NHRA Winternationals — Auto Club Raceway at Pomona 2027

“The season opener. Pomona in February, top fuel dragsters, and…”

You feel a Top Fuel car before you hear it — the air changes, your sternum moves, and you understand why people drive to Pomona in February just to stand near it. That first weekend of the drag season has run on this strip since 1961, which makes it the oldest race the sport still holds, and there's a particular charge to being there while the whole season is still undecided: brand-new cars, new sponsors down the flanks, teams finding out whether an entire winter of engine work actually did anything.

The cool February air is a gift here — it lets the fastest machines in motorsport make pass after pass without cooking, so you get clean, quick runs from Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle all weekend. And the pit pass is the secret: for barely more than the price of walking in, you stand a few feet from crews tearing down and rebuilding nitro engines between rounds, which is a thing almost no other pro sport lets you do.

Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, 2780 Fairplex Dr, February 2027. Grandstand or GA, pit passes open to everyone. Thursday qualifying is the value play — full pro runs, thinner crowds, cheaper seats.