| 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season | |
|---|---|
| League | NHRA |
| Sport | Drag racing |
| League champions | TBA (Top Fuel) TBD (Funny Car) TBA (Pro Stock) TBD (Pro Stock Motorcycle) |
The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season was announced on August 31, 2023.[1]
It will be the 69th season of the National Hot Rod Association's top drag racing competition. The NHRA will have 20 Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock events, marking the first time since 2018 that Pro Stock car will compete the full season.[2] There are typically 15 Pro Stock Motorcycle, ten Pro Modified, and ten Factory Stock Showdown races during the season, and the rounds which all three will compete will be announced at a later date.[1] There will be All-Star Call Out races, which are based on a format used by the Discovery television program Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings, where the drivers select their opponents in early rounds.[3]
On October 25, 2023, Camping World, which had been the title sponsor of the series since late 2020 in a four-and-a-half-year contract, and the NHRA agreed to relinquish naming rights sponsorship in renewing its NHRA professional category sponsorship while expanding to premier partner status that includes professional and sportsman series sponsorship for the next three seasons through 2026.[4] That allowed the NHRA that day to announce Mexican food producer Gruma, S.A.B. de C.V. will become the new naming rights sponsor of the series.[5] Gruma will promote their Mission Foods brand, which also expands their Mission Foods Challenge to all 14 regular season rounds in 2024, unlike 2023 when the event was not scheduled for the two four-wide rounds.
On November 9, 2023, the NHRA announced Virginia Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie, Virginia will return to the schedule to fill the June unannounced date that replaces Denver on the schedule. Originally planned to be a three-day event, the NHRA announced on April 2, 2024 that the event would be modified to a two-day format with three qualifying sessions taking place on Saturday. [6]
The season was originally scheduled for 21 races with one unannounced date. The unannounced date was anticipated to be held at I-70 Motorsports Park in Odessa, Missouri and would replace the Heartland Nationals event, held at Heartland Motorsports Park in Shawnee County, Kansas, which closed because of land and tax disputes between circuit ownership and the local government. The NHRA announced on March 10, 2024 that the planned Odessa round will not take place in 2024 because the drag strip, which during development was called the new Kansas City International Raceway and later Central Power Raceway, is still under construction.[7] That circuit opened April 11, 2024 for club competition, with national event suites and towers still under construction.