{"id":100648,"date":"2025-04-28T15:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T22:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=100648"},"modified":"2025-04-28T16:53:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T23:53:50","slug":"langdon-earns-1000th-top-fuel-win-prock-glenn-smith-also-win-zmax-4-wide-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/langdon-earns-1000th-top-fuel-win-prock-glenn-smith-also-win-zmax-4-wide-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Langdon Earns 1,000th Top Fuel Win; Prock, Glenn, Smith also Win zMAX 4-Wide Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Austin Prock, Shawn Langdon, Dallas Glenn, Matt Smith rejoice in victory – NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are now five NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series contests in the books; 15 more remain before champions are crowned at the season finale. Can we read anything from the pair of 4-wide races that have just been completed on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and zMAX Dragway in Charlotte?<\/p>\n

The 1,000th Top Fuel trophy – itself a majestic piece of memorabilia constructed by Cold Hard Art\u2019s Tom Patsis – is making its way to Ypsilanti, Michigan and Kalitta Motorsports, after Shawn Langdon aced the final quad against runner-up Justin Ashley, Las Vegas 4-Wide victor Tony Stewart and reigning, four-time titleholder Antron Brown. Langdon\u2019s lap down the 1,000-foot dragstrip of 3.714 seconds at 330.63 mph just pipped Ashley in the final round.<\/p>\n

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Shawn Langdon at the hit – NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In earning this win, Langdon was joined in the Winners Circle by his team owner, Connie Kalitta and by the first NHRA Top Fuel winner, Don Garlits, who handed the memorable race trophy to the Californian, who earned his 21st Top Fuel Wally trophy and the replica of Garlits\u2019 initial trophy. The 2013 dragster champ came from the second qualifying slot, where he put down a 300mph boom to the eighth and overall lap of 3.665\/333.33 to lag only his teammate and Mission #2Fast2Tasty consecutive winner Doug Kalitta in qualifying.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The first Top Fuel winner, Big Daddy Don Garlits celebrates with the 1,000th winner, Shawn Langdon – NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Langdon admitted to being a bit slow at the starting line behind Ashley, he drove around the New Yorker to earn victory and the notoriety that comes with earning the 1,000th TF Wally. He leaves zMAX Dragway in the points lead with a 59-point advantage over Tony Stewart. While he didn\u2019t have any rationale for his slower than average leave,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI had a good race car. Connie Kalitta leads the way and we\u2019re very fortunate to be able to win the race for him. I\u2019m so lucky; I race for Connie Kalitta. I’m very honored,\u201d he admitted, \u201cto be the 1,000th Top Fuel winner. It\u2019s a great accomplishment in this sport with so much history. Don Garlits and Connie Kalitta both signed my time slip – that\u2019s one that will go front and center in the trophy case!\u201d Langdon has a 59-point lead over Stewart, followed by Brown, Kalitta, Force, Ashley, the absent Jasmine Salinas, Clay Millican, Steve Torrence and Josh Hart.<\/p>\n

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Brittany Force joined teammate Austin Prock by turning the first 341-mph lap in Top Fuel – John Force Racing photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once again, Austin Prock doubled up, winning Saturday\u2019s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and going on to win Sunday\u2019s points-paying race in the John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car. All three JFR racers – Prock, Jack Beckman and new national record holder Top Fuel racer Brittany Force, whose Friday boomer of 341.59 put her in league with Prock, who set a 341mph lap in his Funny Car during last year\u2019s finals in Pomona – ran with www.HendrickCars.com support, and with Rick Hendrick on the premises.<\/p>\n

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Austin Prock celebrates his second straight 4-wide win with NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick, who sponsored all three John Force Racing cars at zMAX – John Force Racing photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Prock, it was vindication of the work performed by his father, Jimmy and brother Thomas who, together with Nate Hildahl made the right changes for conditions during NHRA\u2019s 15th American Rebel Light NHRA 4-Wide Nationals. After languishing mid-pack during the first three contests of this 20-race season, Prock\u2019s team has come alive in these two 4-wide contests and allowed Prock to leapfrog No. 1 qualifier Paul Lee and his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for the No. 1 position.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the finals, Prock defeated Ron Capps\u2019 Toyota GR Supra, Matt Hagan and Alexis DeJoria, both driving Chargers with his 3.870-second, 332.92-mph blast. Prock has now won the zMAX 4-wide race in both Top Fuel and Funny Car as he earned his 14th race win. Having been born into this sport, Prock knows it\u2019s a \u201cgreat day anytime you\u2019re holding one of these Wallys. I had my worst light of the weekend in the final round, so it\u2019s just great to be driving this Chevrolet SS, especially that round there. It was awesome to see [Rick Hendrick] down there at the top end,\u201d he emphasized. That was the last thing I expected, and when I saw him, I just lit up!\u201d Prock leads Lee, Hagan, Beckman, Capps, Chad Green\u2019s and Daniel Wilkerson\u2019s Ford Mustangs, Cruz Pedregon\u2019s Charger and a tie between Kalitta\u2019s J.R. Todd in his Toyota GR Supra and Bob Tasca III\u2019s Mustang. There\u2019s a 193-point gap from first to tenth places in this class.<\/p>\n

\u201cDouble 00\u201d Dallas Glenn needed his .002 reaction time to hold off KB Titan teammate Greg Anderson, as he picked up his second straight Pro Stock win with a holeshot of 6.495\/212.69 over Anderson\u2019s incredible lap of 6.472\/212.13, also racing Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge winner Matt Hartford and a fouling Eric Latino, all KB Titan racers. Glenn earned the 200th victory for KB Titan Racing, his third win of the year and 16th in his career. Glenn, Anderson and KB Titan own this class right now and it\u2019s up to everyone else to deny them. \u201cI did my job the best I could but the car did its job too,\u201d Glenn declared. “It\u2019s still the engine guys and crew chiefs that did a fantastic job all day. We got back from Las Vegas and they tore all the engines apart and didn\u2019t finish until this Thursday at 9PM EDT. They worked every day and that\u2019s the reason why we run well,\u201d Glenn explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dallas Glenn took over the points lead – NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn four-wide races, you don\u2019t have to be best until finals, and then you can throw the kitchen sink at it, and that\u2019s what we did. When I left, I thought I might have red-lighted, but I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t. I know Greg really wanted to win with [NASCAR team owner and his full-season sponsor] Rick Hendrick here, but I\u2019m happy to be the 200th winner for the KB Titan team. That shows just how special this team is.\u201d With his third win of the year, Glenn takes over the points lead from Anderson, who made it to the final round for the fourth time in five 2025 races. Behind the duo are Matt Hartford, Cory Reed, Eric Latino, Deric Kramer – all fro KB Titan Racing – Mason McGaha, Elite Motorsport\u2019s Jeg Coughlin and Aaron Stanfield, with Matt Latino 383 points behind the leader in tenth place.<\/p>\n

The Pro Stock Motorcycle battle looks to be another round between Vance & Hines Motorsports\u2019 two-time reigning champion Gaige Herrera and six-time champ Matt Smith. The Suzuki rider won the first race of the year in Gainesville, but Smith stopped him in the final round with his self-owned and self-tuned Buell, also racing Herrera\u2019s teammate and Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge Saturday winner Richard Gadson and veteran Steve Johnson, who looked fresh after a tough Gainesville outing. Smith left first with his .014 reaction time and was never headed, hitting 6.736 at 202.91 for his first win of the young Pro Stock Motorcycle season.<\/p>\n

The local racer earned his 42nd national victory but admitted, \u201cThis has been a long weekend. We had a lot of gremlins in the pits and this morning, we cranked my bike up and it started squeaking. We have another engine called \u2018Old Faithful,\u2019 so we put in a new engine and went smoothly after that,\u201d he stated. \u201cHats off to my team. I can\u2019t say enough about my crew guys. Every helps, but it\u2019s a lot of work to run four bikes with three mechanics,\u201d Smith acknowledged of the Buells for himself, wife Angie Smith, Jianna Evaristo and John Hall. \u201cI do the fuel maps and clutches, and I also get to ride, but it\u2019s a lot of work.<\/p>\n

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Six-time champ Matt Smith took his Buell to the winner\u2019s circle – NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on the positive side now,\u201d Smith exulted after having 41 wins and 41 runners-up results coming into this 4-wide race at Charlotte. \u201cNow I\u2019m 42 and 41 so at least I\u2019m on the positive side now.\u201d With his win, Smith took the points lead from Herrera, who finished third in the quad behind Gadson and ahead of Johnson. After two races, Smith leads No. 1 qualifier Herrera, with Richard Gadson third, Chase Van Sant\u2019s WAR Suzuki fourth, Angie Smith fifth, Suzuki rider Kelly Clontz sixth, a tie between Marc Ingwersen\u2019s Buell and Steve Johnson\u2019s Suzuki, Evaristo and Hall completing the top 10.<\/p>\n

The third four-wide battle takes place this fall at zMAX Dragway during the Countdown to the Championship, but in the meantime, the troops return to two-across competition May 15-18, with the 25th annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, IL outside Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are now five NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series contests in the books; 15 more remain before champions are crowned at the season finale.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":100649,"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":[6606,424,1336,8745,621,423,9474,80,8365,9740,9966,7,81,800],"class_list":["post-100648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-austin-prock","tag-brittany-force","tag-connie-kalitta","tag-dallas-glenn","tag-don-garlits","tag-john-force-racing","tag-kb-titan-racing","tag-matt-smith","tag-matt-smith-racing","tag-mission-2fast2tasty-challenge","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-shawn-langdon","tag-zmax-dragway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Prock-Langdon-Glenn-Smith-exult-in-Winners-Circle-min-e1745879104495.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-qbm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100648","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=100648"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100662,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100648\/revisions\/100662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}