EPPING, N.H. (June 7, 2026) – John Force Racing will win the Funny Car class of the NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway but it will be next Friday at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway before it’s determined whether it will be Jack Beckman and the PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car team or Jordan Vandergriff and the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car team who raise the NHRA 75th anniversary diamond Wally trophy.
Rain hit the drag strip as the finalists in both Funny Car and Top Fuel were in the staging lanes ready to determine the event’s final two winners. It started and stopped at least three times before a final downpour forced NHRA officials to postpone until next Friday.
It’s the 58th all-John Force Racing final and first since the 2025 U.S. Nationals when Austin Prock defeated Beckman. It’s also the fourth all-John Force Racing New England Nationals final. Courtney Force defeated her dad in the inaugural NHRA New England Nationals in 2013.
Josh Hart’s Speedmaster Top Fuel team and Alexis DeJoria’s Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car team both exited after the second round, Hart to an unbelievable reaction time from his opponent and DeJoria by an almost incomprehensibly small margin of victory by hers.
Beckman easily won his first-round matchup against Phil Burkart Jr. with a run of 3.970 seconds at 323.58 mph to Burkart’s 12.368 seconds at 70.44 mph. The PEAK SQUAD dispatched of Matt Hagan in the second round, running 3.943 seconds at 324.75 mph to Hagan’s 4.020 seconds at 323.04 mph. In the semifinals against Ron Capps, Beckman set low elapsed time of the meet with a run of 3.904 seconds at 329.75 mph to set up the final round against Vandergriff.
“The disappointment is we’ve built some great momentum the past couple of weeks and we wanted to keep that going in the final today,” said Beckman. “Our car has been down the track 14 of the last 15 runs. That Cornwell car’s been wicked consistent, too. I think with the track getting better and better here throughout the day, we could have set the two lowest ET’s of the weekend, which our PEAK Chevy took in the semifinals today. But we’re not going to race in the rain and we’ll pack our cars and have three reasons to go right after it in Bristol. We’re going to have qualifying, the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, the final round against Vandergriff for this race, and the Bristol race. That’s four reasons to push hard right off the bat.”
Vandergriff had his hands full early in the run with first-round opponent Jeff Arend but his 3.970-second run at 323.58 mph was more than enough for Arend’s 4.104 seconds at 286.38. In Round 2, the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car rand 3.942 seconds at 324.51 mph to defeat Chad Green who ran 3.975 seconds at 322.42 mph. In his semifinal matchup against J.R. Todd, Vandergriff lost the reaction time battle but Todd’s car spun the tires shortly thereafter while Vandergriff streaked to a run of 3.982 seconds at 316.52 mph.
“We have an all JFR final and this is definitely what John would have wanted,” said Vandergriff. “So, thank you to Cornwell Quality Tools for getting me here. I hate it for all the great fans here in Epping who stuck it out because they deserved to have everything get wrapped up here but it was not to be.”
The Speedmaster team took the Round 1 win against Rit Pustari with a run of 3.872 seconds at 330.47 mph to Pustari’s 3.382 seconds at 79.29 mph. Hart had lane choice in Round 2 against Billy Torrence and cut a solid .056-of-a-second reaction time but Torrence had an almost unimaginable reaction time of .036-of-a-second. That margin made the difference at the finish line as Torrence took the win with a slower run of 3.861 seconds at 331.04 mph to Hart’s run of 3.856 seconds at 332.43 mph.
“To say I’m not happy would be a huge understatement,” said Hart. “I haven’t been beaten on a holeshot since 2023 Gainesville against Tony Schumacher. That said, I am proud of the Speedmaster JFR team as we continue to work on our hot track tune up. Now let’s go to Bristol.”
DeJoria posted a solid run of 3.998 seconds at 326.40 mph to take the first-round win against Cruz Pedregon’s run of 4.397 seconds at 20.721 mph. In Round 2, Ron Capps had lane choice but DeJoria got the holeshot (.056 to .070) and led for almost the entire length of the racing surface before Capps got around her right at the finish line. The Bandero Café Chevy ran 3.953 seconds at 328.54 mph to Capps’ 3.938 (low ET of the round) at 327.11 mph, meaning the margin of victory was a mere 18/10,000ths of a second, or just 10 inches.
“It was a good showing for the Bandero Café Chevy SS Funny Car team this weekend,” said DeJoria. “We qualified well on Friday, getting the No. 1 spot and some important points. Everything just seems to be clicking right now. Everything’s coming together. It’s just a matter of time. I’ve said that before but I’ve never felt it more than this moment with our performance level and just how confident I feel in this race car. Bristol can’t come soon enough. These guys are doing such a good job. I really wanted to bring home a Wally for my East Coast family, but I’ll be back next year. You can be certain of that.”
NEXT RACE
The ninth of 20 races of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is the June 12-14 Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn.
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