{"id":104025,"date":"2026-06-24T21:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T21:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/opinion-mountain-motor-pro-stock-has-become-ihras-most-exciting-class\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T21:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T21:44:08","slug":"opinion-mountain-motor-pro-stock-has-become-ihras-most-exciting-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/opinion-mountain-motor-pro-stock-has-become-ihras-most-exciting-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Mountain Motor Pro Stock Has Become IHRA\u2019s Most Exciting Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 \u2013 PDRA featured eighth-mile competition as a professional class, while NHRA offered quarter-mile racing, but only at select events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 creating what is, in my opinion, the most exciting class the IHRA currently has to offer.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been something that I think we\u2019ve needed to do for a long time, but the whole class hasn\u2019t been on the same page until this year,\u201d 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. \u201cThe class sticking together has really created a scenario where everyone\u2019s working really hard. It\u2019s been extremely competitive and really shows what Mountain Motor Pro Stock racing is about. It\u2019s rejuvenated a lot of the racers and crew and teams to put a lot of work in, and it\u2019s shown with the performance throughout the first four to five races this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Pluchino, the current IHRA points leader, says the class has been \u201cextremely competitive,\u201d it\u2019s not just hyperbole. It has routinely been the toughest class throughout each race weekend. That\u2019s not a knock on any of the other classes; rather, it\u2019s a testament to just how formidable Mountain Motor Pro Stock has become. When trying to determine what is \u201cmost exciting,\u201d one has to nitpick a bit.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 specifically Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Fuel Altered \u2013 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\u2019ll ever have, from a fan\u2019s view, they simply can\u2019t quite match the thrill of heads-up racing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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John Montecalvo \u2013 Chris Sears photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember it ever being this competitive, quite honestly,\u201d 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. \u201cI can remember more cars, but I don\u2019t ever remember the fields being this tight, especially when it\u2019s 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\u2019t make a good run you\u2019d be going home. That\u2019s where we\u2019re at today, and that\u2019s what we all want. I think it\u2019s exciting for us as drivers, and even more exciting for the fans. That\u2019s what people want to see. They don\u2019t want to see you rolling in the gate already qualified \u2013 they want to see you fighting to get in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pluchino strongly echoes that sentiment:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be the strongest it\u2019s ever been, and certainly the strongest it\u2019s been in the last 20 years,\u201d Pluchino says. \u201cI\u2019ve 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\u2019t know if there were ever this many good teams. It\u2019s really rewarding to have success in a time like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

That level of competition isn\u2019t restricted to just the Triple Crown, either. It\u2019s been standard operating procedure since last season. To get a better idea of just how intense it\u2019s been, I wanted to look beyond the \u201ceye test\u201d 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:\u00a0<\/p>\n