![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Josh-Hart-1.jpg\")
Hart ended up making a single run in Round 1 when Cameron Ferre was forced to shut off after completing the burnout, running his event-best elapsed time and speed of 3.698 seconds at 336.91 mph. The 2026 NHRA Gatornationals champion faced Tony Stewart in Round 2, cut a 0.065 light to Stewart\u2019s 0.058, and was running nearly side by side to halfway before the Speedmaster Top Fueler slowed to a run of 3.968 seconds at 236.46 mph while Stewart ran 3.715 at 337.92.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat one stings,\u201d said Hart. \u201cWe were swinging for the fences with great conditions for record-breaking runs in the Speedmaster dragster. The fans kept the house vibes up even in the rain and all the down time so I am grateful to everyone who came out, and especially for those who stayed to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeJoria defeated Dave Richards in Round 1, running 3.906 seconds at 330.07 mph to Richards\u2019 6.818 at 105.00. In Round 2, the SoCal native got the holeshot against three-time Funny Car Champion Ron Capps but the Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevy lost traction shortly after. DeJoria pedaled the throttle but Capps streaked to a run of 3.884 seconds at 323.34 mph while DeJoria clicked the lights in 6.941 seconds at 95.41 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a pretty consistent Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevy this weekend,\u201d said DeJoria. \u201cWe made three-second runs every time down the track. Then, on Sunday, we made a really good run in Round 1 and were set to do so again in the second round. We were trying to run a 3.87 and just overpowered the track by a fraction. I had a good light and I\u2019m pretty sure if it had stuck, we would have gotten the round win. This is the race we really wanted to win. It\u2019s the 1,000th\u00a0Funny Car race and it\u2019s my home track at Pomona. But, on to the next. We\u2019ve learned a lot and we\u2019re just going to take that knowledge and continue our momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n Beckman and the PEAK SQUAD won their first round of eliminations, defeating Jim Campbell with a run of 3.890 seconds at 332.75 mph. Despite the team\u2019s best run of the event, they lost lane choice by one-thousandth-of-a-second to JR Todd. In the Round 2 matchup, the PEAK Chevy lost traction early and, despite Beckman pedaling the throttle, Todd streaked to the win with a run of 3.914 seconds at 334.65 mph to Beckman\u2019s 4.760 seconds at 193.05 mph.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of runs where we have a parts issue,\u201d said Beckman. \u201cAt the end of the first run, we burned a piston. Actually, it forced us to change the engine. There are also a lot of runs where you miss it and you say, \u2018okay, we didn\u2019t have the right clutch in it\u2019. That was the second round run. The track was really getting tight. If you look at our overlays from runs at similar tracks, it\u2019s a coin toss whether that run makes it or not. Unfortunately, that time it didn\u2019t make it for us. You hate to lose those races because, had it stuck, who knows? But I think we finally have our PEAK Chevy back. We earned some qualifying points after a really odd Friday trying to figure out the racetrack. I think all the calls we made after that were spot on. The one in the second round was just that small percentile off.\u201d<\/p>\n The fourth of 20 events on the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series calendar is the April 24-26 4-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C.<\/p>\n The post Vandergriff Earns Semifinal Finish at Pomona; Hart, DeJoria, and Beckman Bow Out in Quarterfinals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jordan Vandergriff was introduced as a kid to the sport of drag racing at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, his hometown track, and he hoped to earn his first Funny Car win there in the NHRA\u2019s 1,000th\u00a0Funny Car race but the semifinals finish he and his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car team were able to […]<\/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-103378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103378","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=103378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Beckman.jpg\")