San Jose’s Jasmine Salinas competed during the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals in Sonoma this past weekend. (Courtesy of the NHRA)
San Jose’s Jianna Evaristo competes during an NHRA event at Norwalk, Ohio, earlier this season. Evaristo and her sister, Jasmine Salinas, both competed at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals in Sonoma this past weekend. (Courtesy of the NHRA)
Jasmine Salinas, the driver of the Valley Services/Scrappers Racing Top Fuel dragster, works with the crew in the pit stall between races at the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma Sunday, July 19, 2026. (Beth Schlanker / The Press Democrat)
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San Jose’s Jasmine Salinas competed during the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals in Sonoma this past weekend. (Courtesy of the NHRA)
Sisters Jasmine Salinas and Jianna Evaristo were living a childhood dream over the weekend, with both racing at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals.
Salinas has been cooking up something back at the garage, and she was ready to take the wraps off over the weekend during a homecoming to Sonoma Raceway, where she reached the Top Fuel finals for the first time this season.
The San Jose native is running a mixed NHRA/IHRA Top Fuel schedule with her Valley Services/Scrappers Racing dragster, based out of Brownsburg, Ind. Her Western Swing continues July 24-26 with the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, just north of Seattle.
“This weekend we have all of our sponsors, friends and family out,” Salinas said, “so I think just having that extra little edge of having people in the grandstands cheering you on, people coming up to you to support you, it really makes you proud. Being able to race in Sonoma and being from the Bay Area, it’s so much of an honor to be able to represent the local area.”
Salinas lost a narrow battle with defending champion Doug Kalitta in the Top Fuel finals. Salinas got the jump off the line, but a cylinder blew on her Valley Services/Scrappers Racing dragster near the end as she ran a 3.815 ET at 319.14 mph. Kalitta caught her with a 3.731-second run at 339.96 mph.
Salinas added to her drag strip cred with Sunday’s quarterfinal upset win over Top Fuel points lead Shawn Langdon at Sonoma. She was quick on the gas with a 0.062 reaction time to beat Langdon side-by-side down the lane at 309.91 mph. She then got a holeshot win over Leah Pruett in the semifinals, with a 0.068 reaction time to leave the line first and narrowly beat Pruett to the finish. Pruett got down the track in 3.751 seconds at 331.94 mph, but her 0.091 RT gave the edge to Salinas with a 3.772-second run at 334.98 mph.
“Part-time team, full-time energy,” assistant crew chief and general manager Adem Cave said after Salinas beat No. 8 qualifier Josh Hart in Sunday’s first-round matchup, with a 3.756 run at 319.90 mph.
The Scrappers Team is building for the future after making the difficult decision in 2025 to park the car midway through the season while sitting fifth in the standings.
Salinas ran at Gainesville, Charlotte and Bristol earlier this season, and sits 16th in the standings, well out of the championship race. But a strong effort during the Western Swing could be more valuable than points if she can attract sponsors to back a full-time run next season.
Veterans and legends alike were singing the praises of Salinas all weekend, describing her as part of the future success of the sport.
“Teams show us some respect, and that means a lot for a small team like this,” Salinas said.
The 34-year-old Salinas made her NHRA Top Fuel debut at the 2024 Pomona Winternationals when she subbed for her father, Mike Salinas, who was on medical leave. Salinas tied for second in the Lucas Oil Top Alcohol Dragster national championships in 2022, and the next year earned her Top Fuel license.
Mike Salinas, a nine-time Top Fuel winner, has been working to get back into the driver’s seat after heart surgery, and planned to race a handful of events this season.
Mike Salinas was at Sonoma to watch his daughters racing. Riding her JHG/Scrappers/Denso/MSR Buell, Jianna Evaristo, currently sixth in the Pro Stock Motorcycle standings, beat Denso teammate Matt Smith in a first-round matchup in the GETTRX NHRA All-Star Callout, but lost in the semifinals Saturday to RevZilla/Mission/Vance & Hines Suzuki rider Richard Gadson.
“No one comes to the track to lose,” Evaristo said. “But you never want to race against a teammate.”
Evaristo has a “sabbatical” now as the Pro Stock Motorcycle category is on hiatus until Sept. 2-7 at the NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
“The first half of the season is all testing, and then once we hit Indy, we’re pretty much fighting for the championship,” Evaristo said. “Everything we’ve been working on, practicing, testing, and once we go to Indy, it’s game time. There’s no margin for error.”
Evaristo, who reached the semifinals in Maryland on May 31, has been racing full-time since 2023, after racing Pro Stock Motorcycles part-time since 2019.
Jasmine and Jianna grew up around racing with their father. Mike Salinas stressed the importance of an education to his four daughters, but he couldn’t deter the sisters from following in his path. Jasmine, the oldest, got her start at age 14 in the NHRA Junior Drag Racing Series, but younger sister Jianna broke into the pro ranks first.
“She’s my younger sister, but she’s been racing longer,” Jasmine joked. “She and my dad offer a lot of good advice. We’re a family, and we always stay close.”
Jasmine said the racing schedule didn’t allow for a reunion at Sonoma with all the family who showed up for the race, but that they would take time for a get-together with their extended family after Seattle.
“Being the part-time team, we’ve done some other racing outside of NHRA, but that’s helped kind of get our car tuned up,” Jasmine Salinas said. “The reality is, we haven’t really raced a lot with having four qualifiers, so that’s a lot of data we’ve left behind, but having the group of guys that we do have, and the years of experience, it shows in the car’s performance.”
Crew chief Todd Okuhara and Cave bring decades of experience with championship Top Fuel and Funny Car teams, and “those two together have really been guiding me,” Salinas said.
The sisters, of Mexican and Indonesian descent, have been breaking down barriers as women of color in sports and business. Jasmine was the first woman of color to compete in NHRA’s Top Fuel class. Evaristo and Denso teammate Angie Smith are the only two full-time Pro Stock Motorcycle riders currently riding.
“We understand the importance of representation,” Evaristo said. “Growing up, there were always women out here, but there weren’t too many women who looked like us. That’s a really big thing that we always try to promote. Especially when we come home to Sonoma, which is our home track, we get a lot of parents who say ‘My daughter follows you because she looks like you, and she admires you.’ That’s important for young girls to be able to see.”
Since she made her Top Fuel debut, Jasmine Salinas has also been managing her Scrapper Top Fuel race team’s day-to-day business operations, while balancing her duties as a driver. The schedule keeps her busy, but also has brought her attention as an up-and-coming driver and a businesswoman in a challenging field. She was a featured panelist at the third annual Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment Business of Women’s Sports Summit in 2025.
“I’ve been learning the social media stuff, marketing, accounting, everything,” Salinas said. “There aren’t a lot of drivers who have the opportunity to get to learn all the ins and outs of the business side, and they don’t have to worry about how to keep the lights one which could be a great thing. But I’m very fortunate to carry this extra stress.”