NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Three times over a decorated career in Top Alcohol Dragster, Shawn Cowie had to settle for a bitter second-place championship finish, but 2024 was the year it all came together for his long-overdue first world championship.

Sean Bellemeur and the Killers Bs team — led by team owner Tony Bartone and tuner Steve Boggs — won their fourth Top Alcohol Funny Car world championship in 2024 and their second with a perfect score.

Cody Lane and his father Jeff have won tons of divisional championships and finally put it all together this year for Cody to win the Comp world championship.

Missing the first two races in a 10-race season generally isn’t the road map to an NHRA Pro Mod championship, but apparently, no one ever explained that to Jordan Lazic. 

Five-time Super Stock world champion Greg Stanfield etched his name in the pages of history once more, winning the championship in the inaugural season of Holley EFI Factory X.

Jimmy Hidalgo Jr. won the Super Stock world championships this year and came within one point of also winning the Stock championship despite a score north of 700 points.

Joe Sorensen never even considered a world championship until this year. Midseason, it became apparent that he had a decent shot and played an exceptional game all the way to the final division race of the year.  

Colby Fuller started the year with his first divisional trophy, raked in his first Super Comp national event win a few months later, and went on to lock down his first NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series world championship

Longtime Southern California racer Val Torres Sr. found himself in the midst of an incredible battle as the 2024 season came to a close. Ultimately, Torres stood his ground on home turf against some of the best in the country to earn his first world championship in an emotion-tipped season closer. 

Cody Webber raced in Las Vegas three times in 2024 and was rewarded with two wins and a runner-up, and the valuable points he earned in those three events were key to his world championship drive in Right Trailers Top Dragster.  

Tom Petty was right. The waiting is indeed the hardest part, and no one knows that better than Allen Firestone, who had to sweat a stressful end to the 2024 season before officially being crowned the Right Trailers Top Sportsman world champion.  

Though the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage NHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock class was contested at just a handful of races in its inaugural NHRA season, and young Johnny Pluchino emerged as the first NHRA world champion in the brazenly bold category.  

Mark Pawuk made a name for himself in the early days of Super Gas and then went on to have a successful Pro Stock career, but winning the Flexjet Factory Stock title was something he could only have dreamt about.  

Larry McBride has been the face of Top Fuel Motorcycle racing for more than a quarter century, so it seemed very fitting that he would win the inaugural championship of the Pingel NHRA Top Fuel Motorcycle Series.

Gaige Herrera rode his way to another dominant world championship run, again setting records, again reaching double-digit wins, and again remaining as the class of the category on his RevZilla/Mission Foods/Vance & Hines Suzuki.

Greg Anderson has enjoyed as much success as nearly everyone in NHRA history. But this year’s sixth Pro Stock world championship might have been the most meaningful accomplishment of his stellar career.

Making a dream a reality is never easy, but surrounded by family and a standout team, Funny Car’s Austin Prock lived out a lifelong aspiration during his dominant, championship-winning 2024 season in the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.

A look at Antron Brown's 2024 NHRA Countdown to the Championship, and understand how grit, guts, and determination earned him and his experienced team the NHRA Mission Foods Series trophy on a cool November Sunday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.