NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

It happens to the best of teams and organizations in every pro sport. A hard year. A down year. A downright hard year. No competition is as unforgiving in this regard as professional drag racing. The brutal abruptness of our beloved motorsport makes bad feelings worse and the lingering days, sometimes weeks, between races can make life downright miserable. As it has been said, winning cures all ills, but losing early and frequently in drag racing can turn a mild cold into a virus so nasty that it can drive apart even the most seasoned of organizations. 

The teams mentioned in this story did not set out in 2024 to make this list. No one did. Over the course of 20 races, perhaps aside from fleeting moments of joy, though, they struggled. They worked harder and, in some cases, struggled harder. But the only way forward is through it. And through it they went. The question we seek to answer here is how they avoid doing it again. 

Let’s look at the Top Fuel teams that, on paper, have the wherewithal to make 2024 look as distant as 1924 in terms of their performance improvement. As good as the race to the end of the season was, it could have been that much better with the following cadre of teams in a more competitive position. 

Brittany Force

For starters, we are not discounting the trauma that the team battled through in 2024. It was pretty clear that by the spring Charlotte event the Monster Energy team was fighting an uphill battle against their race car and time. Their DNQ in Chicago kicked off a stretch of about a half-dozen races where the car was defiant no matter what multitime champion crew chief David Grubnic threw at it. A turn was evident starting around Brainerd when the speeds and 3.60 e.t.s that were the car’s hallmark began to return. 

They qualified No. 1 in Indy, would qualify No. 1 at four of the last five races of the year, win Las Vegas, and end up fifth in the points due to the hellacious late-season charge. The win in Las Vegas backed up by the semifinal in Pomona was the best two-race stretch of the season. Of anyone in this exploration, the path here is brutally simple and perhaps frightening for everyone else. Whatever was discovered around Brainerd and refined in the Countdown to the Championship needs to be the road map to start 2025. This team had its swagger back when the curtain fell in 2024; there is no reason to think it won’t be intact for 2025.

Tony Stewart

The American motorsports icon had a heck of an introductory year into the all-out war that was Top Fuel eliminator in 2024. His ninth-place finish is the type of self-motivational bulletin-board material that should likely propel his experienced team even harder forward in 2025. So, where are the places that would most aid this team’s rise in the ranks? 

The most significant one is the average qualifying position of 8.8. It’s almost impossible to convey how tough life becomes as the No. 8 or No. 9 qualifier, but consider this: One race was won from the No. 8 spot in 2024, Justin Ashley did it in Brainerd. Three races were won from the 12th position. No races were won from ninth. In many other statistical categories, the team was a scant few percentage points off of top-five finishers. Avoiding the center or the order like the plague may not be a clearly defined strategy, but it sure seems a good direction. If they can muster a better qualifying average by a handful of spots, this car becomes an immediate and imminent threat. 

Josh Hart

If we had a statistical category to directly measure frustration and anguish in 2024, Josh Hart and his crew chief Ron Douglas would have been the league leaders. Unfortunately for these guys, the stats we do keep paint the same picture. After an emotionally crushing DNQ in Norwalk, Hart was forward when he said that changes were needed. The team brought in John Stewart as a consultant to work with Douglas and showed some promise with a semifinal finish in Brainerd. Unfortunately, the car never passed the first round in the Countdown. 

In this case, unlike other teams where a singular aspect of performance seemed to be holding them back and can be pinpointed as a culprit, the scope here is large and requires a different solution. Hart found his in Jason McCulloch, who is now (and has been since the bitter end of 2024) working with Ron Douglas. This car now has the same model as most all top-line Top Fuel cars with a pair of experienced, winning, and mentally gifted leaders steering the ship. Like the NBA, one key talent acquisition on an NHRA team can turn an operation’s fortunes on a dime. They have a driver, they have the budget, and they now have double the experience at the helm. This will be 2025’s most fascinating team to watch. 

Jasmine Salinas

There have been scant few people in NHRA history who made their Top Fuel rookie debut under the circumstances that Jasmine Salinas did in 2024. When her father, Mike, was sidelined after emergency heart surgery, she came around the corner in Pomona to make her first Professional NHRA start months ahead of when was planned. Months and many test laps ahead, in fact. 

We had the fortune of watching her learn Top Fuel in real time, a feat that brought emotional highs and lows, which she shared with us all. Her sadness at failing to qualify at the NHRA U.S .Nationals was enough to bring even hardened fans to the verge of tears. Her first-round holeshot win at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals was a piece of drag racing poetry that the sport has a knack for delivering. 

So, the next question is, where does the team look to make the Countdown in 2025? The answer may sit far beyond the numbers. Statistics cannot measure heart or will of which Salinas has showed tremendous amounts. Jasmine and her family represent one of the most tightly wrapped units the sport of NHRA Drag Racing has ever seen. With Mike back in the competitive mix and a far less traumatic beginning to her sophomore season, it stands to reason that Jasmine and the entire Scrappers unit have elevated their expectations across the board. The key for this team is to adopt a healthy form of amnesia. The 2024 season was one of education, perhaps by hard knocks, but the 2025 season is putting that learning to work in the cockpit, the clutch can, and the engine. 

So, there’s a peek at the teams who have growth opportunity to capitalize on and advance their cause with. Talking about it, recognizing it, and doing it are three very different things, though. Beyond that, the cars that were category leaders aren’t going anywhere, either. The fight in Top Fuel is real. 

The Funny Car teams who want and need a position far closer to the front? We’ll examine them in the next installment in this series.