The top-five teams in Friday night’s sessions solidified themselves on Saturday at zMAX Dragway, as two NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series championship contenders claimed the top spots for the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.
TOP FUEL
Defending race winner Shawn Langdon’s Friday night run of 3.674 at 339.19mph could not be beat by the competition on Saturday. The Kalitta Air Careers Top Fuel Dragster team claimed their second No. 1 Qualifier award of the season, the first coming at the Arizona Nationals. He’ll pursue back-to-back victories at the Charlotte-area track.
Leah Pruett claimed second for Dodge and Tony Stewart Racing Nitro. Defending champion Doug Kalitta holding steady at third for MAC Tools and Kalitta Motorsports. Josh Hart remained fourth for HendrickCars.com and John Force Racing, and Billy Torrence completed the top-five for CAPCO Contractors and Torrence Motorsports.
Langdon will be joined by Dan Mercier, Spencer Massey, and Jasmine Salinas in his first round quad. Hart and Torrence will be sandwiched between the Tonys of Schumacher and Stewart. Pruett takes on Ida Zetterström, Will Smith, and Justin Ashley, who has continued his run of sub-0.040-second reaction times. Kalitta is in the final grouping that includes Maddi Gordon, Antron Brown, and Clay Millican.
Millican piloted the Parts Plus Rick Ware Racing dragster to the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory in Top Fuel. Millican’s 3.832 at 325.14mph had him in front of the competition by 0.037 seconds. This is his second career #2Fast2Tasty victory, the first coming at Bristol in 2024.
FUNNY CAR
Ron Capps is now a two-time No. 1 qualifier in 2026, as the NAPA Toyota showed serious pace all the way through the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. The Ron Capps Motorsports team blitzed the boards on Friday night with a 3.883 at 333.91mph, and added two more 320+mph runs on Saturday to punctuate the efforts.
Jordan Vandergriff may be a rookie in Funny Car, but he showed veteran talent during four rounds of qualifying. Not only did he run the second-best time of the weekend of 3.889 at 328.7mph, but the Cornwell Quality Tools Chevrolet took home the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge trophy. His Q4 run of 3.933 at 325.85mph and 0.067-second reaction time clinched a double-holeshot win for the JFR team.
Matt Hagan held on to the third for Dodge and TSR Nitro, J.R. Todd sits fourth in the DHL Kalitta Toyota, and Alexis DeJoria joined her JFR teammate in the top-five in the Bandero Chevy.
Capps lines up against two-time defending champion Austin Prock, whose Tasca Racing Ford has yet to reach the end of the track at full speed after four rounds. They are joined by Chad Green and Spencer Hyde. Todd and DeJoria face off against Jeff Arend and Hunter Green. Vandergriff joins Jeff Diehl, Dave Richards, and Daniel Wilkerson. The final group includes Hagan, John Smith, Jack Beckman and Cruz Pedregon.
