Photos by William Swanson
Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Route 66 Nationals outside of Chicago.
1. SMITH WINS AND LOSES IN PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE FINAL – Any way you sliced it, a Smith was both the winner and loser in Sunday’s Pro Stock Motorcycle final.
For only the second time in their combined PSM careers, Angie Smith met husband Matt Smith in the event’s determining final round – the first time was at New Hampshire in 2014 when she was victorious.
It may have taken 12 years, but Matt avenged that ’14 loss. Even though diamonds are supposed to be a girl’s best friend, it was Matt who took home the diamond Wally winner’s trophy Sunday with a time of 6.835 seconds at 185.41 mph.
But he was somber about the way it happened.
As the couple got to the starting line and performed their burnouts, something apparently broke in Angie’s bike. And when the go light came on, Matt motored down-track for the win, while Angie sat, stuck at the starting line, without any ability to move forward.
“For all the rumors out there probably starting, I’m not getting a divorce,” Matt quipped when introduced at the post-race press conference. “She hurt her transmission in the semifinals. We got back and it was broke. We rushed to [put in a new trans]. We only had a 20-minute turnaround. So we got the tranny out, put another tranny in. Everything was great.
“For some reason, when it went to go get it in the water, I saw her struggling over there to get it into gear. She did a burnout, but after the burnout, there was no gear – no first and no third.”
Angie Smith had set the pace from Friday’s first round of qualifying. Her husband said she had the strongest bike in the field.
“I feel so bad for her, I mean, this was her race,” Matt said. “She was low of every round until the final. And it’s frustrating because I had the best bike last race and she had the best bike this race. I feel so bad for her. But it’s coming. I told her, ‘Keep your head up because you have the fastest bike here this weekend.’ Everybody knows that. So she’s leaving here with the best E.T. this weekend, the top speed this weekend. And she got runner-up.”
In addition to being her husband and teammate, Matt is also Angie’s crew chief. When they got to the starting line, he knew something was wrong with her bike.
“That’s kind of why I didn’t start up because I saw her struggling with getting the bike in gear,” Matt said. “But once she fired and I saw her bike do the burnout, then we cranked up because I thought everything was fine.”
Matt then said something that shocked several reporters.
“You know, if her bike wouldn’t have done the burnout or something was wrong, I wouldn’t have started up,” Matt said. “[NHRA] could have kicked both of us out because it wouldn’t matter at that time. I wanted a fair race, a good race.”
But with the upcoming week off, Matt will tear his wife’s bike apart, and he’s confident she can duplicate the type of performance shown at Route 66.
“She’ll get it in Maryland,” he said. “I feel confident that we will get things under control for her bike and get it back. Like I said, everybody here knows that she has the best bike. I’ve got faith. I think she’ll get it back next race. We’re coming, again, guns a-blazing.”
Matt suffered a slight injury on his winning run. A wind gust pushed him into the retaining wall, denting his steel-toed left boot and scraping the color off it, as well as scraping his leg through his firesuit.
“It’s not the track’s fault, it’s just the wind,” Matt said. “Everybody knows this is called the Windy City for a reason. And when you have a side wind like that, anything over 20 miles-an- hour, it’s dangerous for motorcycles. And when you have gusts 35 and 36 miles-an-hour like we were seeing, that’s dangerous.”
While Matt racked up the 44th win of his career, the six-time champ and his wife both would rather have seen Angie earn her fourth career win.
“This one sucks,” Angie said. “I had the dominant bike all day. Man it was so fast. I just let the clutch out and there was nothing there. This one really sucks.”
Defending PSM champ Richard Gadson remains atop the points standings: 1. Richard Gadson, 393; 2. Matt Smith, 349; 3. Gaige Herrera, 324; 4. Angie Smith, 301; 5. John Hall, 260; 6. Clayton Howey, 234; 7. Chase Van Sant, 230; 8. Ryan Oehler, 186; 9. Brayden Davis, 179; t10. [tie] Jianna Evaristo, Steve Johnson, 168.
2. LANGDON’S DREAM SEASON CONTINUES – There have been six NHRA national events thus far this season, and as of late Sunday afternoon, Kalitta Motorsports’ Shawn Langdon has won half of those.
“It’s been a dream season with a dream team,” Langdon said after claiming his third diamond Wally winner’s trophy and second in a row. He won the previous event, held at South Georgia Motorsports Park, two weeks ago.
After struggling in Friday’s qualifying and stacking up 14th, Langdon was able to climb to the No. 9 qualifying spot Saturday. He then roared through Sunday’s four elimination rounds, starting by defeating his teammate, two-time and defending Top Fuel champ Doug Kalitta, in the first round.
“Having to run Doug in the 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,” Langdon said. “And then from there it was just a little bit tricky.”
The semifinal match with Josh Hart was pivotal for Langdon. He managed to get past Hart to put him in the 58th final round of his career. Meanwhile, longtime friend and competitor Antron Brown reached the finals over Leah Pruett, who shook the tires at around the 330-foot mark and was forced to shut down.
In the final-round match with Brown, Langdon went 3.775 seconds at 335.90 mph, while Brown spun his tires, finishing with an effort of 4.225, 206.48.
“We’ve been great friends for a long time, talk on the phone all the time, share a lot of information,” Langdon said of his relationship with Brown. “It’s always a good race in Antron. You know it’s always going to be a good race – a good, straight-up race. You know what you’re going to get over there, and they’ve got a good car, so you know you’ve got to make a good run.”
It was the 25th career win for Langdon, a native of Danville, Ind., about 175 miles southeast of Joliet, Ill. He also extended his lead in the Top Fuel points standings, topping second-ranked Kalitta by 54 points: (1. Shawn Langdon, 594; 2. Doug Kalitta, 540; 3. Leah Pruett, 429; 4. Tony Stewart, 388; 5. Josh Hart, 376; 6. Maddi Gordon, 358; 7. Antron Brown, 313; 8. Justin Ashley, 311; 9. Billy Torrence, 282; 10. Clay Millican, 252).
Even with an upcoming week off, Langdon is confident he can keep the momentum going.
“The sport just goes in waves, and you’ve got to capitalize when you can and your car’s running good,” he said. “Fortunately, right now, we’re able to capitalize and just make good runs when we need to and make appropriate runs when we need to as well. All the guys have been doing a great job putting the car together with no mistakes. And Brian [crew chief Husen] has been doing a great job making last-minute calls and putting a great tune-up in the car and not making any mistakes there.”
Langdon is still riding the high of his massive national record 345-mph run in Georgia. That, coupled with his three wins already this season, have Langdon ultra-confident. But he hasn’t forgotten some of the rough times he’s had in his career, particularly how things went south after winning the 2013 Top Fuel championship. That’s something he never wants to repeat.
“A few years ago, we were barely hanging in the top 10 – or we weren’t even in the top 10,” he said somberly. “So it’s just been a nice turnaround the last couple years.”
Being teammates with a two-time champ and now being ahead and more successful than Kalitta thus far this season, Langdon was asked if he’s getting any trash talking yet from Kalitta.
“Doug does not do trash talking, he’s like the nicest guy,” Langdon said. “Sometimes if you kind of throw a little jab, he just kind of gives you a little chuckle and walks off. I’m like, ‘That didn’t work.’ But he did say the other day, he’s like, ‘I need to get in his head,’ so he’s thinking about it. I like that he’s thinking about it.”
Even with a 75th anniversary diamond trophy and a big paycheck from Sunday’s win, Langdon remains humble.
“It’ll be nice to be able to go home tonight and sleep in my own bed, but I’ll probably just start mowing my lawn in the morning,” he quipped.
3. HE’S NOT GREEN WITH ENVY, BUT HE IS GREEN WITH SUCCESS – Chad Green and Ron Capps are in good company thus far this season: Green has joined Capps as the only two-time winners in NHRA Funny Car competition this season after this weekend’s Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals.
Green won the season-opening Gatornationals for the second straight year in early March, defeating Alexis DeJoria. On Sunday, it was a rematch of the Gainesville contest, with Green (3.945 seconds, 324.75 mph) again keeping DeJoria (3.965, 328.86) from winning her first race since Bristol in 2021.
“We didn’t have easy matchups today, that’s for sure,” said Green, who got past Jordan Vandergriff, Capps, reigning Funny Car champ Austin Prock, and DeJoria. “That final against Alexis, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m so worried. Like, is she going to get me back?’
“She’s driving a John Force car, and those cars, that was a dang good race. I never saw her during the race. I thought, oh, when the win light came on, I thought she probably had problems or something. But then I looked at the time slip, and, man, she was right there with me. She even had a good light, left right there with me. So a very close race, a good championship drag race right there.”
Green’s semifinal win over Prock kept the 2025 champ still winless, but it was arguably the best showing for the Tasca Motorsports driver thus far this season.
DeJoria can’t feel all that bad, given that she won Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge.
Green moved up to fourth in the standings, behind the first-place duo of J.R. Todd and Capps. (t1., Ron Capps, J.R. Todd, 468; 3. Matt Hagan, 459; 4. Chad Green, 443; 5. Jordan Vandergriff, 416; 6. Alexis DeJoria, 389; 7. Spencer Hyde, 312; 8. Jack Beckman, 311; 9. Daniel Wilkerson, 233; 10. Dave Richards, 222).
Sunday’s win was a great way to end the weekend for the Texas native, made even sweeter because it was also the birthday weekend for both he and his daughter.
After his win in last season’s opener at Gainesville, Green struggled at times until they got back on the upswing when the Countdown to the Championship began. Now that he has two wins in the first six races, he wants to keep the momentum and avoid another downturn like last year.
“I think our car is in a good spot right now,” Green said. “We’ve had a good car for several races. We’ve qualified good in every race [although] this race we didn’t qualify as good as we have been. But, no, I’m feeling really good about the car.”
Now that he’s in the top four in the standings and is one of only two multi-race winners thus far this season, Green was asked whether he may be one of the best-kept secrets in the NHRA right now.
“I hope that’s the case,” Green smiled. “I think we’re getting people’s attention. And definitely to come out here and win another race, that helps a lot.”
4. AARON STANFIELD HOPES FIRST PRO STOCK WIN IN NEARLY TWO YEARS IS A SIGN OF BETTER THINGS TO COME – Aaron Stanfield was obviously happy to win the Pro Stock class Sunday at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals, his first victory since 2024.
But in a way, it’s also a blessing in disguise: his father Greg may have to hit Aaron up for some cash to help pay for dad’s race car, which caught fire after Aaron beat him in a semifinal match.
Even though his father faced misfortune, Aaron had good fortune. In the final round, Aaron was an underdog to defending Pro Stock champ Greg Anderson. But as the Christmas tree counted down to start the race, Anderson uncharacteristically red-lit, giving Aaron [6.595 seconds, 208.46 mph] an easy win and a diamond Wally trophy.
“I saw the red light,” Stanfield said. “This team has been waiting for this one for a long time. We thought we were going to get it at South Georgia. This goes to all the hard work, it’s special and I’m just glad to be back in victory circle. Whoo!”
Not only was this Stanfield’s 15th career win, it was also the first Pro Stock win for his team, Elite Motorsports, since last year’s U.S. Nationals (not counting Tony Stewart’s Top Fuel win at Pomona last month).
“Our team’s definitely been waiting on this moment for a pretty good while,” Stanfield said. “The best feeling you can get out here is 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 kind of roll my way in that final round.”
While he saw Anderson’s red light, Stanfield would have rather seen a regular head-to-head race and not have a gimme.
“You definitely want to have a good, clean race, but, you’ve got to take them how you can get them,” he said. “I think luck kind of rolled our way there in the final round. We haven’t had much luck here lately, at least with my hot rod. And it just all came together today. And it goes to all the hard work and all the boys at Elite Motorsports. It’s been pretty brutal the past year and a half. So I can say for Elite Motorsports, this is a special win.”
Whether Sunday’s win will help turn things around for Elite’s Pro Stock program remains to be seen, but Stanfield is optimistic that’s the case.
“You’re only as good as your last race, so we’ve got to keep our head down and keep grinding,” Stanfield said. “We’ve definitely made some performance gains. I still think we’ve got some work to do, but it’s definitely a huge step in the right direction.”
The win moves Aaron up to sixth in the standings, with the points as follows after the event: 1. Dallas Glenn, 528; 2. Greg Anderson, 499; 3. Greg Stanfield, 399; 4. Matt Hartford, 376; 5. Erica Enders, 368; 6. Aaron Stanfield, 345; 7. Matt Latino, 344; 8. Cody Coughlin, 289; 9. Jeg Coughlin, 286; 10. Troy Coughlin Jr., 253.
“We’ve got some very competitive guys on our team and they take it very personal when we’re not doing well. So I do think it’s going to kind of let everybody take a breath and maybe some light at the end of the tunnel and just a step in the right direction.”
The biggest thing Stanfield hopes to avoid is a repeat of his last win, the 2024 U.S. Nationals.
“In 2024, we got very close to winning a championship and just came up short right there at the last race,” he said. “And we went an entire year and we’re a good ways into the season this year without winning one race.
“So it definitely feels good and it’s definitely a weight lifted off. Being really, really competitive and being in a spot to win a championship to fighting for a round win. It definitely feels good to turn that last win light on today.”
5. ANTRON BROWN CALLS OUT MADDI GORDON … BUT IN A GOOD WAY! – Antron Brown is definitely a Maddi Gordon fan.
Brown defeated Gordon in a quarterfinal battle in Sunday’s eliminations of the Gerber Glass & Collision Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, Ill. In his top-end TV interview, Brown was absolutely effusive about Gordon and the energy she brings to the sport, anointing her as a budding “superstar in the making.”
Brown talked more about Gordon and her bubbly persona than how he beat her in their duel at Route 66 Raceway, saying her personality has more energy behind it than if she gulped down a can of Monster Energy drink.
A curious Gordon was nearby and kept creeping closer to Brown to hear what he had to say on-camera, especially if he had anything to say about her.
When the interview was over, Gordon immediately popped up in her usual excited fashion and quipped, “Thank you, guys!”
6. UH, SON, WHERE’S THE FAMILY LOYALTY? – In Sunday’s first round of Funny Car eliminations, No. 1 seed Jack Beckman squared off with No. 16 seed and Chicago-based part-time Funny Car driver and full-time Chicago Fire Department lieutenant Chris King.
Beckman easily beat King, and in an ironic twist, it was Jason Beckman, Jack’s son, who designed the paint scheme on King’s Funny Car.
Unfortunately for the elder Beckman, who was No. 1 qualifier for both this year’s and last year’s race in Chicago, his triumph over King would be the last win of the day for the John Force Racing driver. Beckman smoked his tires in the quarterfinal match versus four-time NHRA Funny Car champ and rival Matt Hagan in the second round.
7. KRISTA BALDWIN CAME SO CLOSE TO A CAREER BEST AND THE BIGGEST UPSET OF HER CAREER, BUT ULTIMATELY NOT QUITE – On a weekend when NHRA honored Top Fuel driver Krista Baldwin’s grandfather, former Top Fuel driver Chris Karamesines, as “Legend of the Weekend” to mark the sport’s 75th anniversary season, Baldwin gave it her all to pay tribute to her grandpa in her own way.
First, Baldwin came to Route 66 with a special paint scheme honoring Karamesines on her Brownsburg, Ind.-based dragster. Then, between Friday’s two qualifying sessions, Baldwin appeared on TV with a faux mustache to commemorate the longtime cookie duster on his face.
In Sunday’s first round of final eliminations between Baldwin and NHRA rookie sensation Maddi Gordon, Baldwin appeared to be headed toward the best run of her Top Fuel career. She was leading at the 330-foot mark and was on track to run the 1,000-foot surface strongly in the 3.70-second range, which she said “would have been the fastest [and quickest] I’ve ever run.”
But Baldwin’s dragster lost traction at the 330-foot mark and Gordon cashed in, driving around her to capture the round win and earning a second-round match against four-time NHRA Top Fuel champ Antron Brown.
Even though Brown greatly respects Gordon’s talent and ability, and said so on NHRA.TV, he wasn’t about to give her an easy time in their quarterfinal match. He easily won to advance to the semifinals.
8. HERRERA’S WINDY CITY SUPREMACY ENDS … AND IRONICALLY WIND PLAYED A PART IN IT – In each of the first three times he’s raced at his home dragstrip, Route 66 Raceway, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Gaige Herrera has returned to his DeMotte, Ind., home – roughly 75 miles away from Route 66 in Joliet, Ill. — with a Wally winner’s trophy.
Herrera came back to Route 66 this weekend seeking his fourth straight win there – and more importantly, his second overall win of the 2026 season. Herrera won a few weeks ago in the four-wide event at Charlotte.
Unfortunately, the 35-year-old Herrera came up short in both instances Sunday, losing to six-time PSM champ Matt Smith’s 6.832 at 197.57 mph. Herrera got caught up in some strong crosswinds that prompted him to shut off early for fear he might lose control of his bike, and he finished with a run of 8.170, 114.54.
After climbing off his bike, Herrera told NHRA.TV that he questioned whether bikes should have been running in winds that were gusting above 30 mph.
9 – MENHOLT STOPS THE REVOLVING DOOR IN PRO MOD – Through four races of the 2026 JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod season, nobody had managed to separate from the pack. Different winners, changing storylines, and shifting momentum had become the norm. Derek Menholt changed that script Sunday at Route 66 Raceway.
Menholt became the first repeat winner of the season by driving around Jason Collins in the final round at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals, adding a Chicago victory to the season opener he captured in Gainesville. More importantly, he climbed back into the points lead with only one regular-season event remaining.
For a class that has made a habit of spreading success around, Menholt put together the kind of weekend championship contenders eventually need. He qualified No. 1 with a 5.667-second run at 250.92 mph, then backed it up when eliminations began.
His road wasn’t built against light competition, either.
Menholt had to work through Alex Laughlin, defending champion J.R. Gray, and Justin Bond before reaching the championship round. Bond entered the weekend among the points leaders.
The final round looked immediately like it could swing Collins’ way.
Collins fired first with a near-perfect .004-second reaction time, but trouble developed quickly and Menholt capitalized. His .012 reaction time, paired with a 5.692 at 250.23, proved more than enough to secure his third career NHRA Pro Mod victory.
The win also snapped the recent run of first-time or one-off winners that had defined the season’s early stretch.
Collins, meanwhile, continued making noise despite the loss. Racing in only his third NHRA Pro Mod event, he reached his second consecutive final round after winning in Valdosta and advancing past Kevin Rivenbark, Mike Stavrinos, and Billy Banaka in Chicago.
Menholt understands the standings may say points leader, but nobody in Pro Mod is under the illusion that breathing room exists.
“It’s going to be a battle all the way to the end,” Menholt said. “Jason has made a big run in the past three races and there’s going to be a lot of guys coming for us, but this one feels good.”
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – MOTHER NATURE RELENTS AND FATE DELIVERS MUCH NEEDED RELIEF
1 – FINALLY … A WIN – Since joining John Force Racing, Alexis DeJoria has looked like a driver on the edge of breaking through. Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty victory may not carry the same weight as a Sunday trophy, but after spending the early part of the season watching opportunities slip away, she wasn’t about to apologize for taking a win however it arrived.
The final round barely had a chance to become a race.
Jordan Vandergriff’s Cornwell Tools Funny Car developed clutch issues before he could stage, ending his day before it started. DeJoria’s car shook the tires and clicked off almost immediately, coasting to an 8.301-second pass at 82.43 mph.
Nobody was rushing to frame the time slip. The scoreboard still said winner, and that was enough.
“Yeah, finally back in a winner’s area, whatever you want to call it, but just back to winning, it’s good,” DeJoria said. “It came at the cost of my teammate and it was a lackluster final, but we got the ‘W’ and that’s all that matters and it went to a JFR car. So, that’s great.”
There wasn’t much surprise in her voice afterward. The circumstances caught her off guard. The result did not.
“I just had a feeling we were going to win it,” DeJoria said. “I just knew in my heart; it was one of those things. I didn’t expect it to end like that, but I had a good feeling about it.”
DeJoria admitted she thought the victories would have started arriving much sooner.
“I thought after our first race going to the finals, I thought for sure by the next race we were going to win,” she said. “I just felt it. It was just time.”
The Funny Car class has a way of humbling people quickly. Drivers can do everything right and still find themselves chasing conditions, fighting tire shake or wondering where a race weekend slipped away.
“We’ve had a little ups and downs,” DeJoria said. “Some of the tracks have been a little tricky and trying to figure out how to get the car down the racetrack the best way possible.”
For DeJoria, joining John Force Racing has also brought something every racer values — confidence in the equipment underneath them.
“Consistent wise, yes, definitely,” DeJoria said. “I definitely feel a little bit more confident coming in on a JFR car, honestly. Just the fleet of cars and the amount of information that they have, and the wins and just everything that they have at their fingertips, it’s incredible.”
There have been signs all season. A runner-up finish, strong qualifying efforts and stretches where the car looked capable of making rounds on a Sunday.
DeJoria believes the waiting part is ending.
“You can go out here and not win one race, but if you keep going rounds and you keep getting your points up there, you’ll finish strong,” DeJoria said. “But I don’t want to do it like that. We want to win. We want to win multiple races and I know we’re going to do it. It’s just a matter of time.”
2 – NEEDED THIS ONE – Erica Enders has spent too much of this season looking for something that rarely seems to leave her for long.
The six-time Pro Stock champion looked more like herself Saturday at Route 66 Raceway, collecting her first Mission #2Fast2Tasty victory of the season one day after earning her first No. 1 qualifying position in nearly two years. Enders defeated teammate Greg Stanfield in the #2Fast2Tasty finale with a 6.563-second pass at 208.75 mph and suddenly heads into Sunday carrying something that had been missing for much of the early season — momentum.
For a driver who built a career by turning pressure into trophies, the first stretch of 2026 looked unfamiliar. Enders has spent years making front-half appearances on qualifying sheets and late-round appearances on Sundays feel routine.
Now she sits one day away from a chance at career victory No. 50 at the same racetrack where she earned her first Pro Stock victory in 2012.
“It’s super exciting. I love racing here at Joliet,” Enders said. “I started racing Super Comp dragsters here back when I was in high school, so I’ve been coming here an awful long time.”
Enders believes the weekend may be turning into something larger than one good qualifying effort.
“It would be fitting if this was where the tide started to turn and it has so far this weekend, securing the No. 1 spot and then winning the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty deal,” Enders said. “Tomorrow’s the day that matters and I really, really want one of those diamond Wallys.”
Alexis DeJoria also picked up her first Mission victory of the season, although her route looked a little unusual. John Force Racing teammate Jordan Vandergriff developed clutch issues before staging, while DeJoria shook the tires and clicked off her own run almost immediately.
The elapsed time wasn’t memorable, but the win light still came on.
“I’m finally back in a winner’s circle, and that’s good even though it came at the cost of my teammate, and it was a lackluster final,” DeJoria said. “We got the ‘W’ and that’s all that matters.”
In Top Fuel, Shawn Langdon collected his first Mission victory of the season by defeating Justin Ashley with a 3.770-second run at 336.57 mph after spending much of the weekend trying to settle down his race car.
Gaige Herrera earned his second Mission victory of the year in Pro Stock Motorcycle, using a .024-second reaction time to edge Angie Smith, who Herrera opined may still have the motorcycle everybody else is chasing entering eliminations Sunday.
3 – LEADERBOARD REMAINS UNCHANGED – Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Jack Beckman (Funny Car) remain the drivers to beat in their respective classes heading into Sunday’s final eliminations of the Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, Ill.
For the second straight year in the Windy City, Kalitta and Beckman repeated as the No. 1 qualifiers at Route 66. Beckman took that effort all the way to the win in last year’s race at Route 66, but Kalitta fell short, something he hopes to correct Sunday.
Kalitta has high hopes of earning his second win of the season, having previously won the four-wide race in Charlotte, while Beckman is still searching for his first victory of the year.
Kalitta earned top qualifying honors during Friday’s qualifying session with a time of 3.720 seconds at 338.17 mph and carried it through Saturday.
“Obviously, we got No. 1 qualifier today and I think tomorrow’s going to be a good day for racing so we’ll just see what it’s got for us,” Kalitta said. “[Friday’s session] was interesting because everybody was one-upping one another, and it got down to us. And as a driver, you’re sitting there going, ‘Man, I sure hope we can pull this off.’ You try to stage real shallow because it gives you the best ET out of it.”
And that’s exactly what happened for Kalitta. Heading into Sunday, he has an added bonus: There are only 15 dragsters in the field, which means he has a first-round bye that automatically puts him into the quarterfinals.
With the first-round bye, Kalitta will meet the winner of the first-round matchup between Sean Reed and Kalitta Motorsports teammate Shawn Langdon, who set a new NHRA speed record with a massive run of 345.00 mph two weeks ago at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, Ga.
While Reed has the potential to upset Langdon in the opening elimination round, Kalitta Motorsports fans are likely champing at the bit to see Kalitta and Langdon square off in Round 2.
“Obviously, Langdon did an incredible run the other day in South Georgia with a new mile-per-hour record, and we applaud all these speeds, but at the end of the day, the E.T. is what matters,” Kalitta said. “That is how you get the No. 1 qualifier.”
As for meeting Langdon on Sunday “We’ll just have to see how it goes. Our two cars at our shop are in the same area, so it’s bragging rights, too, for the guys. Obviously, everybody’s trying to win these things and so, yeah, looking forward to whoever we got, for sure, just as long as you keep turning that win light on.”
As for Beckman, whose Funny Car qualifying effort Friday of 3.913 seconds held up Saturday, he’ll square off in Sunday’s first elimination round against No. 16 qualifier Chris King, who ran 4.142.
“I really thought the weather was going to be way worse today than yesterday,” Beckman said. “I thought nobody was going to have a shot at a hot racetrack to run better than we ran yesterday. And then the clouds started coming in. I’m like, ‘Oh, well the silver lining is we can run better. The downside is that so can everybody else.’”
Beckman will be happy if he can leave Chicago the same way he did after last year’s race there – as the Funny Car winner, which would be his first win of 2026.
“I think we’re getting our Peak Chevy back,” Beckman said. “I think we’re trying to get that tuneup zone, that margin of error as wide as can be because a year ago at this point, even when we missed it, we were a top-three car, and that margin had narrowed a little bit. Hopefully we’re kind of widening the margins again.”
Beckman heads into Sunday eighth in the Funny Car points, a position that leaves him uncomfortable.
“Anybody that doesn’t count points doesn’t know math or is lying to you,” he said. “Yeah, we’re eighth, and eighth is not where our team should be. So you look at the points and see seventh. A good race weekend and we’ll easily get to seventh, closer to sixth. The problem is as we’ve been stumbling, the top four cars have been going rounds and rounds and rounds. It makes it even harder to catch them at this point.”
In Pro Stock, Erica Enders earned her first No. 1 qualifier of the year with a run of 6.542 seconds. She’ll square off in Sunday’s first round against No. 16 Derrick Reese [11.055 seconds].
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Angie Smith maintained her stranglehold on the top qualifying spot she earned Friday with a run of 6.726 seconds. Like Kalitta in Top Fuel, Smith will also have a first-round bye Sunday, which means she’ll meet either No. 8 Clayton Howey [6.823] or No. 9 Chase Van Sant [6.832].
4 – MR. SPEED – Josh Hart made the ninth 340 mph run in drag racing history, running 341.25 in the final qualifying session. His run marked the fastest he’s ever been behind the wheel of a race car.
When Hart pulled the parachutes, he knew he’d been on a fast run.
“I was clapping the whole way during the shutdown,” Hart said. “I’ve been smiling. We’ve struggled the last couple of races, but you can’t ever lose confidence in your guys and I have not. John Collins, David Grubnic, they’re amazing. We communicate excellent. All the guys, they’ve been doing a mechanical wonder with this machine. So, just got to keep picking at it and getting the driver more comfortable. Everybody’s gelling together properly.”
Hart’s crew chief David Grubnic was fine with the 341 but would have been happier with a quicker elapsed time.
“I would rather have seen the .72, to be honest,” Grubnic admitted. “It’s there, it looked like it got a little loose out there. We’ll look at the data and see if it’s raceable for tomorrow, but we’ll take it.”
5 – OPAH! HONORING THE GREEK – To celebrate its 75th anniversary this year, the NHRA has a program called Legend of the Weekend, where it honors greats who played a major role in building the sport over the years at each of this season’s 20 races.
For this weekend’s Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, Ill., there was no question or doubt that NHRA would honor one man in particular – the legendary “Greek,” better known as Chris Karamesines.
The lifelong Chicago resident was one of the pioneers that allowed NHRA to become the premier drag racing sanctioning body. Both in NHRA competition as well as several decades of barnstorming at dragstrips across the U.S. and Canada, Karamesines was one of the greatest and most successful racers in the business, primarily in Top Fuel.
His success spawned others to follow in his footsteps. For example, fellow legend Don “Snake” Prudhomme has long credited “The Greek” as one of his biggest influences on his career and said he “helped me become the legend that I became.”
While Karamesines’ best racing days are behind him, the now-94-year-old icon is still spry and has a great recollection of his seven-decade career.
“I raced for 70 years,” Karamesines told CompetitionPlus.com on Saturday morning, shortly before he received a ceremonial diamond-encrusted plaque from NHRA honoring him and his outstanding career. “We have a lot of friends and fans still around the country. It’s humbling to have good people that watch you all the time.”
Karamesines said he was humbled when NHRA reached out to him to let him know he was going to be honored this weekend.
“It was nice to have them do it here,” Karamesines said. “I appreciated that. And plus, my granddaughter [Top Fuel driver Krista Baldwin] wanted to race here … so I thought I’d be here with her and give her encouragement.”
Although Karamesines has long been good-naturedly coy about exactly how old he is, NHRA says he’s 94 years old. His last race was five years ago, at the age of 89, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“I miss the racing,” he admitted, “but I don’t miss the travel.”
But looking at him Saturday, with the exception of a cane he uses for balance, Karamesines could easily pass for somebody 30 years younger. He still has a full head of wavy white hair, his eyes are still 20/20 and if he could, he’d love to still climb back behind the wheel of his dragster. He now leaves that to his granddaughter, whose car is decked out for the weekend with a paint scheme designed to honor his legacy.
In one of the more touching and also humorous moments of the weekend, Krista donned a fake mustache to emulate her grandfather’s cookie duster after Friday’s qualifying attempts while being interviewed on NHRA.TV.
Karamesines doesn’t work on cars anymore, but he does give advice to his granddaughter and others who ask him for it. He appreciates that there are countless fans who still reach out to him, either in person or via the mail, asking for autographs and photos, and even old-time hero cards.
Fans in attendance Saturday gave Karamesines a long round of applause when he was honored by NHRA, with several also giving him a standing ovation and calling out the Greek word “Opa!”, which translated into English means “Hooray” or “Cheers.”
6 – KEEPING THE FANS ENGAGED – Elon Werner has spent much of his career helping NHRA racers and teams tell their stories. Now one of his own ideas has developed into a story that continues to grow with every race weekend.
What started as a simple thought became Drag Racing Bracket Bonanza, a fan-engagement game that debuted at the 2023 U.S. Nationals and has quickly become part of the race-week routine for thousands of NHRA followers.
“This is the third full season and it’s growing every race,” Werner told CompetitionPlus.com on Saturday at Route 66 Raceway. “We have great sponsors like PEAK involved, and we’re working to get more sponsors.”
The concept was born from Werner’s love of sports and years of filling out March Madness brackets. He looked at drag racing and saw a natural fit.
“I’m a huge sports fan, so I always do my March Madness bracket,” Werner said. “Our sport is just inherently set up with the brackets, like March Madness. For like two years, I just talked about, ‘Man, we should really have some kind of bracket game.’”
Eventually Werner stopped talking and started building.
Working with Aiden Lamkin and Lamkin Software Solutions, Werner launched a beta version before unveiling the game at the U.S. Nationals. Testing started with a handful of players before rapidly expanding.
“We started with like 10 people, and then 30 people,” Werner said. “I probably had a hundred people really trying to break it and find bugs to make sure it was ready to go.”
The response surprised Werner.
Players now participate from across the United States as well as countries including the Philippines, Australia and throughout Europe. Drivers, crew chiefs, media members and race fans have all jumped in, creating weekly conversations and strategy debates around picks.
Werner said one of the biggest rewards is hearing how the game has created another connection point for families and fans.
“Every race I’m at, fans come up to me and say, ‘Hey, I’m playing Bracket Bonanza, I’m playing with my dad or mom, we talk about the race and go through our picks,’” Werner said.
For Werner, that was always the point.
“All this is good for the sport,” Werner said. “The sport’s been so good to me, you want to give something back to the fans to play, and that’s really been the whole impetus for it.”
7 – WHAT IS A PINNED PARACHUTE INFRACTION? – Drag racing is a sport of details, but Friday afternoon, a key detail was overlooked on the Cornwell Quality Tools Funny Car driven by Jordan Vandergriff.
Thrashing between sessions just to get the Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car to the staging lanes, someone forgot to remove the safety-pin resembling safety device from one of the parachutes. The move rendered one of the parachutes undeployable.
“We had a mad thrash between Q1 and Q2,” Vandergriff said. “We found little oil pressure in our engine during the warmup so we had to swap engines and we really thrashed. This was the Cornwell Tools team’s first real test in a situation like that, and we succeeded in that we ran in 3.94. We didn’t even warm the engine up. We just took it to the starting line and ran it but, unfortunately, we were DQ’d because we left a parachute pin in. It was a learning experience that we’ll take into [Saturday] and regroup.”
The snafu dropped Vandergriff initially to 15th, but he moved up to 14th with Justin Shrief’s Q2 run disqualification.
8 – A FREE SELLOUT – T.J. Zizzo sold out Saturday, and not a single person had to spend a dime.
The longtime Top Fuel driver ran out of pancakes during his annual Nitro Hotcakes breakfast, proving one of the most popular attractions at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals isn’t always attached to an 11,000-horsepower race car. The giveaway breakfast that started years ago as a thank-you to media members has grown into a fan tradition that now empties batter containers seemingly as fast Zizzo empties a fuel tank.
For one morning each year, Zizzo parks the race car and steps behind a grill. The butterfly steering wheel gets replaced by a spatula, and the driver preparing to wrestle a Top Fuel machine down a drag strip becomes the guy making sure fans start the day with breakfast and a laugh.
There are autograph sessions all over the pit area. There are sponsor displays and merchandise trailers and polished race cars drawing attention from every direction.
Then there is Zizzo standing over a hot grill before most people have finished their first cup of coffee.
“Sold out today, my man. Sold out early,” Zizzo said. “The pancake deal, it’s the most important thing we do this weekend, right? It’s not going down the racetrack. We do it for the fans. We do it for the fans that get here bright and early in the morning. We make sure they’re fed, happy and ready for their day.”
For a sport built on numbers, this one tells the story without needing a scoreboard.
The griddles were still warm, but the pancakes were gone.
“We went through so much batter and so much material that we ran out,” Zizzo said. “It was amazing. Went through … about four and a half to five gallons of batter today. I think it was five gallons. Might be a touch over.”
No shortcuts are involved. The batter gets mixed by hand, the grills are on before daylight, and an operation that appears casual from the outside takes planning long before race weekend arrives.
When asked whether there was some family secret behind the recipe, Zizzo shut that down quickly.
“No, it’s not Grandma’s recipe,” Zizzo said. “No, she knows how to make pasta, not pancakes.”
The breakfast itself has become as much reunion as meal. Regulars return every year. Helpers appear before sunrise and fall into place like members of a pit crew preparing for race day.
“Matter of fact, we had help today. [Funny Car racer] Chris King helped us out,” Zizzo said. “We always have a guy named Shirtless Moe help us out here. Shirtless Moe is a legend. Everyone knows him in the pit area. He’s a riot. He helps us out. He comes in from Iowa.”
Naturally, one question had to be asked.
“Yeah. No, not shirtless,” Zizzo laughed. “Come on now. We try to keep it clean.”
The breakfast has also grown beyond what Zizzo originally intended. He started the tradition with one audience in mind and discovered another audience had quietly claimed ownership of it.
“I’m going to actually narrow it down,” Zizzo said. “Some fan asked me to say, ‘How long you’ve been doing this?’ Because I’ve been doing this for 10 years coming to see your pancakes ago. Yeah, it’s probably a decade – a decade or more.”
That may be the part that says the most. Nobody remembers exactly how many gallons of batter disappeared. Nobody seems interested in calculating pounds of mix or bottles of syrup.
People remember showing up.
And that is probably why Zizzo keeps doing it.
“I started out doing it for the media and then I said, ‘You know what? Let’s do it for the fans.’”
8B – SCHUMACHER’S FISH STORY – Eight-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher had a fishy tale to tell between qualifying rounds Saturday in the Gerber Glass & Collision Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, Ill.
Although he now lives in Austin, Texas, Schumacher grew up in the Windy City suburbs, so he feels right at home around Route 66.
When he arrived at the track Thursday, Schumacher and his wife decided to take their motorcycle for a spin around the grounds. Ever since Route 66 opened in 1998, it’s had a small lake in front of the staging lanes where racers have long brought their rods and reels with them to get a little R&R and lessen some of the pressure they’re going to experience over the weekend.
As the Schumachers tooled around on their two-wheeler, they saw a number of their drag racing buddies, including fellow married couple and Pro Stock Motorcycle riders Matt and Angie Smith, along with Funny Car driver (and well-known chef away from the racetrack) Austin Prock casting their rods into the pond – maybe even for dinner that evening.
“We were like, ‘Wait a minute,’” Schumacher told CompetitionPlus.com. “I went back, got my fly rod and tossed it in a while. My wife goes, ‘Try this one [lure].’ She gave me a little magnetic, real cute little silver fish with one little hook.
“I tossed it through the weeds, and, bam, I reeled in a nice bass. Now, it wasn’t the biggest bass I’ve ever seen, but you still had a bass on a fly rod. Not bad.”
When asked to estimate the size of his catch, Schumacher quipped, ‘Oh, I guess about a pound and a half, nothing big. It was just this big but it was cute.
“When you’re on a fly rod, it feels like you’re fighting a shark. You know what I mean? It’s just awesome. So it was a good time.”
In a sense, Schumacher had mixed feelings, not so much about the fish, but the bittersweet schedule conflict of the race weekend. Still, he tried to make the best of it.
“It was one of those days where I was in a mood because my middle son was graduating from college this weekend and here I am, I’m missing it,” Tony said. “I’ve been doing this a long time and you can’t take a chance with a flight on Friday morning. So I came out, son was graduating, I figured I’d toss a line in, and, well, it’s the first win I got this season.”
9 – PRO MOD GRUDGE RACING – Saturday afternoon qualifying in NHRA Pro Modified had a little extra money – and a lot more pride – riding on it.
With both cars already safely in the field and the drivers looking to improve their positions, Derek Menholt and Lyle Barnett decided to bring some old-school grudge-racing mentality to Q3 at Route 66 Raceway. The two racers quietly put $1,000 on the line, turning a normal qualifying pass into something with a little extra meaning.
For many racers in Pro Modified, grudge racing isn’t foreign territory. It is part of the culture many grew up around before coming to NHRA competition. Side bets, bragging rights and proving who has the quicker hot rod often meant as much as the time slip itself.
Both drivers entered the session among the quickest cars in the field. Menholt sat fourth while Barnett occupied the second spot, making the timing perfect for a little side action.
Barnett handled business quickly, winning by a 5.69, 254.04, to 5.714, 250.18 margin. He left first and never looked back to collect the $1,000. The pass also continued a remarkable string of consistency, giving Barnett three consecutive runs in the 5.69-second range.
“Mama needed some new shoes, so I figured I’d bet my old buddy Derek Menholt $1,000 on the side there to see if I could stop by the Nike store on the way home,” Barnett joked afterward.
Barnett then shifted from comedy to his bigger point about putting on a show for race fans.
“Just trying to mix it up out here,” Barnett said. “I’d love to see some of the Top Fuel and Funny Car guys do this. Grudge race a little bit. Give the fans something to be excited about. Make them pick a freaking side. And if they don’t pick yours, prove them why they should.”
Barnett left with the money.
The fans probably left with something worth even more — a reminder of where Pro Modified’s roots still live.
10 – BECKMAN’S UNSUNG HEROES – Jack Beckman has a profound respect for the demands a crew chief faces.
That statement carries a little more weight coming from someone who straps into a 330-mph Funny Car for a living. Beckman understands pressure, understands risk and understands what happens when everything unfolds at a violent pace in a matter of seconds. Yet when the conversation turned toward who has the toughest job in motorsports, he didn’t point toward the driver’s seat.
He pointed toward the crew chiefs back in the pits preparing for Sunday’s eliminations.
“It’s not an emotional thing,” Beckman said. “I think that the hardest job in all of motorsports is being a nitro crew chief because even if you nail it, the second-best run of the weekend could lose.”
Then Beckman kept going.
“How frustrating would that be to make the second-quickest run the entire weekend and you could still get beat?” he said. “And if you win, you got to come back and do it three more times. And they are juggling constantly varying weather, racetrack, lanes, and to try to keep up on all that and make your best guess on how much will this racetrack hold and what do I need to stay ahead of that car in the other lane?”
The challenge becomes even larger in an era where race teams are swimming in information.
Crew chiefs spend weekends staring at screens filled with weather data, driveshaft graphs and calculations that determine everything from clutch application to ignition timing and nitro percentage. Beckman described it as a world where a person’s head could suffer brain cramps trying to process it all.
“Tim Fabrizi and Dan Hood, like you’re looking at all these graphs, you’re looking at the weather station, you’re looking at your horsepower number and there’s all these numbers up there,” Beckman said. “Your head could explode at some point, and you have to go through all that stuff and make something make sense for your clutch flows, your timers, your ignition timing map, your blower overdrive, your nitro percentage, your compression ratio, and all of it has to work right.”
For anyone assuming the driver becomes heavily involved in those decisions, Beckman quickly laughed that idea away.
“No, I would say like on a scale of 1 to 10, a 1 is pretty accurate,” Beckman said. “No, I have no input in the tune-up data, nor would I expect to.”
That doesn’t mean he stays silent.
Beckman sees his role as providing another set of senses, another perspective from inside the cockpit. Computers can read driveshaft speed and data traces. They can’t always feel what the driver feels.
“So there are times, we look at a driveshaft graph. We look at marks on the racetrack,” Beckman said. “I feel it in my cockpit there, and a lot of times what I feel exactly matches the graph and it doesn’t match what looks on the racetrack.”
Then came the line that probably says as much about modern nitro racing as anything else.
“So that computer doesn’t tell you every single thing,” Beckman said. “So I’ll offer that input, whether they take it on a tuneup or not.”
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – BECKMAN SHINES, KALITTA PROVIDES THE USUAL
1 – LIKE A DUCK ON THE POND – What a difference 363 days can make.
Last year at Route 66 Raceway, Jack Beckman walked into the media center Sunday afternoon carrying a trophy and talking about survival. On Friday night, he walked back into the same room after securing the provisional No. 1 spot and admitted the only thing really under control during his quicker Funny Car run was the fact he somehow kept car off the wall.
The timing system showed Beckman’s 3.913-second run at 329.99 mph was the class leader at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals. Beckman described the experience more like wrestling a chainsaw on roller skates.
“Scary,” Beckman said. “There’s a bump out there [at], like, 500 feet, and we were pushing a little bit early. So the tires would kind of spin, hook, spin, hook, spin, hook. We always have [what] sounds oxymoronic, but controlled tire spin, right? The tires have to slip some to let the clutch do its job.
“And it was just a handful because a lot of times when it starts pushing hard, the front end gets light, and you’re giving it some steering input and it’s not responding – and then by the time it sets the front end down, it goes in a different direction.”
It looked so calm from the outside, but inside the cockpit, Beckman said the car was moving around enough that there was never a moment to relax.
“So it was entertaining,” Beckman said. “I hope everybody in the stands was half as entertained as I was. I do my best at about 750 foot – get my hand over by the chute lever at 800 foot, push it. Takes a while for it to come out. There was no way I was letting go of the steering wheel with either hand on that run.”
Chicago already occupies a strange place in Beckman’s recent history. One year ago, he qualified No. 1 and won the race, but the veteran driver made it clear Friday that the storybook ending almost never happened.
“That sounds like, ‘Oh, my God, they came in, they dominated, made it look easy,’” Beckman said. “It was everything but easy.
“We went up for Q4, the car wouldn’t even start. We took it back to the pits, we figured it out. We put it back together Sunday morning, the car wouldn’t start. Second time Sunday, car wouldn’t start – three different reasons.”
Beckman then unpacked the kind of Sunday morning most race teams pray never hits all at once — a broken airline, a failed priming bottle, and an ignition-grid problem. Somehow the PEAK team still pieced together enough runs to win the race.
That grind has carried into 2026. Beckman said Friday the team still hasn’t put together what he considers a complete race weekend despite flashes of speed earlier this season.
Friday night looked closer to what the team expects from itself. Beckman credited crew chiefs Dan Hood and Tim Fabrizi, along with the John Force Racing crew, for producing two clean runs and putting the car in position to attack again Saturday instead of chasing the field.
“That was not luck today,” Beckman said. “That was great calls by Dan Hood and Tim Fabrizi. That was eight mechanics doing every single thing correctly on that car and me going out there not screwing up their job.”
Ron Capps was very close behind with a 3.916 at 330.31, while Cruz Pedregon qualified third at 3.920. Points leader J.R. Todd ended Friday in fourth.
2 – IT’S KALITTA, USUALLY – Another race, another provisional No. 1 qualifier for Doug Kalitta.
The defending NHRA Top Fuel champ ended Friday’s first of two days of qualifying for the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill, on top.
Kalitta led the 15-car field with a Q2 effort of 3.720 seconds at a very stout 338.17 mph, the fastest run of the day at the suburban Chicago track.
“I was super happy,” Kalitta said with a smile on his face, giving credit to tuner Alan Johnson, who displayed his own look of satisfaction at the starting line after the run. “The car stayed nice and true, and then towards the end it kind of moved around a little bit, but I was really hoping that we could pull off a good run and glad we did.”
In a sense, Kalitta traded qualifying positions with rookie sensation Maddi Gordon, who was tops after the first qualifying session. But when Q2 was over, they switched spots and Kalitta was king of the Top Fuel hill.
The weather forecast for Saturday predicts temperatures in the high 70s or low 80s, a bit warmer than Friday, and that will likely cause crew chiefs to rethink their strategy for the final two qualifying runs of the weekend.
“I have to admit all these crew chiefs, they’re all dialed in with whatever the conditions end up being, and this track, it seems like it’s held up well,” Kalitta said. “The first session, it’s always a little bit tricky because you know you’re not sure how much grip is on the track.
“Usually there isn’t a lot, but usually come the second run it’s usually pretty good. This is a cool place to run and it’s close to home and we’re just got a lot of our friends from Michigan here and whatnot, so … we’re just happy that we have a good run in.”
If Kalitta’s Friday run holds up as No. 1 after Saturday’s final two rounds of qualifying, he’ll be rewarded with a bye run in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations.
“That was a good start for us on a Friday,” Kalitta said. “We’ll see how we can hold up for tomorrow.”
After dropping from first in Q1 to seventh after most of the other drivers made their Q2 efforts, Gordon bounced back to claim the No. 2 spot with a strong 3.738 run at 334.90 mph.
Billy Torrence (3.746, 336.32 mph) grabbed the provisional No. 3 spot, followed by the husband-wife combo of Tony Stewart (3.754) and Leah Pruett (3.756), respectively.
There were two major surprises in qualifying – one good and one not so good.
The good surprise was Chicago native and part-time Top Fuel racer TJ Zizzo, who qualified in the No. 7 spot at 3.774 at 331.61.
On the other end of the spectrum was Kalitta’s teammate, Shawn Langdon, was 13th in the 15-driver field, unable to do any better than 3.846 seconds at 153.14 mph.
3 – NOT CELEBRATING YET – Erica Enders was parked at the top of the Pro Stock qualifying sheet Friday at Route 66 Raceway, but the six-time NHRA champion wasn’t about to throw a celebration party over one good day.
Enders drove her Elite Motorsports entry to a 6.542-second pass at 209.92 mph to lead qualifying for the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals. Teammates Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Greg Stanfield followed, while reigning world champion Greg Anderson was perched in fourth.
For most teams, it would have sounded like a breakthrough. Enders said she didn’t sound as optimistic.
“It’s definitely a good feeling,” Enders said. “I’m obviously surprised that we stayed No. 1, but I honestly don’t think that we’re fast. I think [the others are] slow.”
That blunt take came from a driver who has spent the last season and a half battling one of the toughest stretches of her Pro Stock career. Elite Motorsports has struggled to consistently keep pace with KB Titan Racing since the category’s fuel changes sent teams scrambling for answers.
The 2025 season “was extremely rough for our entire organization and ’26 hasn’t started off on the right foot, either,” Enders said. “But we’ve been working really hard and it’s about tenacity and not giving up and just keep plugging away at it.”
Enders said Pro Stock’s cyclical nature has always created swings in performance between teams. She referenced earlier eras featuring Warren and Kurt Johnson, V. Gaines B. Gaines and Mike Edwards as examples of how quickly the balance of power can shift.
“The peaks are followed by really deep valleys,” Enders said. “You have teams that are at the top and then it cycles, and the other teams work really hard and they catch up.”
Part of Elite’s recent frustration, according to Enders, has been chasing performance gains that appeared promising on the dyno but failed to materialize on race day.
“You go down these rabbit holes and you start grasping at straws and you end up changing your entire program,” Enders said. “Sometimes you don’t leave enough breadcrumbs to figure out where you came from.”
Despite the top qualifying spot, Enders insisted the team still has significant work ahead. She described Pro Stock as “competitive problem solving,” where one setup change often creates three more issues.
Still, Friday represented one of Elite Motorsports’ strongest collective performances in months. Even Enders admitted seeing multiple Elite cars near the top of the board mattered emotionally for a team that has spent months searching for momentum.
“I am excited,” Enders said. “We’ll keep battling, I promise.”
Chicago also remains one of the most meaningful tracks of Enders’ career. Route 66 Raceway was the site of her first NHRA national event victory in Pro Stock in 2012, a breakthrough win that came against Greg Anderson.
“Bob Glidden called my phone,” Enders recalled of that victory. “I’ll never forget it. That was so cool because he was my hero and a legend.”
4 – IT IS THE WINDY CITY, AFTER ALL – Angie Smith left Route 66 Raceway on Friday with the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot in Pro Stock Motorcycle, but the bigger accomplishment may have been simply keeping her motorcycle pointed straight down the racetrack.
Blustery conditions whipped across the suburban Chicago facility throughout qualifying for the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals, creating one of the trickiest racing surfaces many riders have faced this season. Gusts shifted direction quickly, pushing motorcycles from side to side and forcing several riders to abandon runs before they swerved into serious trouble.
Smith handled it better than anyone else.
The rider of the Buell 1190RX led the field with a 6.738-second pass at 200.17 mph. Defending class champion Richard Gadson qualified second at 6.778, while Gaige Herrera followed closely at 6.784.
Even with the top spot, Smith admitted the conditions demanded patience and restraint more than aggression.
“I think it’s real important to know where you are on the racetrack,” Smith said. “If the bike ever gets out of control, you need to pull the clutch in. It’s qualifying, and you’re not going to set a world record going what I call ‘around town’ – going back and forth and right to left on the track.”
Friday’s first qualifying session proved manageable compared to the second round, where the wind intensified and turned several motorcycles into handfuls. Riders drifted across lanes, flirted with the guardwalls and crossed center lines trying to keep control at nearly 200 mph.
“The fast runs are the straight runs,” Smith said. “So for me, when I mentally prepare, I just remind myself that I’ve done this a ton of times, and I always know that if I ever get in trouble, that I’ll pull the clutch in and I’ll quit. I will quit before I get myself in any trouble.”
Unlike Top Fuel or Funny Car, Pro Stock Motorcycle riders absorb every movement of the motorcycle directly through the handlebars and chassis. When the wind shifts abruptly, riders often have only fractions of a second to react.
Smith said her team made adjustments designed specifically to help the bike fight through the crosswinds.
“Wind is a very critical factor in Pro Stock Motorcycle,” Smith explained. “The only thing that we did do is we put some rear axle, which I think in a car is called rear steer.”
The adjustment helped stabilize the motorcycle when gusts tried to push it left across the lane.
“When we leave the starting line, if you have your axle perfectly straight, it’s just going to go straight,” Smith said. “But if you have wind, it’s going to go left. So you do all the things that you need to do to make it drive right.”
5 – THE COMPELLING QUESTION – So, is someone going to sleep on the sofa tonight?
Tony Stewart twice got the better of wife Leah Pruett during Friday’s two rounds of Top Fuel qualifying in the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Joliet, Ill. Stewart ended up with the No. 4 provisional qualifying spot, while Pruett was right behind in fifth.
Still, hubby and wifey faced off on both qualifying runs. In Q1, Stewart bested his spouse with a time of 3.811 seconds at a stout 334.40 mph, while Pruett smoked the tires and struggled to an effort of 4.691 seconds at 159.61 mph.
In Q2, Pruett roared back, but Stewart still came out on top: Stewart covered the 1,000-foot drag strip real estate with a run of 3.754 seconds at 327.82 mph, while Pruett recorded a slightly slower run of 3.756 seconds at 335.15.
5B – LESSON LEARNED – Jordan Vandergriff learned an important lesson moments after winning his first NHRA Funny Car title: Celebration runs look a lot shorter from inside the race car.
After defeating the field at the NHRA Southern Nationals, Vandergriff climbed from his John Force Racing Cornwell Quality Tools Funny Car and started jogging from the top end back toward the starting line, channeling memories of his uncle, former Top Fuel racer Bob Vandergriff Jr., who became famous for his own victory sprints years ago.
About halfway through, reality set in.
“Honestly, the first of, I would say about 100 feet I was going pretty good,” Vandergriff said Friday at Route 66 Raceway. “I felt like I had a good stride to my step, and then all of a sudden when I started realizing I had my boots on still and my breath started getting heavier, I was like, ‘Uh-oh, this is a little longer than I thought.’”
The problem was simple. Vandergriff had driven too far down the shutdown area before stopping, creating a much longer run back than he anticipated.
“And I wasn’t even close to the finish line yet,” Vandergriff said. “So I was like, ‘Uh-oh, this is going to be long, but I’m committed now so I’ve got to make it all the way.’”
Fortunately, his uncle intercepted him before the rookie Funny Car winner completely emptied the tank.
“When my uncle met me on the track, I was like, ‘Okay, now I can stop running right here,’” Vandergriff said. “I remember he goes, ‘You going to run the rest of the way?’ And I was like, ‘Nope, we’ll do the interview right here.’”
The week after his breakthrough victory has been a balancing act between appreciating the accomplishment and preparing for the next race. Vandergriff said the first NHRA Wally trophy quickly became the centerpiece of his apartment.
“I took it in,” Vandergriff said. “I hung out with Wally a lot. I gave him his own little place in my apartment, and he’s got his hat and his medal and he’s chilling.”
Still, Vandergriff understands one win is only the beginning.
“I know that my first win was a big accomplishment of mine,” Vandergriff said. “But in the grand scheme of things, this John Force Racing Cornwell Quality Tools team, that’s one win of hopefully many this year.”
6 – GADSON GIVES BACK – Richard Gadson has become one of the fastest-rising stars in NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle, but the reigning class champion insists his biggest victories happen away from the starting line.
The rider of the RevZilla/Mission/Vance & Hines Suzuki arrived at Route 66 Raceway riding the momentum of a Gainesville victory and runner-up finishes at Charlotte and Valdosta. Yet Friday in suburban Chicago, Gadson spent as much time talking about mentorship and responsibility as he did reaction times and championship pressure.
“My father passed when I was six years old, so my mom signed me up for it,” Gadson said of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. “She was a single mom and sometimes a woman can’t raise a man, so the [Big Brother] kind of helped fill in for that role.”
Gadson credits the organization and his longtime mentor, Jason Peck, for helping shape his life long before he became a national champion. The two remain close friends, something Gadson believes proves the lasting impact the program can create.
“Me and my big brother are still friends to this day,” Gadson said. “It’s a mentorship program. Anybody can sign up for it. I encourage anybody to sign up.”
The Philadelphia native said Peck exposed him to experiences he otherwise may never have encountered growing up.
“Jason was somebody who was like, ‘Hey, I know you could go around the corner of the park and shoot basketball, but why don’t we go to a national park? Why don’t we go to an air show? Why don’t we go to a Sixers game, Eagles game?’” Gadson said. “He expanded my horizons, if you will.”
Now 40 years old and living in Brownsburg, Ind., Gadson is trying to provide those same opportunities to others. He estimates he has already mentored more than 40 children through local outreach and NHRA race weekend experiences.
One recent interaction at the Charlotte race still makes him laugh.
“I met a kid in Charlotte this year, she was just a little girl,” Gadson said. “She might have been eight years old and she said to me, ‘Hey, you’re going to win, and when you win, can you split the money with me? I’m broke.’ I thought she was the cutest thing.”
7 – THIS ONE’S FOR GRANDPA – Krista Baldwin has been looking forward to this weekend for nearly eight months.
The only female team owner in Top Fuel, the Lizton, Ind., resident is excited to be making her 2026 season debut at her home away from home, Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.
Baldwin has been coming to the horseshoe-shaped drag racing facility since it opened in 1998, when she was just four years old, cheering on her grandfather, Top Fuel icon Chris Karamesines.
Baldwin is still cheering for the 94-year-old Karamesines – and that’s what makes this weekend extra special for Krista. Her grandfather is being honored by NHRA as the “Legend of the Race,” part of this year’s 75th anniversary of the sanctioning body, where numerous former greats of drag racing are honored at each of the season’s 20 races.
“It’s a dream come true to be here,” Baldwin told CompetitionPlus.com on Friday morning. “I mean to be able to honor my grandpa at such a cool racetrack, in his hometown and all his friends and buddies and family are all out here. I’m just excited that we get to celebrate ‘The Greek’ and honor the legend of the weekend.”
Baldwin’s last race was back in September at an IHRA event near Columbus, Ohio. She’s spent a lot of time during the offseason prepping her dragster for a strong debut this weekend – and that her grandfather is being honored is the cherry on top.
From Route 66, she plans on returning to Columbus for the IHRA event next month, and attend the U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend. There’s a chance she will tackle another couple of events this year.
Although her shop is based three hours away in Brownsburg, Ind., Baldwin always looks forward to returning to Route 66.
“I mean, sweet home Chicago,” she said with a big smile. “This is like my second hometown and I love it. I’ve been coming here since the facility opened back in ’98, and so just to be able to continue the legacy here in the Chicagoland, I’m very proud to be here.”
Baldwin has Redline Oil supporting her effort this weekend.
“They partnered with me to get this Greek throwback [paint] scheme on the car,” she said. “I would not be here without them, so I’m super thankful for them. I’m also thankful for Ron Douglas coming onboard with Doug Wilson to tune the car this weekend and I think it’s gonna be fun. It’s a new era of KBR, and I’m ready to hit the gas this afternoon.”
While Karamesines is not working on the car, he did make a special request of his granddaughter: “He did say he wanted to warm it up. I told him, ‘You can come down anytime you want.’”
8 – THE PRO MOD LOGJAM – Parity has become the defining theme of the 2026 JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by Elite Motorsports.
As the category competes this weekend at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway, there have been four winners in four races, creating one of the tightest championship battles in NHRA competition.
The Chicago race marks the fifth of 11 events this season and the final stop before the series transitions toward the five-race “Road to the Championship” playoffs. With no driver establishing clear control, every qualifying round and elimination pass has carried added weight.
Derek Menholt opened the year by earning the second victory of his career, while Justin Bond added another win to move into the points lead. Mike Stavrinos followed with a victory, continuing the season-long trend of rotating winners and constant movement in the standings.
The latest breakthrough came from Jason Collins, who captured his first career NHRA Pro Mod victory at South Georgia Motorsports Park in only his second start in the category. Collins immediately became another serious factor in a class already filled with proven winners and championship-caliber teams.
That depth is evident throughout this weekend’s field. Defending Chicago winner Mason Wright returns after sweeping last year’s event after qualifying No. 1. Reigning champion J.R. Gray continues to search for his first win of 2026 following last season’s dominant title run.
Veterans including Stevie Jackson, Lyle Barnett, and Stan Shelton remain firmly in contention as the class continues proving there is no easy path to victory in Pro Mod this season.
9 – KEEPING THE FAITH – Most sponsorship announcements in motorsports sound the same after a while. New logo, new partner, a few quotes about exposure and impressions, then everybody heads to the racetrack.
Rick Ware Racing took a different approach this week.
The organization announced a partnership with Museum of the Bible that will place branding on Clay Millican’s Top Fuel dragster during the Route 66 NHRA Nationals. The deal also stretches into another motorsports series, but the drag racing side could prove to be more effective because NHRA fans tend to support companies and causes they see investing in the sport.
That matters in nitro racing. Fans walk the pits, meet the drivers and remember who is helping keep the trailers coming to the races.
Rick Ware said the agreement came from something more personal than a standard business arrangement.
“Our motorsports platform gives us an opportunity to reach a lot of people, and partnering with Museum of the Bible allows us to share something that’s important to our family – our faith,” Ware said. “Museum of the Bible does an incredible job of making history engaging and accessible, and if we can help introduce it to a younger audience and encourage people to experience it for themselves, that’s meaningful to us.”
The museum opened in Washington, D.C., in 2017 and has spent years trying to market itself less like a traditional museum and more like an interactive experience built around history and culture. That approach lines up naturally with motorsports, where fan engagement tends to work better when people can touch, hear, and experience something instead of simply reading about it.
Clay Millican gives the partnership a recognizable face inside NHRA circles. Few drivers spend more time around fans than the Tennessee native, and his blue-collar background has made him one of Top Fuel’s most approachable personalities.
The program also extends beyond decals on a race car.
“We wanted this partnership to go beyond what people see on the racetrack,” Ware said. “Our family is committed to producing diecast replicas of the Museum of the Bible car and apparel tied to this program, with proceeds helping Museum of the Bible distribute Books of John to people around the world, free of charge. It’s a way for us to use racing to support something that can have a lasting impact.”
10 – WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING INDEXES – Cali Neff didn’t just lead Competition Eliminator qualifying Friday at Route 66 Raceway, she did it with a combination that makes old-school Ford racers smile and engine builders take notice.
Neff drove her A/ED dragster to a 6.456-second run, landing her .804 under the index to pace the category. What made the run stand apart wasn’t simply the number on the scoreboard, but what produced it.
Her dragster relies on factory Ford cylinder heads and a factory Ford block, backed by a single 1500-cfm four-barrel carburetor, a two-speed PowerGlide transmission and gasoline in the tank. In an era where Competition Eliminator combinations can become highly specialized and expensive science projects, Neff’s package leaned heavily on traditional hot rod fundamentals.
That combination proved more than enough Friday.
David Dupps qualified second in C/EA at .726 under the index, while Travis Gusso landed third in D/A at .651 under. Troy Galbraith and Patrick Nahan rounded out the top five.
