NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads toward the end of the regular season with the annual stop at Brainerd Int’l Raceway, which has hosted an NHRA event since 1983.

The event is No. 13 of 20 races this year in the NHRA Mission Foods Pro series, and it will include Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock, as well as the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage NHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock category, Pingel NHRA Top Fuel Motorcycle Series, and 10 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series classes.

At the last event in Sonoma, the record books took a pounding, especially in Top Fuel, where Brittany Force electrified the huge crowd with a record 343.16-mph run in her Monster Energy dragster.

Top Fuel is once again wide open as eight drivers have already won at least one event this season, including defending event winner Justin Ashley. In the current standings with two events remaining before the Countdown to the Championship playoffs, Ashley is third, 111 points behind leader Shawn Langdon, while Tony Stewart sits second, just 48 points behind.

Langdon, Stewart, Ashley, Doug Kalitta, and Antron Brown have already clinched their playoff spots. Brittany Force, Clay Millican, and Josh Hart can easily clinch this weekend. Shawn Reed can also lock up a playoff berth this weekend, although he won’t be driving after suffering a hand injury in Seattle. Reed will be using Jordan Vandergriff as a substitute driver this weekend.

In Funny Car, Austin Prock will almost certainly be the regular-season champion, but there will be plenty of jockeying for position behind him. Matt Hagan, Jack Beckman, Paul Lee, and Ron Capps all have a legit shot to finish second, and a big weekend in Brainerd will be crucial to achieving that goal.

Funny Car also has a lot of parity as seven drivers have carded wins so far this season, and surprisingly, Bob Tasca III, Daniel Wilkerson, and NHRA Rookie of the Year frontrunner Spencer Hyde are not among them.

For the most part, Pro Stock has been dominated by the KB Titan Racing team, and drivers Greg Anderson and Dallas Glenn in particular, although there was a recent breakthrough when Elite Motorsports team members Greg and Aaron Stanfield met in the historic father-son Sonoma final.

Anderson and Glenn have pretty much run away with the points battle, but there are playoff spots to be filled and plenty of drivers looking to fill them. So far, Anderson and Glenn have clinches, and so have Matt Hartford, Cory Reed, and Eric Latino, who got help from his son, Matt, after being sidelined due to recent surgery. Eric plans to return to driving this weekend in Brainerd.

The jam-packed schedule will also include eliminations for racers in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series as well as the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Mountain Motor Pro Stock class and the exciting Pingel Top Fuel Motorcycle Series.

Saturday’s highlights will also include the latest round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge of the season, which will pit the semifinal finishers from the recent Seattle event in a race for bonus cash and additional points. These rounds are run concurrently with Saturday qualifying.

2024 EVENT WINNERS
Justin Ashley, Top Fuel; Blake Alexander, Funny Car; Dallas Glenn, Pro Stock.
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MOST EVENT VICTORIES
Joe Amato, 6 TF; John Force, 11, FC; Bruce Allen, Bob Glidden, Kurt Johnson, Warren Johnson, 4, PS

TRACK RECORDS
Top Fuel - 3.640 sec. by Leah Pruett, Aug. ’17; 338.26 mph by Mike Salinas, Aug. ‘23.
Funny Car – 3.793 sec. by Robert Hight Aug. ’17; 338.00 mph by R. Hight, Aug. ’17.
Pro Stock - 6.541 seconds by Erica Enders, Aug. '15; 211.39 mph by Shane Gray, Aug. '15

NATIONAL RECORDS
Top Fuel - 3.623 sec. by Brittany Force, Sept. ‘19, Reading; 343.16 mph by Brittany Force, July ‘25, Sonoma
Funny Car - 3.793 sec. by Robert Hight, Aug. '17, Brainerd; 341.68 mph by Austin Prock, Nov. ’24, Pomona
Pro Stock – 6.443 sec. by Greg Anderson, March ’25, Gainesville; 215.55 mph by Erica Enders, May ’14 Englishtown

EVENT SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, Aug. 15
LUCAS OIL SERIES eliminations at 9:00 a.m.
NHRA MISSION FOODS SERIES qualifying at 4:00 and 6:15 p.m.

SATURDAY, Aug. 16
LUCAS OIL SERIES eliminations at 9:00 a.m.
NHRA MISSION FOODS SERIES qualifying at Noon and 2:30 p.m.

SUNDAY, Aug. 17
Pre-race ceremonies, 9:30 a.m.
NHRA MISSION FOODS SERIES eliminations begin at 10:30 a.m.

TELEVISION

Friday, Aug. 15, FS1 will televise one-and-a-half hours of qualifying coverage at 10 p.m. (ET).

Saturday, Aug.16, FS1 will televise one-and-a-half hours of qualifying coverage at 7 p.m. (ET).

Sunday, Aug. 17, FOX will televise three hours of live finals coverage at 3:00 p.m. (ET)