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Updated throughout the day

As we kick off Mission Foods-class action at noon Saturday, it's a moderate change from Friday's sweatbox thanks to some cloud cover. Instead of mid-90s, we're looking at mid-80s at least through the day's first sessions, which also includes the opening rounds of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge. As it is with Sunday eliminations, the top two finishers from each of the two quads — comprised of the quarterfinalists from the Winternationals two weeks ago — in Q3 will advance to the four-car final, which will run concurrent with Q4. All Mission Challenge runs also count as qualifying passes.

Top Fuel Q3/Mission Challenge Round 1

Brittany Force was the runaway winner of the first Mission Challenge quad, leaving on all four drivers with a .069 light and a dazzling 3.778 to grab the No. 1 qualifying spot. Winternationals champ Clay Millican advanced alongside her with a 4.058. Jasmine Salinas smoked the tires early and Scott Palmer backfired the supercharger as soon as he matted the gas.

Doug Kalitta won the second quad, edging Tony Stewart’s holeshot-aided 3.821 with a 3.808 that tripped the win light by an infinitesimally tight .0002-second (two ten-thousandths). Shawn Langdon finished third with a 3.952 and Josh Hart fourth.

Both Steve Chrisman and Terry Totten made their first runs of the event to give us a 15-car field.

Kalitta's run made him second behind Force for Sunday's start with Friday low qualifier Steve Torrence dropped to third despite an improved 3.809.

Force will have first choice of lanes for the�� Mission Challenge final with Kalitta choosing second and Stewart third. Millican will end up in whichever lane is left.

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Funny Car Q3/Mission Challenge Round 1

Matt Hagan advanced to the Mission Challenge Funny Car final with a 4.12 win -- he said afterwards that his crew remotely shut the engine off downtrack as it was beginning to misfire -- finishing just ahead of Chad Green’s fiery 4.196 with tire-smoking Bobby Bode and Jack Beckman finishing third and fourth. Although Green’s run was expensive, it took him from outside the field into the quick 16.

Rookie Spencer Hyde continued to impress, winning his quad with a 3.985 ahead of Cruz Pedregon’s 3.990. They will have first and second picks for the final round. Daniel Wilkerson finished the quad in third with Paul Lee, who backfired the blower early, coasting to fourth place.

Earlier in the session, Ron Capps, who entered Q3 not qualified, eked his way into the field after a loose pass from which he stepped off way before the stripe and his 4.279 put him 15th, though Green’s later run moved him onto the bump spot. For the record, Capps’ last DNQ was at this race in 2016, a span of nearly 200 events.

Alexis DeJoria, meanwhile, remains outside the field in the 18th spot with a 4.626 recorded in this session. Her last DNQ was at the 2024 Winternationals.

Lee's 3.940 from Friday remained atop the 4-Wide Nationals field with Capps on the bump spot. Dave Richards picked up a rare bonus point with a 4.064 that was third-best of the session.

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Pro Stock Q3/Mission Challenge Round 1

Greg Anderson continued to set the pace in Pro Stock with a low-for-the-round 6.631 and a win in his quad to make the Mission Challenge final, which also saw Jeg Coughlin Jr. use a holeshot to score a runner-up after running 6.697. Cory Reed and Brandon Foster finished the quad third and fourth, respectively.

Dallas Glenn delivered a .014 reaction time in the next semifinal quad, and he never looked back, running 6.637 to earn a spot in the Mission Challenge final. Filling out the Mission final is Matt Hartford, who ran 6.642. And Deric Kramer crossed the line third with Matt Latino taking fourth.

The bump spot after 3 sessions is 6.701 by Troy Coughlin Jr.

With 22 cars on the property, there are six drivers not qualified, including Fernando Cuadra Jr., Greg Stanfield, Stephen Bell, Kenny Delco, Joey Grose, and Erica Enders, who ran 6.716. Enders’ last DNQ occurred in 2016 when she failed to qualify at Charlotte 2.

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Top Fuel Q4/Mission Challenge final

Doug Kalitta’s final-round run in the Mission Challenge ended up being a 2-for-1 as his 3.730 not only won the final quad but also boosted his Mac Tools dragster into the No. 1 qualifying spot. Kalitta's win, his third in Mission Challenge history, continues Kalitta Motorsports' 2025 monopoly of the special event on the heels of teammate Shawn Langdon's back-to-back wins in this year's Phoenix and Pomona Challenge events.

Kalitta finished ahead of Brittany Force’s 3.754, an improvement of her earlier-leading 3.778, but she dropped to No. 2 in the field. Clay Millican and tire-smoking Tony Stewart finished third and fourth, respectively.

Antron Brown’s 3.787 was the session’s third-best run and boosted him to the No. 3.

Kalitta will be part of a three-car quad on Sunday due to the 15-car field.

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Funny Car Q4/Mission Challenge final

Rookie Spencer Hyde continues his meteoric rise in the class by winning the Mission Challenge final just two weeks after qualifying for his first field at the Winternationals. Hyde’s 3.968 was punctuated by a blower backfire that heavily damaged the body but he got to the stripe ahead of Curz Pedregon’s 4.002. Matt Hagan finished third and Chad Green fourth.

Hyde’s run was second best of the session behind Austin Prock’s 3.948 but neither got around Paul Lee’s field-leading 3.940. Green ended up on the bump with a 4.196 and will face Lee in round one Sunday.

There was plenty of drama outside the Mission Challenge in Q4. Both Jason Rupert (4.154) and Alexis DeJoria (4.250) bumped their way into the field, booting Ron Capps and Jeff Diehl from the show. Despite a problem in the pits that didn’t allow the NAPA team to properly warm the car in the pits, Capps got back into the field with a 4.005 to bump DeJoria, and Diehl didn’t make it either, joining DeJoria and rookie Dylan Winefsky on the DNQ list.

DeJoria’s run was a costly one in many ways, as her Bandero Toyota lit up big time just past the lights.

“It was a dog leaving, but we're just trying to get in, so I had to leg it out,” DeJoria said. “Unfortunate boom at the top end. The car’s in one piece for the most part; we’ll have to replace the [body] burst panels, and, we put some oil on the track, and this was a brand-new firesuit, darn it.”

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Pro Stock Q4/Mission Challenge Final

The Mission Challenge combined with final qualifying produced one of the most dramatic Pro Stock moments of the young 2025 season.

Dallas Glenn used an .022 reaction time and 6.637 run to hold off his quad and take the Mission Challenge victory, which is his fourth, with Matt Hartford as the runner-up, Jeg Coughlin Jr. finished third, and Greg Anderson ran low elapsed time of the meet (6.614) but finished last.

As the four cars staged, Jeg Coughlin Jr. sat unqualified in the 17th position, while his teammate Erica Enders was No. 16, on the bump. Coughlin Jr. delivered a clean 6.669 to break into the field, bumping Enders out. This is the first DNQ for Enders since Charlotte 2 in 2016.

Anderson retained pole position, and he’s followed closely by Cody Coughlin, Dallas Glenn, Matt Hartford, and Cory Reed in the fifth spot. Eric Latino ran 6.693 to qualify on the bump and he will face Anderson in round 1 tomorrow.

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