NHRA opening‑day leaders
After opening day at the 66th Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Leah Pruett led Top Fuel, Jordan Vandergriff led Funny Car, and Greg Anderson led Pro Stock as the provisional No. 1 qualifiers — a snapshot of early positions in race three of the 20‑event 2026 season ( ). Those provisional poles matter because they set up elimination rounds and give teams initial seeding momentum for the season (nhra.com).
Friday in Pomona ended with three different kinds of pressure at the top of the ladder: Leah Pruett in Top Fuel, Jordan Vandergriff in Funny Car, and Greg Anderson in Pro Stock all left opening day as the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 66th Lucas Oil National Hot Rod Association Winternationals. Pruett grabbed the Top Fuel lead on the final pass of Friday for Tony Stewart Racing, which means the quickest car of the day did not appear until the session was almost over. In drag racing, that late jump matters because qualifying order can flip in a few seconds when track and air conditions change. Vandergriff sat on top in Funny Car, and his timing landed in a weekend already carrying extra weight because Pomona is hosting the 1,000th Funny Car race in National Hot Rod Association history. That turns one qualifying sheet into part of a much longer record book. Anderson led Pro Stock, which is the category built around factory-shaped doorslammer cars and razor-thin margins instead of the nitro classes’ explosions of power. A provisional No. 1 there often comes down to tiny setup gains rather than one dramatic save. This race is the third stop in the 20-event 2026 National Hot Rod Association Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, so nobody is winning a title in April. But teams are already stacking points, lane choice, and confidence while the season is still taking shape. Pomona is not just another track on the map. The Winternationals is one of the National Hot Rod Association’s crown-jewel events, and the 2026 edition is being run at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip from April 9 through April 12. Qualifying was scheduled for two pro sessions on Friday and two more on Saturday before Sunday eliminations, so “provisional” is the key word here. The Friday leaders themselves said their field-leading numbers might not survive Saturday because cooler, more ideal conditions were expected. That is how National Hot Rod Association qualifying works at a basic level: each driver gets multiple runs, and only the quickest one counts for seeding. Think of it like setting your fastest sprint time in gym class, except the reward is a better spot on the elimination bracket. If Pruett, Vandergriff, or Anderson hold those spots through Saturday, they open Sunday from the top of their respective fields. If they do not, Friday still showed who unloaded fastest in Pomona at the start of one of drag racing’s biggest weekends.
