NHRA "Silly Season" announcements and rumors leading to the 2024 season...

-
ocdart

ocdart

Inland Mopars Car Club
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
10,497
Reaction score
5,459
Location
North OC, SoCal
Brian Lohnes' latest 'NHRA Insider Podcast' included the following announcements and rumors:
* Cruz Pedregon - John Collins and Lee Beard are out. Jason Bunker (from Paul Lee's funny car) is in as Crew Chief and John Medlen may be consulting.
* John Force - Mac Savage resigned from John Force Racing. No news where he may be going.
* Shawn Langdon - Kurt Elliott, Ronnie Thompson and Jason McCullough are out. No news on where Kurt Elliott may be going. Ronnie Thompson appears to be going to the Josh Hart team. Jason McCullough reportedly is going to Capco (does this mean that we will see Billy Torrence at more races in 2024?).
* Clay Millican - Nicky Boninfante reportly is going to the Clay Millican team to work together with Jim Oberhoffer
* Tony Stewart Racing has scheduled a press conference for next Wednesday during the PRI show in Indianapolis. Is it related to drag racing or something else? Stay tuned.
* Brian says we will have 14-16 full-time Top Fuel teams for the 2024 NHRA season. Short TF fields may be a rarity.
* Brian also says we should regularly have 20 full-time Pro Stock cars in attendance at every event

Good stuff!
 
Last edited:
Checking the nhra.com website today found the following updates:

* Jonnie Lindberg named as the Crew Chief for Paul Lee's nitro funny car team

(Should we change the class name from Pro Stock (Pro Camaro) to Pro Elite Motorsports since there will be 8-9 Elite associated Camaros in every 2024 Pro Stock field of entries?)
* Erica Enders will drive the Johnson's Horsepowered Garage/Melling Performance Camaro
* Troy Coughlin Jr. will drive the Jegs/White Castle Camaro
* Aaron Stanfield will drive the 2nd Johnson's Horsepowered Garage/Janac Brothers Racing/JC3 Energy Services Camaro
* Jeg Coughlin Jr. returns to Pro Stock full-time driving the SCAG Power Equipment Camaro
* Jerry Tucker will drive the Outlaw Mile-Hi Light Beer Camaro
* The Cuadra family (Fernando Sr., Fernando Jr., Cristian, and David) will compete in their Corral Boots/Cuadra Camaros

* Bo Butner III is moving from Pro Stock to be driver of one of the two-car Elite Motorsports Mountain Motor Pro Stock team cars. He will be backed by Johnson's Horsepowered Garage. The driver of the 2nd Mountain Motor car is yet to be named.
* Bo Butner III is also transitioning to the role of Director of Team Development for Elite Motorsports
 
Last edited:
Did you see anything about Grubnic leaving Force? I read something the other day that sounds like he left (one way or the other) and it Force didn’t have a replacement.
 
Newbomb Turk said:
Did you see anything about Grubnic leaving Force? I read something the other day that sounds like he left (one way or the other) and it Force didn’t have a replacement.
Click to expand...
I read something that seemed to imply that, but couldn't find anything when I searched for the info.

From the article.

He said he and Hight are heading to Indianapolis Tuesday, before the PRI Show opens there Thursday, “to do a regrouping, because you’ve got to have back-ups everywhere. I made some mistakes—I didn’t have a back-up for (Top Fuel crew chief Dave) Grubnic.”

Although he has yet to announce the name of the individual, he said, “We’ve fixed that – we hired a young kid that’s going to come over who was a crew chief and he’s joining us. So we’re excited about that. And we’re still lookin’. We’re looking for more people.”
 
LocuMob said:
I read something that seemed to imply that, but couldn't find anything when I searched for the info.

From the article.

He said he and Hight are heading to Indianapolis Tuesday, before the PRI Show opens there Thursday, “to do a regrouping, because you’ve got to have back-ups everywhere. I made some mistakes—I didn’t have a back-up for (Top Fuel crew chief Dave) Grubnic.”

Although he has yet to announce the name of the individual, he said, “We’ve fixed that – we hired a young kid that’s going to come over who was a crew chief and he’s joining us. So we’re excited about that. And we’re still lookin’. We’re looking for more people.”
Click to expand...

That’s what I read. Apparently something went sideways between them. And it appears it caught Force off guard.
 
More from the 'Silly Season'...
* Announced today that after 27 consecutive years of NHRA competition, Leah Pruett is stepping aside from driving the TSR Top Fuel car to focus on starting a family with husband Tony Stewart. Tony will be the driver of the TSR Top Fuel car in 2024. Leah says she is planning to return to racing in the future.
* Buddy Hull will be the full-time driver of the Jim Dunn Racing funny car replacing Alex Laughlin. No news about if Alex is returning to Pro Stock or somewhere else.
* On the 12/05/23 podcast Brian Lohnes and Tony Pedregon announced John Collins will be assisting David Grubnic on Brittany Force's Top Fuel car
* (see post #1) Brian Lohnes podcast also announced Mack Savage is going to Kalitta Racing. Which Top Fuel car he may be with is not yet known.
 
ocdart said:
More from the 'Silly Season'...
* After 27 consecutive years of NHRA competition, Leah Pruett is stepping aside from driving the TSR Top Fuel car to focus on starting a family with husband Tony Stewart. Tony will be the driver of the TSR Top Fuel car in 2024.
* Buddy Hull will be the full-time driver of the Jim Dunn Racing funny car replacing Alex Laughlin. No news about if Alex is returning to Pro Stock or somewhere else.
* On the 12/05/23 podcast Brian Lohnes and Tony Pedregon announced John Collins will be assisting David Grubnic on Brittany Force's Top Fuel car
* (see post #1) Brian Lohnes podcast also announced Mack Savage is going to Kalitta Racing. Which Top Fuel car he may be with is not yet known.
Click to expand...

Watching the announcement from PRI right now. The funny thing is I told my wife at the beginning of the year I wonder how long it will be before she wants kids. Now I know. And it’s pretty quick.
 
Newbomb Turk said:
Watching the announcement from PRI right now. The funny thing is I told my wife at the beginning of the year I wonder how long it will be before she wants kids. Now I know. And it’s pretty quick.
Click to expand...

Well, she is 35 and Tony is 52.
The clock never stops ticking.
 
Brat in Law just email this

www.nhra.com

NHRA Arizona Nationals will return to renamed Firebird Motorsports Park

NHRA will return to Phoenix for the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, heading to the newly renamed Firebird Motorsports Park for the 39th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals on April 5-7 and continuing the great history of NHRA Drag Racing at the track.
www.nhra.com www.nhra.com
 
And more from the 'Silly Season'...
* Announcement today that Shawn Reed will run a full season of Top Fuel with Rob Wendland as Crew Chief and Ryan Elliott as Assistant Crew Chief. The team will operate under a technical alliance with Antron Brown's AB Motorsports team.

 
ocdart said:
* Buddy Hull will be the full-time driver of the Jim Dunn Racing funny car replacing Alex Laughlin. No news about if Alex is returning to Pro Stock or somewhere else.
Click to expand...

Addendum to Buddy Hull announcement:
* Buddy Hull sold his Top Fuel operation to Jacob McNeal who will be running about half of the 2024 NHRA season
 
Allen Johnson is out of the Blackbird X. Alex Laughlin will be his replacement. It was said Allen wanted to spend more time with grand kids and to take care of his parents. Hope all is well with Allen's parents.
 
408 swinger said:
Allen Johnson is out of the Blackbird X. Alex Laughlin will be his replacement. It was said Allen wanted to spend more time with grand kids and to take care of his parents. Hope all is well with Allen's parents.
Click to expand...

If that was the best driver they could find to replace AJ they either didn’t look very hard or the pickings are mighty slim.
 
Newbomb Turk said:
If that was the best driver they could find to replace AJ they either didn’t look very hard or the pickings are mighty slim.
Click to expand...
I can't completely disagree. I am a huge Allen Johnson fan. Super great guy. Roy is top notch as well. While Alex seems nice enough, and can drive a car, there's just something about him I can't quite get on board with.
 
Announcement today on both nhra.com and competitionplus.com that Robert Hight is temporarily getting out of the drivers seat of his John Force Racing funny car due to "personal medical reasons". Hight says he plans to be back driving as soon as his medical issues are resolved.
Austin Prock will be taking over driving duties from Robert Hight for the Cornwell Tools/AAA Funny Car to begin the 2024 season. The funny car will truly be the "Prock Rocket" with Austin driving. dad Jimmy Prock the crew chief, and brother Thomas as assistant crew chief.
The competitionplus.com article says Austin Prock is linked to be John Force's eventual successor behind the wheel of the PEAK funny car.

Hight medically sidelined; Prock to drive Cornwell Tools/AAA Chevy Funny Car

AUSTIN PROCK FILLS IN FOR ROBERT HIGHT AS JFR FUNNY CAR DRIVER IN 2024 | Competition Plus


01/18/24 Addendum: Brian Lohnes weekly podcast said Robert Hight will be out of the JFR funny car for the entire 2024 NHRA season because the recovery from his medical issue will take some time.
 
Last edited:
Caught this just now on another site. Whatever Robert has going on, I wish him the very best! Saying that he and Prock are a formidable duo is almost a gross understatement. Get well soon!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top