For the fourth time during its 75th anniversary celebration of 20 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series events, the tour raced at a new venue this past weekend, competing at The Rock, historic Rockingham Dragway in the town of the same name. It was the second Countdown to the Championship race, one that followed a third new venue, U.S. 131 Motorsports Park. Next week will be a more familiar location, World Wide Technology Raceway outside St. Louis, MO.
This week, once again, belonged to Kalitta Motorsports in Top Fuel, as Shawn Langdon secured his third straight diamond Wally winner’s trophy endemic of this 75th anniversary NHRA season. And he did it with The Rock’s first 340-mph run to 1,000 feet, beating teammate and reigning world champion Doug Kalitta with a pass of 3.739/342.73 in the final round for his seventh win of this season. Langdon used a better reaction time than Kalitta, whose quicker 3.722 at 330.40 wasn’t enough to overcome Langdon’s .0242 RT at the tree to his opponent’s 0.0520.
Now, with the third of three straight Countdown to the Championship races coming in St. Louis, it’s pretty demoralizing for anyone not in the Kalitta camp. Sure, Tony Stewart (-155), his wife Leah Pruett (-167) and four-time champ Antron Brown (’187) are less than 200 points behind Langdon, as Kalitta lags by 25, but if one of them doesn’t turn on a win light in finals soon (like this weekend), they can pretty much be fighting for runners-up results. Billy Torrence, Josh Hart, Maddi Gordon, Will Smith and Clay Millican (-247) round out the top 10, while Justin Ashley and Tony Schumacher remain eligible, but out of the primary fight.
“We knew for the final round we had to make a picture-perfect run,” Langdon explained after the race. Since his own crew chief, Brian Husen has worked with Kalitta’s crew chief Alan Johnson for years before getting the opportunity in 2024 to crew chief Langdon, the driver and his crew chief are well aware of his teammate’s capabilities. “I knew going to the final, I had to figure out a way to find something on the starting line; Brian was very, very aware of that, so he was doing some homework and I knew I had to do everything I could. We’re just bonding together and working hard, keeping our heads, working just as hard for the next one.”
To reach the finals, Langdon beat Cameron Ferre, Billy Torrence and Shawn Reed, while Kalitta reached his 134th final round with wins against Rit Pustari, Maddi Gordon and Will Smith, the latter showing his hiring by the SCAG team was no error.
Can anyone stop Tony Stewart Racing’s Matt Hagan from taking his Dodge//SRT Hellcat to a fifth Funny Car championship? The Virginian earned his fourth win of this 20-race season, 59th of his pro career as a huge crowd looked on, defeating Paul Lee in the final round. Hagan’s supremacy in this class revealed itself once again as he defeated Dave Richards’ Ford Mustang, three-time champ, former teammate, perennial foe and No. 1 qualifier Ron Capps’ Toyota GR Supra and Kalitta Motorsports’ J.R. Todd’s Supra to race Lee’s Dodge, after he dispensed with Cruz Pedregon (Dodge), Alexis DeJoria (Chevy) and Austin Prock’s Mustang en route to this final round.
With this win Hagan has a yawing 84-point advantage over John Force Racing’s (JFR) Jordan Vandergriff and his Chevrolet SS, 106 points on Todd, 112 over Capps and is 126 points ahead of JFR’s Jack Beckman in fifth place. The gaps aren’t as great in this class as they are in Top Fuel, with both Austin Prock (-144) in his Tasca Racing Mustang Dark Horse and JFR’s Alexis DeJoria (-170) are both less than 200 points behind Hagan. One poor round could change a lot, but Hagan has confidence he can build on his current success. “What a great weekend,” he exulted. “To come out here for The Rock and to see a sold-out crowd on Saturday and just to see this sport grow, I think that’s a good thing,” he reflected.
“We had a great race track out there. (Crew chief) Mike Knudsen navigated it flawlessly. We did a really good job as a team putting four runs together on Sunday and executing on what we needed to do. Mike is super young in this sport,” Hagan noted, “but to get a kid that’s a year and a half in, and we’ve won so many races already together, the 1000th Funny Car race, the regular season championship, and here we are battling it out with four races to go for championship number five – it’s super special!” Hagan was racing sans mustache this weekend; could that lack of extra weight have helped him?
Can you teach an old racing dog new tricks? Greg Stanfield’s known a few over his many years of Pro Stock driving – and building engines for many different classes – and now, with the power of Elite Motorsports behind him and his concrete knowledge of what it takes to get down a quarter-mile racetrack, Stanfield is having, well, a moment in 2026. With Sunday’s win over rookie Cody Anderson, the KB Titan next-generation driver whose growing maturity under the gun of needing to perform has helped him make his first final round appearance, Stanfield has assumed the point lead in this ferociously fought category.
Stanfield earned his second 2026 win by beating his son Aaron in the first round, part-timer Stephen Bell in the quarters, reigning champ Dallas Glenn in the semifinal round, now leads Matt Hartford, Saturday’s No. 1 qualifier with KB Titan power by 31 points. He’s got 39 on Glenn, 66 on Greg Anderson (defeated by his son in the second round), last week’s winner Troy Coughlin Jr. (also with Elite), Cody Anderson, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Matt Latino, Erica Enders and son Aaron, the latter holding tenth-place points, 184 behind his dad.
Stanfield used a holeshot to beat Cody Anderson, whose improvement over these 16 events has been something to watch. The veteran realizes, “There’s a lot of young drivers that are really talented right now, and for me to try to rise up to their level and race with them is tough,” he reminded. “I don’t take this for granted. I think my success is a testament to the hard work of Elite Motorsports, our crew chiefs, the brain trust, our other drivers and every single crew person. They put their heart and soul into this team and I’m just the guy that happens to be enjoying the benefit.”
The different timing system used at The Rock (and U.S. 131 Motorsports Park) caught many a Pro Stock Motorcycle rider off-guard in Michigan and this week at Rockingham. But for once, it didn’t get to reigning class champ Richard Gadson, who’s had at least one too many fouls over the past couple of weeks, in both qualifying and eliminations. That Gadson beat his Vance and Hines Motorsports Suzuki Hayabusa3 teammate Gaige Herrera in that manner in Sunday’s final round, speaks to the intra-team competition.
To reach the final round, Gadson defeated fellow Suzuki rider and 2003 titleholder Geno Scali, surging Buell rider Ryan Oehler (foul) and Chase Van Sant’s WAR Suzuki to match up with Herrera. Herrera’s fourth final round appearance – and 36th of his career – came as he took out Lance Bonham’s Buell on a foul, Clayton Howey’s Buell and the Buell of Matt Smith Racing’s Joey Gladstone, super-subbing for Jianna Evaristo. “I feel like I got away with one here this weekend,” Gadson said after earning the win light. “It’s been kind of our M.O. It wasn’t fancy; it wasn’t glamorous; it wasn’t headline-worthy, but you know, we’re here holding our third diamond Wally!
“Gaige and I are extremely competitive with each other, sometimes to the point where the lines are blurry in ur competitiveness – because he’s a friend. I’ve got a lot of respect for the guy, but I’m playing mind games the whole time; he’s playing mind games the whole time, and you know I said, ‘It’s his race to lose,’ hoping that he would lose the race somehow. In order to win the race, you’ve got to be green four times. Gaige went for the E.T. and he got away with it three rounds… “ Gadson now has 64 points on his teammate, with six-time champ Matt Smith (Buell) third, lagging by 81. His teammates John Hall (-85) and Angie Smith (-96) are fourth and fifth, while Oehler is sixth and 101 points back. Evaristo, despite her absence is seventh, followed by Van Sant, Howey and Steve Johnson (Suzuki) rounding out the top 10 and 210 points back.
The third straight Countdown to the Championship race takes place this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway outside St. Louis and should give the championship chase more clarity.
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