LAS VEGAS — After a runner-up finish in Pomona, Funny Car driver Daniel Wilkerson has his sights set on this weekend’s 25th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with hopes of securing his first NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series victory.
Wilkerson and his 12,000-horsepower SCAG Racing Ford Mustang team will join the other stars of the NHRA as they put their Funny Cars to the test at Las Vegas in the first four-wide race of the season.
“I’m still beaming with excitement from Sunday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Drag Strip,” Wilkerson said. “I’m so proud of my team for rebounding from a tough qualifying effort on Friday and Saturday and then to make it to the finals on Sunday. With any luck, we can carry that momentum into the four-wide race at Vegas.”
After a solid rookie season, Wilkerson has big things in mind for his second full season as a Funny Car driver. When his father and Funny Car veteran, Tim, stepped out of the seat, Wilkerson took over driving duties and has flourished, advancing to a final round last year – at the four-wide race in Charlotte – and showing signs of being a championship contender in 2025.
“Traditionally, Tim was very good at these four-wide events,” Wilkerson said. “We were in our first final at a four-wide event last year and now that there are three (four-wide races), with one in the Countdown. I’m excited for the extra practice as a driver. Even from a fan’s point of view, which I am and always will be, the four-wide is an awesome spectacle. Sitting in the race car in the water box you can feel the power of an extra two cars.”
• Coming off a milestone victory two weeks ago at Pomona, Calif., where he secured the 300th Funny Car win for John Force Racing, “Fast Jack” Beckman goes back to school this week for a refresher course in advance of Sunday’s west coast version of the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Since it’s been six years since his last experience with the format, the Mission Foods point leader will spend some extra time acclimating himself to the nuances of four across racing.
“I’ll be spending lots of time Thursday and early Friday rehearsing the staging and turnout idiosyncrasies involved (in four-wide competition),” said the U.S. Air Force veteran. “Our PEAK Chevy is primed to win again and I will be ready to give 100 percent!”
Nevertheless, don’t look for Beckman in the familiar PEAK blue Chevrolet SS he began driving last year in relief of the team’s injured founder and CEO. For this week’s race, that car will be decked out in the red, white and black livery of Indianapolis-based Graham Rahal Performance.
A six-time winner in the NTT Indy Car series, Rahal opened GRP in 2017 as a custom-tuning and performance parts shop catering to cars and owners of every shape, size and interest. He has expanded the scope of the business every year since.
“Even though our forms of racing are very different,” Beckman said. “Our DNA is the same. At the core, we are all hotrodders. I am thrilled to have Graham Rahal Performance on board, knowing that Graham recognizes the value of drag racing as a marketing tool. We look forward to representing GRP in a professional, positive, and winning fashion.”
• Three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Ron Capps tipped in a press release leading into the weekend that there could be some news about his race team prior to the start of racing at The Strip.
“We’ve got a busy week leading up to this weekend’s race in Vegas, and that includes a major announcement tomorrow about the future of Ron Capps Motorsports, and I couldn’t think of a better race to do that than Las Vegas,” Capps said. “This weekend is our first of three four-wide races this year with the addition of the four-wide race in September during the playoffs. I always get excited for a four-wide race. People fly in from all over to see us run the cars four at a time; it’s a spectacle. It’s a lot of crazy fun for us drivers, and the first win for our RCM team was actually at the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals during our first year in 2022. So, looking forward to a great weekend and gaining some momentum.”
• JCM Racing Funny Car driver Alexis DeJoria will be without her Top Fuel teammate, Ida Zetterstrom this weekend, as she’s running a limited schedule until more funding can be secured.
“Unfortunately, Ida won’t be joining us at this race. She’s only scheduled to do 10 races at this point and I really hope that changes soon,” DeJoria said. “She’s an incredible driver, she’s got a great personality, and her team is amazing. I really hope she gets the sponsorship needed to be able to compete at all of the remaining races this year.”
• Three-time and reigning NHRA Top Fuel champion Antron Brown is chasing his seventh victory at The Strip.
“We’ve got six wins in Vegas, and it would be awesome to pull off our seventh victory this weekend because that means we’ve got sevens on the board and hit the jackpot, so hopefully we can come out and make this our jackpot race,” Brown said. “We know it’s going to be tricky, it’s going to be competitive, but we’re looking forward to that challenge.”
• Shawn Langdon, the 2013 Top Fuel champion, enters this weekend with a 77-point lead in the standings. Langdon has a win and three top-four finishes in the first three events of the season aboard the Kalitta Motorsports dragster.
“The Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team made really good runs throughout the whole season so far,” Langdon added. “I really feel like we have the best car out there right now. The guys have done a great job putting the car together, and really, with the exception of a couple little things, we’ve had almost a picture-perfect season with a win, a runner-up and two wins in the Mission Foods Challenge. We lost a good race to Antron (Brown) in the final at Gainesville and dropped a cylinder in the semifinal in Pomona so we’re a couple little things away from being picture perfect for the first three races.”
• Some milestones are on the line for Top Fuel driver Justin Ashley this weekend in Las Vegas. The SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel dragster driver is on the cusp of his 150th career round win and his 100th career start.
“The thought of competing in my 100th race and winning my 150th round of racing is surreal. I remember both my first Top Fuel race and first Top Fuel round win in Charlotte of 2019 like it was yesterday,” Ashley said. “The thing that stands out to me the most is how many people it took to get to this point. We still have a long way to go, but I cannot help but stop and reflect with gratitude on all that led to this point. I am so proud to be a part of SCAG Racing, this organization, and this team.”
• Six-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders enters the weekend as the winningest driver in NHRA history at The Strip. With 10 career wins at the iconic venue—spanning both the spring Four-Wide Nationals and the fall NHRA Nationals—Enders has proven time and again that Las Vegas is her domain. The six-time world champion is chasing her 50th national event win, a milestone that would further cement her legacy as the most successful female driver in motorsports history.
“Vegas has always been good to us in the past and we love racing there,” said Enders, who is seeking her 50th national event victory. “Through three races, it’s obvious we have something serious going on and we are continuing to work on the problem. It’s why we took the time to go testing, we tried some new things and collected some data. We have been through worse, and we will get through this. Unfortunately, it’s just going to take time.”
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