As recently as two years ago, the once-heralded Mountain Motor Pro Stock class looked broken and fragmented, with no clear direction on how to proceed. Many teams seemed unsure on which sanctioning body to compete in – PDRA featured eighth-mile competition as a professional class, while NHRA offered quarter-mile racing, but only at select events.
When the newly reformed IHRA threw its hat into the ring last season, it initially looked like the MMPS waters would only be muddied further. Instead, the teams banded together and worked to revitalize the class, coming to an agreement to all race together under the IHRA umbrella moving forward. Just 12 months later they have achieved a remarkable accomplishment – creating what is, in my opinion, the most exciting class the IHRA currently has to offer.
“It’s been something that I think we’ve needed to do for a long time, but the whole class hasn’t been on the same page until this year,” said Johnny Pluchino, a two-time PDRA Extreme Pro Stock world champion, 2024 NHRA MMPS world champion, and 2025 Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod MMPS winner. “The class sticking together has really created a scenario where everyone’s working really hard. It’s been extremely competitive and really shows what Mountain Motor Pro Stock racing is about. It’s rejuvenated a lot of the racers and crew and teams to put a lot of work in, and it’s shown with the performance throughout the first four to five races this year.”
When Pluchino, the current IHRA points leader, says the class has been “extremely competitive,” it’s not just hyperbole. It has routinely been the toughest class throughout each race weekend. That’s not a knock on any of the other classes; rather, it’s a testament to just how formidable Mountain Motor Pro Stock has become. When trying to determine what is “most exciting,” one has to nitpick a bit.
When fans typically think of drag racing, nitro tends to run the show. But as the IHRA continues to grow and develop, the nitro categories – specifically Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Fuel Altered – still have a performance gap between the top teams and the rest of the field (the recent IHRA Triple Crown event being a noticeable exception). Pro Mod, while near and dear to my heart, lacks a bit of intensity in qualifying as even with healthy car counts, it is normally an all-run field. Alcohol Funny Car has seen Phil Esz run away with the class. And while the Pro-Am categories require far more skill than I’ll ever have, from a fan’s view, they simply can’t quite match the thrill of heads-up racing.
Mountain Motor Pro Stock, however, has found the sweet spot in terms of participation, parity, and performance. With as close as every team is currently performance-wise, even qualifying has been must-see TV. At the first Triple Crown race of 2026, an impressive 26 cars entered for their shot at the 16-car field. In just two qualifying sessions, the field was separated by a miniscule five-hundredths of a second. Half the field ran a 4.10-second elapsed time. A 4.101 secured the No. 5 spot (Jerry Tucker), while a 4.109 landed Chris Powers No. 12. By the time the finals rolled around, the numbers had tightened to ridiculous levels: John DeFlorian defeated Jeremy Huffman by just under six-thousandths of a second (.0058 MOV).
“I don’t remember it ever being this competitive, quite honestly,” says John Montecalvo, who has a laundry list of accomplishments in the class, including 200 round wins in IHRA, championships in IHRA, ADRL, and PDRA, and a MMPS victory at the 2023 WSOPM. “I can remember more cars, but I don’t ever remember the fields being this tight, especially when it’s just two sessions. It raises the bar. You get up there and your knees are knocking like the old days, where you can go up there and be No. 5, and if you didn’t make a good run you’d be going home. That’s where we’re at today, and that’s what we all want. I think it’s exciting for us as drivers, and even more exciting for the fans. That’s what people want to see. They don’t want to see you rolling in the gate already qualified – they want to see you fighting to get in.”
Pluchino strongly echoes that sentiment:
“It might be the strongest it’s ever been, and certainly the strongest it’s been in the last 20 years,” Pluchino says. “I’ve watched the class or been a part of the class for the last 30 years, and I can remember times with this many cars, but I don’t know if there were ever this many good teams. It’s really rewarding to have success in a time like this.”
That level of competition isn’t restricted to just the Triple Crown, either. It’s been standard operating procedure since last season. To get a better idea of just how intense it’s been, I wanted to look beyond the “eye test” and see if there were numbers to back up my assumption, so I reached out to drag racing historian and statistician David Wesolowski for a closer look at the numbers. Here are just a few of his findings:
- So far in 2026, the spread from No. 1-16 at the three national events rank in the top 20 closest IHRA fields of all time for the class.
- The Triple Crown race, while not a national event, was the third-tightest field in IHRA MMPS history for a 16-car field.
- Twenty different drivers have qualified, while 27 different drivers have earned points.
- There have been seven different No. 1 qualifiers in the eight national events since the 2025 season began.
- Four of the eight events have been won by first-time IHRA MMPS winners – Pluchino, Jerry Tucker, Chris Powers, and Matt Giangrande.
- Montecalvo’s event win last season moved him into the top 10 on the class all-time wins list. He is now tied for 8th with Lee Edwards and Frank Gugliotta.
The class is also positioned well for the long-term, with a host of longtime veterans such as Montecalvo, Triple Crown event winner John DeFlorian, Elijah Morton, Kurt Neighbor, and Dwayne Rice mixing it up with current stars like Pluchino, Powers, and Tucker; and a plethora of young guns ready to push the class into the future with Dillon and Cory Voss, Alan Drinkwater, and Jordan Ensslin.
“We had 26 cars at the last race, and I think at some point you’re going to see 30 or more cars at some of the races this year” Montecalvo says. “I put a big push behind this because I feel very strongly IHRA is where our home is. It was where the class was invented. The opportunity was there for us, and I think pretty much everybody was on the same wavelength and saw that we really did need to consolidate. We needed to be in one spot, and obviously, it’s paid off.”
To reiterate, this is not a knock on any of the other classes. But when it comes to getting the best bang for your buck – whether you’re a driver or a fan – the premier class currently competing in IHRA in terms of competition, car count, performance, and parity is unequivocally Mountain Motor Pro Stock. And considering where the class was just a year or two ago, that’s no small feat.
“This is the best opportunity we’ve had to showcase our class; not only with the purse structure, but with the platform we’re being placed on,” says Pluchino. “Everyone’s finally on the same page. It’s just the best thing that could happen for us.”
This story was originally published on June 24, 2026. 
The post Opinion: Mountain Motor Pro Stock Has Become IHRA’s Most Exciting Class first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
