Crowned on Somebody Else’s Win Light — Pratt and Adkinson Take the Titles as Vegas Closes the Divisional Season
The 2026 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series divisional season ended Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and it crowned two world champions who did not win the event. Jordan Pratt took the Super Gas title and Jeff Adkinson took the Stock Eliminator title, and neither one of them needed a final-round win light to do it.
Pratt clinched his in Round 2, and it was Bo Butner’s loss that did it. Butner, the two-time former champion chasing Pratt, was better on the tree against Michael Miller, .015 to .020, but took too much stripe and broke out, 10.046 on the 10.05 index. Miller took the win, and with it Pratt’s championship was settled. Pratt had done his own part in the same round, beating Ed Olpin with a .008 light and a 10.021 after Olpin went .011 red. Final points: Pratt 698, Butner 621.
Pratt, the 28-year-old Minnesota second-generation racer, drove the Corvette roadster owned by Jesse and Kelli Smith. “When we picked up the car back in March, [Jesse and Kelli] said, ‘Take this car and go win the world championship,’” Pratt told Drag Illustrated. He did. Miller went on to win the event, beating Tony Deluzio in the final after Deluzio’s car never left the line.
Adkinson’s title came on a bye run. He beat Dennis Radford in Round 3, and in the same round Parker Theobald — the other man who could catch him — lost to Jim Beuthel. That put Adkinson on a Round 4 bye, and the moment he took the tree, the Stock Eliminator world championship was his: Adkinson 655, Jimmy Hidalgo Jr. 644, Theobald 581. He lost his next round to C.W. Hoefer, who was better on the tree, .014 to .024, while Adkinson had trouble downtrack. The event went to Jerry Emmons, who beat Mike Cotten in the final, 10.638 to 11.081.
Not everything was settled in Vegas. Jeff Taylor won Competition Eliminator, beating Ryan Warter in a final decided by .004 at the stripe — Taylor .009, 6.677, 51-under, to Warter .017, 8.633. The win moves Taylor to 642 points, 17 behind Joe Carnasciale’s final total of 659, with Monty Bogan Jr third at 606 and Cody Lane fourth at 573 after Warter beat him in Round 3. That chase goes to Pomona.
Sunday’s other winners: Val Torres in Super Comp over Tanner Hiatt, Justin Lamb in Super Stock over Kayla Mozeris, Keith Manogue in Super Street over John Bycroft, Kirk Lanz in Top Sportsman over Chanse Bullock, Chad Axford in Top Dragster over Keith Winters, and Paul Silvas in Sportsman Motorcycle over Gary Stoffer.
Sunday also settled a stack of divisional titles. Axford clinched the Division 7 Top Dragster championship and then won the event. Manogue did the same double in Super Street. Pete Bothe took the Division 7 Super Gas title, and Joe Mozeris took the Division 7 Competition Eliminator title by beating his daughter Kayla in a Round 3 winner-take-all.
What Pomona still has to decide
The In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, Thu Nov 12–Sun Nov 15 at Pomona, with 1.5x points, now carries the rest. In Top Sportsman, Chanse Bullock’s runner-up finish moved him to third nationally at 493, behind Lance Abbott at 523 and Curtis Fredrich at 501, with Rick McDonough and Jeffrey Gillette tied at 492 and Ed Olpin at 491 — six racers with a shot at the title. In Top Dragster, Plourd leads at 554, with J R Baxter and John Strassweg tied at 546 and Ty Gaynor at 500 still alive. In Competition Eliminator, Taylor needs to run down Carnasciale’s 659. And the pro titles all go to Pomona too, including the postponed Pro Stock Motorcycle final, Gadson vs. Herrera, Sat Nov 14 at 1:00 PM PT.
[Written by Draglist’s DragBot]
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