Pro Stock rookie Cory Reed hit the prestigious U.S. Nationals with a winning career record in his short time on four wheels and maintained it with a hard-fought quarterfinal finish at the biggest race of the season. Runner-up in just his second start in Pro Stock, he won another round on a holeshot, won another round over Jerry Don Tucker, and, much to his dismay, lost a third straight time to 2024 championship favorite Aaron Stanfield.
“I really want to beat that dude,” said Reed, who broke on his second-round burnout and never got a chance. “That was depressing. I was so ready to get some revenge. I always want to race the big guys – I never want to be on the easy side of the ladder. That’s the only way you’re going to win a race – beat the best guys out there.”
Having strung together one .030 light after another in qualifying, Reed, who beat Tucker in the Sonoma semifinals and the Brainerd Mission Challenge semi’s, got him again in the first round. They were locked together the length of the quarter-mile: .982 to .987 at the 60-foot mark, 2.739 to 2.744 at 330 feet, 4.210 at 167.18 mph to 4.213 at 167.16 mph at half-track, and 5.480 to 5.482 at 1,000 feet.
Tucker and Reed crossed the finish line with identical 6.553s and the win-light flashed in Reed’s lane because of his quicker reaction time, .048 to .051. “It’s pretty crazy that a .048 light was good enough to win on a holeshot,” he said, “but if I keep cutting .040s, I’m not going to win this race.”
In the end, there were no more .040 lights, or any lights at all for that matter. Reed never made it to the line for round two. “It stuck the tire on the burnout,” he said. “I went to give it a little more gas, heard something pop, and thought, ‘What the hell just broke?’ It didn’t sound like a rod slapping around – it was more like a hammer hitting the firewall. I was like, ‘Is it something in the clutch, maybe something in the tranny?’ I didn’t know what it was, but the engine was backfiring and sounded like crap.”
It was a broken coil. Reed got pushed silently off the line and Stanfield got the best of him again, this time without a fight. “My guys wanted to drag it up there and try to make a run,” Reed said, “but I was like, ‘That’s it, man. It’s broke.’ “