Justin Bond takes a 17-point lead over Mike Stavrinos into the JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by Elite Motorsports season finale at the Mopar NHRA Las Vegas Nationals powered by Dodge this weekend, with Derek Menholt 54 points back and defending world champion J.R. Gray 67 behind in a points-and-a-half race that opens with two qualifying sessions Friday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bond, the Mission, British Columbia-based owner of series title sponsor JBS Equipment, has reached four final rounds in 2026. He won in Phoenix in March, beating Stevie “Fast” Jackson in the final round after Jackson red-lit, then finished runner-up to Stavrinos by .009 at the Charlotte 4-Wide, runner-up to Gray at the U.S. Nationals and runner-up to Stavrinos again on a holeshot at Rockingham.
At the Midwest Nationals in St. Louis three weeks ago, Bond and Billy Banaka each went 5.619 in the Friday night session to share the national ET record, breaking Jose Gonzalez’s 5.621 from Gainesville in 2021. The record stood until Saturday afternoon, when four different drivers lowered the record again, with Chip King ultimately setting the quickest NHRA Pro Mod pass ever with a 5.596 at 257.24 mph. Bond’s screw-blown Camaro, tuned by Brad Personett, also went 258 mph during the St. Louis weekend.
Bond does not describe his season that way.
“Well, it’s been kind of a bumpy season for me,” Bond told Brian Lohnes on the NHRA Insider podcast powered by Speedmaster this week, calling in from a pre-Vegas test in Phoenix. “If you remember, I had a little accident in February and I had to sit one out. And then I had a funeral and I had to sit that one out in the regular season.”
The accident came Feb. 26 at a Division 2 points meet in Orlando, where Bond was working with one of the dragsters he owns when he hit the reset button on the delay box, activating the starting line enhancer, and the car drove over him. He fractured both ankles, missed the season opener in Gainesville and won Phoenix three and a half weeks later with reaction times he blamed on the pain.
The funeral was for Shane Molinari, who died June 14 in an on-track accident at the RaceWarz event at Sonoma Raceway. He was 59. Bond and Molinari were partners in the JBS Limited/RAD Torque Systems team, and Personett was Molinari’s tuner during his NHRA Pro Mod run from 2014 through 2018. Bond made his first NHRA Pro Mod start in that team’s Firebird, a runner-up at the 2018 Texas Nationals.
Asked whether this year had changed how he approaches a championship, Bond said, “One million percent. It starts with me and Brad. We both had a major perspective change. We just go out there every time with the car the best prepared, with safety in mind, the safest car. We don’t cut any corners. If it doesn’t feel right, we don’t do it. And the reality of it is, that’s where our attitude, or maybe you want to call it the chip on our shoulder, comes from. You know what? We love Shane. And he didn’t know that was going to be his last run, and we just don’t know when they’re going to be. So we’re going to go up there and run every run like it’s the last run.”
Bond said he has deliberately stopped thinking about the points. “I don’t view it as a championship,” he said. “I view it as I’m going to another race and I want to win the race. I’ve never pulled into a racing competition event, pulled through the gate and said, ‘Well, I hope I just do good.’ That’s not me. We’re not setting up to go win a championship. We’re setting up to go win a race and let the chips fall where they may.”
Las Vegas has not been kind to Pro Mod points leaders. In 2023, Mike Castellana entered third in points, won the race and the championship, with Bond finishing second in the standings. In 2024, Bond entered second behind Khalid alBalooshi, alBalooshi lost in round one, Bond lost in round two and Jordan Lazic won his first title. Last year Gray beat Banaka in a winner-take-all final while Stavrinos, after an early exit, watched from the pits.
Bond credited Personett and the three crew members on the car for the Camaro’s performance, saying “I take no credit for none of that,” and estimated the team has made about 115 runs this year with “less than a handful” aborted.
“We have probably the most consistent car in the class right now,” he said. “And I definitely know that we have in the top three fastest cars in the class. But I will tell you, there’s that saying, anything can happen on any given Sunday. So we just got to wait till Sunday and see what happens.”
Pro Mod qualifies at 12:15 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. PT Friday and 11:15 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. PT Saturday, with first round at 9 a.m. PT Sunday. NHRA will stream qualifying on its YouTube channel.
This story was originally published on October 30, 2026. 
