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Last season, there were eight different winners in Top Fuel, seven in Funny Car, six in Pro Stock, and four in Pro Stock Motorcycle, yet the only first-winner was Chase Van Sant, who claimed the Pro Stock Motorcycle title in Seattle. That only serves to underscore how tough the competition is across the board in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. Tough? Yes, but there is hope when it comes to the prospect of first-time winners because there were nine other drivers that made it to a final round with a shot to get their first Professional victories.

So, that begs the question of: Who might become the next racer to hoist their first Professional Wally in 2025? Not surprisingly, there are plenty of qualified candidates, and even a few for whom a first win seems almost inevitable.

With the start of the 2025 season on the horizon, we’ve taken a class by class look at some of the drivers who are likely to join the list of Pro winners this season.

TOP FUEL

Krista Baldwin
Should Krista Baldwin ever win an NHRA national event, the winner’s circle celebration will certainly be one for the ages. To suggest the third-generation racer is enthusiastic would be a big understatement. Baldwin owns her own Top Fuel team, which is a major accomplishment itself, but at this point, her success is largely dependent on budget, and that’s a challenge for almost every team owner. Last year, Baldwin competed in just seven events, qualifying for five of them. On the positive side, Baldwin has run a career best of 3.755, so she’s far from a pushover.

Doug Foley

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but Doug Foley is a part-time competitor who poses a full-time threat to the competition. Want proof? Just look at his 2024 season. Foley ran just eight events and qualified at all of them. In St. Louis, he came from the No. 12 spot to reach the final round by beating title contenders Tony Schumacher, Justin Ashley, and Clay Millican. In the final, Foley gave Antron Brown all he could handle in a 3.84 to 3.86 loss. Foley recently moved his team back to North Carolina from Brownsburg, Ind., in an effort to improve consistency, and there’s no reason to think we couldn’t see him in another final in 2025 with the possibility of a different outcome.

Dan Mercier
Canadian Dan Mercier ran just eight events last year, but he went to a pair of semifinals and generally ran well enough to earn the respect of the full-time teams. For Mercier, the biggest roadblock to success came in qualifying, as his best start came from No. 9, and he was as low as No. 14 on three occasions. If he can find the necessary performance to move into the top half of the field, the odds of winning more rounds, and possibly even a race win, will improve dramatically.

Shawn Reed

The 2025 season hasn’t officially begun, but Shawn Reed has already won a race, and that could be an indicator of big things to come. Reed recently attended the preseason event in Bradenton, Fla., and he looked good doing it with a 3.69 in the final to beat Josh Hart. Last year, Reed made a big commitment by hiring crew chief Rob Wendland, and he ran all 20 races with mixed results. After a slow start, Reed reached the semifinals in St. Louis and ended the year with a career-best 3.67 in Pomona. Based on his recent performance, he’ll be a consistent threat to win anywhere this season and is among the top contenders to score a first win.

Tony Stewart

Nobody knows how to win races better than Tony Stewart, and given his past success, including championships in multiple forms of circle track racing, and his more recent victories in the McPhillips family Top Alcohol Dragster, it’s almost hard to believe the Hall of Famer went winless in 2024. Stewart was competitive all season, but the Top Fuel class is as tough as it’s ever been. In his first season in Top Fuel, Stewart�� won 17 elimination rounds and went to his first final in Sonoma. He also went to the semifinals on five other occasions, so it’s fair to suggest that he’s not far off.

Jasmine Salinas
Jasmine Salinas didn’t expect to be a full-time Top Fuel driver in 2024, but she was thrust into the spotlight after her father, Mike, stepped aside after the season opener in Gainesville. After a successful run in the Top Alcohol Dragster class that included wins in Gainesville and Dallas, admittedly, Salinas struggled at times in her rookie Top Fuel season but ultimately made steady progress. Salinas ended the 2024 season by running 3.6s and scoring a holeshot win over Shawn Reed in Pomona, which should have been more than enough to fuel optimism heading into 2025.

Ida Zetterström

The 2023 FIA European Top Fuel champion made her NHRA debut in 2024 with an abbreviated eight-race schedule, and her results were both frustrating and encouraging. Zetterström impressed by reaching the semifinals in her Brainerd debut but won just a single round after that. Much of the JCM Racing team’s struggles can be traced to qualifying, where they landed in the top half of the field just once, which often meant a tough round-one match against a championship-contending team. Zetterström is currently scheduled for a minimum of 10 events this season with the hopes of expanding to a full schedule. Zetterström has adjusted to racing in the U.S., and she returns to a JCM team that scored a pair of wins last season, so she’s probably much closer to a win than one might think.

T.J. Zizzo
If T.J. Zizzo ran more than just a handful of events each season, there is little doubt that he already would have joined the list of national event winners, and he might even have multiple victories. When it comes to checking boxes, Zizzo and his Rust-Oleum team make the grade in almost every category as he’s an above-average driver with the best equipment available. And there is no shortage of talent when it comes to tuning. Unlike some of the other part-time teams, Zizzo does not struggle during qualifying. In fact, he was the low qualifier last year at his home event in Chicago. Zizzo raced in a memorable final during the 2020 season but lost to Justin Ashley. That is not likely to be his last shot at a Wally.

FUNNY CAR

Bobby Bode

Exhibit A in the “What might have been” file comes from Bobby Bode, who made his first career Funny Car final in Houston in 2022 against Matt Hagan. For those who might not remember, Bode was ahead of the four-time champ and appeared well on his way to an upset victory before his supercharger let go in a ball of fire. Last season, Bode ran nine events with mixed results, but it’s important to remember that he’s still just 22 and hasn’t yet entered the prime of his career. When it comes to future potential, he’s at or near the top of the list.

Terry Haddock
There was a time when the thought of Terry Haddock winning a Funny Car race would have seemed a bit far-fetched, but that was before he began making three-second runs at almost every event. Throughout his career, Haddock has been known to upset some of the top contenders from time to time, and he’s been to a pair of semifinals. It would almost certainly take a bit of luck for him to win an event, but they said the same thing about Sherm Gunn, Bob Gilbertson, Gary Clapshaw, Kenji Okazaki, and a handful of others who have authored some of Funny Car’s biggest upsets.

Buddy Hull
Buddy Hull didn’t exactly have the sort of success he’d hoped for last season as the driver for Jim Dunn Racing, although he did take out Bob Tasca III in the opening round of the NHRA U.S. Nationals. At times, the Dunn entry looked like it had turned the corner, but it didn’t make a single three-second run last season, which is puzzling given the talent and vast experience that team possesses. If they can find even a few hundredths of a second in performance, it’s not hard to imagine dramatically improved results going forward.

Paul Lee

When it comes to first-time winners, this one almost seems like a lay-up. Last year, Paul Lee made a commitment to improving his program with the additions of tuner Jonnie Lindberg and consultant John Medlen. The results were impressive with a pair of final rounds in Seattle and Las Vegas and a win in the GETTRX 91���� Funny Car All-Star Callout event. The only thing missing was a national event win, and that seems likely to happen this season.

Dave Richards
Much like Terry Haddock, David Richards only recently began to run in the threes with regularity, but that goes a long way towards establishing credibility in what has become a stacked Funny Car class. Richards went to the second quad at last year’s Charlotte four-wide event, and by Seattle, he’d qualified a season-high No. 11. Winning a race at this point might be a tall order, but Richards is clearly trending in the right direction.

Daniel Wilkerson

From the “it’s only a matter of time” file comes Daniel Wilkerson, who took over from his father, Tim, as the driver of the Scag entry last season. Daniel has been around a while, but he has just 34 starts in the Funny Car class, and last season marked the first time he got any regular seat time. Wilkerson was runner-up at the Charlotte four-wide race and went to the semifinals on three other occasions, so he’s not far off when it comes to a first victory.

PRO STOCK

Stephen Bell
Stephen Bell enjoyed enough success in the Flexjet 91���� Factory Stock Showdown that he clearly knows his way to the winner’s circle, but as many drivers have discovered, Pro Stock is an entirely different animal. Bell is joining the Elite Motorsports team this season, so he’s going to be in a competitive ride. Even though he’s got experience with a clutch with his Factory X entry, there will surely be some sort of an adjustment period in Pro Stock. The question is, how long will that be?

Cristian Cuadra

Given his ability to get the clutch out on time, it’s almost surprising that Cristian Cuadra is still seeking his first win. Last year, Cuadra opened the season by reaching his second career final round in Gainesville, and he tacked on an additional three semifinals on his way to a solid No. 7 finish. Cuadra’s biggest obstacle last season was Greg Anderson, as he went 0-6 against the six-time world champion. In Pro Stock, where entire fields are routinely separated by five-hundredths of a second, it’s all about driving ability, and no one doubts that this guy has what it takes.

David Cuadra
While Cristian Cuadra has been to a pair of Pro Stock finals, it’s his brother, David, who has already won a Wally as the Top Sportsman champion at the 2023 Charlotte event. Since moving to Pro Stock, David has held his own, including his first semifinal finish at the fall Las Vegas event. Although he failed to qualify at the season-ending In-N-Out Burger 91���� Finals, Cuadra previously qualified No. 2 and No. 3 in Dallas and Las Vegas, which provides plenty of fuel for optimism this season.

Fernando Cuadra Jr.
Much like his brothers, Fernando Cuadra Jr. has shown flashes of brilliance in his short time in Pro Stock but has so far been unable to put all the elements together for a final-round victory. In 79 starts, Cuadra has appeared in one final and has six semifinals, including one at last year’s Brainerd event. Pro Stock wins do not come easily for anyone, but when the time is right, one has to be prepared to take advantage of it, and at this point, all three Cuadra brothers are prepared.

Brandon Foster
There are far more questions than answers here as Foster ran just seven events last season and has made major changes to his program for 2025. Foster did win a couple of rounds early in the season but left the tour after the Bristol event. This season, he’s returning with his own F6 Motorsports team that includes past NHRA Rookie of the Year Camrie Caruso. F6 will reportedly use engines from Elite, and they’ve enlisted two-time world champion Jim Yates, so there is plenty of talent and experience to work with.

Eric Latino
Predicting Eric Latino as NHRA’s next first-time Pro winner is a tough sell because he’s competed in just 28 events and has yet to advance past the quarterfinal round. That being said, there is hope. Latino raced in all 20 Pro Stock events last season and qualified for 18 of them. He also went to the quarterfinal round on five occasions, and he qualified in the top half of the field on seven occasions, including No. 2 in Richmond and Seattle. Latino is like to split time with his son, Matt, this season, which may limit his opportunities although any car with KB Titan power is likely to be considered a contender.

Mason McGaha

When Mason McGaha made his debut as an 18-year-old in 2020, no one thought that five years later he’d still be seeking his first victory. The third-generation racer doesn’t get rattled and makes few mistakes behind the wheel. The issue here is horsepower as the Harlow Sammons team continues to work hard to catch up to the big multicar teams in Pro Stock. McGaha missed qualifying at five events last season but still managed to win eight rounds and barely miss the Top 10. That’s a testament to how much driving talent he has.

Cory Reed

Cory Reed made the transition from two wheels to four last season when he made his Pro Stock debut at midseason, and by his second race, he’d already appeared in a final round. Reed took his lumps for he rest of the season in the ultra-competitive Pro Stock class, but he’s more than held his own.��

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

Chris Bostick
After joining the White Alligator Racing Team last season, Chris Bostick was rewarded with a Top 10 finish and a career-best 6.777 elapsed time, so he’s got a few positives to hang his hat on. Although he didn’t win a round last season, Bostick has appeared in one career final, so he’s not exactly a stranger to success. Oddly enough, Bostick might want to avoid racing against Chase Van Sant. The two WAR teammates met four times in the last seven events of the 2024 season with Van Sant taking all four matches.

Kelly Clontz

In late 2023, Kelly Clontz ran a 6.70 in Dallas on her Suzuki that many insiders considered to be the run of the season. That run alone should provide enough hope for Clontz to continue chasing her dream of success in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. She clearly has the ability to run well, and now it’s just a matter of doing it consistently. Last year, the Steamfitters UA Local 602 team took a step back and raced in just seven events. If they can return this season with anything close to what they had at the 2023 Dallas event, it will be a whole different ball game.

Richard Gadson

If not for his teammate, Gaige Herrera, Gadson might already have a few wins under his belt after an otherwise successful first season with the Vance & Hines team. As he enters year two, Gadson might be the odds-on favorite to become the sport's new first-time winner. After all, he appeared in three finals last season, finished No. 3 in the points, and generally made clean runs. Consider that six of his 15 losses last season came at the hands of either Herrera or Matt Smith, and it’s not hard to figure out what needs to happen in order to celebrate a first victory.

Marc Ingwersen
On the starting line, Marc Ingwersen is as good as anyone in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, and at times, his Buell V-Twin can run quick enough to qualify in the top half of the field. So far, Ingwersen has appeared in three semifinals and 15 quarterfinals, so what needs to happen in order for him to take the next step? Simply put, he needs to find a bit more performance, which in turn should result in a better qualifying performance. After that, his clutch hand is capable of doing the rest.