The human aspect of drag racing always trumps the mechanical. After all, it’s people that drive, tune, crew, transport, officiate, feed and report on these motor sports. There are stories behind the stories we hear about who won, who lost, who burnt up their engine, destroyed their car in a boomer or puttered down the track. Yes, it’s the people that make drag racing great and there was ample showing of that this past week, during the 72nd Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S.Nationals.
This race was hot. It was so hot on Friday and Saturday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) that many nitro crew chiefs explained that they hadn’t ever run in temperatures like this at Indy. With oversubscribed classes in every Mission Foods Drag Racing Series category, whether supercharged or naturally aspirated, crew chiefs were out inspecting the track and relying on their specialists for added information on what it would take to overcome the heat, the humidity and how those conditions affected the dragstrip.
Only 16 drivers or riders get to perform on race day. That’s the way it is. And only four Mission Foods competitors get to hoist the diamond trophy at the end of eliminations, endemic of NHRA’s 75th anniversary year of operation. The results are the results, but the stories behind them tell the tale of sacrifice and triumph. That’s drag racing.
The U.S. Nationals marked the end of NHRA’s “regular’” season before the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs begin in Martin, Michigan. That made competition even heavier in all four classes, as there’s money and prestige attached to a regular season title.
It’s been a blazing Top Fuel year for Kalitta Motorsports, winning nine races between Shawn Langdon’s five and Doug Kalitta’s four victories. The reigning two-time champion has four wins in 14 national events and earned the regular season title for his consistency at the sharp end of each 16-car grid. Kalitta had quite an advantageous regular season, not only taking the title and its $150,000 bonus in Top Fuel; he also earned the season-long Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge championship that went from Phoenix to Indy, pitting semifinalists from the prior event to settle scores. Kalitta settled more than a few, earning five wins in the race-within-the-race series.
Kalitta’s teammate, Shawn Langdon has made a point of sharing his amazing season results with crew chief Brian Husen, who learned his craft at the elbow of Kalitta’s crew chief, Alan Johnson. The duo worked together for years before Chad Head, general manager at Kalitta Motorsports, elevated Husen to crew chief in 2024. The move had immediate results as Team Kalitta earned its first double-up in Gainesville that year, with Langdon taking Top Fuel and J.R. Todd earning the win in Funny Car.
“Brian had to really do his homework,” Langdon said after winning on Monday. “With the career he’s had working under AJ (Alan Johnson) for so many years, for him to step in and really make his mark in the first couple of seasons, that was his first Indy win as a crew chief. It makes me happy that I’m his driver and that I get the opportunity to be a small piece of his success. Brian is the man… for the rest of my career, I’d love to have Brian as my crew chief. Certain people just get it, and Brian gets it; he’s awesome. He’s a great leader who sets the tone for the team, and it shows with how the car runs. I want nothing more than to get Brian his first championship ring, along with Connie Kalitta and the whole team. It’s just awesome to be a part of this team,” he said convincingly.
Tony Stewart is a real drag racer. He respects the sport and wants to win here. And he really, really wanted that diamond Wally trophy on Monday, coming up a tenth short after 1000 feet of racing. As the No. 2 qualifier, “Smoke” worked his way through the field to meet Langdon in the final round. Still looking for a Big Win in racing, having failed to earn an Indianapolis 500 or a Daytona 500 win before entering straight-line racing, the Big Go is one race that would have been a Big Win. After testing at Brainerd following that event, “I know we learned some thins there that we were able to use this weekend. I feel like this car is a much happier race car than it’s been for the last two or three months… it was very consistent this week. I haven’t been drag racing that long, but I’ve made enough runs now to where I feel like I’m getting a better feel for when this car is happy and when it’s not.” Those points are not good news for his competitors.
With 22 dragsters trying to make the field, it was great to see the first non-qualifier was actually a first-time Top Fuel entry. Jake Sanders, a local racer from Brownsburg, IN who has been successfully competing in Nitro Chaos for a couple of years, came oh-so-close to racing on Monday, as the first driver in the DNQ list. He was quicker than Canadian Dan Mercier, than eight-time champ Tony Schumacher, The Greek’s granddaughter Krista Baldwin, Lex Joon and Jacob Opatmy after five rounds of qualifying in a car he named “The Menace,” the same name as his front-engine dragster. It’s said that Indy brings out both the best and worst in racers, Sanders’ time of 3.862 and speed of 296.05 couldn’t shake Clay Millican out of the No. 16 slot when he turned 3.844/327.11. Hopefully this young racer will try again…
Dragster driver Shawn Reed has had some great successes in his NHRA career and some whole disasters, like the loss of his index finger in a horrific crash at his Seattle home race. Reed rejoined the circuit in Reading, which was last year’s start to the series’ Countdown and promptly won. Much earlier 2025, he won the 2nd SCAG Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park. Throughout his Top Fuel career, Rob Wendland has been Reed’s crew chief. That relationship ended after Monday and Reed appointed Ryan Elliott as interim crew chief for his Top Fuel effort.
Reed had two Top Fuel dragsters running at Indy, including one for himself and the second attached to Ida Zetterstrom. Both of them made the show and, on Tuesday, Zetterstrom climbed onto one of Flying Ryan Oehler’s Buell motorcycles and earned her Pro Stock Motorcycle license to go with the Top Fuel license she used to race the past two seasons. Zetterstrom is looking for added capabilities in NHRA and having two licenses gives her options. That’s what she’s looking for. At the same time, she already had an FIA championship on a bike as well as racing Top Fuel overseas. Options are what every racer wants; Ida Zetterstrom brings those options to the NHRA table. Oehler’s second Buell will be wheeled during the Countdown by Clayton Howey, who has been riding a Suzuki much of this season.
In a 22-car Funny Car field, Jack Beckman’s victory on Monday afternoon really was the stuff of legends. And lucrative. Over the weekend, Beckman won the PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout and the 72nd U.S. Nationals Wally. He wasn’t fastest in the 16-car field; that honor went to Ron Capps, who made it to the semifinals before losing to Matt Hagan. The latter driver then went on to lose to Beckman, but still managed to shut Capps out of the regular season championship and claim it for his Tony Stewart Racing team. Just like Hagan, Beckman slew some giants, particularly when he ensnared reigning two-time consecutive champ Austin Prock in the semis. Prock went up in smoke; Beckman went to the final round, giving John Force Racing a very historic victory.
Historic? The flame tribute paint job Beckman used was the same one that Force employed for his 1996 victory at this track. Force only ran that scheme at one race, the season finale and he won with four passes.
Now that paint scheme has 11 round wins and has never lost. Beckman’s victory marked the team’s 16th race win at the U.S. Nationals, with John Force earning five trophies, Robert Hight taking three, Ashley Force Hood, Mike Neff and Austin Prock each earning two ad a single win while racing with John Force Racing fore Gary Densham and Beckman. This was also the fifth time a John Force Racing team has earned the Indy double of winning a specialty event and the race itself: John Force (1993 and 1996), Gary Densham in 2004, Austin Prock took the double in 2025 and Jack Beckman made his history – and $180,000) this Labor Day 2026. Will this help him give up his “day job” repairing elevators?
Looking at the almost-rans in Funny Car, the two Illinois residents who were 17th and 18th, Bobby Bode and Chris King are both viable competitors. King regularly runs Pro Mod and Bode has been to a single final round in his protracted career. Had King not had a malfunction on Sunday, he – or Bode – might have been able to take the final slot from John Smith. As it was, the heat of this weekend produced only 10 qualifiers in the “4s” by the close of five rounds and that distinction belonged to Kalitta Motorsports’ J.R. Todd at 3.981. Indy was a tough track for the floppers, due to the weather conditions.
Dallas Glenn really wanted to take the regular season crown from KB Titan Racing teammate and Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge season champ Greg Anderson. It was a goal, he said, one that he’d hoped to achieve on the track with a “winner-take-all regular season championship between me and Greg. I was rooting for him all day long; I didn’t want him to lose.” Anderson came into this race leading Glenn by 85 points; Glenn’s six bonus points definitely helped him move closer to Anderson and with points-and-a-half on offer last weekend, when Anderson went down in the second round against eventual final round loser Jeg Coughlin Jr. of Elite Motorsports, that regular season title had a clear path, providing he could handle Coughlin in the finals. While the five-time Pro Stock champion was off the line first, Glenn had the lead by 150 feet and earned his fourth diamond Wally of the year and 25th of his young career.
It was easy to get whiplash at this year’s 72nd Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals. There were enough heroes wandering the pits for fans of every generation to have their fill, from Big Daddy Don Garlits, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Shirley Muldowney, Joe Amato, Kenny Bernstein, John Force, Steve Torrence, birthday celebrant George Bryce (the same age as the race!) who won six Pro Stock Motorcycle titles, Doug Herbert… too many to name. With cacklefests, Fuel Altereds taking to the track and the traditional track walk on Monday morning before eliminations, the event was absolutely packed with activities for fans and racers.
And then there was Darrell Gwynn, who celebrated his own birthday shortly after the race. He brought copies of his photo autobiography, “Fortunate Son” to his pitside booth – Muldowney had her own booth as well – so that fans could purchase or plan to purchase their own copies as well. The book doesn’t dwell on the accident that changed Gwynn’s life and placed him in a motorized chair, rather than a hotrod. It talks about his youth, going racing with his dad, Jerry and coming to an NHRA race as a driver with a single crew member, Chris Cunningham. When speaking with the press about the book, Gwynn emphasized the contributions Cunningham made to his career and how he’s pleased to see him orchestrating Jordan Vandergriff’s first season as a Funny Car racer with John Force Racing. This year is Cunningham’s first as a crew chief; he’s already directed his driver to a 75th anniversary diamond Wally and a win in Mission’s #2Fast2Tasty Challenge race-within-a-race series.
And now it’s time to think about the Countdown and place this year’s U.S. Nationals in a rearview mirror. While some teams joined Oehler’s in Tuesday testing, most were salving their wounds from this event and looking towards the initial NHRA Countdown to the Championship battle at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park. While NHRA hasn’t raced in Michigan since 1960, many of its competitors have tested at this location in preparation for this inaugural Dodge Great Lakes NHRA Nationals and other races, so it’s not an unfamiliar venue.
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