NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The recently completed Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals was Race 10, the halfway point of the 20-race 2024 season, and, more importantly, set up the stretch run of four races leading to the end of the regular season. Here’s a look at how the points battles shape up in Top Fuel.

THE POINTS LEADER

Doug Kalitta is showing no signs of a championship hangover as Top Fuel’s most seasoned pilot, who will reach the 600-race mark in Brainerd, has a solid 134-point lead over the field.

After beginning the season with a trio of second-round losses, Kalitta and the Alan Johnson-led Mac Tools team won the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas and reached the final of the Charlotte four-wide event. After a surprising first-round exit in Chicago, he’s been to four straight final rounds, with wins in Epping and Richmond and runner-ups in Bristol and Norwalk. Kalitta, who boasts an impressive 22-7 round record, also won his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge title in Norwalk.

PUSHING FOR THE FRONT

Justin Ashley and Shawn Langdon are locked into a tight battle for second place, with Ashley just two points in front of the former world champ.

Five races into the season, Ashley’s Scag Power Equipment dragster was well out in front after reaching the final round of four of the year’s first handful of events, with wins in Pomona and Charlotte sandwiching runner-ups in Phoenix and Las Vegas. After that, the team stumbled with just one round-win over the next four races, including three straight first-round losses until a rebound in Norwalk, where they reached the semifinals.

Langdon’s season has mirrored Ashley’s with two wins, two runner-ups, and three first-round losses, although Langdon has not really hit a slump like Ashley did. New crew chief Brian Husen scored his first victory in the lead role with Langdon at the NHRA Gatornationals and then won again two events later in Phoenix. Runner-ups in Chicago and Richmond have kept the Kalitta Air team in the running all season.

Ashley is the only driver with multiple wins in the Mission Challenge this year with victories in Charlotte and Chicago while six other drivers have each won once.

With a semifinal in Richmond and a win in Norwalk, three-time world champ Antron Brown has jumped from sixth to fourth, just three rounds behind Ashley and Langdon but still 194 back of Kalitta’s lead. Brown also has two season wins, his first coming in Chicago.

LOOKING FOR TRACTION

As hard as it is to believe, four-time world champ Steve Torrence has not won an event in a calendar year, his most recent victory coming in Seattle last season. He hasn’t been to a final round so far this season but also has just one first-round loss (Charlotte) and five semifinal finishes, which has kept him in striking distance for now.

Despite his win in Bristol — his first since the 2022 Seattle event and a pair of runner-ups (Pomona and Epping), Tony Schumacher is more than 300 points out of the No. 1 points spot he’s held so many times in his career, and his six first-round losses are surely to blame.

Billy Torrence started out the season — scheduled to be his first full pull in years — like a house afire with a runner-up in Gainesville and a semifinal in Pomona but has cooled considerably with just two round-wins over the last five events.

Clay Millican also has a lone runner-up to his credit — at the four-wide event in Charlotte — and an even 10-10 round record and sits in eighth, just one point behind Billy-Billy.

Tony Stewart said that he knew the going would be tough in his first year in the class, and he’s been right as the team, which nearly won the world championship last year with Leah Pruett in the saddle, appears to have struggled with the difference in weight between the two drivers. Stewart, still considered the frontrunner to win NHRA Rookie of the Year, has a pair of semifinal finishes offset by five first-round losses, but the biggest win this year may be that he and Pruett have announced that they are expecting their first child this November.

Two-time world champ Brittany Force is clinging to the final Countdown spot, 50 points ahead of Josh Hart. After sitting out the Norwalk event to be with her injured father, she’s now lost the automatic Countdown berth afforded to drivers who compete at every event of the regular season and will have to earn it solely on points. She is expected to return to completion at the upcoming NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle. She has yet to reach a final this season but did win the Mission Challenge in Richmond.

IN OTHER NEWS …

After his first career DNQ in Norwalk, Josh Hart and the R+L Carrier team hired former teenage Top Fuel sensation and respected wrench John Stewart to assist Ron Douglas as they try to solidify a spot in the Countdown. Regardless, ifthey compete at the final four races, they'll be in the Countdown doe to the aforementioned "perfect attendance" policy.

Shawn Reed’s first full-season attempt has been less than what the Northwest hitter would expect. Although they’ve qualified at all 10 events, Reed and crew chief Rob Wendland have yet to reach a semifinal round. Like Hart, if he runs the next four events, he'll also take part in the Countdown regardless of points position.

Top Fuel rookie Jasmine Salinas has qualified at all events she has attended after taking over for her father, Mike, following his health setback after the season opener in Gainesville. It’s been a tough go, with just round-wins, but you can tell she’s gaining experience and confidence with each outing. Like Force, she won’t get a free pass to the Countdown after missing Gainesville and will have to do it on points. She’s 93 points out of 10th with four races to go, so she’ll have to start reaching some semifinals if she wants to make the Countdown.

Salinas’ BFF, Travis Shumake, is the other second-generation nitro rookie competing this season. After qualifying in an emotional debut at the family’s Phoenix base, he’s DNQ’d in his last two attempts, including most recently in Norwalk.