Post-Race Report: Gainesville

NHRA Gatornationals

Event 1 of 20

Gainesville Raceway

Gainesville, Fla.

March 7 – 9, 2025

Shawn Reed Keeps the Momentum Rolling with Strong Qualifying Outing at Gatornationals

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 9, 2025) – A month after scoring his first-ever trophy aboard a Top Fuel dragster during a pre-season testing event, multi-time IHBA drag boat champion turned full-time NHRA Mission Foods Series touring competitor Shawn Reed continued to demonstrate why he and his team are a force to be reckoned with during the NHRA Gatornationals season opener at Gainesville Raceway.

The Shawn Reed Racing team unloaded with a solid run on Friday afternoon, clocking a 3.767-second at 330.23 mph pass to place Reed in the No. 8 position heading into the second session. Under the Gainesville Raceway lights, crew chief Rob Wendland tuned the Reed Trucking & Excavating machine to a stout 3.697 E.T. at 332.43 mph. The run held up to be the fourth-quickest of the round and moved Reed up one position to seventh on the timing sheets. After rain washed out Saturday qualifying, the fields were set based on Friday’s two runs.

Starting from the top half of the field for the sixth consecutive event, Reed as the No. 7 qualifier had the advantage of lane choice over his first-round competitor, No. 10 qualifier Jasmine Salinas. The two sophomore season drivers eagerly waited in the staging lanes ready to make their first-round run Sunday morning, but after several lengthy rain delays and a facility-wide power outage, finally returned to the starting line nearly five hours after their originally scheduled call time. Reed and Salinas held a tied record after having previously lined up opposite each other twice prior, and on Sunday in Gainesville, it was Salinas who would extend her round-win record. The two nitro pilots were even leaving the line, but Reed’s machine lost traction just past halftrack while his opponent made a full pull in the opposite lane to advance.

“I was in and out of the car several times and then the power outage, just a weird day,” Reed said. “We backed the car way down to try and slide it down through there and then we got delayed again and had to regroup and go back out, but that’s racing. We saw (Steve) Torrence and (Doug) Foley run a 74 and 75 right ahead of us, and we were thinking that’s exactly what Jasmine was going to do so we stepped it up. If it had stuck, we would have run a 72 or so, but it didn’t, and I couldn’t recover it. Even if I did, it wouldn’t have made a difference but hey, Florida has been good to us this year. We’ve got a one-one record here, winning the PRO Superstar Shootout in Bradenton and then going out first round today. I know Bradenton wasn’t an NHRA-sanctioned race, but it was good for the guys. Our heads are high, and we’re feeling good going into Phoenix.”

The Reed Trucking & Excavating team will compete next at the NHRA Arizona Nationals, March 21 - 23, and will be looking to put more points up on the board at the facility where Reed scored his first win light of 2024.

Qualified: No. 7 (3.697 E.T. at 332.43 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:

E1: 4.100 E.T. at 275.79 MPH defeated by Jasmine Salinas 3.753 E.T. at 330.23 MPH

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial)

1	Antron Brown		121
2	Shawn Langdon		99
3	Steve Torrence		75
4	Jasmine Salinas		72
5	Doug Kalitta		57
6	Clay Millican		53
7	Tony Stewart		52
8	Dan Mercier		51
9	Tripp Tatum		39
10	Brittany Force		35
11	Shawn Reed		33