NHRA 2023 Sonoma Nationals Results, Updated Points

Top Fuel’s Justin Ashley wins for the fifth time this year.

Wing-strut failure jeopardized three-time Top Fuel champ Antron Brown during qualifying.

Steve Torrence hints that new specialty race could have a major impact on the Countdown seeding.

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The NHRA’s Western Swing is over. The Denso Sonoma Nationals is in the books, and winners Justin Ashley (Top Fuel), J.R. Todd (Funny Car), and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were the toast of Northern California wine country Sunday.

The Countdown to the Championship is coming up after three more races. Drivers are counting points. And suddenly the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge could sway the playoff lineup, and Antron Brown has roared back from ninth place into the championship conversation again.

J.R. Todd Earns Trophy for First Time In More Than Two Years

Funny Car’s 2018 series champion J.R. Todd was starting to memorize the line: “It’s been a long time since I got a trophy for anything.” But he’s going back home to Jupiter, Fla., with not just one but two – the Wally statue for defeating hopeful first-time winner Chad Green in Sunday’s final round and the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge trophy from his Saturday triumph over Blake Alexander.

Sonoma Raceway has proven to be a favorable venue for the DHL Toyota Supra driver, who recorded a 2006 Top Fuel victory here and his first in Funny Car in 2017. And this breakthrough victory, his 10th overall, ends a 53-race winless streak that lasted 868 days. His previous success came at the March 2021 Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

“I forgot what this is like,” Todd said of the winners circle celebration. “I’ve never had a throttle pushed down so hard as I did today. I thought it was going to go through the floorboard every run.”

He said that when he saw his win light come on, “I was cussin’ and screamin’ and everything. It was instant relief.”

Gaige Herrera Goes Home With All The Bike-Class Loot

Pro Stock Motorcycle phenom Gaige Herrera, in his first season with the Vance & Hines powerhouse team, enjoyed his gluttonous fill at California’s Sonoma Raceway – and etched his name into the sport’s history book in the process.

The only racer left who was eligible to sweep the three-event Western Swing through Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma, Herrera became the first from the bike category and eighth overall to do so. He follows Top Fuel drivers Joe Amato, Cory McClenathan, Larry Dixon, Tony Schumacher, and Antron Brown, as well as John Force (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock). He won the Denso Sonoma Nationals by default, as opponent Matt Smith was unable to start his motorcycle for the final round.

“You never want to win that way,” Herrera said after Smith, for the second straight race, was beaten by a $100 cam sensor that failed. “But I’ve got one bad machine. To be able to do this . . . I’m out of words.”

The day before, Herrera claimed the $15,000 jackpot in the All-Star Call-Out specialty race during qualifying as he grabbed his seventh No. 1 starting position in the class’ eight appearances on the Camping World Drag Racing Series tour.

Within about 24 hours, Herrera was cementing his place in Pro Stock Motorcycle lore. Denver winners Clay Millican (Top Fuel) and Matt Hagan (Funny Car) both failed to win at Seattle, leaving Herrera the lone candidate to score what likely is the last Western Swing.

The Denver dragstrip, Bandimere Speedway, pushed the list of NHRA venues to drop from the schedule since 2018 to six. (Gone, too, are facilities at Englishtown in New Jersey, Atlanta, Houston, and Phoenix. Still-thriving Virginia Motorsports Park, south of Richmond, opted out of the tour.)

Justin Ashley Gains Top Fuel Trophy, Points Lead On Dad’s Birthday

Justin Ashley said his Phillips Connect Toyota Dragster “was on rails” after combining with Funny Car winner J.R. Todd for a Toyota double-nitro triumph Sunday.

Ashley nicked Antron Brown by one-thousandth of a second (.0017) in the final round to record his fifth victory of the season in 12 events. He regained the points lead from Steve Torrence, who held off upset-minded part-timer Ron August in a close first-round match and overcame an explosion at about just 60 feet into the 1,000-foot course that blew the supercharger off his car but lost to Antron Brown.

By advancing to his 17th career final, Ashley earned his 100th elimination round-win and ran his race-day record to 25-7. It all happened on retired racer dad Mike Ashley’s birthday.

Antron Brown says, ‘God was definitely looking out’

Top Fuel’s Antron Brown miraculously escaped disaster during Saturday’s fourth and final qualifying session. The downforce-controlling rear wing of his Matco Tools Toyota Dragster broke loose early in his pass on the 1,000-foot Sonoma Raceway course and collapsed sideways as he completed the 308.99-mph run amazingly straight and in control.

It all unfolded in 3.896 seconds, and Brown said afterward that “God was definitely looking out. I was really blessed and fortunate there.”

The wing strut malfunction caused the car to jolt Brown, who initially thought he had a dropped a cylinder or two. He said the car “made a hard move” which “surprised me.” Crew chief Brian Corradi told him through the radio what the situation was, and Brown steered the dragster down his lane, never threatening Brittany Force in the opposite lane, and got it off the track in almost-routine fashion.

Brown said, “The cool thing is that the car stayed on the ground. It didn’t get airborne. I should’ve shut it down early – not worth it. That was a lucky one there.”

His crew definitely had everything fixed by Sunday morning, thanks to camping-out local Matco Tools distributors provided steak dinners for them in their late-night thrash. Brown, the No. 3 qualifier, defeated first-round opponent Mike Salinas despite Salinas’ best-of-the-meet 335.65-mph speed. Then in the quarterfinals, Brown dashed Brittany Force’s hopes of a repeat victory at Sonoma. He reached the final round by beating points leader Steve Torrence (who came to the semifinal after a huge explosion in the round before blew the supercharger off his dragster at the 60-foot mark).

Brown eventually missed out on his 73rd overall victory and second this season, losing to Toyota-alliance partner Justin Ashley by about 10 inches, or .0017 of a second. It was Brown’s 113rd career final round and third this season, and he improved from seventh place to fourth.

Top Fuel bonus-race winner Steve Torence raises intriguing scenario

Scoffed at by track announcers who didn’t understand the point he was making, Steve Torrence said Saturday after winning the Sonoma edition of the $10,000 Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus race that he was trying to “close the gap Juston Ashley’s opened on us.” The victory was Torrence’s second straight, but Ashley won the previous five. Each victory comes with three valuable bonus points that are banked throughout the regular season and added to a driver’s total at the start of the Countdown to the Championship in September. So Ashley has stored 15 points, Torrence six, with just three races remaining to add to the totals.

Torrence replaced Ashley as the points leader at Seattle in the tight Top Fuel standings. Heading into Sonoma, Torrence had just a four-point advantage over Ashley. Although this scenario isn’t the case right now, if the six-race playoffs were to have started Sunday, Ashley would have passed Torrence as the No. 1 seed by virtue of his #2Fast2Tasty bonus points. (As it turned out, Ashley went one round farther than Torrence and took back the lead in the standings with the Sonoma victory.)

So Torrence didn’t forget he was the points leader at the time. He knew all too well what could happen in the next few weeks. (It took only a few hours Sunday for him to give the lead back to eventual race winner Ashley.)

Racers know that every point counts. Funny Car’s Ron Capps earned his third title last November by merely three points.

The Top Fuel class alone has plenty of examples of narrow championship margins. Tony Schumacher edged Larry Dixon in 2009 by two points. Torrence had a three-point cushion over Doug Kalitta at the end of the 2019 season. And Antron Brown claimed his first title in 2012 by only seven points ahead of Schumacher.

In Funny Car, Jack Beckman disappointed Capps with a two-point difference in 2012. Gary Scelzi already in 2005 had denied Capps by eight points, just as Robert Hight had beaten out Beckman by eight points in 2019.

Greg Anderson took the brunt of it twice in Pro Stock, losing to Jason Line by three points in 2016 and to Bo Butner in 2017.

So that’s what Torrence, already an outspoken critic of the NHRA’s points-manipulation practice, was alluding to. In the Countdown era, ushered in in 2007, after the Labor Day classic U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, the sanctioning body resets the standings for the championship-eligible drivers. It erases regular-season achievements and bunches the field in 10-point increments.

Results, Updated Standings

Sonoma Nationals

Finishing Order

SONOMA, Calif. — Final finish order (1-16) at the 35th annual Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway. The race is the 12th of 21 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series.

TOP FUEL:

1. Justin Ashley; 2. Antron Brown; 3. Josh Hart; 4. Steve Torrence; 5. Austin Prock; 6. Shawn Langdon; 7. Brittany Force; 8. Mike Salinas; 9. Leah Pruett; 10. Tony Schumacher; 11. Doug Kalitta; 12. Clay Millican; 13. Ron August.

FUNNY CAR:

1. J.R. Todd; 2. Chad Green; 3. Matt Hagan; 4. Ron Capps; 5. Tim Wilkerson; 6. Paul Lee; 7. Bob Tasca III; 8. Robert Hight; 9. Blake Alexander; 10. Jason Rupert; 11. Cruz Pedregon; 12. John Force; 13. Alex Laughlin; 14. Alexis DeJoria; 15. Tim Gibbons.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE:

1. Gaige Herrera; 2. Matt Smith; 3. Eddie Krawiec; 4. Karen Stoffer; 5. Angie Smith; 6. Marc Ingwersen; 7. Freddie Camarena; 8. Steve Johnson; 9. Jianna Evaristo; 10. Chris Bostick; 11. Hector Arana Jr; 12. Kelly Clontz; 13. Lance Bonham; 14. John Hall; 15. Chase Van Sant; 16. Ryan Oehler.

Final Rounds

SONOMA, Calif. — Sunday’s final results from the 35th annual Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway. The race is the 12th of 21 in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series:

Top Fuel — Justin Ashley, 3.778 seconds, 328.78 mph def. Antron Brown, 3.787 seconds, 327.90 mph.

Funny Car — J.R. Todd, Toyota Supra, 3.972, 322.81 def. Chad Green, Ford Mustang, 4.039, 314.17.

Pro Stock Motorcycle — Gaige Herrera, Suzuki, 6.775, 198.12 def. Matt Smith, Suzuki, Broke.

Super Stock — Justin Lamb, Chevy Cobalt, 8.976, 142.97 def. Trey Vetter, Chevy Camaro, 9.844, 134.38.

Stock Eliminator — Leo Glasbrenner, Chevy Camaro, 9.380, 141.77 def. Bo Butner, Camaro, Foul – Red Light.

Super Comp — Parker Theobald, Dragster, 8.920, 165.54 def. Matt Woodard, Dragster, 8.920, 181.30.

Super Gas — Dennis Paz, Willys, 9.905, 132.87 def. Evan Kowalski, Chevy Corvette, 9.938, 151.04.

Super Street — Kenny Snow, Chevy Chevelle, 10.929, 136.26 def. Dennis Paz, Chevy El Camino, 10.945, 116.84.

Top Sportsman — Ted Kellner, Pontiac Firebird, 7.195, 190.16 def. Ken Ratzloff, Studebaker Champion, 6.900, 198.90.

Top Dragster — Don London, Dragster, 6.172, 220.37 def. Chris Thode, Dragster, 6.754, 200.44.

Round by Round

SONOMA, Calif. — Final round-by-round results from the 35th annual Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway, the 12th of 21 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series:

TOP FUEL:

ROUND ONE — Justin Ashley, 3.707, 329.67 def. Doug Kalitta, 3.750, 328.38; Josh Hart, 3.779, 324.44 def. Tony Schumacher, 3.748, 330.39; Austin Prock, 3.724, 330.72 was unopposed; Antron Brown, 3.744, 330.23 def. Mike Salinas, 3.717, 335.65; Steve Torrence, 3.751, 331.94 def. Ron August, 3.878, 321.12; Shawn Langdon, 3.755, 331.12 def. Leah Pruett, 3.746, 328.38; Brittany Force, 3.703, 334.57 def. Clay Millican, 3.786, 301.07;

QUARTERFINALS — Hart, 3.793, 330.47 def. Langdon, 4.697, 160.94; Torrence, Broke was unopposed; Brown, 4.034, 277.03 def. Force, 6.321, 132.10; Ashley, 3.740, 327.03 def. Prock, 3.761, 329.10;

SEMIFINALS — Brown, 3.794, 329.83 def. Torrence, 3.810, 328.78; Ashley, 3.768, 329.10 def. Hart, 3.793, 327.43;

FINAL — Ashley, 3.778, 328.78 def. Brown, 3.787, 327.90.

FUNNY CAR:

ROUND ONE — Bob Tasca III, Ford Mustang, 3.935, 322.81 was unopposed; Paul Lee, Dodge Charger, 3.991, 291.89 def. Alexis DeJoria, Toyota Supra, Foul – Red Light; Tim Wilkerson, Mustang, 3.966, 326.40 def. Alex Laughlin, Charger, 5.055, 177.58; Ron Capps, Supra, 4.602, 180.07 def. Tim Gibbons, Charger, Broke; Matt Hagan, Charger, 3.997, 317.87 def. Jason Rupert, Mustang, 4.038, 314.24; Robert Hight, Chevy Camaro, 3.904, 331.53 def. John Force, Camaro, 4.845, 163.77; Chad Green, Mustang, 3.923, 328.78 def. Cruz Pedregon, Charger, 4.607, 182.48; J.R. Todd, Supra, 3.958, 322.58 def. Blake Alexander, Mustang, 3.980, 320.58;

QUARTERFINALS — Green, 3.963, 325.45 def. Lee, 4.068, 269.29; Todd, 3.985, 326.24 def. Tasca III, 4.110, 271.90; Capps, 4.018, 316.90 def. Hight, 4.577, 190.48; Hagan, 3.955, 324.98 def. Wilkerson, 4.014, 297.81;

SEMIFINALS — Green, 3.991, 324.67 def. Capps, 4.013, 317.49; Todd, 3.965, 325.14 def. Hagan, 3.999, 323.12;

FINAL — Todd, 3.972, 322.81 def. Green, 4.039, 314.17.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE:

ROUND ONE — Marc Ingwersen, 6.876, 195.59 def. Kelly Clontz, Suzuki, 6.961, 192.63; Angie Smith, 6.781, 200.62 def. Chase Van Sant, Suzuki, Broke; Steve Johnson, Suzuki, 6.785, 196.16 def. Jianna Evaristo, Suzuki, 6.820, 196.56; Karen Stoffer, Suzuki, 6.868, 193.99 def. Chris Bostick, 6.916, 194.16; Freddie Camarena, Suzuki, 6.913, 195.48 def. Hector Arana Jr, 6.940, 199.91; Eddie Krawiec, Suzuki, 6.818, 198.03 def. John Hall, Buell, 7.853, 123.64; Matt Smith, Suzuki, 6.795, 199.05 def. Lance Bonham, Buell, Foul – Red Light; Gaige Herrera, Suzuki, 6.729, 199.11 def. Ryan Oehler, Foul – Centerline;

QUARTERFINALS — Krawiec, 6.762, 199.23 def. A. Smith, Foul – Red Light; Stoffer, 15.579, 43.01 def. Camarena, Foul – Red Light; M. Smith, 7.160, 194.46 def. Johnson, 12.626, 55.05; Herrera, 6.836, 196.10 def. Ingwersen, Foul – Red Light;

SEMIFINALS — Herrera, 6.793, 195.28 def. Stoffer, 6.926, 191.97; M. Smith, 6.819, 198.23 def. Krawiec, 6.860, 199.52;

FINAL — Herrera, 6.775, 198.12 def. M. Smith, Broke.

Updated Standings

SONOMA, Calif. — Point standings (top 10) following the 35th annual Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway, the 12th of 21 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series –

Top Fuel

1. Justin Ashley, 935; 2. Steve Torrence, 903; 3. Brittany Force, 736; 4. Antron Brown, 721; 5. Leah Pruett, 718; 6. Austin Prock, 715; 7. Doug Kalitta, 672; 8. Mike Salinas, 654; 9. Josh Hart, 651; 10. Clay Millican, 604.

Funny Car

1. Matt Hagan, 912; 2. Ron Capps, 893; 3. Chad Green, 796; 4. Robert Hight, 758; 5. Alexis DeJoria, 755; 6. Tim Wilkerson, 707; 7. Bob Tasca III, 696; 8. J.R. Todd, 693; 9. John Force, 637; 10. Cruz Pedregon, 540.

Pro Stock Motorcycle

1. Gaige Herrera, 924; 2. Hector Arana Jr, 565; 3. Eddie Krawiec, 563; 4. Matt Smith, 549; 5. Angie Smith, 506; 6. Steve Johnson, 480; 7. Chase Van Sant, 420; 8. Marc Ingwersen, 344; 9. Jianna Evaristo, 341; 10. Kelly Clontz, 294.