NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

For the fifth straight day, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park roared to life at 8 a.m. with the sound of Stock Eliminator cars. With qualifying long completed, sportsman racers are well into eliminations and Sunday’s early action includes the third round of Stock and Super Stock, the second round of Comp, and the first round of Right Trailers Top Sportsman and Top Dragster.

Later, the alcohol cars will take center stage with the first round of Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car with a busy morning topped off by the opening round of the FlexJet Factory Stock Showdown.

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 Comp racer Chelsea Tindle lost control of her D/Dragster Automatic entry in a losing round-two race against Tim Ratliff and crashed. She was able to exit the car under her own power and was evaluated by the NHRA medical team.

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MISSION FOODS POINTS UPDATES

This is the final event of the regular season to earn a berth in the six-race Countdown to the Championship. Racers qualify for the playoffs in two ways: either by being among the Top 10 in points or by making at least the minimum required number of qualifying sessions at the 16 regular-season events, which is three of five at Indy.

Top Fuel

The following have clinched a spot in the Countdown by making the minimum number of runs this weekend:
Josh Hart
Billy Torrence
Justin Ashley
Clay Millican
Tony Schumacher
Will Smith

Shawn Reed still needs to earn enough points to secure a spot in the top 10 to clinch a spot in the Countdown.

Funny Car

The following have clinched a spot in the Countdown by making the minimum number of runs this weekend:
Austin Prock
Chad Green
Alexis DeJoria
Daniel Wilkerson
Spencer Hyde
Dave Richards

Cruz Pedregon thus far has only run two qualifying sessions; if he makes at least one today, he will secure a spot in the Countdown.

Pro Stock

The following have clinched a spot in the Countdown by making the minimum number of runs this weekend:
Aaron Stanfield
Erica Enders
Matt Latino
Jeg Coughlin Jr
Cody Anderson
Eric Latino
Kenny Delco

Troy Coughlin Jr. still needs to earn enough points to secure a spot in the top 10 to secure a spot. 

Pro Stock Motorcycle

The following have clinched a spot in the countdown by making the minimum number of runs this weekend in Pro Stock Motorcycle:
John Hall
Chase Van Sant
Ryan Oehler
Jianna Evaristo
Geno Scali

Steve Johnson thus far has only run two qualifying sessions; he needs to make at least one today to secure a spot in the Countdown.

Clayton Howey still needs to earn enough points to secure a spot in the top 10 to clinch a spot in the Countdown.  Others in contention for the top 10 by points only are Kelly Clontz, Marc Ingwersen, and Wesley Wells.

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PRO QUALIFYING PREVIEW

Two shots to get into the biggest field of the year, with the Top Fuel bump spot sitting at 3.934 and six Top Fuel drivers still battling past polesitter T.J. Zizzo. Only five of the 23 Top Fuel cars have run in the three-second zone on two of three passes; no one has made it down the track on all three to date, and with prime conditions, this is the session to make some hay. 

Dylan Winefsky has the bump in Funny Car with a 4.119 with six drivers not in the show, Mason McGaha's 6.711 in the No. 16 spot in Pro Stock with three drivers unqualified, and Hector Arana Sr.'s 7.091 in the bump in Pro Stock Motorcycle, which also has 19 entries.

The air temperature is 75 degrees and the track temp is at a decent 114, both bests of the weekend for Pro sessions

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TOP FUEL Q4

Two-time and reigning world champ Doug Kalitta, who was 13th in the field when he staged his Mac Tools car, raced to a 3.746 to jump deep into the top half of the field in the No. 3 spot.

Ida Zetterström also jumped into the quick half of the field with a 3.778 in the Bandero Tequila dragster, the third best of the session.

Billy Torrence, who was 0-for-3 to this point, raced to a top-half spot with a 3.767 that turned out to be the second-best run of the session behind Kalitta. Torrence was also competing here in Super Comp but lost in round two. Billy’s son, four-time world champ Steve, is serving as color commentator in the announcing booth and got to enjoy that run from a unique perspective.

Shawn Langdon (also an early-round loser in Super Comp) and crew chief Brian Husen, confident of their positioning, look like they took a shot at a first-round Monday tune-up and went a little too far, losing traction a few hundred feet out after a great launch. They’ve made just one full-power run to the stripe in four qualifying attempts. Prior to this event, the Langdon team had a great 73.8% run-completion record (eliminations and qualifying), second only to teammate Doug Kalitta’s 76.3% mark.

Shawn Reed and Krista Baldwin, who both ran Friday night and skipped both of Saturday’s hot sessions, were back on the track and made solid respective runs of 3.784 and 3.887. Reed’s run was the session’s fourth best.

Jake Sanders continued to impress in his NHRA Top Fuel debut, bettering his Friday run of 3.878 with a 3.862 but it’s just outside the field.

Twenty-one of the 22 entered drivers made a run in that session (only Jacob Opatrny sat out) and the bump spot now sits at 3.855 with 2024 event winner Clay Millican.

Tony Schumacher. Indy’s winningest Pro driver, is outside the field with one run left, sitting 20th with a 3.920 best.