?’ and Tim [Wilkerson, crew chief] said, ‘I don't think so, man.’ “

FUNNY CAR Q1

Perhaps not unexpectedly, without a nitro run here in a year, the Funny Cars struggled in Q1, with few making it to half-track under power, but mostly unexpectedly, the hometown fans got to cheer when local favorite Jason Rupert grabbed the provisional pole with a 4.247.

Reigning Rookie of the Year Spencer Hyde, runner-up three weeks ago in Phoenix, grabbed the No. 2 spot in Jim Head's machine with a 4.337.

Two-time and reigning world champ Austin Prock, whose team has struggled at the year's first two meets since moving to Tasca Racing in the off-season, grabbed the No. 3 spot with a sub-representative 4.593, but the team enters the race on a high after a successful test session at Firebird Motorsports Park, where the car ran in the threes despite an 800-foot shutoff.

Dave Richards is on the early bump spot (that surely will dip) after a 6.452 early shutoff pass in the Bluebird Turf Ford. Eighteen cars are trying to make the 16-car field.

Before we dive into final eliminations for the first four-wide race of the season, let’s take a little time for a download of notes that we’ve been collecting throughout the weekend.

Feature: 'Old dude' Pedregon still thinks he has plenty to say about Funny Car's outcome

PRE-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES

Matt Hagan is one of three Funny Car drivers with a trio of four-wide wins — the other two, John Force and Robert Hight, are not competing this year — so its seems the perfect place to extend his amazing streak of having won at least one event in each of the past 12 seasons, the longest active streak among professional racers. He has won multiple events in 11 straight seasons

“It’s funny when you think about winning races,” said Hagan. “You look at someone like Ron Capps, who won back-to-back world championships and then didn’t win a single race last year. You have to be grateful for every win light that comes on because they are so hard to come by nowadays. I think Funny Car is probably the most competitive class in the field. It’s dog-eat-dog with all 16 cars now. Getting a round win, let alone a race win, is huge. I would love to keep our streak going, but there’s no guarantee with what we do out here. It’s very humbling.”

***

After earning at least one qualifying bonus points as one of the three quickest cars in the 10 qualifying sessions at the three races prior to this one, Jack Beckman was only fifth quickest in Q1 and earned just two points for having the second quickest car of Q2 and then smoked the tires on both runs Saturday.

“Our Peak Chevy all year long had gotten qualifying bonus points, 10 straight sessions,” Beckman said. “But [Saturday] we had a little hiccup. We actually didn’t make it down the track two runs in a row. But, the last time that happened was the Pomona Finals in 2024 and we ended up in the winners’ circle.”
 

***

Ron Capps, who’s had an up and down last three races — a big explosion and crash in Phoenix, a Mission Challenge win in Pomona, and barely qualifying for the field here — also has fond memories of Las Vegas. It was at this event three years ago that Capps earned his first event win as a team owner.

Capps has won the four-wides twice, with his other triumph coming at the 2017 Charlotte event.

***

Interesting note brought to us by WFO Radio host and NHRA announcer Joe Castelo: The first-round Funny Car quad consisting of Austin Prock  Ron Capps, Jason Rupert, and Cruz Pedregon: Rahn Tobler. The former Top Fuel world champion crew chief has tuned for all four of the Funny Car drivers in the quad.

Tobler tuned Cruz Pedregon's Snap-On Tools entry to the 2008 world championship; wrenched Ron Capps' NAPA Funny Car  from 2013-20 and to the 2016 world championship; was Prock's crew chief on the Montana Brand Top Fueler in his first years in the class in 2021-22; and has been the steadying hand for Rupert the last three seasons helping the privateer Southern California run in the three-second zone and compete for round wins.