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POMONA, Calif. - Reigning Top Fuel world champ Doug Kalitta powered to the provisional No. 1 position on Friday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, staying in the championship hunt to open this weekend's In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals. Ron Capps (Funny Car), Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the last of 20 races during the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season and the sixth race in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. The second session in both Top Fuel and Funny Car were canceled due to weather.
"I'm glad we got one round of qualifying in today because at this last race, you never know," Kalitta said. "Alan [Johnson], Mac [Savage],and all of my guys were real hungry to have a good qualifying effort, and we went out there and did good today. I'm still hoping we can pull off a championship. I've been part of a bunch of close ones, and we're just looking to go out there, throw down on every run and we're going to try to get every point we can every round." Maddi Gordon is second with a 3.679 at 342.11, setting a new track speed record, while Leah Pruett is third after a 3.698 at 334.65. Langdon is currently in the 14th spot heading into Saturday.
A championship may be out of reach for the three-time champ, but the veteran can still have a big finish to the weekend. "You see a lot of teams every year that have been so-so or having issues, come alive at this race because you could pretty much throw everything at this track when the conditions are right there," Capps said. "However, they were almost too good. 'Guido' [crew chief Dean Antonelli] did a good job of pulling it back just a little bit, about 300 feet, and then letting it go. We saw a few of those really fast Funny Cars get sideways and lose traction out there. So it was a tricky Pomona, but still fast. "Tomorrow, it's going to be clearer, a little warmer, which will be faster. It'll still be cold enough, and the atmospheric conditions are going to be stout, so it's going to be great. That .89 will probably end up being the bottom half of the field. We're No. 1 right now, but we have to run better for sure tomorrow to stay top half." J.R. Todd is second with a 3.911 at 327.90 and Cruz Pedregon's 3.931 at 318.02 has him third. Points leader Matt Hagan is 11th after one session and Jordan Vandergriff is currently not qualified and is 21st.
If that holds, it would be his fifth No. 1 qualifier of the season, but with the bonus points he collected on Friday, he opened up a three-round advantage over Matt Hartford. Should that hold up, Glenn would only need to win the first round of eliminations - with what would be a first-round bye - on Sunday to clinch the championship for the second consecutive year. "We made two really nice runs and so far we've done exactly what we wanted to do. We've gotten our bonus points that we needed. Now, the next major goal for tomorrow is to hold on to that No. 1 spot, make sure nobody takes that away [to maintain a first-round bye]. "As long as I do my job and stay No. 1, then it won't matter [what anyone else does]. If I have to race one of them, I have a lot of confidence in my car right now, and I wouldn't want it if I didn't earn it anyway. I take it as like the biggest compliment ever that they want to try to race me first round, so I welcome all challengers." Matt Latino moved to second in qualifying with a 6.516 at 209.17 and Greg Stanfield, who opened the weekend 99 points out of first, is third with a 6.523 at 210.18.
He gained two points on Gadson on Friday, but the big showdown will take place in the opening session on Saturday, when Herrera and Gadson will face off in the final round of the postponed Las Vegas final. It's Herrera versus Gadson, and Herrera can pull 20 points closer to the points leader with a victory over his teammate. They were the top two bikes on Friday in Pomona and an epic showdown awaits tomorrow. "It's definitely an ideal start for sure to go out there and run 6.67 on both passes and get the bonus points. Plus, Richard [Gadson] and I both went 1.01 to the 60-foot in Q2, so that was pretty unique. Mother Nature is going to mess with us this weekend, and it wouldn't be Pomona if we didn't have some rain. I feel very good this weekend." Gadson is currently qualified second with a 6.713 at 200.00 and Matt Smith is third after going 6.750 at 201.28. Qualifying continues at 11:30 a.m. PT on Saturday at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
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