The latest update as of September 23, 2024

13th annual NHRA Midwest Nationals

The wheels keep turning as the race teams head north from North Carolina to the midwest World Wide Technology Raceway for the NHRA Midwest Nationals. Before we move ahead to that event, let's take a look at how the Countdown To The Championship(s) are going after the second of six events on the "playoff" schedule.

TOP FUEL: The points leader after the second event is Antron Brown, courtesy of back-to-back wins at Reading and Charlotte. The leader at the start of the countdown, Justin Ashley, has fallen back a little and sits 53 points in arrears of Brown. He's followed by the Team Kalitta cars as they've gotten off to a slow start in the countdown, but #4 Doug Kalitta is still only 67 points behind Brown. From there the gaps open up considerably, with #7 Tony Schumacher 173 points behind the leader and closely followed by Tony Stewart and Brittany Force. When you get down to the #10 runner (Billy Torrence), it's more than 200 points and that's starting to get dangerously close to being eliminated from contention.

FUNNY CAR: It's starting to turn into a runaway for the season-long points leader Austin Prock. His closest pursuer, Bob Tasca III is 129 behind already, and the other Force Team car, driven by Jack Beckman sits just behind him in third place. After #3 Matt Hagan (153 points back), the numbers take a steep dive, with and J.R. Todd more than 200 points behind. From there on down to the bottom of the list, most of them are nearly or more than 300 points adrift and without any realistic chance to climb back into contention.

PRO STOCK: It's turned into a four-way battle for the championship, with racers in #5 (Jeg Coughlin) and below, nearly 200 points behind already. The points leader coming into the countdown, Dallas Glenn dropped out of the top spot when Aaron Stanfield won the Reading event. But Glenn came back strong at Charlotte to re-take the lead, but only by the very slim margin of 8 points. Defending champion Erica Enders is just 53 points behind and in 4th place, Greg Anderson is only 74 points in arrears. To show how dominant the top four have been, no one else has made it to the semifinals in the first two races of the countdown.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE: It was a slightly surprising result at Charlotte, with Matt Smith taking the trophy and moving 25 points ahead of Gaige Herrera in the standings. And the closeness continued as #3, Richard Gadson was the runnerup and is only 27 points behind Smith. The winner of the first race of the countdown at Reading, Hector Arana Jr. lost in the 2nd round at Charlotte and sits 115 points behind in 4th place. Lower down, the next four racers range from 154 to 171 points behind. With the consistency that Herrera has shown over the past two seasons it's reasonable to assume that none of them have a realistic shot at climbing into contention. Only one of them, Chase Van Sant has won an event this season and he's already more than 200 points out of the lead.