The latest update as of June 23, 2025
Mid-Afternoon Update:
It's been a busy few weeks in the world of drag racing, and especially busy here for us here at Northern Thunder Drag Racing. We not only attended and reported on the recent Mission Raceway Park NHRA Division Six National Open, we've been inundated with photos from the latest two Funny Car Chaos events, at Eddyville, IA and Cordova, IL. And it doesn't stop there as this week the Chaos tour continues with event #4 on their 2025 schedule (originally #2 on the calendar) at Tulsa Raceway Park. The Tulsa Nitro Nationals will see our Arizona photographer and correspondent, BIG Bob Snyder in attendance and capturing all the action for us.
NHRA Pro disqualifications
In other news, it's just been reported that Shawn Langdon's event winning run in Top Fuel at the American Rebel Virginia NHRA Nationals was disqualified due to a technical rules violation. That made event runner-up Justin Ashley the winner. The violation by the Kalitta Air team was some missing bolts on the bellhousing's inspection cover. Not all of the 12 bolts required were on the cover after the run. The team issued a statement explaining what happened and accepted the disqualification without reservation.
"Some of the bolts rattled loose during the run and fell into the belly pan," said Chad Head, General Manager of Kalitta Motorsports. "The bolts were in place before the run, but some were not in place after because they came loose and fell into the belly pan. That's on us."
This latest disqualification comes on the heels of the Erica Enders disqualification, and hefty points and cash penalty levied following the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. At the same race, Canadian Pro Mod racer, and 2024 World Champion, Jordan Lazic was disqualified during eliminations and fined for having his fire bottle pinned (inoperative) following his round one win. Later in the event, there was a physical altercation between two teams (Elite Motorsports and KB-Titan Racing) that led to warnings about "unsportsmanlike conduct". That announcement ended with the threat of disciplinary action if future altercations occur.
Confirmation of Scrappers Racing "hiatus"
We're only halfway through the 2025 NHRA season and there's definitely some heated action taking place, on and off the track as we head into the hottest part of the season. On a more somber note, it's not been officially announced, but the Scrappers Racing team Top Fuel is parked - possibly permanently - as their crew chief Rob Flynn announced that he's been hired to tune Tony Schumacher as a teammate with Clay Millican for the Rick Ware Racing team. Here's the official word from Flynn:
Speaking on the starting line before Saturday's third and final qualifying session for the American Rebel Light Virginia NHRA Nationals, Flynn, who started the season with Mike Salinas' Scrappers Racing team tuning for Jasmine Salinas before it was parked, corroborated rumors that had been flying for weeks.
"Obviously, I wasn't looking to change jobs, but when the Salinas family quit racing for this year, I wasn't ready to retire, so I started looking around," he said. "The job right now that is out there is with Tony Schumacher and Rick Ware Racing".
Top Alcohol Dragsters at Norwalk's Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals
On a brighter note, "local hero" Shawn Cowie is now #2 in the Top Alcohol Dragster points standings following his victory at the West Region (National Open) event at Mission Raceway Park a week ago. He only trails Matt Cummings, who added to his tally with a semi-final finish at last weekend's North Central Region event at Norwalk. While Cummings is 84 points ahead of Cowie, he has run two more national events than Shawn. That sets up what could be a pivotal event for those two racers this coming weekend at Norwalk's Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, as they are both entered in what is shaping up to be a very tough field. Of the 19 entries, only four are running blown alcohol, and a virtual "murderer's row" of injected nitro nasties are on the list.
Among the A/Fuel hitters on the entry list are the Randy Meyer Racing entries of McKenna Bold and Matt Cummings, the McPhillips Racing teammates Melanie Johnson and Anthony Troyer, and Samsel Racing with Jamie Noonan in the seat. In addition, and certainly not to be overlooked are perennial championship contender, Jackie Fricke from New Jersey, Madison Payne from California, and Texan Kirk Wolf in the Dean Dubbin entry.
All are capable of winning at any event they attend. The latest weather forecast calls for possible thunderstorms Friday and Saturday and temperatures ranging from 75 (F) to 85 (F) with relatively high humidity. Those conditions might favour the injected cars and give the Mundie's Towing team (Shawn Cowie) a serious challenge after low altitude, moderate temperatures for their past few events.