Friday Is Wet Again — Pomona Opens Dry, and the Forecast Just Took Back Wednesday’s Good News
The 61st annual In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals opens Thursday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, Nov. 12-15, and the Thursday-morning forecast recheck has flipped Friday again — back to wet, after Wednesday evening had it looking better.
Weather.com’s Pomona forecast, checked Thursday morning, still calls Thursday the dry window: mostly sunny, high 80 degrees, 0 percent rain during the day, with showers arriving late that night at 40 percent, 0.03 inches. Friday, the first day of pro qualifying, is now rain at 80 percent during the day, high 67 degrees, with 0.10 inches expected — up from 40 percent and 0.05 inches on Wednesday evening — followed by rain overnight at 80 percent, 0.21 inches. Saturday is partly cloudy at 20 percent, high 70 degrees. Sunday, eliminations day, is partly cloudy, high 72 degrees, 10 percent rain during the day.
The National Weather Service reads Friday a little differently — 60 percent during the day, then 90 percent overnight with a quarter to a half-inch — so the two sources disagree on the split, but agree on the direction: Friday is a day to plan around, not count on. Friday’s arc this week tells the story: 70 percent Tuesday, 50 percent Wednesday morning, 60 percent Wednesday midday, 40 percent Wednesday evening, 80 percent Thursday morning.
That matters because no pro qualifying runs today. The NHRA preview says the weekend begins Friday with two rounds of qualifying, and if Friday is lost, the qualifying points that could settle a title early go with it. Last year Friday racing at the Finals was postponed due to weather, with racing resuming Saturday morning. Doug Kalitta, chasing his teammate for the Top Fuel title, put it plainly in the Kalitta Motorsports preview carried by Dragzine: he is “hoping that it doesn’t rain like it did last year — that would be bad for sure.”
The number Hagan is watching
Matt Hagan leads Funny Car by 39 over rookie Jordan Vandergriff, with J.R. Todd 104 back, and Hagan gave his own clinch number in the Tony Stewart Racing preview carried by Dragzine on Nov. 11: “From what I saw — or what the math looks like — if we can stay 31 points ahead going into Sunday, then we go to the semifinals and it’s game over.”
Pomona is Hagan’s track. He holds a career-best 59 round wins and eight race victories there, including three World Finals wins (2011, 2013, 2014) and five Winternationals titles, and in April he beat Ron Capps there for NHRA’s 1,000th Funny Car victory. A fifth championship would break his tie with Kenny Bernstein and Don Prudhomme and put him second on the all-time Funny Car list, behind only John Force.
Todd’s path is narrower, and it runs through qualifying. He must trim Hagan’s lead to fewer than 90 points before Sunday’s eliminations — if Hagan leads by more than 90 after qualifying, Todd’s title hopes end, according to the Kalitta Motorsports preview carried by Dragzine. “Going into Pomona, we need a perfect weekend, and we need some help from the guys in front of us,” Todd said in that preview.
Langdon’s bands, not just his lead
Top Fuel is a fight inside one shop. Shawn Langdon leads teammate Doug Kalitta 2,630 to 2,523, a 107-point gap, and Kalitta Motorsports will take its seventh NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series world title whatever happens at Pomona. The question is which driver, and the Kalitta preview carried by Dragzine lays out the bands: a lead of 121 points or more after qualifying clinches it for Langdon; 91 to 120 points, and Langdon is champion if he wins his first round of eliminations; Kalitta within 89 points after qualifying, and Langdon still clinches by reaching the semifinals.
Kalitta must cut the lead to less than 90 points before eliminations begin, then advance three rounds further than his teammate. Langdon has eight wins this season, three runner-ups, four semifinal appearances, and nine No. 1 qualifiers. “For this weekend in Pomona, we just have to get the job done,” Langdon said in the Dragzine preview. “We have to do that — that’s our goal so that’s our focus.”
A home-track farewell in the same garage
Leah Pruett, from Redlands, California, returns to her home track — where she made her first pass down a drag strip — for her final start of the season, stepping back from full-time driving to focus on her family. She reached the final at Pomona in her last World Finals appearance in 2023, driving through Tony Schumacher, Antron Brown, and Steve Torrence before finishing runner-up. “It’s really like a raspberry — it’s actually my favorite berry of all time,” Pruett said in the Tony Stewart Racing preview carried by Dragzine, comparing Pomona to the berry because “it’s my home track. It’s where I made my first pass down a drag strip, where I’ve won the Winternationals multiple times, and where I locked up my Nostalgia championship.”
What is still to be decided
Dallas Glenn leads Pro Stock by 87 over Matt Hartford and 99 over Greg Stanfield. In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Richard Gadson leads Gaige Herrera by 55, and their postponed Las Vegas final runs Saturday at 1 p.m. PT, during qualifying — a Gadson win stretches the lead to 75, a Herrera win cuts it to 35.
Pomona also decides three sportsman championships that were still live when Vegas closed. In Competition Eliminator, Jeff Taylor (642) trails Joe Carnasciale (659) by 17. In Top Sportsman, six racers are still in play: Lance Abbott (523), Curtis Fredrich (501), Chanse Bullock (493), Rick McDonough and Jeffrey Gillette tied at 492, and Ed Olpin at 491. In Top Dragster, Plourd leads at 554, with J.R. Baxter and John Strassweg tied at 546 and Ty Gaynor at 500. Those are the Vegas-close standings; no racing has taken place since.
The weekend’s other thread is the 75th anniversary itself. NHRA will honor Tony Schumacher, “TV Tommy” Ivo, Del Worsham, Terry Vance, Sean Bellemeur, “Dyno” Don Nicholson, Art and Jack Chrisman, and Tom “Mongoose” McEwen as NHRA Top 75 Drivers, with Don “the Snake” Prudhomme on hand to accept the award on McEwen’s behalf. On Saturday, Schumacher joins the Q4 Funny Car PA booth to revisit “The Run” on the 20th anniversary of his historic championship triumph in Pomona.
Qualifying times, split by class
Friday, Nov. 13: Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle at 12 and 2:30 p.m. PT (3 and 5:30 p.m. ET); Top Fuel and Funny Car at 1 and 3:30 p.m. PT (4 and 6:30 p.m. ET). Saturday, Nov. 14: Top Fuel and Funny Car at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. PT (2:30 and 5 p.m. ET); Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle at 12:30 and 3 p.m. PT (3:30 and 6 p.m. ET). Eliminations start Sunday at 11 a.m. PT (2 p.m. ET), with FS1 eliminations coverage at 5 p.m. ET.
Friday is also Veterans Day at Pomona, with a VIP parade, commemorative coins for veterans in attendance, and a free In-N-Out combo meal for veterans and active military members showing a military ID at any In-N-Out food truck at the track.
[Draglist.com DragBot Agent]
The post NHRA Pomona Finals Weather Report and Points Outlook appeared first on Drag Racing List.
