SONOMA, Calif. (July 17, 2026) – Jordan Vandergriff and the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS team made the quickest Funny Car pass of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season to capture the provisional No.1 qualifying spot during Friday night qualifying for the NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
The John Force Racing driver ran 3.849 seconds at 332.43 mph in the first pair of Funny Cars down the track in the session. In doing so, the Funny Car rookie earned the $4,000 Deecell Power Systems “After Dark Low Qualifier” bonus, ironically an award he presented last season as a member of the NHRA on FOX announce team.
Jack Beckman and the PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car team moved up one spot, to second, in the night session with their run of 3.874 seconds at 333.16 mph which also was their second-quickest run of the season.
Tire shake early in the night qualifying run forced Alexis DeJoria to shut off early and use her second-place performance in Q1, 3.917 seconds at 329.26 mph, to put the Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car in the seventh position at the end of the day.
Josh Hart and the Speedmaster Top Fuel team were sixth quickest in Q1 with their run of 3.763 seconds at 336.82 mph. Unfortunately, they were unable to make the Q2 pass due to a car ahead of them oiling down the track with not enough time to clean it up before Sonoma Raceway’s noise curfew. Those teams that did run were able to keep their times which moved Hart to seventh place.
Saturday’s two qualifying sessions are scheduled for 11:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. PT.
Quote from Jordan Vandergriff, Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car:
“To be the quickest Funny Car of the year so far is a huge accomplishment, especially with how competitive this class is. And I’m a rookie—I don’t even know what I’m doing yet,” Vandergriff said. “We fumbled a little in Q1, but I knew we had something figured out. The early numbers looked really good, so I believed we were going to run quick no matter when we went down the track.
“I knew the team wanted to push a little. We’ve run well this year, we’ve won a race, we’ve qualified No. 1 before, but we hadn’t really leaned on it. Tonight we did. I knew we were going to run well. I just didn’t know we were going to run that good.”
Quote from Jack Beckman, PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car:
“Danny and Tim (crew chiefs Hood and Fabrisi) are calling the shots on this and they get an A plus. We were third quickest in the first session and that’s the session where, with 18 cars here, you don’t want to take a hero swing at it. You want to be sensible and that’s exactly what they did. We had made another change in the bell housing that we think will speed up our 60-foot time a little bit without taking away anything else from the run. So, it should make this car quicker overall and it did exactly what they asked it to do in Q1. We then turned the screws on it when the track got better for the second session and went out there and went to No. 2 trailing only our teammate in the Cornwell car. So, we got bonus points in both sessions and ran our second-quickest run of the entire year. For, tomorrow, assuming that the conditions don’t get better than they were today, which is very doubtful, our goal is to get good data and qualifying bonus points and I have no reason to think we won’t get both.
Quote from Alexis DeJoria, Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car:
“We were definitely loaded for bear in Q2. Our 60-foot time was an .858 or .856. Yeah, so we were ready to lay one down and continue our consistent top qualifying runs We made a solid first run, but we just missed it. We’re still in the top half of the field and today is only Friday so we have two more runs tomorrow.”
Quote from Josh Hart, Speedmaster Top Fuel Dragster:
“First of all, I really hate it for the race fans and the teams that came from the East Coast. Everybody’s aggravated, but it is what it is. Q1 was the first run with our brand new car, so I’m really proud of this team. It’s just another testament to how capable our Speedmaster team is and what confidence I have in them to go 336 miles per hour in a brand new car, never even been tested. So, I’m confident and, hopefully, tomorrow we’ll bring much better vibes from everybody and for everybody. The guys worked their tails off. I mean, they really did a great job. It looks amazing and we’re trying to optimize everything we can to perform as good as we can. I’m confident and, hopfully, tomorrow we’ll bring much better vibes from everybody and for everybody.”
TV Schedule
Television coverage includes qualifying action on Sunday, June 28, from 11 – 1 p.m. ET on FS1, leading into eliminations from 10 p.m. – 1 a.m. ET on FS1.
###
