The Dodge NHRA Nationals presented by Direct Connection at the Las Vegas track was the fifth of six events in the “Countdown to the Championship” and was hosted from Oct. 30 through Nov. 2.
Several big stories arose since the beginning of the countdown. At the top was Brittany Force’s announcement that she was stepping away from driving duties after this season to focus on starting a family. Leah Pruitt-Stewart, who did the same thing prior to the 2024 season, will be returning as a driver in 2026. Tony Stewart will continue to race in Top Fuel, under the Elite Motorsports umbrella with RL Carriers (the current sponsor of Josh Hart Racing) as his sponsor. Elite Motorsports will continue to compete in Pro Stock with Erica Enders, Aaron Stanfield, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Troy Coughlin, the Cuadra family and others. They have merged with Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) and plans are to compete with three Top Fuel cars (including Stewart). Enders and Stanfield are both getting licensed to run in Top Fuel, with plans to compete in the class once funding is available.
Currently, under the NHRA competition rules, a driver may only compete in one professional category at any event. If the rules can be modified, during the off-season, that would allow Enders and Stanfield to compete in Top Fuel and Pro Stock at events. Ron Capps Racing will also have a Top Fuel dragster next season, to go along with the Napa Auto Parts Funny Car that Capps drives, to be driven by Maddie Gordon under the Carlyle Tools banner, part of the Napa Auto Parts brand. Gordon will finish up this season in her family’s Top Alcohol Funny Car. Josh Hart, who sold his entire Top Fuel operation to TSR and Elite Motorsports, will drive for John Force Racing, replacing Brittany Force in 2026. He will finish up this season in his RL Carriers dragster.
In Top Fuel at Las Vegas, the battle was coming down to Kalitta Racing (Doug Kallita – MAC Tools and Shawn Langdon – Kalitta Air) and Justin Ashley (SCAGG Power Equipment). Brittany Force and her team were no longer in realistic contention for her third Top Fuel title, but had no intentions of going down quietly. Force took the top qualifying spot, resetting her Las Vegas track speed record to 338.85 mph. Under tough weather conditions, she posted the only elapse time under 3.70 seconds (3.697). Kalitta and Langdon qualified second and third. With a short field, Force had a bye (single) opening round run and then took out Clay Millican and Tony Stewart to march into the final round. Langdon took out Kelly Harper, Justin Ashley (ending his hopes of a title) and then (teammate) Doug Kalitta to advance to the final round against Force. Langdon got away first (0.059 to 0.069) but could not hold off Force, who took her 19th career Top Fuel win (3.704 at 337.33 mph to 3.727 at 333.91 mph). The win made Force the winningest woman in the Nitro categories, Top Fuel and Funny Car. The legendary Shirley Muldowney had 18 wins and three championships Force also holds the elapse time record (3.623 seconds) and speed record (342.51 mph). She also has the track elapse time records at eight different tracks and the speed records at 10 different tracks. She is the only driver to go 340 plus mph 10 times, all in this season.
In Funny Car, Austin Prock looks to be invincible. His closest contender is Matt Hagan, followed by Jack Beckman. Prock qualified first at Las Vegas, followed by Beckman and Hagan, and marched into the final round over Jason Rupert, JR Todd and Bob Tasca III. Beckman saw his championship hopes fade away, when he lost on a holeshot to Daniel Wilkerson in the second round (0.098 to 0.057) with a losing 3.909 at 330.88 mph to 3.932 at 320.58 mph effort. Hagan got around Cruz Pedregon, Chad Green and Wilkerson to advance to the final round against Austin Prock. Though Prock left first (0.056 to 0.059) and started to drive away, his car lost traction just past half-track. This allowed Hagan to go by for a 3.877 at 327.03 mph to 6.424 at 102.467 mph victory. The win put Hagan 101 points back, going into the points and half final event. If Prock qualifies and gets out of the first round in Pomona, he could clinch the championship.
In Pro Stock, the top two contenders for the championship, Greg Anderson and Dallas Glenn (teammates on KD racing) wound up on the same side of the ladder, after qualifying (#1 Anderson, #4 Glenn). In the semifinal round they met up with Glenn taking the win on a holeshot (6.066 at 206.92 mph to 6.03 at 205.91 mph). Glenn then defeated Matt Hartford in the final round 6.062 at 206.61 mph to 6.625 at 207.50 mph, giving him a 92-point lead over Anderson, going into the final event.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, it was Gaige Herrera and Richard Gadson, who are Vance and Hynes racing Suzuki teammates, facing off in the semifinal round with Herrera taking the win 6.825 at 198.26 mph to 6.857 at 197.48 mph. Gadson left first with a perfect 0.000 reaction time to Herrera’s 0.005, but could not hold him off. Herrera then defeated Angie Smith in the final round 6.809 at 198.17 mph to 6.813 at 199.37 mph to move to 21 points behind Gadson in the championship battle.
Pomona will be the host site for the finals, Nov. 13 through 16.
