Jasmine Salinas Post-Race Recap: Seattle
NHRA Northwest Nationals
Event 12 of 20
Pacific Raceways
Kent, Wash.
July 24 – 26, 2026
Jasmine Salinas Keeps Momentum Going in Seattle
By: ABM Communications
KENT, Wash. (July 26, 2026) – Fresh off a first career final-round appearance at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals, Jasmine Salinas and the Valley Services/Scrappers Racing Top Fuel team continued to make strides Sunday at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals. Racing at Pacific Raceways, Salinas ended Friday as the provisional No. 1 qualifier for the first time in her career, participated in her first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge of the season on Saturday, and picked up a round win on Sunday at her fifth appearance of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season. Throughout the weekend, the “part-time team with full-time energy” proved why they have what it takes to compete against the full-time championship contenders.
Salinas and the Scrappers Racing team chose to sit out Friday’s first qualifying session to save wear and tear on the engine. That put Salinas in the opening pair of the second session, where she threw down a 3.794-second pass at 328.38 mph. It was the quickest pass of the day, giving Salinas three bonus points and making her the provisional No. 1 qualifier for the first time in her career. Pacific Raceways and Ben Bridge Jewelers awarded Salinas with an Oris watch as a “low qualifier” prize. On Saturday, Salinas went into the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, which she raced her way into when she reached the semifinals at Sonoma. Salinas left the line first and fired off a 3.741 E.T. at 332.75 mph to defeat Leah Pruett and her 3.762 E.T. The Scrappers team thrashed to return for the #2Fast2Tasty final round, where they ultimately overpowered the track and ceded the win to Antron Brown. Salinas locked in the No. 11 position on the final qualifying order.
Sunday eliminations brought a first-round match against Clay Millican. Salinas hit the throttle first and powered to a 3.759-second pass at 333.66 mph to get a decisive win over Millican, who smoked the tires. In a rematch of the Sonoma final round, Salinas moved first again in the second round against two-time and defending world champion Doug Kalitta, but the Valley Services dragster had a hole out and started mixing up cylinders. A dramatic fireball ended Salinas’ shot at another final-round appearance.
“Going into race day, we were really just trying to continue building off the momentum from Sonoma,” Salinas said. “First round is like the toughest round, in my opinion – I’m always more nervous during first rounds than I was in my first final against Doug in Sonoma. So, it was pretty awesome to get another first-round win. We were really hoping to continue going rounds. We’re trying to figure out what happened there in the second round. We’ll have some time off to get everything together, continue building on this momentum, and our hope is to upset a lot of championship contenders this year.”
Salinas and the Valley Services/Scrappers Racing Top Fuel team will return to their Brownsburg, Indiana, shop to prepare for their next appearance on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour, to be announced at a later date.
