NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

What’s the difference between a world champion and a second- or third-place finisher? The numbers tell us a lot and that’s why we decided to take a dive into them, specifically into 2025's championship runners-up, looking for was a single element a team could improve upon that would move them over the hump this season.

Of course, in this exercise we are taking for granted that all the other elements of the team and the things they are good at will stay the same and this one change will augment all that. In this second installment, we’ll look at Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle to see how the challengers can potentially unseat Dallas Glenn and Richard Gadson, respectively.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

Third place: Matt Smith

When we look back over the 2025 season for Smith, it really was a solid effort end to end. As a guy who has racked up a log pile of championships, though, the perspective changes. No doubt Smith looks at 2025 differently than we do, and we’re guessing he has already filed it away with his other non-championship seasons.

He did lead some statistical categories like fastest average qualifying speed and most times setting top speed of the meet, but there’s one we’re going to pinpoint here: Runner-ups. No one had more of them in 2025 than Smith with four.

It wasn’t just a single rider that did it to him four times; there was a loss to John Hall, Richard Gadson, and a pair to Gaige Herrera. To be frank, Smith’s bike did not seem to be reacting the way he wanted it to, or perhaps we expect them to these days. This landed Smith eighth in the class for average reaction time (.055), and at least a couple of those runner-ups could have become win lights with a snappier leave. Perhaps his four second-round losses would have been deeper Sunday finishes, allowing him to really battle for a championship late season like he’s used to.

The One Thing: For Smith, the one thing is going from an .055 season average back down into the .030s somewhere on the Tree. With motorcycles, so much of that magic lives in the clutch setup and other tiny details, which we know he is always working to perfect. We think with an improvement in that arena, Smith would all but eliminate the scourge of early-round losses and once again square up in the title fight to the bitter end.

Second place: Gaige Herrera

Yes, we’ve checked our notes and verified that Herrera was out-pointed and out-finished for the first time in his NHRA career in 2025. Richard Gadson did the job, and we know Herrera will be back in fighting shape for 2026. If we look across the landscape of the category and its statistics in 2025, Herrera led the vast majority of them, even the biggies like most wins, points per race, average qualifying position, and more. So, what’s left?

Well, we don’t keep stats on timing, and that was Herrera’s issue in 2025 and one he was rapidly working to correct when the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals were washed off the schedule and the map.

The One Thing: For Herrera, the one thing is starting off the Countdown strong. He had the worst back-to-back set of races not just of his season but dang near his (albeit short so far) career. He began the Countdown with a second-round loss and then followed it up with a first-round loss in Charlotte. That was a race Gadson won, and while both men had a pair of semifinals and two wins after, it was that victory that had Gadson wearing the medallion, wearing the white cap, and making a championship acceptance speech on Monday night.

For 2026, the Countdown has a very different look, starting at two new tracks, and we’re betting Herrera does not hate that. We’re also betting it won’t start with a second- and first-round loss for him this year

PRO STOCK

Third place: Matt Hartford

While Dallas Glenn and Greg Anderson were playing drag racing whack-a-mole all season, Hartford was working, grinding, and going rounds. Slowly but surely, he and his team were climbing the points to land in the third spot when the dust settled. There is an interesting statistical uniformity to his finishing place. He was third in average qualifying position, qualifying elapsed time and mph, average points per race and rounds appeared in. He was also third in semifinal losses, but his position improved to second in runner-up finishes. Hartford made four finals but was unable to convert any of them into victories.

The thing is, they were virtually all squeakers. This wasn’t four times egregious mistakes were made. They were four very good drag races where Hartford left on time and was just slightly outperformed.

So, is the one thing “be better in finals”? Actually, no. We need to look beyond those four finals to see that answer.

The One Thing: The one thing for Hartford and team is to find a level early and work off of it. If plotted, their season results would look like a seismograph printout. First round, semifinal, second round, final, semifinal, first round, etc. If Hartford and the team can lock in on a competitive setup in the first three to four races and use that as a baseline, the results should even out, and the wins, especially when making finals, become an expectation rather than a happy surprise, and should also come with some frequency. Turning four first-round losses into semi’s or finals through the year may not have gotten him second in the standings but it would and will change how people race him.

Second place: Greg Anderson

Stick with us as we give the winningest driver in NHRA Pro Stock history some tips and tricks for the 2026 season. There are a few years in the hall of fame career of Anderson where six wins, nine finals, and six semifinals would not result in a white hat and a large championship check, but this was one of them. The relentless pounding of Dallas Glenn, week after week, race after race, was even too much for Anderson to overcome.

The guy really didn’t do much wrong and, as mentioned, virtually every other competitor in the class would give whatever was asked of them for the Anderson’s stat line in 2026. So, what the heck is the one thing for Anderson?

The One Thing: The one place that Anderson does not find himself at the top or near the top of the stat sheets is starting-line performance. His .047 reaction time average places him eighth in the class and a hundredth and a half behind Glenn, but well more than two-hundredths behind Jeg Coughlin Jr., the class leader. Anderson suffered three holeshot losses in 2026, one of them in the first round at Seattle, which became the moment Glenn took the power position for the regular season championship when he went on to win the race.

The man had an incredible season, and we are nitpicking beyond nitpicking here, but, then again, that’s our job. If .047 can become .037 or better, Anderson will be better for it, even if just incrementally.

So that’s the end of our second and final installment looking at the one big thing leading teams can do to get over the hump. Those we looked at here are so close to championships they can smell it and, hey, being a part of this should be worn as a badge of honor. The number of teams that only wish it were one major fix to be made far outnumber those who are actually there. Pay attention in 2026 to see if any of our theories or analyses pan out!