NHRA’s winners from the 25th annual Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway were four-time champion Antron Brown in Top Fuel, four-time champion Matt Hagan’s Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat in Funny Car, three-time 2026 national event winner Matt Hartford for the Pro Stock set and two-time champion Gaige Herrera, riding Vance & Hines Motorsports’ Pro Stock Motorcycle Suzuki Hayabusa3.
The weather didn’t win, but it sure tried, stopping action both Friday and Sunday. But it wasn’t enough to stop the vaunted Safety Safari from keeping the track operational and giving both competitors and fans the show they’d come to this bucolic racetrack to either participate or watch. On Friday night, fans finally got to see the close of last weekend’s New England Nationals at Epping, New Hampshire, where only Pro Stock’s Dallas Glenn reached the close of his final round. Then the rains came, negating the possibility of closing out both nitro classes.
NHRA held Epping finals during the second qualifying session at Bristol, pitting Mission Foods Drag Racing Series points leader Shawn Langdon of Kalitta Motorsports against Leah Pruett from Tony Stewart Racing. Pruett, who nearly won the season title in 2023 before falling, in the last pass of the season, to longtime bridesmaid Doug Kalitrta, opted to sit out the last two seasons and start a family with husband Tony Stewart. When she returned to competition in Gainesville this past March, it was easy to see why and how she nearly earned her title three years ago. On Friday night, despite not posting a better reaction time, Pruett beat Langdon with a 3.794-second pass at 332.43 mph. Langdon hit 3.852 and 328.54, giving Pruett a very slight .0474 margin of victory.
“I’m happier than I thought I would be,” Pruett admitted. “Now I finally get to take a breath and enjoy it. We earned this,” she said. “To see the smiles on my crew and my crew chiefs’ faces – that’s all-time. Seeing what this means to my team means even more than the Diamond Wally, which is super cool.” Nine races into the season, Pruett is showing why and how she’s one of the best racers in a stacked Top Fuel grid.
On the Funny Car side, it was an Epping battle of John Force Racing teammates, Jordan Vandergriff against Jack Beckman. This time, age and experience won out when Beckman posted 4.017-second at 318.54 mph to his teammates tire-smoking 6.291/106.68. The duo had to wait out three hours of rain delay and track prep to complete their Epping match-up. Beckman earned his 38th career NHRA Funny Car national event win and the fifth victory since he joined John Force Racing when its namesake champion was forced from the seat by injury in 2024. This was Beckman’s first win since the Route 66 NHRA Nationals last May, while Vandergriff entered his second final round of the season.
As a veteran in this sport Beckman noted, “Before you can be quick, you have to be consistent. And to be consistent, you have to be predictable. I think we’re back in that window right now. To get a win like this, it was very gratifying. Our PEAK team left with the trophy and that’s all that matters,” he reminded. “We hadn’t won in over a year; we had some struggles, but now we’ve made it down the track on 14 of our last 17 runs. That’s the kind of consistency that wins races.”
Saturday at the track turned out to be glorious, weather-wise, as predicted. The Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge event, run in conjunction with both qualifying sessions on the second day of this meet, went to Doug Kalitta again, Beckman, Matt Hartford and Richard Gadson. At the same time, none of those racers qualified No. 1 per their four attempts. Those honors went to the Tony Stewart Racing team in the pair of nitro classes, as Epping winner Pruett and her Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat driving Funny Car teammate Matt Hagan atop the standings, with 106-time No. 1 Greg Anderson of KB Titan Racing and Vance & Hines Motorsports’ Gaige Herrera who were quickest in their Pro Stock classes. They all lobbed their No. 1s on Friday and their times and speeds stuck.
NHRA made the decision to begin Sunday’s eliminations an hour earlier than scheduled and made that choice known on Saturday, which allowed fans to arrive earlier and be prepared for the battles to come. Of course, rain stepped in to add to the work for track preparation and the finals were completed just before 7PM EDT on Sunday. and when those finals were completed, there were surprises, especially in the Top Fuel ranks.
Over most of these first nine Top Fuel races, it’s been Kalitta Motorsports in the spotlight, as both Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon have managed to secure those 75th anniversary Diamond Wally trophies like they’re pieces of candy. Theirs for the taking? Aside from the Gatornationals, won by local John Force Racing driver Josh Hart, it appeared one or the other Kalitta driver would end up as the 2026 regular season champ. But hey – not so fast. On Sunday, all of the work Brian Corradi and his crew have been doing to get four-time champion Antron Brown back in the winner’s circle finally came to fruition.
To get to the finals, Brown defeated Will Smith, Shawn Reed and Doug Kalitta, meeting Shawn Langdon in the finals. Langdon shut down Jasmine Salinas, No.1 qualifier Leah Pruett and Elite Motorsports’ Tony Stewart. Brown’s 3.788-second run at 331.61 mph held off Langdon’s 3.801-second blast at 334.07 in a thrilling side-by-side match-up. “We’ve been struggling at the beginning of the year, but we kept our heads down, kept grinding and kept working,” Brown stated. “Today it all came together! The Kalitta cars are the giants out here right now,” he confirmed. “To sneak around them and get a win, that says a lot about what our team accomplished today.”
Despite the loss, Langdon leaves Bristol in first place, leading teammate Kalitta by 114 points. “We struggled and got a little behind in qualifying,” he admitted. “Coming into race day, we just had some crazy circumstances in the first couple rounds and really had to grind it out as a team. We weren’t able to get the win on Friday, so we managed two runner-up finishes this weekend.” Behind the Kalitta duo, Pruett is 227 points behind, followed by Stewart, Brown, Hart, rookie Maddi Gordon, Billy Torrence, Justin Ashley and Clay Millican, who hangs 555 points behind Langdon.
Bristol is one of Matt Hagan’s home tracks, along with Charlotte, Rockingham and Richmond. “This one has always felt like home. We are blessed to be here,” Hagan said after earning his 57th national event win and second of this season in his 100th final round. With a second-round bye, Hagan accomplished his first victory in Thunder Valley since the 2015 Father’s Day weekend contest. He beat Jon Capps and reigning two-time Funny Car champion Austin Prock to reach this final round against second-generation racer Daniel Wilkerson, still searching for his first career win.
The verdict against Wilkerson came in a Hagan run of 4.125 seconds at 310.91 mph, with Wilkerson having traction issues at 6.317/128.89. Hagan’s competitor defeated J.R. Todd,’s Kalitta Motorsports Toyota GR Supra, Jack Beckman’s JFR Chevrolet SS and the Toyota GR Supra of three-time champ Ron Capps, who was named a legend of Thunder Valley before eliminations got underway. “This weekend was challenging,” Hagan said. “My guys did a great job, because I don’t know that car ran on eight cylinders any run. It was a driving job out there as far as keeping it in the groove and Daniel Wilkerson was driving his butt off!” Capps remains the points leader with Hagan 24 markers back. Todd has third place, followed by Vandergriff, Beckman, Chad Green, Alexis DeJoria, Spencer Hyde, Prock and Wilkerson, who is 300 points behind Capps.
Is this the best season Matt Hartford has had since he joined the Pro Stock ranks shortly after the century change? It sure seems that way. Despite not having the biggest crew – there are four members of his team – and having a leased KB Titan Racing engine under the hood of his Camaro, Hartford is going rounds and being consistent when it matters. Hartford defeated Greg Anderson in the final round, posting 6.672 seconds at 205.60 against the traction less 24.484/29.40 run by Anderson.
To get to the finals, Hartford, who won Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, defeated Shane Tucker, rookie Cody Anderson and Elite Motorsports’ Aaron Stanfield. Anderson made the finals by dispensing with Kenny Delco, having a bye run in the second round and beating Matt Latino in the semifinal bout. Now, with three wins on the season, Hartford rates championship conversation. “I’ve been racing at Bristol since the early 2000s and never managed to win here. To finally get a Bristol trophy is an awesome feeling. We had a great race car all weekend, so winning the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and then winning the race is about as good as it gets!”
Anderson leads the Pro Stock standings, followed by reigning titleholder Dallas Glenn, Hartford, Greg Stanfield from Elite, Matt Latino of KB Titan, Elite’s Aaron Stanfield, Erica Enders, Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Troy Coughlin Jr., with KB Titan’s Eric Latino occupying the final spot, 436 points behind Anderson.
When he first showed up with Vance & Hines after a partial season racing Pro Stock Motorcycle, Gaige Herrera was The Show. He set records nearly everywhere he went and handily secured back-to-back championships in 2023-2024. Then Eddie Krawiec turned in his leathers and boots to join Andrew Hines as a crew chief on this mega team, which hired Richard Gadson to be Herrera’s teammate. That turned out to be an issue for Herrera, who suddenly didn’t see every win light. The big smiles turned down a bit, but the rider kept working with Hines to get their side of the team back on top.
Despite not earning the vaunted No. 1 on his motorcycle for the 2026 season – and not earning the No. 1 here in Bristol, Herrera has kept his head down and his eyes forward. It paid off Sunday with a win in Bristol, against his teammate Gadson, who earned his first victory in the class at this race last year. This was Herrera’s second win at the track, second of the season and 30th of his short career. After going out in the first round at Maryland, Gaige Herrera needed this victory.
“After Maryland, Andrew (crew chief Hines) and I were beating our heads against the wall trying to figure out what happened. It felt like we had some bad luck hanging over us, but it feels good to come here and get the win,” Herrera intoned. Building some confidence before the next race at Norwalk, Ohio, “As we get closer and closer to the Countdown, I feel like my bike is back where it needs to be. Winning with Richard in the final was pretty cool. I’m glad to be the one taking home the trophy this time,” he said. While Gadson won the Mission Challenge, Herrera was the No. 1 qualifier for this race.
To reach the finals, Herrera had a bye in the first round, defeated Matt Smith Racing’s super-substitute for Matt Smith, Joey Gladstone in the quarterfinals, took out Steve Johnson in the semis to defeat his teammate, 6.838/198.47 to Gadson’s 6.883/196.36. Gadson, who continues to lead the standings, beat Wesley Wells, Chase Van Sant and Chris Bostick, the latter two riding Suzukis for WAR Racing. Gadson has a 68-point advantage on Angie Smith, with Herrera just 73 back. Matt Smith is fourth, followed by his teammate John Hall, Van Sant, Ryan Oehler’s Buell, Clayton Howey and Johnson’s Suzukis and the Buell of Jianna Evaristo.
The three-races-in-a-row – Maryland, Epping and Bristol – are now complete and, with Father’s Day weekend ahead, NHRA will take a much-needed rest before the 10th race of the season takes place at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio on June 25-28, with the 20th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.