This year’s 72nd Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals, held on the hallowed grounds of Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) celebrated the 75-year history of NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series with heroes on-site and new heroes crowned throughout four days of nonstop action.
Shawn Langdon’s Kalitta Motosports SealMaster dragster beat Tony Stewart’s Elite Motorsports R+L rail in the final round of Top Fuel competition late Monday afternoon and Jack Beckman took John Force Racing’s Chevrolet SS to Funny Car victory, using a 30-year-old color scheme that hadn’t seen the light of day since 1996. He beat Tony Stewart Racing’s Matt Hagan’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat in the final round. In Pro Stock, reigning KB Titan Racing champion Dallas Glenn earned both the race win he’d been hungering for and regular season crown in the finals against Elite Motorsports’ Jeg Coughlin, who said “It’s been a day… “ since he last ran in a final round. Pro Stock Motorcycle turned out to be an all-Smith final, with Matt beating Angie on their similar Buell bikes.
But there was so much more to this long and challenging event, held in two days of deadening heat and two days of doable weather. There was only a slight Saturday lapse of competition for rain sprinkles, which is an anomaly in Indy during race week. The grounds were packed with competitors and fans and the atmosphere was, as expected, electric with all the celebrations of NHRA’s incredible history of continuous straight-line racing.
Every class in NHRA’s Mission Foods classes was over-subscribed at Indy; it was one of those “gotta be there” races, much like its neighbor about 10 miles to the east of Brownsburg, where IRP is located, to Speedway’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). If you’re a drag racer, this is where you must be on Labor Day. If you’re an oval racer, May’s Indianapolis 500 is your holy grail. For that reason, who raced on Monday was just as relevant as who did not.
In Top Fuel eight racers didn’t make the show, including eight-time champion Tony Schumacher, along with Dan Mercier, rookie Jake Sanders, Krista Baldwin, Lex Joon and Jacob Opatmy. After five rounds of qualifying from Friday night through Sunday afternoon, sevenFunny Car racers faced disappointment: Bobby Bode’s Ford Mustang, Chris King’s Charger, Blake Alexander in his GR Supra, the Chargers of Dylan Winefsky and Justin Schriefer, Dave Richards and Terry Haddock in their Mustangs. A 19-car Pro Stock field eliminated Deric Kramer, Alan Prusiensky (Dodge) and David Vaseloff, while the Suzuki of Wesley Wells joined the Buells of Hector Arana and Mark Paquette on the sidelines.
Those that survived qualifying woke Monday to beautiful weather and sharp competition from 10AM through to nearly 5PM on the Labor Day holiday. After a single qualifying session Friday night, in two classes one could surmise who’d be getting diamond Wally winner’s trophies on Monday, as Langdon and Matt Smith both opened the weekend with No. 1 qualifying runs. They’d both end up as No. 1 qualifiers after five rounds of intense competition, joined on Sunday after Q5 by Ron Capps’ GR Supra in Funny Car and KB Titan’s Matt Hartford in Pro Stock.
On Saturday, the final round of Mission’s #2Fast2Tasty Challenge took place, with Tony Stewart Racing’s Leah Pruett, Tasca Racing’s Austin Prock, Cody Anderson from KB Titan and Vance & Hines’ Gaige Herrera earning the race victories, while Doug Kalitta, Prock, Greg Anderson and Gaige Herrera earned champion’s nods in these races within each regular season race following the season starter. The Challenge pits semifinalists from the previous event against one another. The Pro Stock round was especially exciting, seeing rookie Cody Anderson take the race win while his father, six-time Pro Stock titleholder Greg Anderson claimed the championship.
Sunday’s PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout found Beckman, the 2012 Funny Car titleholder – then with Don Schumacher Racing – earning that title, then adding to his race weekend glory with the race title as well. To reach that final round, Beckman defeated Chad Green’s Mustang, J.R. Todd’s Supra and then met and defeated Matt Hagan, who got to the finals by beating Spencer Hyde’s Mustang and Alexis DeJoria’s Chevy. The Callout final wasn’t as close as Monday’s finals: On Sunday Beckman turned 3.980/323.19 to Hagan’s 4.290/227.19; Monday saw Beckman hit 3.965/327.35 to Hagan’s 4.030/318.84.
After Monday’s track walk and introductions of competitors, together with awards for many of the Lucas Oil Sportsman competitors and Jr. Dragster introductions, competition began promptly at 10am. The first round saw Langdon defeat Clay Millican, ending Rick Ware Racing’s week prematurely, while Stewart took out Chicago’s T.J. Zizzo; Beckman defeated Jeff Arend in Jim Dunn’s Charger; Glenn beat Mason McGaha while Matt Smith dispensed with Chris Bostick’s Suzuki. In the quarters, Langdon defeated Justin Ashley, Beckman dispensed with Paul Lee, who ran a Mongoose tribute to Tom McEwen (“He was always my favorite”), Glenn defeated a strong Matt Latino, also from the KB Titan stables, while Matt Smith fought Clayton Howey’s Suzuki. The semifinal round pitted Langdon against Pruett and Stewart against Doug Kalitta, while Funny Car saw Hagan defeat Capps and Beckman dispense with Prock. Glenn took out six-time champ Erica Enders and Coughlin defeated No. 1 Hartford, as Angie Smith beat Herrera and Matt Smith beat reigning Suzuki titleholder from Vance & Hines, Richard Gadson.
The difficulty in earning a race win isn’t lost to Langdon, who earned his sixth No. 1 qualifier and 28th of his career. He earned his fourth victory in 14 races that have been dominated by Kalitta Motorsports, as his teammate Kalitta earned the regular season crown, leaving Langdon in second place heading into the six-race Countdown to the Championship that begins in less than two weeks. “These wins are hard to come by, and the competition’s so good,” Langdon stressed. “We had that great Friday night run, but with the heat, we had to back the car up a little it, because the track wan’t quite there. It makes me happy that I’m Brian Husen’s driver and that I get the opportunity to be a small piece of his success.”
In winning Indy, Jack Beckman secured his second 2026 win and 39th of his Funny Car career. This is the third time he’s earned an Indy victory and he was a bit overwhelmed by that and his Callout win: “I could truthfully tell you this is the greatest weekend I’ve ever had holding the steering wheel. This was just a phenomenal weekend. This one might be more significant because we did it in John Force’s tribute car,” Beckman admitted. “The car ran once and won once, and then yesterday we did the All-Star Callout, and it ran twice and won twice, and then today we start clicking off those round wins.” John Force won four rounds in 1996 to earn his Indy title; Beckman won seven, including his Callout victory.
As the reigning Pro Stock champion, Dallas Glenn came to Indianapolis looking for a bit of redemption after going out of Brainerd, the previous contest, in the first round. He earned the regular season title with his Monday victory against squadmate Hartford, but was almost hoping for a different outcome after qualifying No. 2. “I would have liked a winner-take-all regular season championship between me and Greg [Anderson], but it didn’t work out that way,” he remarked. “But I set out this morning with a goal that I was going to hold up a trophy at the end of the day. I went up there and tried to stay as calm and focused as I could, but man, this Countdown is going to be a nasty bloodbath!” Glenn realized, “I just had to do everything I could to not think about points, not think about it being Indy. I had to think about how Jeggie [Couglin] took me out in Brainerd first round and that I’d really like to get him back.” Mission accomplished.
Six-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Matt Smith came into this race having competed only once since June, in the GETTRX Pro Stock Motorcycle All-Star Callout at Sonoma. He probably should have sat that one out, having had surgery for gall bladder issues. Smith admitted to being about 50% in Sonoma and claims to be about 85-90% now. His four-Buell Matt Smith Racing team did some testing a couple of weeks ago at Rockingham Dragstrip in high-heat conditions, so they were prepared for what they found in Indy. “We worked really hard to get back to here,” he said after defeating Angie in the final round. “We’ve done a lot of testing at Rockingham in these conditions: hot, humid. We knew the track was going to be at 120- to 130-degrees. “We learned a lot of stuff with the clutches and it made us better for here, because I was consistent in the 60-foot range of .106 all weekend.”
As many competitors reached the top end, they were met with banners touting their entries in the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs. Top Fuel’s contenders are Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon, Leah Pruett, Tony Stewart, Antron Brown, Maddi Gordon, Josh Hart, Billy Torrence, Justin Ashley and Clay Millican. Brown, Gordon and Ashley advanced to the second round, while Brown and Millican were out after a single pass. In Funny Car, Hagan’s final round appearance gave the Virginian top seed, followed by Capps, Beckman, Jordan Vandergriff from JFR, Kalitta’s J.R. Todd, Austin Prock, Alexis DeJoria, Chad Green, Daniel Wilkerson and Spencer Hyde. Todd, Wilkerson and Hyde were gone after a first pass, while Vandergriff, DeJoria and Green left after the quarterfinals.
Pro Stock’s top 10 are Glenn, Greg Anderson, Greg Stanfield, Matt Hartford, Erica Enders, Matt Latino, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Aaron Stanfield, Cody Anderson and Troy Coughlin Jr. The latter driver was gone after a single round, joined by Aaron Stanfield, while Cody Anderson, his father Greg, Matt Latino and Greg Stanfield left after two rounds of play. Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Countdown grouping for the next six races is current champ Richard Gadson, Matt Smith, Gaige Herrera, Angie Smith and John Hall of Matt Smith Racing, Ryan Oehler and his Buell, Chase Van Sant’s Suzuki, JIanna Evaristo, Clayton Howey and Steve Johnson, the latter two riding Suzuki. Evaristo suffered an accident and was unable to compete at Indy; Michael Ray took her Buell to a quarterfinal result, where he was joined by Oehler and Howey. Johnson was gone after a single pass, as was Van Sant and Matt Smith Racing’s John Hall.
The 2026 NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs start with the tour’s first visit to US. 131 Motorsports Park at Martin, MI on September 18-20, with the NHRA Great Lakes Nationals.
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