NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

MISSION CHALLENGE ROUND 1/TOP FUEL Q3

The session kicked off at 12:10 and ended less than five minutes later after Tony Schumacher absolutely demolished the rear end, sending the hard-to-clean gear lube all over the track about 300 feet downcourse. The remaining Top Fuel cars were sent back to the pits while the NHRA Safety Safari presented by Simpson undertook the arduous task of clean up. The session resumed about an hour later, which will move Q4 into the early evening with what promises to be amazing air. So we're looking at this as a bit of a win, right?

Maddi Gordon, appearing in her second straight Mission Challenge, avenged her semifinal loss at the Arizona Nationals by taking down her mentor, Shawn Langdon, with a 3.831 after the pHenix winner lost traction early.

Gordon will take on Doug Kalitta in the final after Kalitta won a rematch of his 2023 final round with Leah Pruett from the NHRA Finals, which won Kalitta his first championship. The lanes were reversed, but the outcome was the same as Kalitta turned on the win light with an early shutoff 3.98 after Pruett went up in smoke early.

Gordon's time was the third-best of the round with Tony Stewart (3.783) and Josh Hart (3.788) running quicker, but Pruett's Friday 3.724 remained atop the field.

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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.

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MISSION CHALLENGE ROUND ONE/PRO STOCK Q3

Aaron Stanfield, who got into the Mission Challenge because of Cody Coughlin's absence, made the most of it by defeating Elite teammate, Jeg Coughlin Jr.,  6.553 to 6.573, to advance to the Challenge final. In the other semifinal, Dallas Glenn drove around Greg Stanfield's .009 light with a 6.529 to Stanfield's 6.563.

Glenn's number was the second-best of the frame as team boss Greg Anderson had the best run for the third straight session with a 6.516. David Connolly, subbing for Cody Coughlin in the Elite camp, had the session's third-best pass, a 6.536.

Six-time world champ Erica Enders finds herself surprisingly on the bump spot with a 6.590 with one session to go and three other drivers eager to bump her out.

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MISSION CHALLENGE FINAL/TOP FUEL Q4

NHRA rolled out a new fan element allowing spectators to vote on the upcoming run, and more than 70% of them believed that Top Fuel rookie Maddi Gordon would beat two-time world champion Doug Kalitta in the final of the Mission Challenge, and they were wrong as Kalitta won his second straight Mission Challenge title on a 3.74 to 3.79 count.

Kalitta's 3.749 was also the quickest run of the session, just ahead of the 3.761 by teammate Shawn Langdon. Friday leader Leah Pruett, who posted a 3.79, held onto the No. 1 qualifying spot -- the first since her return -- and will get a bye in round one Sunday.

Eight-time world champ Tony Schumacher, who lost his Q3 run to a broken rear end, was shut off on the starting line for Q4 and will end up in the No. 15 spot with his 4.61 e.t. from Q3.

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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.

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MISSION CHALLENGE FINAL/PRO STOCK Q4

Fans overwhelmingly voted in favor of world champ Dallas Glenn winning the Mission Challenge final over Aaron Stanfield, and they were right again with a resounding win after Stanfield shook the tires at the green. Glenn didn't take it easy, powering to the best run of the session, a 6.525.

Greg Anderson was on probably his best run of the event, but his Hendrickcars.com Chevy got loose downtrack, forcing him to lift, but he still locked up his class-leading 141st No. 1 qualifier with his 6.516 from earlier today.

Greg Stanfield's 6.541 was the next best run behind Glenn, with a resurgent Deric Kramer next best with a 6.542.

Veteran Kenny Delco ended up on the bump spot with a 6.583 and will be Anderson's first foe Sunday morning.

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Incident report

During the first round of Top Alcohol Dragster eliminations, James Stevens’ dragster crossed the center line and then made contact and went over the guard wall before coming to a stop. Stevens exited the car and was alert, and was examined onsite by NHRA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Surface before being transported to a local medical facility.
 

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LUCAS OIL SERIES RESULTS

Due to a challenging Sunday forecast, NHRA decided to run the Sportsman competition to its conclusion today. Here are the final-round results:

Comp
Ryan Warter def. Josh Lee

Super Stock
Kyle Rizzoli def. Jim Grossi

Stock
Justin Lamb def. Jared Jordan

Super Comp
Justin Morris def. Allison McKoane

Super Gas
Mike Wiblishouser def. Val Torres

Super Street
Kenny Snow def. Jacob Beckwith

Top Dragster
Grant Durie def. Steven Hamilton

Top Sportsman
Jeff Gillette def. William Mizia