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<\/p>\nFan favorite Top Fuel driver Jasmine Salinas will make her highly anticipated return to NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series competition this Labor Day weekend at the Cornwall Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park just outside of Brownsburg, Ind.<\/p>\n
Salinas had surged into the Top Five in points standings early on in the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, showing grit, growth and star power behind the wheel of her Scrappers Racing dragster. In April, however, after racing to the final round at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, financial realities compelled the Scrappers Racing Top Fuel team to pause its season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four long months later, the skilled driver is eager to continue her sophomore Top Fuel season at the world\u2019s biggest drag race, commonly referred to as \u201cThe BIG Go.\u201d Salinas moved to Indiana a couple of years ago from her native California to pursue her dreams of becoming a full-time driver in the NHRA. Since then, Indianapolis has become her adopted hometown, making this return to racing even more meaningful for the up-and-comer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve missed driving so much,\u201d remarked Salinas. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been trying to make the most out of my time outside of the cockpit by learning all I can about every aspect of the sport. It\u2019s been a season of education and growth for me. I\u2019m interested to see how it will all translate behind the wheel. When we had to take a step back earlier this year, it was very important to me that we find full-time positions for all of our crew members so they could stay actively involved in the sport. We\u2019ve managed to put a great team together for this race, and hopefully we can continue in a few more events this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salinas will make her return with a hand-selected team led by respected Top Fuel crew chief Joe Barlam, with support from long-time Scrappers Racing team member Adem Cave, who will serve as the assistant crew chief. Barlam brings decades of professional drag racing experience, having worked with some of the most recognized teams in the sport, including Capco, John Force Racing, and Don Schumacher Racing. He is known for helping new drivers develop into contenders, and the Scrappers Racing team feels confident that they will have a strong combination under Barlam\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the Scrappers Racing Top Fuel machine was running consistently well, and insiders were already speculating on Salinas\u2019s championship potential. Scrappers Racing was one of only three teams that hadn\u2019t experienced a first-round loss when they temporarily sidelined the operation to focus on sponsor support.<\/p>\n
Despite missing much of the regular season, Salinas is determined to find funding to compete in the final six races of the NHRA Mission Food Drag Racing Season, known as the Countdown to the Championship. Even if the team doesn\u2019t rack up enough points to qualify for championship contention, the fiery driver wants to gain experience that only comes from competing alongside the best teams in the world when it matters most.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting to race in my new hometown at the biggest drag race of the season is something we\u2019ve been trying to accomplish all year,\u201d said Salinas. \u201cWhen you\u2019re not actively competing, it\u2019s easy to get discouraged. I\u2019ve had to dig deep sometimes to find the confidence to keep going. But if there\u2019s anything that drag racing\u2019s taught me, it\u2019s that I can do so much more than I think I can. Surviving in this sport requires a great deal of strength, and that strength keeps you going when things get tough. We\u2019ve put some pretty incredible sponsor packages together for the last six races of the season because I know that experience will set us up for success in the 2026 season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salinas will bring her Scrappers Racing Top Fuel dragster roaring to life at the Cornwall Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals, August 27-September 1 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on August 5, 2025. <\/p>\n
The post Jasmine Salinas to Return to Top Fuel Competition at The Big Go<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fan favorite Top Fuel driver Jasmine Salinas will make her highly anticipated return to NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series competition this Labor Day weekend at the Cornwall Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park just outside of Brownsburg, Ind. Salinas had surged into the Top Five in points standings early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}