Throughout the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Josh Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel team kept looking towards the next race for performance improvement. After twenty national events Hart will end the season without a victory but undaunted in his plans to win a Top Fuel world championship. The team will have to wait for the 2025 NHRA season, but throughout the In-N-Out NHRA Finals this weekend Hart kept the pressure on, making the most of the three qualifying sessions and giving one the championship contenders a tough first round race.
On Friday Hart was one of the handful of Top Fuel drivers to get a qualifying run in before rain moved over In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip. The R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster posted a 3.806 second run at 322.19 mph to end the truncated session as the No. 5 Top Fuel dragster. On Saturday Hart steadily improved, running 3.756 seconds and then a season best 3.729 seconds in the closing session. Hart went into race day as the No. 13 qualifier in a tight group of 16 Top Fuel dragsters.
“I was glad to see our times getting quicker over the weekend,” said Hart, a two-time Top Fuel national event winner. “The track and conditions were some of the best we have seen this season. We tried to throw everything at it. I know we can’t win the championship this season, but we can get some data for the next two races in Pomona and maybe have an impact on who wins the championship.”
This story was originally published on November 18, 2024. 
