Driggers and Nogueira Rewrite Hermiston Record Books With Blazing Fast Run

The northwest run is officially underway and many chasing the NFR for this year make their way to Hermiston, Ore. for the Farm-City PRORODEO. The rodeo has been with the PRCA since 1989 and this year is already proving to be something special

Per PRODEO fans saw the electric pair of Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira break the arena record in the team roping with a blazing 4.2 second run to take the lead of the second round.

Hermiston is one of few rodeos left that offer multiple rounds for multiple chances to win money. The team knew that they were out of the average and they were gunning for a good check in the second round.

The first round is currently being led by Devon McDaniel and Chris Young with a 4.6 second run, so the NFR qualifiers knew that they had to be fast if they wanted to win big and that is exactly what they did.

Team Roping World Standings

This year, the two find themselves well inside the top 10. Driggers is one of six headers to have amassed over $100,000 on the season. At number six in the world, he finds himself nearly $14,000 over the number seven man, Jake Smith.

Nogueira, on the other hand, finds himself one spot ahead of his header. There are only five heelers this year who have over 100k on the year.

Before the no time on the first steer at Hermiston, the pair had gone on a streak of big checks. They won seven in a row from Kansas to Colorado to Idaho. Only one of those was under a grand and only two were under $2,000.

Driggers and Nogueira Career

Most of their career has been spent together and the career earnings between the pair is more than impressive. No, this total is not roping together the ENTIRE time, but they have roped together a lot.

The header and heeler have a combined career earnings of $5,608,970 per the PRCA. Between the two they have 23 qualifications into the NFR: the header has the upper hand with 12, but the heeler has won an extra world title.

They have both won a pair of gold buckles together in back-to-back years (2021-22), but Nogueira also has an all-around world championship from 2016.

Driggers specifically will be one to watch the rest of the season as he is creeping up on the $3 million mark. It would be hard to believe he won't cross that by either the conclusion of the regular season or at some point in the NFR.

The two have another gold buckle easily within their reach this year especially with a solid start to their northwest run.