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We’re in that sweet spot of the year, that golden window of giving and receiving among friends and family. Since that’s the theme for so many over the next stretch of days, we decided to come up with a list of gifts that we already got over the course of the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour. There’s not a lump of coal in the bunch.��

First round of Top Fuel IN Norwalk

If you were there, you lived it. If you watched it on NHRA.tv or NHRA on FOX, you got the show of the year. If there were a round of drag racing to shoot into space for the aliens to watch and understand, it would be this one. No, not for record runs. No, not for upsets or pedaling freakshows, but for the essence of how great drag racing can be.��

This was a barrage of Top Fuel shots, one after the next, clean, straight and fast, side by side. About half the pairs had margins of victory that were 3 feet or less at full throttle. Just as you were digesting the greatness of one pair, the next pair was firing. Jasmine Salinas beating Tony Stewart, Tripp Tatum holeshotting T.J. Zizzo out of town, and Clay Millican ripping a 3.74 next to Shawn Langdon.��

Enough, we’re going back to watch it again.

Career bests for the Independents

Long live the independent Funny Car racer, right? The racers that choose the deep end of the pool with the shallow end of a wallet will always be fan favorites, and this year, three of the biggest launched to personal bests.��

Terry Haddock ripped an awesome 3.958 at New England Dragway this year, which was the best run he has ever made. He limited his schedule in 2024 and concentrated on the details, and that showed.��

Jeff Diehl went 3.955, 318.09 mph at Pacific Raceways, much to the delight of his fanbase. The Surfer has linked up with Speedtech Motorsports, and the infusion of enthusiasm and funding showed through the back half of the season.��

Jason Rupert was the big man on campus when it came to the hometown heroes in 2024, though. He went 3.913 in the other lane next to Austin Prock during the first round of eliminations at the In-N-Out Burger 91���� Finals. This was a career-best number that showed the small team’s raw talent and ability. Not only was it a 3.91, it was a clean 3.91.��

The whole In-N-Out Burger 91���� Finals

Airplanes “parking” in the pits, the fastest run in the history of the sport, the second time a Top Fuel car made 300 mph to the eighth-mile, a winner-take-all Pro Stock final, a racing legend’s baby being born a scant few hours before round one and him still making it, a Top Fuel champion re-emerges like Batman, packed stands, delicious burgers, and NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series titles being decided under the lights on Sunday as well.��

As many times as younger drag racing devotees have to listen to the old guard tell them about how gnarly stuff was back in their day, score one for the current generation of NHRA fans. This was the most bat guano Sunday at a drag race this sport has seen on any level in decades. If there is a frontier beyond pure adrenaline-fueled chaos, this was it.��

Dan Mercier

The smiling Canadian with the cool Quebecois accent appeared at eight races this year, qualified eight times, and made the semifinals twice. It’s impossible not to like this guy and his approach. After working with Rob Wendland for a few seasons, Mercier was on his own in 2024 after Wendland landed a much-deserved full-time job with Shawn Reed’s operation.��

Working off of what Wendland taught them, Mercier and his crew did a fine job. The machine normally qualified around the 10th spot and made its way to the semi’s in both Chicago and Reading.��

How is this a gift? It proves that brains, planning, hard work, and picking your spots can make even a part-time Top Fuel team a dangerous prospect against the best.��

A mending John Force

Round one, the NHRA Virginia Nationals, June 23, 2024: John Force and Terry Haddock staged and left. Disaster ensued. It was a moment in time none of us will ever forget. That moment then manifested itself into weeks of uncertainty and a kind of heavy fog over the sport of drag racing. But then Force woke up and spoke, and then we saw some photos shared by the family on social media, and finally, we all heard him speak, addressing the sport directly via video. In a crowning moment for the 2024 season, Force came back to the dragstrip at the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas. He received an uproarious standing ovation when the crowd was alerted to his presence on the starting line during qualifying session one

His weekend ended by witnessing daughter Brittany win Top Fuel and Austin Prock win Funny Car in his honor. Truly amazing. ����

A “To Be Continued” on the Glenn and Stanfield story

We know two guys who don’t see this as a gift by any means, but maybe 2024 was just a warm-up act for these two. The Glidden/Johnson/Shepherd/Iaconio battles of old were so magnified because those guys had a legitimate advantage on the field at times in their respective careers. These two guys do not hold a mechanical edge, but a mental one in many cases. They battled and warred like the racers of old in 2024, and we’re basically guaranteed to see more of the same in 2025. With the way it all worked out, they’ll likely somehow be even better than they were. Chapter two of this saga, which could go on for years, should be a dandy.��

45 holeshots in Pro Stock

There were 45 flippin’ holeshots in Pro Stock in 2024. We had 20 races. Start doing that math. Why is this a gift? Easy, because it is the physical illustration of how tightly matched the category is and how because of it, the level of driving accuracy and consistency needs to be levels beyond what it ever was before.��

Entire fields are separated by a handful of hundredths top to bottom, so it would make sense that the true path to the winner’s circle always starts with taking the first lunge off the starting line, but 45?! That’s bonkers.��

Enjoy the show for what it is, people. Yes, when the guy down the street could slap together a cast aluminum tunnel ram-equipped, junkyard truck block-based, mechanical tach-equipped engine for $3.49, the class had some charm. It also had gulfs of performance differential between the haves and have-nots. You cannot proclaim to love close racing and bag on the insanity that is modern Pro Stock.

Pro Stock Motorcycle dominating social media��

There were few (perhaps only one) human beings on planet Earth that had any idea that Pro Stock Motorcycle would become one of the predominant NHRA social media discussion points for long swaths of 2024. Some of the arguments were brilliant, some were Baghdad Bob levels of bad, and still others had us shaking our heads like we were mixing paint between our ears. But here’s the thing.

Ultimately, passion, attention, argument, and debate is healthy and good for not just the class of Pro Stock Motorcycle but for NHRA Drag Racing. Of course there was plenty of cringe-worthy stuff, but the reality is that people were more engaged to watch their favorite hero rider or perhaps the ones that they vilify in poison-tipped comments.��

It got uncomfortable and weird at times, but attention in sports is never bad so long as they spell your name right.��

A Funny Car triple holeshot

When Bob Tasca smashed the throttle pedal down in the Funny Car final of the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, he not only raced into the history books for the race win, he also became the first Funny Car driver in NHRA history to record a triple holeshot. Tasca was an incredible .034 on the starting line in that round. His 3.915 was the slowest of the four runs but beat a 3.904, 3.89, and 3.902. It was as tight as a drum at the finish line and one of the most awesome quadrants in the ever-longer legacy of NHRA four-wide racing. For 2025, we’ll see it in the Countdown to the Championship. If someone pulls this stunt in a Countdown race, it could swing a title.��

The second half of this two-part gift was getting our first look at the competitive intensity of Austin Prock in a Funny Car. Prock was vibrating with fury upon seeing his time slip and made sure to mention that the numbers indicated Bob had staged the car pretty deep. Of course, that also allowed him to win, so it was the right plan. Seeing Prock, eyes wide, voice quivering with anger was an indicator that the dude was going to be a heap of trouble for the rest of the class in 2024. He was.��

A defining season of modern Top Fuel racing

Beyond all else in 2024, we saw a season of Top Fuel racing that was absolutely and unequivocally awesome in the true sense of the word. The racers who debuted, Tony Stewart included, the starting line mastery of Justin Ashley, eight different winners, 10 different finalists, champions like Brittany Force and Doug Kalitta failing to qualify at times, legitimate Countdown-qualifying drama with Force and Jasmine Salinas … we could go on all day.��

Steel sharpens steel, and we have finally started seeing that really come into play in Top Fuel. The young racers who continue to emerge from the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series with not only big dreams but big talent raised the collective bar on the competition level, the veterans have gotten better, and it’s incredibly great fun to watch. How does it get better? Just watch, it’s going to.��

There’s 10 gifts that we were given early by the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. Here’s to hoping there are some holiday surprises awaiting you in the coming days and weeks. If you race a Pro Stock car, hope that it’s not another holeshot. They seem to be the hot ticket this season!
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