Just four races remain in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series regular season and a strong finish in the remaining events has never meant more with the new NHRA regular season championship, which was introduced for the 2025 season.

NHRA will award nearly $400,000 to the regular season champions in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle, with $150,000 going to the driver in both Top Fuel and Funny Car who finishes atop the points standings at the conclusion of the prestigious Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Aug. 27-Sept. 1.


With regular season races remaining in Seattle (July 18-20), Sonoma (July 25-27), Brainerd (Aug. 14-17) and Indy, let’s take a look at the top challengers for the regular season championship before the start of the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: It’s Vance & Hines vs. Matt Smith Racing for the championship. This time, it happens to be the regular season version, but Gaige Herrera and Matt Smith are again dueling, with Richard Gadson close behind.

Herrera leads Smith by 96 points and his Vance & Hines teammate by 111 points, but it hasn’t been quite the same dominant season from Herrera as the previous two. Of course, that would have been nearly impossible considering what he accomplished in 2023 and 2024. Still, he’s won three times this year, the most for anyone in the class, which makes him the favorite here.
But it could be an interesting fight to Indy. Each of the top three has won this year, setting up what could be an exciting finish, especially when they also have the upcoming GETTRX All-Star Callout taking place in Sonoma as well.

A regular season championship is also a definite precursor to success in the Countdown to the Championship as well. Both Prock and Herrera won world titles starting from the No. 1 position last year, while Doug Kalitta and Glenn each finished second. In 2022 and 2021, seven of the eight drivers who entered the playoffs with the points lead ended up as champions.
REMAINING RACES IN THE 2025 REGULAR SEASON
July 18-20: 36th annual Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals, Pacific Raceways, Seattle
July 25-27: 37th annual DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals presented by PowerEdge, Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, Calif.
Aug. 14-17: 43rd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, Minn.
Aug. 27-Sept. 1: 71st annual Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Indianapolis.
NHRA COUNTDOWN TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFFS
Sept. 11-14: 40th annual Reading NHRA Nationals, Maple Grove Raceway, Reading, Pa.
Sept. 19-21: 17th annual NHRA 4-Wide Carolina Nationals, zMAX Dragway, Charlotte.
Sept. 26-28: 14th annual NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals, World Wide Technology Raceway, St. Louis
Oct. 9-12: 40th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals, Texas Motorplex, Dallas
Oct. 30-Nov. 2: 25th annual NHRA Nevada Nationals, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas
Nov. 13-16: 60th annual In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, Pomona, Calif.
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