POMONA, Calif. — Championship drama is alive and well as the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series closes out its 75th anniversary season with this weekend’s electric In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at legendary In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
Championships will be decided in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle and though each title race comes with varying degrees of drama, the weekend is poised to be something special to close out NHRA’s milestone campaign.
Will we have a winner-take-all finale?
It’s not a guarantee, but there’s at least possibilities in a couple of classes heading into a massive weekend in Pomona.
Let’s take a look at the title chases and the hopefuls who hope to have their championship moments at the historic facility.
TOP FUEL
Drama is at a relative minimum here – at least compared to the other categories. Doug Kalitta’s Las Vegas win gives him a fighting chance against teammate and championship frontrunner Shawn Langdon, but this one is still heavily steered towards Langdon becoming a two-time champ.
Langdon currently holds a 107-point lead against the reigning champ, which means if things stand pat during qualifying, Langdon will only have to win the first round – even with points-and-a-half on the line – to clinch the title after a dominant season.
If Langdon gets 13 or more qualifying points than Kalitta in qualifying, he can clinch it to close out qualifying on Saturday.
FUNNY CAR
This one got a whole lot more interesting following Jordan Vandergriff’s victory in Las Vegas, as he enters the weekend 39 points back of Matt Hagan, who has his eyes on a remarkable fifth Funny Car world title.
Getting it under 30 points in qualifying – which would be difficult, but certainly not impossible – sets up a possibly winner-take-all scenario, but as it stands, Vandergriff needs to go two rounds further to pass Hagan at the finale.
Of course, that happened in Las Vegas, which sets up for a thrilling Pomona. Vandergriff certainly has momentum, but Hagan has been steady all season and has an incredible track record in Pomona, too. He won the spring race – at the 1,000th Funny Car race – and his eight wins at the legendary facility are second to only John Force in the Funny Car ranks.
J.R. Todd isn’t out of the mix, either. He’s 104 points out of first but will likely need a race win and some help to hoist a second world title.
PRO STOCK
Glenn is honing in on a second world title and seems like a runaway freight train heading to Pomona. He’s won the last two events, qualifying No. 1 at both events and making the quickest pass in Pro Stock history, taking an 87-point lead over Matt Hartford and a 99-point advantage over Greg Stanfield into the finale.
Should Glenn continue his torrid qualifying pace and get it to more than 90 points over Hartford going into Sunday, a first-round win would clinch the championship for Glenn.
If he doesn’t, he’ll need a second-round win to pick up a second world title.
An early loss – and Glenn did suffer a rare first-round mishap to open the Countdown to the Championship – would throw things into chaos.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
There’s bonus action in Pro Stock Motorcycle and that extra excitement could set the stage for a thriller on Sunday.
The final round from Las Vegas, featuring teammates Richard Gadson and Gaige Herrera, was postponed to Saturday qualifying in Pomona and there’s plenty riding on the outcome. Should Gadson, the reigning world champ, get the victory, he’ll add 20 points to his lead, which currently stands at 55 points over Herrera.
If the two-time champ Herrera wins and does some damage in qualifying, that deficit could get under 30 points for Sunday, setting up what could be an incredible winner-take-all scenario between the two standouts.
That means a 40-point swing is on the line on Saturday, which could go a long way when it comes to a world title and any Sunday dramatics.
