The latest update as of October 14, 2024

POINTS Standings following the Texas NHRA FallNationals

We'll start our Monday morning musings with the latest updated points standings for the Countdown to The Championship (for the PRO competitors) and the Top Alcohol racers. Starting with this edition of the standings, you will notice the "points difference" numbers are in red for some racers. Those competitors have been mathematically eliminated from contention for the championship(s). Realistically, there are more than a few other racers that would need the leaders to not attempt at least one qualifying pass at either of the final two races, and gain maximum points at those two events to have the slightest chance of winning the season title. In other words: it's just not going to happen.

TOP FUEL: The most obvious change in the standings is at the top, with Justin Ashley taking over from Antron Brown. After Brown lost a very close first round match with Ashley, by less than two hundredths of a second, the way was cleared for Ashley to gain ground, which he certainly did. When his winlight came on in the final round, it gave him a lead of 44 points heading into the final two races on the tour. While Shawn Langdon held on to the #3 spot, he fell from 50 points behind Brown to 76 points back of Ashley. The next three racers gained one spot each, but only one, Clay Millican, closed the gap between himself and the points leader, getting 19 points, almost one round win, closer to the top, but still 114 points in arrears.

The biggest drop in the standings was experienced by the defending world champion, Doug Kalitta, who fell from #3 to #7, courtesy of his third 1st round loss in the first four races of the countdown. You could say that figuratively the wheels have truly fallen off his title defence, as he goes into Vegas 133 points out of first place. Making up nearly seven rounds of racing in two events is virtually impossible for him. One spot below Kalitta is two-time world champion Brittany Force whose chance to be in contention evaporated in a holeshot loss to Tony Schumacher in the second round of eliminations.

FUNNY CAR: The biggest news surrounding the FallNationals was Jack Beckman, in second place, being unable to race in eliminations due to a vertigo-like condition. That put a serious dent in his championship aspirations on behalf of John Force. He fell further back in the chase, from 105 to 147 points behind teammate Austin Prock, but it could have been worse if Prock hadn't lost in the semifinals when his throttle linkage unravelled on the burnout. Despite that setback, young Mr. Prock increased his lead over the former #3 racer, Bob Tasca III, who dropped a close first round race to Blake Alexander, when Tasca had to lift on the top end.

Taking over the third spot in the standings was the event winner, Matt Hagan, but he's 168 points out of first place, and his title hopes are looking slim at this point. Tasca dropped to #5, more than 50 points further behind Prock, and now has a 211-point deficit. Below him, no one has any realistic chance of contending, and the bottom five racers on the chart are already mathematically eliminated.

PRO STOCK: This category has boiled down to a basically four horse race, with #5 in the standings, Jeg Coughlin, the FallNationals event winner, sitting nearly 200 points behind leader Dallas Glenn. He gained 33 points on Glenn when Dallas lost in the semifinals, but it's not realistic to expect him to challenge for the title even if he sweeps the last two events of the countdown. The #6 racer, Matt Hartford is more than 300 points behind and his title hopes are more than precarious, while below him, the last seven racers on the list are already done for.

Closest pursuer to Glenn is still Aaron Stanfield, but he dropped from 31 points out of first, to 53 going into the second to last race of the season. The other two racers with a realistic chance of taking over the top spot changed places when Greg Anderson went to the final round, while former #3, Erica Enders, lost in the second round and fell 21 points further back to 111 behind. Anderson meanwhile, closed the gap by 36 points to just 90 points behind Glenn. It's going to be quite a battle between the two dominant teams in Pro Stock, the KB-Titan group (Dallas Glenn and Greg Anderson, and the Elite Performance super-team, with Erica Enders and Aaron Stanfield. It's most likely to come down to reaction times - and they will be close - over the last eight rounds of racing in 2024.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE: It's a lot of the "same old, same old", as the top six riders in the class all stayed in the same position going into and coming out of Dallas. Gaige Herrera won his first back-to-back races since mid-season, and put some distance (28 points) between himself and closest challenger, Matt Smith. A first round loss cost #3 Richard Gadson dearly as he fell nearly 100 points further behind Herrara and not sits 161 points behind. After starting the countdown with a win at Reading, Hector Arana Jr. (#4), has failed to get past the semifinals and is now 185 points out of the top spot. Below Arana, the next four racers are well out of contention, and below them, the bottom two are already guaranteed to have no chance for the championship.

Next up are the Top Alcohol categories where there's some real drama in the Dragster ranks, and another world championship clinched in the Funny Car category. The points standings for the Top Alcohol racers are harder to follow than for the Pro racers, due partly to the mix of national and regional event points that count towards the respective championships. Factor in the "waived" races and it becomes harder to see where things will end up from week to week. At this point in the season there are three regional and two national events left on the calendar, with the next two weeks seeing regional events, this week at Firebird Motorsports Park (Phoenix, AZ), and next week at Maple Grove Raceway (Reading, PA).

NOTES:Fields that have XXX filled in are events that are not possible for the racer to attend. Point numbers in red are waived races. There are two national and three regional events remaining on the schedule. The upcoming races entered by the Top Alcohol competitors on the graphics below. With two weeks to go before the entry deadline for the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, we expect there will be numerous entries added, especially in the dragster category with the very close competition for the championship.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER Those closing races of the 2024 season could be critical for three of the racers in contention for the championship, especially the points leader, Hunter Green who has only more chance to gain points at a regional event, as all his national events are already claimed. Lower in the standings, Matt Cummings and Angelle Sampey have two more possible regional points earning opportunities, in addition to the final two national events. The defending world champion, Julie Nataas also has two national events to increase her total, while perennial contender, Shawn Cowie, likewise has two nationals left to fill his points card.

Only three of Top Ten are mathematically eliminated from the championship chase, with #4 Mike Coughlin, out of chances to catch Green, while #9 Karen Stalba and #10 Megan Smith cannot catch him either. On the other end of the scale, Green's closest pursuer, #2 Jackie Fricke, is only 11 points out of the top spot, while Cowie is just a single point behind her. The #5 through #7 racers are close also, with Nataas just 39 points behind, while Cummings is 56 back, and Sampey is lurking just 64 behind the leader. Even #8 in the standings, Finally, Joe Maynard is within striking distance, just 75 points out of first place.

It's going to be a very intense next five weeks for all the contenders, and the championship could easily down to the later rounds at the season ending In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona in mid-November. We'll be updating the standings on a weekly basis from here to the end as it's expected that the last five events of the season will all have some impact on the title chase.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR What became obvious at the end of the NHRA Carolina Nationals (Charlotte, NC) in late September was that Greg Bellemeur had wrapped up his fourth world championship in Top Alcohol Funny Car. Following two years out of the top spot, the "Killer B's" went on a "revenge" (joking, of course) tour to retake the title from the Gordon family. They did just that and now only need to win at Las Vegas to complete a perfect 850-point (maximum possible) season.

Sitting well back in second place is rookie Maddi Gordon, who holds a not insurmountable lead over #3 Bob McCosh and #4 Brian Hough. Of the two, Hough has the best chance to overtake Gordon, with two national, and two regional events left to claim, while McCosh can only improve marginally at the final two national events. The only other racer in the Top Ten with a realistic chance to catch Gordon is #5 Phil Esz, while #6 Annie Whiteley and #7 Chris Foster have only remote chances to do so. Below them the bottom three racers are already mathematically eliminated.