PEAK Motorsports Update- July 27, 2026

NHRA: Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals

Kent, WA

Monday, July 27, 2026: 

John Force Racing didn’t take home the NHRA 75th Anniversary diamond Wally winner’s trophies from the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals, but they left Pacific Raceways outside of Seattle, Washington with momentum in a number of areas that put them in a strong position for the final two races of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series regular season.
 
Jack Beckman’s PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car team and Josh Hart’s Speedmaster Top Fuel team made it to the semifinals, Jordan Vandergriff and the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car lost a close battle in Round 2 and Alexis DeJoria’s Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car smoked the tires in a first round loss.

Hart advanced to the semifinals in Top Fuel and faced Leah Pruett after he defeated Pruett’s husband, Tony Stewart in the previous round. The Speedmaster dragster left the starting line first by a thousandth of a second (0.076 to 0.077) and ran a solid 3.777 seconds at 331.61 mph but it wasn’t enough for the win against Pruett’s 3.717 seconds at 332.51 mph run.

Beckman had lane choice against Austin Prock in their semifinal pairing. The PEAK Chevy ran quicker at 3.918 seconds at 325.92 mph to Prock’s 3.937 seconds at 327.66 mph but a three-hundredths of a second holeshot (0.046 to 0.076) made up the difference to give Prock the victory.

In route to the semifinals, Beckman defeated Tim Gibbons in the opening round with the quickest Funny Car run of the weekend, posting an elapsed time of 3.858 seconds at 333.49 mph.  It was all PEAK SQUAD in Round 2 against Cruz Pedregon, with Beckman quicker off the line (0.078 to 0.107) and running 3.899 seconds at 333.72 mph to Pedregon’s losing 4.134 at 255.15.

Jordan Vandergriff gave up lane choice in Round 1 to Spencer Hyde but won the reaction time battle (0.055 to 0.082) and got to the finish line first. In Round 2 against event winner J.R. Todd, Vandergriff again gave up lane choice but got the holeshot (0.042 to 0.054). The Cornwell Tools Chevy dropped a cylinder early in the run which allowed Todd to get around and take the win, running 3.939 seconds at 334.40 to Vandergriff’s 3.981 at 319.29 mph.

In the opening round of Funny Car, Alexis DeJoria beat Dave Richards off the starting line (0.091 to 0.116) but the Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car smoked the tires just a couple hundred feet later. Richards’ car did the same but further down the track and took the win, running 4.540 seconds at 269.89 mph to DeJoria’s 7.125 seconds at 90.01 mph.

FUNNY CAR POINTS BATTLE HEATS UP
With Ron Capps losing in round one, the Funny Car points battle tightened. Jack Beckman’s semifinal round finish moves him to second spot, only 37 points behind Capps (less than 2 rounds of competition).  With the win, J.R. Todd goes to third, while Jordan Vandergriff falls to fourth in the standings.

The 13th of 20 races of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is August 20-23rd for the NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota.