NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Some things in life stand as both bold contradictions and solemn truths. Engines run their best right before they blow up. Parties are typically at their peak right before the local constabulary makes an appearance, and Las Vegas is the most chaotic and erratic NHRA Pro Mod race of any given season, yet it’s the perfect place to wrap it up year after year.

Most of the time…

We did say heroes AND horrors, right?

As we rapidly speed toward the Mopar NHRA Las Vegas Nationals powered by Dodge and the end of the 2026 JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by Elite Motorsports year, we could not help but have flashbacks to the last several seasons that have all produced whopper races and jaw-dropper results in the desert. Pull that seven-point harness on; we’re taking a trip.

If we go back a half decade, there were a couple of years of calm, to a degree. In 2021, Jose Gonzalez was such a commanding presence that he locked the title up in Bristol (yes, we ran it in the fall that year) and didn’t even make the trip to the city of sin, allowing the other guys to battle it out for what was left. Lyle Barnett won his second race of the season to close it out, defeating JR Gray in the final on a holeshot, his .011/5.814 defeating Gray’s quicker but losing .040/5.796.

In 2022, the Pro Mod Series decided that it would structure its season to end in Dallas rather than Las Vegas, and when Kris Thorne won the first round, he became the world champion.

The decision to cap it off before Las Vegas apparently angered the drag racing gods because once the finale came back to the high desert, it has been chaos ever since.

Case in point? 2023.

There was a 69-point spread between the No. 1 car coming in, Kris Thorne, and the No. 4 car entering the race, Jason Lee. No. 3 man Mike Castellana qualified first, points leader Thorne landed sixth, Justin Bond, second in the points, qualified second, and Jason Lee, who was fourth in the standings, hit the No. 12 spot in the starting order.

The first round was pure chaos. Jordan Lazic knocked Lee out, ending his chances. Castellana won, stopping Stan Shelton, as did Bond, downing Nick Januick.

And then Thorne staged…

In round two, Castellana took on and took down Dmitry Samorukov, and as he was getting ready to leave the top end, he was stopped by Amanda Busick and informed that if Bond lost, he was the champion.

Incredulous at the news, his bewilderment melted into pure joy when Kevin Rivenbark stopped Bond by .015 at the stripe, and he was crowned the champ then and there. He went on to win the race, capping a season that had begun with a massive pileup of a testing wreck and concluded with his first NHRA title.

As it turns out, the next guy would make Castellana’s difficult path look like a bubble bath.

Lazic in 2024 was a household name in the Pacific Northwest when it came to doorslammer racing, but outside of that enclave, he wasn’t.

He is now, due to a championship season that started late, missing the first two races, and built on dogged consistency to make the playoffs, and looked like a heck of a long shot when said playoffs kicked off with him sitting in 10th. But doesn’t it only make sense that a man from a mountainous region of the world only knew how to climb?

Seven cars came into Las Vegas within 48 points. You read that right. Lazic was third. Sound familiar?

Points leader Khalid al-Balooshi lost in round one, Mason Wright lost in round one, and the list got short. It was down to Bond (the points leader at that point), Lazic, Ken Quartuccio, and Thorne, back a year later after his massive wreck.

The second round was epic. Lazic had to face down his teammate, friend, and points-leading Bond head-to-head. He won on a holeshot, his 5.793 beating Bond’s 5.778. Quartuccio lost, eliminating him from the game, and Thorne won, leaving him and Lazic the last two standing and destined for a winner-take-all third round.

Thorne left first with a .025 to Lazic's .047, but his car quit early. Lazic’s 5.759 beat his 6.669. Incredibly, Lazic was the champion, and he had not won a race yet that season. We say yet, because in the final round, like Castellana the champ the year before, he beat a red-lighting Mike Janis to have his cake and eat it too.

That’s two in a row from third, but what if we told you the third would be from fourth?

Unlike Lazic, Gray had seen the winner’s circle during the 2025 regular season, three times in fact. But it was a car that was red-hot and ice-cold, leaving him sitting fourth coming into The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last October. With points and a half at the last event and six cars within 52 points, it was anyone’s game. Billy Banaka was leading the charge into the event and through qualifying, where he landed No. 1.

Eliminations were electric with contender Sidnei Frigo losing in round one, Mike Stavrinos leaving by .060 on Chip King and breaking instantly, and Banaka taking Derek Menholt down head-to-head. Gray won a squeaker over perennial spoiler Kevin Rivenbark to make the final four.

In the semi's, Gray stopped Castellana in a head-to-head that would have handed Banaka the title if he lost, and Banaka beat Chip King on both ends to make the final.  

It would be winner-take-all.

The final was the third time the two men had ever raced, and they were one and one. The two cars had run within .001 of each other in the semi's. As the cars rolled up, it was like the air had been sucked out of the dragstrip, one rip for the title. It gets no better.

Gray was .028 and ran 5.749/250.04 to Banaka’s .086 5.763/247.07 to win his first-ever NHRA title … by a single point.

With the final-round win, he tallied 1,121 points to the 1,120 earned by Banaka, and remember, he entered the race fourth.

The moral of the story? As you gear up for another Pro Mod season ender, pack Maalox, horsepower, incredible focus on the starting line, and unyielding hope because, as history shows, if you have any shot at it rolling into the gate, you stand an excellent shot leaving the property as an NHRA champion.