NHRA’s sixth race in its 20-contest 75th anniversary Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, IL, produced wins for Shawn Langdon in Top Fuel, Chad Green in Funny Car, Aaron Stanfield for Pro Stock and Matt Smith with Pro Stock Motorcycle. Thankfully, some of the weather patterns that had been predicted didn’t cause much delay for the straight-line racers.
Langdon, who has been the fastest racer on four wheels during the start of the 2026 racing schedule, has also been exceptionally consistent with his Brian Husen-led Kalitta Motorsports crew. They’re nut-and-bolting the dragster to Langdon’s liking and, despite a ninth-place qualifying effort, his run of 3.770 seconds at 336.57 mph in the last time trials session helped the Californian secure the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory on Saturday. On Sunday, Langdon moved past Shawn Reed, his teammate and reigning champion Doug Kalitta, John Force Racing’s Josh Hart, only to meet four-time champion Antron Brown in the finals. Langdon had another good run of 3.775/335.90 to defeat a slowing Brown, in his first final round of this year, at 4.225/206.48.
In earning his second straight victory and third of this short season, Langdon admitted, “It’s a dream of a season with a dream team. I didn’t do anything special today; I just wasn’t messing up!” Knowing his team needed to make changes after qualifying, “Brian realized we had to tame some things down in the car. Having to run Doug second round wasn’t ideal, but at the end of the day, we had to get some information for our car and make a good run, and then from there, today was a little bit tricky.” As Husen made some last-minute changes, “I could tell that they had two different game plans, and one was when the sun was out and one for when the cloud cover was there. They were able to adapt when they needed to and provided a great race car for four rounds.”
The 2013 champion in this class, Langdon retains his hold on the lead for Top Fuel, followed by Kalitta, Leah Pruett, Tony Stewart, Josh Hart, Maddi Gordon, Antron Brown, Justin Ashley, Billy Torrence and Clay Millican. There’s 342 points between first and tenth place.
Although he hasn’t been at the lead of Funny Car for much of his career, Chad Green is starting to make on-track statements regarding his ability to win races and accumulate points with his Ford Mustang race car. Earning his second race win of the short season, he took victory in a thrilling final round against John Force Racing’s Alexis DeJoria. This was the second time the duo had met in the finals and the result was the same as in the season-starter at Gainesville: Green took the win. DeJoria did earn the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday and, with this result she maintains her No. 6 position in the Flopper points tally.
Following their side-by-side run down the 1,000-foot dragstrip at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Green knew how he made it to the timing stripe first: “The whole team aspect of this sport doesn’t get enough recognition,” he declared. “This is 100 percent a team sport, just like football, basketball and any of those sports. The driver, they get a lot of the fame and glory but, to be honest, what these guys do is just incredible. To go out there and turn on four win lights on a Sunday is so difficult. These guys have to do everything perfectly every round and we have to go out there and beat the best guys out there doing it. So I can’t say enough about the team,” he said.
Although he never saw DeJoria during their quick run at the Chicago area circuit, “She is driving a John Force car and that was a dang good race. I never saw her during the race… when the win light came on, I thought, ‘Oh, she probably had problems or something,’ but then I looked at the time slip and man, she was right there with me!” DeJoria earned her second runner-up result of the still-building season with runs past Spencer Hyde’s Mustang, Dave Richards’ Toyota and the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat four-time champ, Tony Stewart Racing’s Matt Hagan.
Despite a quarterfinal result on Sunday for Ron Capps and his Toyota GR Supra and for J.R. Todd of Kalitta Motorsports in his similar race car, the duo lead the points standings for Funny Car, followed by Matt Hagan’s Dodge Charger, Chad Green, Jordan Vandergriff’s Chevrolet SS, Alexis DeJoria, Spencer Hyde’s Mustang, Jack Beckman’s Chevy, Daniel Wilkerson and Dave Richards in their Mustangs. There’s a gap of 246 points. It must be noted that Austin Prock, driving Tasca Racing’s Ford Mustang, earned his first two round wins of the season, against Jim Dunn Racing’s Jeff Arend (Dodge Charger) and Todd, before succumbing to Chad Green in the semifinals. Those two round wins allow Prock to race in the next Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge.
We’ve watched KB Titan Racing overcome its primary competitor in Pro Stock competition, Elite Motorsports, over the past season or so. That changed this weekend, with Erica Enders earning the No. 1 qualifying slot, along with the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, and teammate Aaron Stanfield winning his first race since 2024, quite a drought! To bring home his initial diamond trophy in this 75th anniversary season, Stanfield used some stout reaction times in the first three rounds on Sunday (.008, .011, .004) before getting to the final round. There he had it easy, when six-time Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson, from KB Titan Racing, managed to foul out and gift the victory to Elite, which hadn’t seen a Wally winner’s trophy since Enders’ victory at last year’s Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals!
“Our team’s definitely been waiting on this moment for a pretty good while,” Stanfield admitted. “It’s the best feeling you can get out here when you see that win light come on in the final round. We had a great weekend and a great day today, and kind of had some luck roll my way in that final round,” he said. “We felt like we had something in South Georgia, but the racetrack was a little tricky, so we really didn’t get to see it there. I think we saw it this weekend with a combination of KN being a little off. I think these Elite Motorsports guys have been working really, really, really hard. I think we’re going in the right direction.”
Despite his foul in the quarterfinals, Dallas Glenn of KB Titan continues to lead the standings, trailed by teammate Greg Anderson, Elite’s Greg Stanfield, KB Titan’s Matt Hartford, Enders, Aaron Stanfield, Matt Latino and Cody Coughlin of KB Titan, Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Troy Coughlin Jr. of Elite. There’s a gap of 329 points from first to tenth place.
It was an all-Matt Smith Racing final round in Pro Stock Motorcycle on Sunday, but not quite the finals either Matt or wife Angie Smith were hoping for with their Buell motorcycles. After beating teammate Jianna Evaristo, Gaige Herrera’s Vance & Hines Motorsports Suzuki Hayabusa3 and racing solo when Brayden Davis’ Ryan Oehler Racing Buell broke, Matt Smith was ready to race Angie. But it wasn’t meant to be: in her semifinal victory over reigning titleholder Richard Gadson of Vance & Hines, Angie Smith had issues with her transmission so the decision was made to swap it out. Unfortunately, the tranny didn’t do its job and she was unable to race Matt, who rode a leisurely 6.835 seconds at 185.41 mph to the quarter-mile stripe.
That result wasn’t something either one of the Smith duo wanted. After winning his first race of the season at South Georgia Motorsports Park, Matt Smith earned his 44th career victory. “I wanted a fair race; I wanted a good race, just like when we ran each other for the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. She had the best bike this weekend, but it just wasn’t meant to be for some reason. She’ll get it in Maryland (the next race on a new-to-NHRA circuit). I feel confident that we will get things under control for her bike and get it back, because everybody here knows that she had the best bike,” Matt Smith acknowledged. Angie Smith qualified No. 1 and is still looking for her first win in nearly four years.
Reigning titleholder Richard Gadson leads the standings, followed by Matt Smith, Gaige Herrera, Angie Smith, John Hall’s Buell, Clayton Howey and Chase Van Sant riding Suzuki motorcycles, Ryan Oehler’s and Brayden Davis’ Buells, while tenth is a tie between Jianna Evaristo and Suzuki rider Steve Johnson. There’s 225 points between first and tenth places.
NHRA, its families and fans will enjoy the Memorial Day weekend upcoming and return to action May 29-31 with the inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals presented by JEGS at Maryland International Raceway in Mechanicsville, Maryland.
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