We learned a lot from four action-packed days at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Peak, and we’ve somehow managed to pare our list down to five favorites. Here goes.

TONY STEWART IS A HECK OF A RACE CAR DRIVER

OK, most people knew this three decades ago when he was tearing up short tracks across the Midwest in Sprint and Midget cars, but in the last few weeks, NHRA fans have come to realize that Tony Stewart is a generational talent who has fairly quickly adapted to the nuances of drag racing. Stewart reached his fourth straight final round in Chicago and cashed his second Pro win with a thrilling final-round win against holeshot master Justin Ashley.

Stewart’s driving talent has been evident since day one, and he’s now got the race car to go with it. Stewart took a patient approach with crew chief Neal Strausbaugh and the rest of his TSR Nitro team, and it’s now paying solid dividends. The Rinnai dragster ran 3.67 in qualifying and backed it up with a 3.69 on race day. Stewart is now the championship leader after six rounds. Is there anyone who thinks that he won’t be fighting for the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel title once the Countdown to the Championship begins later this season?

TOM BAILEY IS THE UNDISPUTED KING OF STREET CAR RACING

When it comes to street car racing and the popular drag and drive movement, there is no one who has been more influential than Tom Bailey. The promoter of popular events, including Sick Week and Sick Summer, and the publisher of Sick The Magazine, Bailey’s influence is unmistakable. At the same time, he’s still best known for his Sick 2.0 Camaro, the first street-legal car to run in the five-second zone at a drag and drive event. Bailey accomplished that feat at Virginia Motorsports Park in 2019, and he’s been trying to better those numbers ever since.

Using a Steve Morris SMX engine and a pair of enormous turbochargers, Bailey made history at Route 66 Raceway when he ran a 5.793 at 263.51 mph, the fastest run ever recorded by a full-bodied car at an NHRA event. Bailey also won the Peak Street Car Shootout. And yes, the car is regularly street driven and has literally thousands of highway miles on the odometer.

CRUZ PEDREGON IS NOTHING IF NOT RESILIENT

Cruz Pedregon has been a constant in NHRA nitro racing since the early 1990s, and he’s also one of the sport’s longest tenured team owners, so he knows a thing or two about survival and beating the odds. The two-time world champion has been winless since the 2022 NHRA Finals in Pomona, but that might end sooner rather than later based on his results in Chicago.

Pedregon experienced a violent engine explosion on Saturday that damaged his one-off Snap-on Makers and Fixers body, but his team pulled together and regrouped and were rewarded with a solid semifinal finish on Sunday. Pedregon reportedly sent several of his team members back to Indy on Saturday night to retrieve the parts they’d need for Sunday, and that proved to be a smart decision as he topped J.R. Todd and Bob Tasca III with a pair of 3.94 runs before dropping a tire-smoking battle against Jack Beckman. There is work yet to be done, but there is also a fair amount of optimism in the Snap-on camp.

THE CONGRUITY PRO MOD SERIES DEFINES QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT

When it comes to the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, what’s not to like? NHRA Pro Mod cars are loud. They are fast. They are unpredictable, and they also deliver some of the best side-by-side competition in all of drag racing.

All of that was on display in Chicago, where Mason Wright put all the pieces together for his second win. Wright’s Modern Racing-prepared Camaro was dominant, but only to a point. The entire field at Route 66 Raceway was separated by a little more than a tenth of a second. The Pro Mod class also doesn’t lack for young talent as Khalid alBalooshi’s 17-year-old son, Rashid, made his debut in the team’s Al-Anabi entry and earned endless praise for a string of very competitive reaction times.

MATT SMITH AND GAIGE HERRERA CAN’T ESCAPE EACH OTHER

There have only been three Pro Stock Motorcycle races this season, but rivals Matt Smith and Gaige Herrera have met in the final of each of them. Herrera won in Gainesville, while Smith returned the favor in the final of the recent Charlotte four-wide event. In Chicago, Herrera was back on top, raising his record against Smith to 6-1 in final rounds.

During his career, Smith has never lacked rivals. From Steve Johnson to the Arana family, Smith has always found someone he truly enjoys beating. Today, that honor falls upon Herrera. The rivalry is real, but there is also a measure of respect. That was evident in the Chicago final when both riders whacked the throttle before staging and Smith flickered the stage bulb. To Herrera, it was all in good fun. On any given day, Smith can run alongside the two-time champ, so it’s nearly a given that they’ll race several more times this season, and that’s a bonus for NHRA fans.