{"id":100285,"date":"2025-03-24T16:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T23:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=100285"},"modified":"2025-03-24T16:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T23:06:15","slug":"langdon-lee-anderson-claim-40th-nhra-arizona-nationals-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/langdon-lee-anderson-claim-40th-nhra-arizona-nationals-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Langdon, Lee, Anderson claim 40th NHRA Arizona Nationals Wins"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shawn Langdon, Paul Lee, Greg Anderson celebrate their wins in Phoenix – Marc Gewertz for NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fans swarmed Firebird Motorsports Park outside Phoenix, AZ to see the 40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals, featuring the Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock stars of NHRA\u2019s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Congruity Pro Mod Drag Racing Series and Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series.<\/p>\n

They definitely got their money\u2019s worth, with three full days of sun, heat, competition and entertainment. There were two qualifying sessions each day, with Saturday\u2019s pair of runs down both the 1,000 and 1,320-foot dragstrip enlivening the sold-out crowd. The first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge of the season netted victories for Shawn Langdon in Top Fuel, Funny Car\u2019s Ron Capps and Jeg Coughlin Jr. in Pro Stock.<\/p>\n

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Shawn Langdon won on both Saturday and Sunday in Phoenix – Marc Gewertz for NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Only one of these drivers would double-up on Sunday and that was Langdon, who won the final round against Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta, defeating him in a tight race, 3.724\/330.39 to Kalitta\u2019s 3.770\/325.53 pass. The victory by Langdon marked his second straight at this track, as he beat Scott Palmer, Justin Ashley and Brittany Force en route to the final round. Kalitta made his 120th career final round as the No. 1 qualifier, defeating Travis Shumake in the first round, taking a bye in round two and beating Jasmine Salinas to take on his squadmate.<\/p>\n

Langdon knew it would be a tight race because he understands the machinations both Kalitta and his crew chief Alan Johnson can go through to eke power from their dragster. \u201cWe kind of threw the kitchen sink at it,\u201d Langdon said of his crew chief, Brian Husen who, he remarked, \u201chas turned this whole team into a bunch of superstars. All the guys have done such a fantastic job and have made no mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Paul Lee waited 21 years to gain his second Wally winner\u2019s trophy and first in Funny Car – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Funny Car, Paul Lee finally earned his first career national event victory over reigning titleholder Austin Prock. It was definitely a David vs Goliath final round in the flopper category, with Lee\u2019s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat taking on Prock\u2019s John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS. In earning his victory, Lee became the 96th different Funny Car winner in NHRA history, running 4.030\/313.22 to an up-in-smoke Prock\u2019s 4.507\/240.68.<\/p>\n

From his fifth qualifying slot, Lee defeated Gainesville winner Chad Green, Blake Alexander and Bob Tasca III – all driving Ford Mustangs – to go up against Prock. Lee\u2019s clean run earned him victory when Prock went up in smoke and he remarked, \u201cTwenty-one years ago was the last time I won a Wally in Englishtown, NJ at my home track in Top Alcohol Funny Car. I\u2019ve been dreaming of someday standing here with a nitro Funny Car Wally. I love driving a nitro Funny Car. It\u2019s all I\u2019ve ever wanted to do since I was 13 years old\u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n

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Paul Lee burnout in his Dodge Charger SRT – Marc Gewertz for NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lee made special mention of the fact that Funny Car standout Eric Medlen died in Gainesville after the 2007 Gatornationals, on March 23rd. \u201cWe lost Eric on this day,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a team prayer every Sunday, And John [Medlen] leads us. Today, he asked for Eric to watch out for us. You know something, our whole pit was calm all day and we just had a feeling that Eric was watching over us. I know it\u2019s a funny feeling. It was just, we were calm all day. Everybody did their job; it was a long time coming, but it\u2019s well worth it!\u201d<\/p>\n

While the crowd was pleased for Lee, they were also relieved to see three-time Funny Car champ Ron Capps, a Saturday victor, walk away from an exploding Toyota GR Supra just before the timing lights at 1,000 feet. The explosion destroyed Capps\u2019 fourth-qualified car as he straddled the centerline (an automatic DQ) from his right lane and hit the opposite retaining wall in the first round of competition against Blake Alexander. Capps Toyota body was junk but he emerged, under his own power, from what remained of the Supra\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

Greg Anderson repeated as Pro Stock victor at this race after winning in Phoenix in 2024, en route to his sixth class title. In a repeat of last year\u2019s season finale, Anderson raced KB Titan Racing teammate Dallas Glenn, who was victorious over him in Gainesville, the first race of the 20-contest season. Both drivers fouled at the lights in Phoenix, while Anderson couldn\u2019t get his car to run properly, barely moving from the Christmas tree lights and not even going to half-track.<\/p>\n

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Greg Anderson won a crazy Pro Stock final round – Marc Gewertz for NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a crazy final round between the two KB Titan Racing standouts. \u201cI\u2019m still trying to figure out how the heck I won,\u201d Anderson said afterwards. \u201cWhen you go into a final against Dallas, you know he\u2019s going to be double .00 (reaction time) and you\u2019re just on edge trying to leave the starting line. I saw some sort of flash of light and I let the clutch out and red-lit, but obviously that flash of light was Dallas\u2019 red light coming on first, so he red-lighted before I did under the first or worst!<\/p>\n

\u201cMy car made it about a foot,\u201d Anderson explained, \u201cand it shut right off and now I\u2019m going to have to sit in front of the (packed) grandstands and want to sink underneath the seat because I just red-lighted and threw the race away. I wondered why Dallas didn\u2019t go by me\u2026 reached out trying to restart the car and it won\u2019t start. I red-lighted and somehow Dallas did something worse than I did. So a crazy final round but, like they say, a win is a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mike Stavrinos won twice in one weekend in Pro Mod competition – Marc Gewertz for NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Congruity NHRA Pro Mod competition, the finals from Gainesville were completed and the full Phoenix race held. In either case, trophies went to a single driver, Mike Stavrinos in his AAP Camaro, who won the postponed Gatornationals and the 40th NHRA Arizona Nationals. Both victories came against veteran and former champ Rickie Smith. \u201cThis is something I wanted to do my whole life, and we did it twice in one weekend,\u201d he crowed. \u201cThis isn\u2019t even real to me. I really do owe it all to my crew – without those guys, this wouldn\u2019t happen. I\u2019m just out here having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t much time to celebrate or commiserate after this hot date in the desert, as teams are on their way to Pomona, California, the ancestral home of the National Hot Rod Association for the 65th annual Lucas Oil Winternationals, held on In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip this coming weekend.<\/p>\n

Now that two, of 20 races are complete, the standings are a bit shuffled from Gainesville. In Top Fuel, Langdon is on top, followed by Antron Brown, Kalitta, Jasmine Salinas, Brittany Force, Tony Stewart, Clay Millican, Justin Ashley, Steve Torrence and Shawn Reed. Paul Lee holds the lead in Funny Car, with John Force Racing\u2019s Jack Beckman second, Bob Tasca III, Chad Green, Ron Capps, Austin Prock, Tony Stewart Racing\u2019s Matt Hagan, Alexis DeJoria and a tie between Bobby Bode and Cruz Pedregon. Anderson has seven points on Glenn in Pro Stock, followed by KB Titan\u2019s Cory Reed, Matt Hartford and Eric Latino. Mason McGaha is sixth, with Elite Motorsports\u2019 Aaron Stanfield, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Troy Coughlin Jr. and Greg Stanfield completing the top 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fans swarmed Firebird Motorsports Park outside Phoenix, AZ to see the 40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals, featuring the Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock stars of NHRA\u2019s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Congruity Pro Mod Drag Racing Series and Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":100292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[11622,10260,9740,9966,7],"class_list":["post-100285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-40th-annual-nhra-arizona-nationals","tag-firebird-motorsports-park","tag-mission-2fast2tasty-challenge","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/WC_MG-min-e1742857567388.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-q5v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100285"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100296,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100285\/revisions\/100296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}