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Top 10 NHRA Stories in 2025Hearst Owned
If the 2025 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series needed a two-word description, it would be “revolving door.” Drivers coming and going, racetracks on the national tour coming and going, and an era of steady and stunning performances giving way to a fresh and unfamiliar vibe marked the 19-race campaign.
John Force Retires from Driving
John Force’s November announcement to end his driving career after 157 Funny Car victories and 16 championships came as no surprise, following his year-and-a-half recovery from a high-speed accident-triggered traumatic brain injury diagnosis. But it was one no one ever wanted to hear.
With an NHRA-best 1,460 elimination round triumphs and a handful of sport-wide performance records that might stand for decades, Force had nothing to prove with another comeback. But the popular, always-unconventional icon of drag racing still has a powerful voice as team owner of the most successful organization (24 titles).
But Funny Car ace Jack Beckman, who earned the 2012 Funny Car crown for Don Schumacher Racing, is the only current John Force Racing driver with a championship. Ready in 2026 to add to the total are new hires Josh Hart (Top Fuel) and Funny Car’s Alexis DeJoria and Jordan Vandergriff.
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Leah Pruett to Return to Top Fuel Class
After stepping away from the driver’s seat to start a family with husband Tony Stewart and giving birth to son Dominic on the final day of the 2024 season, the feisty 12-time Top Fuel winner said in September that she will be back in the cockpit in 2026.
She’ll reclaim the Tony Stewart Racing Nitro dragster her husband drove to the 2025 regular-season championship and will be back in business with crew chiefs Neal Strausbaugh and Mike Domagala. Meanwhile, Stewart has struck a deal with another team and will compete against Pruett in ’26.
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Tony Stewart Forms Alliance with Elite Motorsports
A three-way business agreement finalized in September among Top Fuel racer Josh Hart, Elite Motorsports owner Richard Freeman, and Tony Stewart saw Stewart enter an alliance that’s similar to that of his former NASCAR colleague Denny Hamlin. Stewart will field his own team and race against his Top Fuel driver—his wife, Leah Pruett.
Freeman purchased the Top Fuel operation from Hart, who has opted out of team ownership and signed on with John Force Racing. So Freeman put Stewart in that seat. And in a surprise twist, Freeman said six-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders—motorsports’ most decorated woman—and perennial Pro Stock contender Aaron Stanfield will license in that dragster and explore a switch to the 12,000-horsepower, nitro-burning class. Stewart will continue to operate the Funny Car crew featuring four-time Funny Car champion Matt Hagan.
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Shawn Reed Loses Finger in Crash, Returns Victorious
Top Fuel racer Shawn Reed had his left index finger amputated following a vicious 290-mph qualifying crash July 19 at Seattle that also left him with five broken ribs, a bruised sternum, and 55 stitches. But in less than two months, the Washington State native had the first two event trophies of his career.
He won the “Ironman” at the Sept. 7 IHRA race in Ohio that he used as a test session for his NHRA comeback. And he earned the “Wally” statue at Reading, Pa., in the Countdown to the Championship opener. Reed improved from 10th place at the start of the playoff to eighth in the final standings.
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Funny Car blow-ups raise safety concerns
Four-time champion Matt Hagan, unafraid to speak out about the increased danger to Funny Car drivers because the carbon-fiber body is tethered to the chassis, said he wants to collaborate with the sanctioning body and its Technical Department to fix the problem.
He said, “We’ve increased the opportunity to get hurt in one now by four or five times the amount by just body’s not coming off, ’chutes are not coming out. Fire is greater when the body stays on there. More chance getting trapped in the car, not being able to see when the firewall comes up and the windshield’s up out of here. That’s five examples right there.”
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Brittany Force chooses family life over dragster career, as Procks leave JFR
Brittany Force cemented her nickname “The Queen of Speed” in 2025, clocking the fastest pass in drag-racing history at 343.51 mph at Indianapolis, posting eight of the Top Fuel class’ top 10 speeds all at 340 or better, and set track records nationwide. But at the close of the season, the two-time series champion stepped from the sport, just as sisters Ashley and Courtney had done.
Back-to-back and current Funny Car king Austin Prock and his elite tuner dad Jimmy Prock have left John Force Racing and are expected to enhance Bob Tasca III’s operation. Tasca has promised a January 15 announcement.
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Four-time Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence plays hooky
Steve Torrence, who ran roughshod over the Top Fuel class from 2018-2021 and is the only driver to sweep all six Countdown races, opted out of six races throughout the season. Teammate dad Billy Torrence already had proven it’s possible to skip races and still make the Countdown and the Top 5. So he chose to spend more time at home in Texas with his wife and two daughters and his job with the family business.
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Ron Capps fulfills promise, introduces dragster, Top Fuel rookie Maddi Gordon
When he established Ron Capps Motorsports in 2022, the three-time Funny Car champion and 77-time winner vowed to give a chance to a deserving young driver to step up to the pro ranks. He kept his promise, hiring decorated Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Maddi Gordon to drive the first Top Fuel dragster in his expanded program. She’ll make her debut in March 2026, at Gainesville, Florida, at the season-opening Gatornationals.
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Four new tracks set to host inaugural national events
Twenty percent of the races on the 2026 calendar will be at new venues—all east of the Mississippi River. And three other events will be gone, including the second Charlotte race that in 2025 provided the first four-wide Countdown format. Rockingham Dragway will fill that void. South Georgia Motorsports Park ditched its October-scheduled “Peach State Showcase of Speed” exhibition and morphed it into a national event. Virginia Motorsports Park left the lineup again, and Maryland International Raceway stepped in.
The final shake-up of the year came when the IHRA acquired Maple Grove Raceway at Reading, Pa., one of the NHRA’s most profitable and popular racetracks. The NHRA declined the IHRA’s offer to work together to keep the Maple Grove race an NHRA event. Instead, it added U.S. 131 Motorsports Park at Martin, Mich., to replace the Countdown opener.
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Champions decided on points as rain washes out season finale
Fortunate were the racers who led the standings at the end of the second Las Vegas race in November, for they automatically became champions when persistent rainstorms washed out qualifying and race day at the Finals at Pomona, Calif. Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Austin Prock (Funny Car) claimed their second titles, while next-generation representatives Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) and Richard Gadson (Pro Stock Motorcycle) disrupted the establishment as first-time champions.
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