Shawn Reed Racing Post-Race Recap: Las Vegas 2

NHRA Nevada Nationals

Event 19 of 20

The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Las Vegas

Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, 2025

Shawn Reed Maintains No. 8 Ranking Heading into NHRA Season Finale

LAS VEGAS (Nov. 2, 2025) – After a solid qualifying outing that placed him in the top half of the field for the 13th time in 16 starts this season, driver/team owner Shawn Reed was poised for a long day of going rounds on Sunday at the NHRA Nevada Nationals. A rare misstep in the first round of eliminations, however, caused the team to bow out early, and they will head to the season finale in Pomona, Calif., having maintained their No. 8 ranking.

Reed opened the weekend with a good, clean pass, taking his Reed Trucking & Excavating dragster down The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 3.881 seconds to place him sixth. In the second session, crew chief Rob Wendland stepped on it even more, tuning Reed to a 3.737 E.T. at 329.10 mph. He was up in smoke early during the third session but came back with another solid pass of 3.779 seconds to close out qualifying. Starting from the No. 4 seed, Reed drew No. 11 qualifier Tony Schumacher as his first-round competition. Against Schumacher, Reed was on a good run early but slowed to a 3.959 while his opponent clocked a winning 3.794 E.T. to advance.

“I love being here in Vegas, it’s two hours north of where I have a house down in Lake Havasu,” said the winner of the NHRA Reading Nationals. “I love the desert, the weather, and the people up here, but unfortunately, Vegas didn’t love me back today. We had an issue first round where the pin fell out of the throttle cable, and we’re trying to figure out exactly what happened to cause that. It was unfortunate; the car is running too good to have something happen like that. We were putting a good whooping on the eight-time champ there, but then the throttle snapped shut. I didn’t know what happened, and he ended up blowing by me. Got down there and found out that the pin was gone. It’s an issue we need to address and find out what happened, why it happened, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. It was the same pin we ran all of qualifying, and of course, it couldn’t have fallen out in qualifying; it had to happen E1, so pretty disappointing. In the end, we’ll man up, we’ll go to Pomona and hopefully have a long race day to finish the year.”

The 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series concludes in Pomona, Calif., with the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, Nov. 14-16. Reed occupies the No. 8 position and trails the No. 7-ranked driver by a mere seven points.

Qualified: No. 4 (3.737 E.T. at 329.10 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:

E1: 3.959 E.T. at 240.42 MPH defeated by Tony Schumacher 3.794 E.T. at 335.32 MPH

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

1	Doug Kalitta		2607
2	Shawn Langdon		2463
3	Justin Ashley		2444
4	Brittany Force		2415
5	Tony Stewart		2364
6	Clay Millican		2335
7	Steve Torrence		2297
8	Shawn Reed		2290
9	Antron Brown		2275
10	Josh Hart		2185