The return to The Rock didn’t play out for the John Force Racing teams as they had prepared and planned for heading into the inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock at Rockingham Dragway. Jordan Vandergriff and Alexis DeJoria bowed out in round two while Jack Beckman and Josh Hart exited in round one.
Vandergriff and the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car team (No. 11 qualifier) set low elapsed time of the session in their first-round matchup against Chad Green, running 3.869 seconds at 331.61 mph to Green’s 3.912 seconds at 330.64 mph. The run gave Vandergriff lane choice in the second round against Austin Prock. In round two, Vandergriff ran a quicker 3.905 seconds at 329.19 mph to Prock’s 3.916 seconds at 322.81 mph, but Prock grabbed the holeshot (.030 to .042) win by an almost inconceivable two ten-thousandths of a second.
“What a drag race,” said Vandergriff. “That is what I dreamed of being a part of and it’s what I view NHRA drag racing to be…winning and losing by two ten-thousandths of a second. We just ended up on the wrong side of it today. It was a great effort all weekend by Chris Cunningham, Jason Bunker and all the Cornwell Quality Tools boys. They gave me a great Chevy race car. We struggled through qualifying a little bit but we turned it around and, on race day, had a car that could run with anybody. We just ended up on the wrong side of a blockbuster race. We’ll regroup and head to St. Louis to see what we can do there.”
DeJoria and the Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car (No. 2 qualifier) put out a cylinder early in her round-one matchup against John Smith but still ran 3.959 seconds at 318.92 mph to Smith’s 4.429 seconds at 209.79 mph and moved on. In round two against Paul Lee, the win went to Lee’s reaction time (.026 to .040) as both drivers ran identical 3.924-second laps at 328.95 mph.
“The positive we can all take away from this race is the fact that we know what we have,” said DeJoria. “We did absolutely everything we were supposed to do but got beat. They were a tick faster. We have a really good consistent Bandero Café Chevy race car and now we’re getting fast. I’m heartbroken because these guys work so hard and we’re right on the brink of getting that first win with John Force Racing. Sometimes all you need is to catch a break and we just haven’t caught a break yet. I believe in this team and I’m so blessed to be a part of it. Everybody did a great job this weekend and it’s not over.”
Beckman and the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet SS Funny Car team (No. 4 qualifier) made a strong 3.916-second run at 324.44 mph, but Daniel Wilkerson grabbed the holeshot (.026 to .047) to earn the win with a run of 3.931 seconds at 327.27 mph.
“That was a very, very frustrating loss,” said Beckman. “I’ve said since I won the championship in 2012 because of the Countdown that I’m not a fan of the Countdown because if you lose first round, you don’t get a chance to earn more points for the rest of the day. It’s unlike any other sport out there so it makes it extra devastating to lose first round. History will show today as a holeshot loss because if you roll in further on the starting beams, it makes your reaction time look better but your elapsed time look worse. I always stage shallow to give myself a longer reaction time, because my car is in the beam longer, but it gives us a better chance of running a quicker ET and maintaining lane choice. I think Wilkie’s car outran us by three thousandths of a second and that’s where our problem was. Every loss is a tough loss but a first-round exit in the Countdown is about as bad as it gets. The silver lining is that we have a great race car and we get a chance to redeem ourselves in five days at St. Louis.”
Hart and the Speedmaster Top Fuel dragster (No. 5 qualifier) had lane choice for round one against Will Smith but put a cylinder out very early in the run, clocking in at 3.829 seconds at 320.74 mph to Smith’s run of 3.767 seconds at 330.88 mph.
“The last couple of races have been extremely humbling,” said Hart. “We shook, we smoked, we went low ET, and we went slower than the Funny Cars. Drag racing is a humbling sport, so we’ll continue to push through these major setbacks in the Countdown, but it’s definitely not what we intended to do.”
The 17th of 20 races on the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule is the Oct. 2-4 NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill.
