NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The three-race Western Swing is the gateway to the home stretch of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series regular season that sets the contenders for the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs and a pivotal time for teams trying to establish dominance or just to get back into the fight.

This week we’ll share a class-by-class look at those who prospered and those who floundered during the annual trek through Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma, continuing with Funny Car. [Top Fuel recap | Funny Car recap]

It’s Gaige Herrera’s world, and we’re all just living in it. The Pro Stock Motorcycle sophomore became the ninth racer to sweep the Western Swing, the first to do it on two wheels, and the first to do it since Antron Brown in Top Fuel in 2009. Herrera’s Vance & Hines/Mission Foods Suzuki dominated with wins in Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma, collected 372 of 378 possible points, won two Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenges (Denver, Seattle), and won the inaugural NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle All-Star Callout in Sonoma.

For the record, counting the Mission Challenge and Callout events, Herrera has won 19 straight rounds. In Seattle, he became the first racer to clinch a spot in the Countdown to the Championship and by Swings end had boosted his points lead over Hector Arana Jr. from 189 points to 359 and, with just the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals left on the regular schedule for the class, he’s guaranteed to go into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed and has already amassed 10 important #2Fast2Tasty bonus points to add to his lead at the reset.

After semifinal finishes in Denver and Seattle helped keep him reasonably close to Herrera, the wheels came off for Hector Arana Jr. with a stunning first-round loss to Freddie Camarena in Sonoma. Arana’s Buell, as expected, qualified No. 1 and had low e.t. in the thin air in Denver, but lost in the semi’s to Angie Smith’s similar mount and lost to Herrera in a key match in Seattle. His 202-point Swing total was just fifth best among the 11 riders we tracked.

Herrera’s teammate, Eddie Krawiec, trailed only his Suzuki squad sidekick in Swing points with a haul of 235 markers — thanks to a Seattle runner-up and Sonoma semifinal — was fourth among all racers in all three categories, behind only Herrera, Steve Torrence, and J.R. Todd. Although Krawiec fell shy of his long-awaited 50th career win in Seattle, he qualified No. 2 there and No. 3 in Seattle, showing some sild progress. He picked up one points position, from fourth to third, and sits just two points behind Arana.

The dynamic duo of Matt and Angie Smith followed Krawiec one spot up the points chart — from fifth to fourth and sixth to fifth, respectively — at the expense of faltering Steve Johnson. After winning Saturday's Mission Challenge in Denver, Matt had a disappointing second-round loss followed by suspected camshaft sensor failures in the semi’s in Seattle and the final in Sonoma that otherwise could have boosted his fortunes. Angie red-lighted in the Denver final to Herrera, lost to her husband in round two in Seattle (where she made the track’s first 200-mph PSM pass and runner-upped in the Mission Challenge), and lost to Krawiec in round two in Sonoma after scoring a runner-up in Saturday’s Callout race.

No one tumbled more spots during the Swing than class veteran Steve Johnson, who fell three spots from third to sixth after notching just one round-win over the three events. Johnson started well in Denver with a runner-up in the Mission Challenge, but things went downhill from there over the next two weekends until he picked up his lone win light in Sonoma.

Rookie Chase Van Sant logged a decent 166-point score during the Swing — sixth best in the class — with three round-wins, though his progress, like the trip down from the mountain, declined from a semifinal in Denver to a second round in Seattle and a first-round exit in Sonoma after his bike lost fire on the starting line, but he held onto his seventh spot in the standings.

Marc Ingwersen had a good time on the Swing, scoring round-wins in Denver and Sonoma, and was part of the All-Star Callout in Sonoma. His 135 points moved him from ninth to eighth place on the scorecard.

Ingwersen swapped spots with Jianna Evariso, whose highlight of the Swing may have been the motorcycle road trip she took with her family from venue to venue. There was much less fun on the track as she went 0-for-3 and accumulated just 100 points in dropping to ninth place.

Kelly Clontz climbed three spots in the standings up to 10th thanks to a round-win in Seattle, the Swing absence of Joey Gladstone and Chip Ellis, and the struggles of Ryan Oehler. If she maintains her standing through the U.S. Nationals, it will be the seventh-year rider’s first top 10 finish.

Ryan Oehler had a rough Western Swing with no round-wins and just 90 points, second worst among the 35 racers we tracked. To be fair, he had tough competition in Herrera and Krawiec at two of the three races and red-lighted to Marc Ingwersen in Seattle in the other. Still, he’s just six points behind Clontz for 10th and, as long as he competes in Indy, he’ll still be part of the Countdown under the perfect attendance rule.