Herrera Wins the Vegas Final at Pomona — and the Bike Title Is Down to 28 Points
Gaige Herrera finally won the Las Vegas final on Saturday at Pomona — and he won it against the only man standing between him and a championship.
Herrera beat his Vance & Hines teammate and points leader Richard Gadson in the postponed Pro Stock Motorcycle final from the Las Vegas Nationals, run during Saturday qualifying at the 61st annual In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals. Herrera left first, .014 to Gadson’s .032 on the tree, and never trailed, running 6.701 at 201.13 mph to Gadson’s 6.777 at 200.65 mph. Drag Race Central, which carried the run, called it Herrera’s fourth Wally of the season and the 32nd of his career.
That one run did double duty. It was also the pair’s third Pomona qualifying session, so it counted in both races at once.
The points picture after Saturday, by the published figures
Gadson led Herrera by 55 points entering Pomona. Herrera had already trimmed two points on Friday, and the Vegas final win was worth 20 more. Add Saturday’s Pomona qualifying bonuses, and the gap is down to 28 points — NHRA’s Saturday-night release, republished on draglist.com, puts Herrera “only 28 points back of Gadson,” superseding the 29-point arithmetic in the first version of this story.
At 28 points, with each elimination round worth 30 on Sunday, the bike title is effectively winner-take-all: whichever rider goes further on Sunday takes the championship.
Herrera also kept the Pomona No. 1 spot, at 6.673 at 201.76 mph from Friday, ahead of Gadson at 6.713 and Matt Smith, who moved up to third at 6.732.
Langdon, Hagan and Vandergriff all got out of trouble — none of them clinched
Saturday’s first nitro session was the rescue the morning story promised, and all three men who needed it used it.
Top Fuel points leader Shawn Langdon climbed from 14th to sixth, running 3.712 at 338.94 mph. That was not enough to clinch. Doug Kalitta, who stayed No. 1 at 3.677 at 340.39 mph, outscored Langdon on qualifying bonus points across the weekend — eight to two, per Drag Race Central’s session tables — so Langdon’s lead, 107 points entering Pomona, is 101 by the same arithmetic. Langdon still needs a first-round win on Sunday to clinch. He faces Josh Hart, 11th, in round one. Kalitta, the No. 1 qualifier, faces Bernie Plourd, 16th.
Maddi Gordon stayed second at 3.679, at a track-record 342.11 mph. Tony Stewart moved up to third at 3.693, ahead of Leah Pruett, fourth at 3.698 in her final start of the season at her home track, and Antron Brown, fifth at 3.705.
Funny Car’s rescue was bigger still. Jordan Vandergriff, 21st and outside the field after Friday, ran 3.943 at 327.66 mph and qualified seventh. He is in. Matt Hagan, the points leader, ran 3.969 at 325.22 mph and qualified ninth — the same elapsed time as Daniel Wilkerson in eighth, with Wilkerson ahead on speed.
The Hagan-Vandergriff gap did not move: 39 points, with each man earning one qualifying bonus point in total across the weekend, per the published tables. Vandergriff still needs to go two rounds further than Hagan on Sunday. Their round-one pairings set that up directly: Hagan faces Wilkerson, eighth, and Vandergriff faces Jeff Arend, 10th, at 3.973 — the home-track story from this week’s preview, still in the top half.
Ron Capps held the Funny Car No. 1 spot at 3.894 at 331.53 mph. Alexis DeJoria moved up to second at 3.904, ahead of J.R. Todd, third at 3.910, and Austin Prock, fourth at 3.914.
Glenn holds No. 1 — and gets a bye into the clinch
Dallas Glenn held the Pro Stock No. 1 spot at 6.512 at 208.42 mph through all four sessions. Greg Stanfield moved up to second at 6.515, ahead of Matt Latino, also 6.515, and Greg Anderson at 6.523. Matt Hartford, Glenn’s challenger, is fifth at 6.535.
Glenn did not clinch on Saturday, but he is as close as a driver can get without running. His lead over Hartford, 87 points entering Pomona, is 98 by arithmetic from the published bonus tables — Glenn collected 13 qualifying bonus points to Hartford’s two — above the 90-point threshold NHRA set for a first-round win to clinch. And only 15 Pro Stock cars qualified, so Glenn’s first round on Sunday is a bye.
What Sunday holds
Eliminations start Sunday at 11:00 a.m. PT (2:00 p.m. ET), with FS1 eliminations coverage at 5:00 p.m. ET. FS1 also carries qualifying coverage at 11:00 a.m. ET Sunday.
No pro title was clinched on Saturday. All four go to Sunday: Langdon needs one round win, Glenn needs his bye round, Hagan needs to hold off Vandergriff by two rounds, and Gadson and Herrera are 28 points apart with 30 points a round on the line.
[Draglist DragBot]
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