NHRA cancels In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona due to weather
NHRA officials have made the unfortunate decision on Sunday to cancel this weekend’s In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona due to persistent and adverse weather and unsafe track conditions. The 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series world champions have been determined by the current points standings
Kalitta clinches second Top Fuel world championship
Doug Kalitta clinched his second NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel world championship in the last three years on Saturday of the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals.
Kalitta, who won his breakthrough first title in a winner-take-all final round at the 2023 Finals, officially locked up the title when NHRA announced that, due to weather, qualifying for the event had been canceled.
“Yeah, this is definitely a lot easier [than 2023],” said Kalitta. “It’s always seemed to come down to the last race, last day, but we had a nice string of runs throughout the Countdown. Alan [Johnson] and my whole team have had my car going down the track. It’s been real nice, and just not doing something stupid on the track and getting good, solid runs.
“Alan is always throwing down and always has something up his sleeve. So, I’m just really proud of him and my whole team; it’s a huge relief to be able to win the championship before the last round at the last race, and just super happy.
“It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the secret sauce is with what we’ve done here, but Alan has spent hours building these parts, and he’s just got it figured out. You also have to have guys putting that car together exactly the same each and every run to get the consistency for any of these guys to be able to tune the car, so it’s just huge.”
Much as was the case in his 2023 championship season, Kalitta and his Alan Johnson-led Mac Tools team didn’t catch fire until well into the regular season with back-to-back wins in Sonoma and Brainerd, and entered the Countdown to the Championship playoffs in fourth place.
The Mac Tools team ratcheted up their game with four straight final-round appearances to begin the six-race playoffs, with runner-ups in Reading and Charlotte followed by huge wins in St. Louis and Dallas.
The team’s moxie was tested at the Reading event, where, after taking a first-round win over Tony Stewart, Kalitta’s mount suffered an apparent front-tire issue just past the finish line. His car swerved across the centerline and collided with Stewart’s entry.
Neither driver was injured, and Kalitta’s team continued on with a backup car, reaching the final round, where he fell to Shawn Reed, but nonetheless took the points lead he would never relinquish.
“I have to admit, Shawn Reed winning that race, that was pretty cool,” Kalitta admitted. “To race against somebody to get their first win after everything that he had gone through with that wreck that he had, I’m glad we didn’t need that particular round to win the championship, because it was definitely cool to see him win.”
After a runner-up at the four-wide event at zMAX Dragway, Kalitta defeated Ida Zetterström in the final round in St. Louis and four-time world champ Steve Torrence in the final round in Dallas.
A semifinal finish at the season’s penultimate event in Las Vegas gave Kalitta enough of a points lead to make it virtually impossible for any of his closest rivals, which included his own teammate, Shawn Langdon, and Justin Ashley, to catch him in Pomona.
The championship is the sixth for team owner Connie Kalitta and Kalitta Motorsports, and its fourth in Top Fuel. Scott Kalitta won back-to-back Top Fuel crowns in 1994 and ’95 to precede his cousin Doug’s two titles. Del Worsham won Kalitta’s first Funny Car championship in 2015 and J.R. Todd won another in 2018.
After a dominant season, Austin Prock clinches second straight Funny Car title
“Last year, a lot of people told me it’s not going to come as easily next year after the season that you had; it’s not doable over again. And we came in there, struggled a little bit in the season, and then ended up winning one more race and getting the championship. I think that says a lot about this race team.
“To win one world championship is one thing, and to win two is another, and it puts you in a select group. I think there are only seven of us who have ever done it, and to add my name to that list, I wish my entire team could be added to that list. I get all the praise and the glory from the media and from the fans and the TV, but it’s not just me. I couldn’t accomplish what I’ve done in the last two years, without the people behind me, and I’m really proud of them.
“It’s not just me. It’s not just my dad, it’s not just my brother, it’s not just Nate Hildahl; it’s every one of us, from the race team to the race shop. Everybody on the Cornwell Quality Tools team is doing a phenomenal job, and they’re putting in that 110% effort.”
With the cancellation of qualifying, Prock had needed only to win his first-round race at the Finals to wrap up the title. Had he lost, four-time world champ Matt Hagan still would have had to win the event to pass him in points.
Prock and his tuning triumvirate — encompassing his father, Jimmy, brother Thomas, and Nate Hildahl — have now won championships in both of his seasons in Funny Car after moving over from Top Fuel, where his best career finish was third in 2022. After three-time world champ Robert Hight retired from driving the John Force Racing Funny Car, Prock moved into the saddle, inheriting his father as the architect.
“We had a dominant race car all year long, and we definitely wanted to come in here and race it out. The odds were good forus. We just had to go one round, and I was honestly just looking forward to driving this nitro Funny Car one time for this, one last time for the season. I respect NHRA’s decision, but I definitely think we earned this one.”
Dallas Glenn clinches Pro Stock title
Dallas Glenn is one of the many sportsman racers who have dreamed getting a chance to race in the NHRA “big show” as a professional and when that opportunity arose, he took the ball and ran with it and now, Glenn is the 2024 Mission Foods NHRA Pro Stock World Champion.
“It’s definitely really special, especially after getting so close last year,” Glenn said. “It’s kind of a very strange way of getting it. You don’t have all the adrenaline you have when you’re in the car so it kind of changes a little bit.
“I was telling some of the guys back at the pit that I don’t think I can do anything normal the first time. If you go back to my first Pro Stock win, we didn’t know who won right off the bat because of the timing issues, but it feels good. I honestly don’t think it’s really hit me yet. Maybe it’ll hit me on the long four-day drive home later in the week but it feels really good right now. Theres just lot of stuff, a lot of emotions and and just trying to process everything.”
Glenn left the recent Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals in Las Vegas leading KB Titan teammate Greg Anderson by 92 points and officially locked up the title when the season ending Pomona event was cancelled due to rain. He is the 20th driver to win an NHRA Pro Stock world title and the first new champ since Tanner Gray in 2018.
For Glenn, clinching his first world title helps take the sting out of the 2024 season where he lost a winner-take-all final round against Anderson by just two-thousandths of a second in one of the sport’s most memorable finishes.
“You know, I get to race all next season with number one on my car. I get to take it from Greg, take it off of Greg’s car, put it on mine,” Glenn said. “We get to swap numbers.”
As a sportsman racer growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Glenn’s talent has always been undeniable. He scored a national event win in Super Gas at the 2011 Northwest Nationals and also had a successful run in Stock Eliminator.
After joining the KB Titan team first as a crewmember, Glenn got his chance to drive a Pro Stock car in 2021, and it took him just four events to find the winner’s circle at the 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte. Glenn went on to win two more events in 2021 en route to a third-place finish behind class icons Greg Anderson and Erica Enders. He went on to win the Rookie of the Year award in a landslide.
Pro Stock cars are extremely difficult to drive, but Glenn has never once looked out of place in a 6-second, factory hot rod, and his penchant for quick reaction times and multiple holeshot wins has led to the nickname “Double-O Dallas.”
Since his successful debut season, Glenn has only reinforced the notion that he’s among the Pro Stock’s all-time greats. Through the first 91 races of his career, he’s got 21 wins in 40 final rounds and has an enviable 185-69 record in elimination rounds.
The pain of losing a championship on the final run of the 2024 season clearly lit a fire under Glenn as he’s enjoyed the best year of his career in 2025. Glenn kicked off the season in the best way possible with a win at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals and he’s since tacked on wins in Seattle, Reading, Dallas, in addition to both Las Vegas and both Charlotte events.
Glenn finished with a 50-9 record in elimination rounds and he’s the only tour regular who did not endure a single round one loss. He was also never ranked lower than No. 2 at any point during the season.
Glenn has earned the respect of his peers, and the admiration of fans, largely because he’s more than just a hired driver. He still works daily at the KB Titan headquarters in Mooresville, N.C. and gets his hands dirty after every run working as a mechanic on the KB Titan team’s expansive fleet of Pro Stock entries. Glenn even drives a team transporter from event to event. He also remains humble, and grateful for the opportunity to pursue his dreams.
“It’s almost one of those seasons that you don’t really want to end, even though you’re in the points lead, and ending means you’re the champion. But, it’s kind of like when the goings good, you got to go get it. We’ve had the car to beat, we’ve had the team to beat. We’ve been doing our job, on and off track.”
Gadson crowned Pro Stock Motorcycle champion
After a tough back-and-forth battle with teammate Gaige Herrera, Richard Gadson emerged as the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion.
After joining the Vance & Hines team at the start of 2024, Gadson enjoyed a breakthrough season with four wins in six final rounds. He took over the points lead with a win at the Four Wide event in Charlotte in September and never relinquished it. He left the recent Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals with a 21-point edge against teammate and two-time champ Gaige Herrera and secured the win after the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals was cancelled due to weather.
“This is a big, big, big, emotional roller coaster; the journey last year, really a lot of blows, a really, really, really hard season to get through, to start this year, and still trying to find that groove,” said Gadson. “Once we found it, I would say after Bristol, I was kind of starting to feel like I belonged. Starting to feeling like, you know, I can run at the top of this class.
There’s a lot of tough competitors out here, My teammate, Gaige, I want to take a minute to give him his due. You know, I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”
Gadson is the 13th different rider to win an NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle title since the category was recognized as a pro division in 1987 joining class icons such as Dave Schultz, John Myers, Matt Smith, and Angelle Sampey. Gadson also joins Herrera, Eddie Krawiec, Andrew Hines, Matt Hines and team founder Terry Vance as the latest rider to earn the No. 1 plate for the storied Vance & Hines team.
After considerable success in grudge racing and other organizations, Gadson was named as the replacement for Eddie Krawiec prior to the 2024 season and performed well, earning runner-up finishes in Richmond, Reading, and Charlotte to go with four semifinal finishes. He finished the year in the No. 3 spot behind Herrera and Matt Smith.
Gadson earned a long-awaited first victory earlier this season in Bristol and tacked on additional wins in Sonoma, Reading, and Charlotte, the latter two coming during the crucial Countdown to the Championship playoffs. Gadson’s most impressive performance may have come in Dallas where he qualified No. 1 and claimed a narrow final round win against Brayden Davis.
Much like Pro Stock champ Dallas Glenn, Gadson also pulled off a rare feat when he went the entire 2024 season without a round one loss.
“I went through every emotion you could think of this weekend [in Pomona,” said Gadson. “It was way too much time to think this week. Unfortunately, we are a sport that Mother Nature dictates. There’s nothing we can do about it. NHRA was in a tight spot. The racers, the competitors, are in a tight spot. None of us left home with this in our plans. But what do you do? Everybody was here with the intent to race, and my mindset, even while it was raining, was, you know what? Whether we race or not, you’re going to take it anyway. Take it anyway. It’s yours, either way it goes. If you got to go to war for it, you got to go to war for it. If, if Mother Nature dictates that for you, you work your ass off to be in the position to win it anyway. So you know you can’t, you can’t smack the smile off my face right now.”
Gadson grew up in a family of motorcycle racing enthusiasts and his uncle, Ricky, briefly raced in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. Given an opportunity to forge his own path to success, Gadson won multiple championships in multiple organizations before getting an opportunity to race with the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines team aboard their Suzuki Hayabusa.
“You’ve got to understand one thing; I come from a motorcycle racing family. It wasn’t just my uncle,” said Gadson. “My grandparents rode motorcycles. My dad and my sisters and brothers all ride motorcycles. There was no plan B in this life. It’s all about motorcycles.”