In most cultures, when grandpa speaks, it would be wise to heed his advice. That's the most critical lesson Gaige Herrera admits he learned in life.

"Like my grandfather [Phillip Herrera]always says, "Once you're at the top, there's only one way you can go, and that's down," Herrera added. 

While it looked like Herrera's momentum of his incredible 2024 season, all it took was race day at the NHRA Thunder Valley to bring him back to dominance and put him in the drag racing history books. 

Historically, Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway has been very good to Top Fuel star Tony Schumacher.

It was again Sunday.

Schumacher won for the seventh time at the facility when he took home top honors at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.

There’s no question that Austin Prock has always had great skill as an NHRA driver.

Still, it was hard to imagine this unfolding.

Prock, who never raced a Funny Car full-time until this season, was thrust into that role when three-time world champion driver Robert Hight was sidelined with a medical condition before the season opener.

NHRA announced the disqualification of J.R. Gray’s run on Sunday during a post-race inspection following the final round of the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by LearnEV+ due to a technical violation after bypassing a safety device.

As a result of the disqualification, Kris Thorne has been named the winner at Bristol Dragway, with Gray finishing as the runner-up.

The threat of rain for Sunday forced NHRA officials to push the start time for Thunder Valley Nationals final eliminations up an hour. In the end, not one drop of rain fell on Bristol Dragway. What did fall was an abbreviated day chock full of excitement. 

Moments before precipitation began to fall in Bristol, NHRA crowned Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Austin Prock (Funny Car), Jeggie Coughlin and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

The event ended with a Top Fuel rematch of last weekend's NHRA New England Nationals with a resurgent Tony Schumacher, this time getting the best of defending Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta. 

Schumacher left the line well before Kalitta, who appeared to double clutch on the starting line. He never looked back en route to a 4.236, coasting to 259 miles per hour to collect his 87th career Top Fuel victory. The win also marked Schumacher's seventh victory at Thunder Valley. 

Final finish order (1-16) at the 23rd annual Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. The race is the eighth of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.

Final round-by-round results from the 23rd annual Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, the eighth of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series:

John Force is blaming his medication for last weekend’s “woe is me, I’m old and I’m done,” interviews last weekend following NHRA national event victory No. 157.

One might have wondered as after his top-end interview, Force handed his trophy to Prock and walked away. Some believed Force had quit on the spot. 

“I went back and I said, ‘Did I lose my mind? What did I say?” Force responded when he asked in the days following Epping if he was going to Bristol. “I went back. I know I went in the press room, said a lot of stuff. I’m a 100 years old. I got to leave here sometime. All I was saying is, ‘Here’s the future of John Force racing, this kid right here.” 

While only a few nitro racers who raced the old configuration of Bristol Dragway still compete in the NHRA Mission Series, and the cars might be as different as night and day between now and then, one aspect remains the same: Bristol is still an extremely challenging facility for tuners. 

Clay Millican crew chief Jim Oberhofer raced many dates at Thunder Valley with Connie Kalitta, the 1979 IHRA Pro Dragster world champion.