{"id":101917,"date":"2025-08-08T07:18:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T07:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/greg-stanfield-savors-first-pro-stock-win-in-over-a-decade-against-his-own-son\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T07:18:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T07:18:35","slug":"greg-stanfield-savors-first-pro-stock-win-in-over-a-decade-against-his-own-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/greg-stanfield-savors-first-pro-stock-win-in-over-a-decade-against-his-own-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Greg Stanfield Savors First Pro Stock Win in Over a Decade \u2013 Against His Own Son"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Stanfield\u2019s victory at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals was the kind of moment drag racing lives for \u2013 a generational, once-in-a-lifetime final round that pitted father against son, and ended with a proud dad hoisting the Wally for the first time in more than a decade. In his Janac Brothers Racing \/ The Rod Shop Camaro, Greg lined up against his son Aaron, driving the Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage \/ Melling Performance \/ Janac Brothers hot rod. Aaron left first with a sharp .016-second reaction time to Greg\u2019s .030, but Greg ran him down with a 6.552 at 211.49 mph to Aaron\u2019s 6.568 at 209.39, turning on a win light he admits he wasn\u2019t sure he\u2019d ever see again.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m in shock right now. I can\u2019t believe that just happened,\u201d Greg said. \u201cObviously, this is something we\u2019ve both dreamed about \u2013 to race each other in the finals. To have Aaron in the finals with me makes it even better. I\u2019m blessed and honored to have this opportunity, and a lot of credit goes to him. He tunes my engine, the Elite guys, and all the people who support us. Janac Brothers, The Rod Shop \u2013 they\u2019ve been with me since the beginning, and having them back on the side of my car means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The road there was anything but simple. Starting from the No. 3 spot \u2013 his best qualifying performance of the season \u2013 Greg opened race day with a 6.502 at 211.36 to take out teammate Stephen Bell. In the quarterfinals against Matt Latino, both cars struck the tires and had to pedal, but Greg\u2019s 9.400 got there before Latino\u2019s 13.041. Then came a marquee semifinal against six-time world champion Greg Anderson, where both veterans shook the tires. Greg pedaled to a 7.236 while Anderson shut off early. Aaron\u2019s march to the final was just as sharp, starting with a holeshot win over Cory Reed, advancing past a red-lighting Cody Coughlin, and beating four-time 2025 winner Dallas Glenn in the semis with a clean 6.579.<\/p>\n

On the NHRA Insider Podcast with Brian Lohnes, Greg admitted his car had been the benchmark within the Elite camp for several races leading into Sonoma. \u201cI was probably making the better part of the runs out of all the cars,\u201d he said. \u201cMy car seems really happy and balanced right now. As long as you\u2019re within two hundredths of the fastest guy out there, it\u2019s a drag race \u2013 and I felt like we were right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it came time for the family face-off, there were no team orders. \u201cWe didn\u2019t cut each other any slack,\u201d Greg said. \u201cAaron\u2019s one of the best out here. I knew I\u2019d have to make a perfect run to beat him.\u201d He added with a grin, \u201cWhen I put it in high gear, I glanced over and thought I was in trouble. I tried to hit the chutes early to get weight off the car and maybe pick up a couple of inches. It worked out. I want Aaron to win, but I also wanted us to have a great race \u2013 and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Aaron echoed that sentiment. \u201cThey asked if I cut my dad any slack in the finals \u2013 heck no,\u201d he laughed. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t do that for me, and I wouldn\u2019t want it any other way. I grew up watching him race Pro Stock. He\u2019s always been my hero. I credit my accomplishments to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Greg, the win carried an extra layer of meaning: it put the Rod Shop name back in the NHRA Pro Stock winner\u2019s circle. \u201cThat\u2019s huge for me,\u201d he said. \u201cLarry Morgan got me hooked up with the Rod Shop back in the \u201980s. I was the last driver they hired to drive for them, and I might be the last to close the chapter. Gil and Rick Kirk were way ahead of their time on the team concept, and it\u2019s an honor to carry that flagship for them and for Joe and David Janac, who\u2019ve given so much to drag racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Greg\u2019s sixth career Pro Stock victory, his first since the 2011 NHRA Finals, and Elite Motorsports\u2019 first win of the 2025 season. \u201cIt\u2019s huge for Elite to come out on top here,\u201d Greg said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been working double overtime to get our cars faster. We\u2019re showing it in qualifying; we just needed it to show on race day. Peaking at the right time is everything. We\u2019ve got a lot of grit on this team, and nobody here takes losing lightly. We\u2019re going to keep grinding, and hopefully our peak comes right around September.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Sonoma was more than just a long-awaited win. It was a celebration of family, legacy, and the kind of pure, unscripted competition that makes drag racing unlike any other sport \u2013 a memory Greg Stanfield will carry for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n\n

This story was originally published on August 8, 2025. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Greg Stanfield Savors First Pro Stock Win in Over a Decade \u2013 Against His Own Son<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Stanfield\u2019s victory at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals was the kind of moment drag racing lives for \u2013 a generational, once-in-a-lifetime final round that pitted father against son, and ended with a proud dad hoisting the Wally for the first time in more than a decade. In his Janac Brothers Racing \/ The Rod […]<\/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-101917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101917","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=101917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}