Photos by Ron Lewis, NHRA
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – LANGDON STILL HOLDS THE TOP SPOT, BECKMAN FLIES AND A NEW PRO STOCK RECORD
1 – JACK IS THE DALLAS STAR – Jack Beckman had already secured the top spot in Funny Car qualifying at the Texas NHRA FallNationals, but he wasn’t finished making a statement. His final qualifying run Saturday at Texas Motorplex might have been more valuable than the one that put him No. 1.
Beckman’s 3.852-second run at 330.13 mph Friday night held up for his fourth No. 1 qualifier of the 2026 NHRA season. On Saturday, he followed with a 3.855 at 337.13 mph on a 105-degree racing surface, giving his John Force Racing team something it could put to work Sunday.
The difference was in the weather conditions. Friday night’s run came under the lights, while Saturday’s closing effort showed the PEAK Chevrolet SS could deliver when the track wasn’t nearly as receptive.
“Today’s run on a 105-degree racetrack, pound for pound, was the run of the weekend,” Beckman said. “Today’s run is outstanding, and it probably gives us data for two of the four runs tomorrow. I thought somebody could run an .86 on that last qualifying session. I thought a perfect run would be that, and Dan [Hood] and Tim [Fabrisi, crew chiefs] exceeded that. I just think that was an amazing run relative to conditions.”
The performance couldn’t have come at a better time for Beckman, who is trying to work his way back into the championship fight. With points leader Matt Hagan continuing to deliver, Beckman needs more than a strong qualifying effort to close the gap.
Hagan qualified second with a 3.855 at 334.80 mph, while Cruz Pedregon secured third with his Friday run of 3.855 at 323.83 mph. The three drivers were separated by just three-thousandths of a second, leaving little room for mistakes when eliminations begin.
Beckman opens against No. 16 Terry Haddock, seeking his third victory of the season and second career win at Texas Motorplex. The veteran understands that winning rounds won’t necessarily be enough if Hagan continues advancing alongside him.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position where we have to depend on [points leader Matt Hagan] going out early and that’s always a difficult situation,” Beckman said. “Now Austin [Prock] had a first-round loss in the Countdown. We’ve had a first-round loss in the Countdown. I’m going to talk to Matt and try to convince him he needs one or two first-round losses in the Countdown because if they don’t do that, we’re going to have a tough time getting around them.”
2 – STILL CAN’T CATCH HIM – They had two more shots at Shawn Langdon on Saturday at Texas Motorplex. Nobody could get the job done.
Langdon’s career-best 3.648-second blast at 340.39 mph from Friday remained untouched through the final two qualifying sessions of the NHRA Texas FallNationals, giving the Kalitta Motorsports driver his eighth No. 1 qualifying position of 2026 and 30th of his career.
And while the rest of the Top Fuel field spent Saturday trying to catch him, Langdon was already working on the next assignment. He’s chasing a fifth consecutive victory and a perfect 4-for-4 start to the Countdown to the Championship.
Langdon wasn’t content to ride Friday’s performance into Sunday, either. His 12,000-horsepower Kalitta Air dragster delivered another strong run during Saturday’s opening session, providing additional information for a team that has made winning look routine during the playoffs.
“We’ve had a good car all weekend, so now we know where we’re at,” Langdon said. “It’s going to be a little bit warmer tomorrow, but with similar conditions we feel very confident with what we have. There’ll be some good racing tomorrow, so that’s definitely going to be a big challenge.”
The competition isn’t exactly rolling over. Tony Stewart qualified second with a 3.668-second run at 343.70 mph, while defending event winner Doug Kalitta matched Stewart’s elapsed time at a slower 338.80 mph to secure the third position.
Those numbers suggest Langdon won’t have much room for error once eliminations begin. But if the opening three races of the Countdown have established anything, it’s that beating Langdon requires more than merely running alongside him.
Langdon opens Sunday’s eliminations against Jake Sanders, who will attempt to pull off an upset against the championship points leader. Sanders faces a driver whose confidence is backed by one of the most consistent combinations in Top Fuel.
“Having eight No. 1 qualifiers is nice, but it’s good to have a good running car,” Langdon said. “It gives you a lot of confidence going into Sunday. At the end of the day, we’re just trying to keep it as simple as possible and just keep doing what we’re doing. Our goal is to win the race and if there are some good stats that follow, then great. But we’re not trying to look too far ahead.”
3 – THE KILLER BEES ADD ANOTHER TITLE – Six championships together, and the Bartone Bros. Racing operation still hasn’t figured out how to take its foot off the gas. Sean Bellemeur, team owner Tony Bartone, and tuner Steve Boggs have another NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car championship to their credit, and they’re not finished collecting trophies in 2026.
The championship was secured following Bellemeur’s victory over Phil Esz in the delayed U.S. 131 Motorsports Park national event, completed last weekend at Texas Motorplex. The victory put the finishing touches on another dominant season for the team known throughout the alcohol racing ranks as the Killer B’s.
The championship is the sixth for the Bartone-owned operation with Bellemeur behind the wheel and Boggs calling the tuning shots. Their latest title came through a season that included two different race cars and eight event victories.
Those wins came at the Gatornationals, Baby Gators regional event, zMAX Dragway Four-Wide Nationals, Route 66 Raceway, Maryland International Raceway, the Norwalk regional event, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, and the delayed U.S. 131 Motorsports Park finale.
For Bellemeur, the championship belongs as much to the people surrounding him as it does to the driver collecting the hardware. He credits Bartone’s leadership and Boggs’ tuning expertise for keeping the operation among the best in the category.
“This championship ranks right at the top with our five others,” Bellemeur said. “This all starts with Tony Bartone. His whole organization, his mentoring and enthusiasm for the sport of drag racing is what drives this team. Steve Boggs, an International Hall of Fame tuner, does an incredible job every weekend.
“We ran two different cars this season, but that didn’t faze this team one bit. The crew of Nick Stoms, Justin Taylor, Garrett Bateman, Brian Gawlik, Lauren McMaster and Matt Krebs are driven and get this hot rod down the track every pass.
“Our sponsors and partners — special mention to Park Miller, Red Line Synthetic Oil, Roger Dean Chevrolet, Talon Air, LLC, NGK Spark Plugs, GetSpeed, McLeod Racing and Taylor Motorsports Products — make it all possible.
“To wrap up this championship in Dallas with the great Red Line Synthetic Oil folks here on property is really special. We look forward to showing the racing world what their products can do.
“We have nine Diamond Wallys, including the championship trophy, and we are not done yet!”
4 – JOHNSON, BELLEMEUR, TAYLOR TOP JEGS WINNERS – The invitation-only Jegs Allstars event features top performers from NHRA’s seven geographic divisions and Top Alcohol regional competition, with racers earning their spots through season-long performances.
Melanie Johnson made the most of her opportunity in Top Alcohol Dragster, winning her first Allstars title in her first final-round appearance. Johnson used a .036-second reaction time and a 5.218-second pass at 278.90 mph to defeat Jackie Fricke, whose quicker 5.211 at 270.09 wasn’t enough to overcome the starting-line difference.
Sean Bellemeur continued his Allstars success in Top Alcohol Funny Car, collecting his third career victory with a 5.392 at 270.71 mph against Chris Foster. Bellemeur’s .062 reaction time gave him the early advantage, and he never surrendered it.
Jeff Taylor added a fifth career Allstars victory in Competition Eliminator, defeating Glen Treadwell with a 6.544 at 193.79 mph. Larry Hodge claimed his second Super Stock title, using a .019 reaction time and a 9.738 to beat Jimmy Hidalgo Jr.
Stock Eliminator went to Jeff Strickland, who collected his second Allstars trophy when Brad Burton fouled with a red-light start. Kyle Secrest earned his first Super Comp title in a double-breakout final against Tom Stalba, winning with an 8.897.
Bo Butner added an Allstars Super Gas victory to his racing résumé, defeating Charlie Stewart by approximately three feet with a 9.928 at 168.81 mph. It was Butner’s first Allstars victory in his second final-round appearance.
J.R. Baxter claimed Top Dragster honors over Dylan Hough, while Michael Chitty earned his first Top Sportsman title by defeating Benji Martin. Kevin Myers completed the winners’ list with his first Super Street Allstars victory, using a .006 reaction time and a 10.909 to beat Logan Diggs.
NHRA’s South Central Division 4 won the team crown while the Central Region won the Top Alcohol crown. – Bobby Bennett
5 – SMOKE SMILIN’ – Tony Stewart earned the No. 2 qualifying position in Top Fuel, and Tony Stewart doesn’t usually enjoy being No. 2 at anything. But with his best efforts of 3.668 seconds and a track speed-record 343.70 mph left him excited to be in the mix in a wild two days of qualifying.
“It’s been a great few days of qualifying. We knew coming in here that there would be potential for records to be broken and history to be made. We got to be part of that for at least a short time,” Stewart said. “The weather has been great, the track has been awesome, and really, these R+L guys have been working their butts off. [Crew chiefs] Mike Green and Joe Barlam are making all the right calls. It’s really a situation where all the pieces are coming together. That 3.668-second run at 334.45 mph is proof of that. Great team, great weather, great track. I’m excited for what’s going to happen on race day.”
6 – CAPPS SURVIVES EXPLOSION – Funny Car owner-driver Ron Capps was planning to return for Saturday’s final qualifying session at the NHRA Texas FallNationals in his back-up car minutes after a massive – and costly – engine explosion at 324.61 mph disintegrated his NAPA Hydraulic Fluid Toyota carbon-fiber body and lifted the rear of the car from the racetrack.
He was unhurt, and soon afterward told FOX Sports’ Amanda Busick he and his crew were preparing to return for the final session. The crew immediately pulled the back-up car from the hauler and began work, as the damaged one sat nearby, its remains looking like some twisted modern sculpture.
The violent engine concussion came with Austin Prock in the opposite lane on the 1,000-foot course at Texas Motorplex. It disintegrated nearly all of the carbon-fiber body and lifted the entire rear of the NAPA Toyota high into the air and carried it that way for about 500 feet, while in-car camera footage showed Capps’s amazingly calm, steady hands steering the chassis arrow-straight and away from the wall.
He exited the car on his own and went straight to the wall to catch his breath.
Soon afterward, Capps – who posted a 3.899-second elapsed time on that ill-fated pass – said as he watched a video replay of the incident, “I was trying to run an .80 [a 3.80 elapsed time], and it started just going left a little bit down there. I wasn’t sure maybe it had a hole out, but it didn’t feel like it did. I hate watching replays like this. It seemed like it was running fine. I didn’t see Austin. Yeah, right before the lights.
“We’ve had issues with the body staying on and the bad accident in Phoenix, the way the front end came down. Yeah, that’s a little worse. But it was one of the biggest concussions I’ve had in a while, and I am shocked it didn’t do more damage,” he said.
As he saw the rear of the car bounce into the air, Capps said, “Oh, my God, look at that. That’ll make the highlight reel. That’s crazy. Obviously, RevChem is a great partner – thanks to our great partners. So all the NAPA people, but Carlyle Tools especially, we got a good group with us, and a lot of friends flew in for this race. I’m sorry to make you nervous like that.”
At the close of qualifying, Capps said he received lots of support following his incident, including Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Katherine Wooten and NAPA execs by text and visits from Jordan Vandergriff, Jack Beckman, Spencer Hyde, “and a bunch of drivers.” He said, “Everybody saw the replay and saw my hands and what I went through. And it’s just … you go through these, and I’ve driven them for 30-something years.
“I want to tell kids – I might post this this week as aspiring kids – ‘Just remember, speeds like that, you don’t want to make any jerky moves or do anything.’ And I guess all that … going through them in the past certainly helped me.”
He said the chassis he used in Q4 is the same one from the accident. “The guys put that back together. We put a new NAPA body on it. So pretty cool to go back out and not even flinch and have that car go that fast and that quick [3.965 seconds, 327.44 mph] in a car that just did what it did two hours ago.”
7 – GLADSTONE TO GET FULLTIME RIDE – Joey Gladstone, who has been filling in for Jianna Evaristo in Pro Stock Motorcycle this fall, will not be a substitute racer next year. RAD Torque Systems has agreed to be his primary sponsor in 2027, and J&A Service will be an associate sponsor, as Gladstone will continue with Matt Smith Racing for the entire schedule.
He’ll ride a championship-worthy Matt Smith Racing (MSR) Buell and said, “Everybody would love to ride an MSR bike, because they consistently fly out there. Matt and Angie are extremely competitive and championship-driven, and their stuff performs. It was an easy decision for me. You see how hard they work and that all of their bikes are consistently fast. I hopped on Jianna’s bike and went my career best. You know that all their stuff, at any given time, is capable of going to the pole. Matt and Angie have had their stuff figured out for two decades now.”
Gladstone’s day job is as a crewman for the 11-time champion-winning KB Titan Racing Pro Stock team, and the color scheme of the motorcycle he rides next year, will match that of good friend and KB Titan’s reigning Pro Stock world champion Dallas Glenn. The conversation to ride a Pro Stock Motorcycle and represent an increasingly strong brand in NHRA drag racing began on the starting line in Seattle this year when Dan Provost — the founder and president of RAD Torque Systems – expressed interest in the program.
“It was really kind of spur of the moment,” Gladstone said. “Dan was like, ‘It was so cool seeing you on the motorcycle riding for Matt. You did really well, and we were rooting for you,’ and then he asked me if it opened up any opportunities for next year. I told him that I’d been talking to Matt and Angie, and there was an opportunity but I would need to come up with some funding. He was like, ‘I’m in.’ We looked back at [Glenn’s car], and I said it would be pretty cool if we had a Pro Stock bike that looked exactly like that car.”
Provost consulted with his partner, Tammy Pigeault, and a short while later, he circled back with Gladstone.
“Dan said, ‘I’ve got good news. I talked to Tammy, and we’re in,'” Gladstone said. “When we talked on the starting line, I thought it would be cool, but you don’t really know if it’s real. When he said it was a go, I was like, ’This is really happening.’ I was pretty-well speechless and very emotional, honestly. It’s a really big deal for somebody to believe in you like that, and to be able to do it with Dal [Glenn] and with Dal’s colors, it’s going to be awesome.
“It was definitely a blessing for me to be able to get on a bike for the second half of the season and really shake the cobwebs off,” he said. “My expectations for next year are just to pick up where I leave off this season. The realistic goals are semifinals and finals, consistently, with the occasional race win. If you do that, you’re in the running – shoot, even if you just make it to the semis every race, you’re pretty much guaranteed a top three. Running the RAD Torque Systems colors and having to fill Dal’s shoes but on a bike, I’m going to be putting some pressure on myself to perform. I’m very grateful, and I’m really excited.”
8 – PRO STOCK RECORD FALLS – Aaron Stanfield matched Greg Anderson’s year-old 6.443-second Pro Stock national elapsed-time record during Saturday qualifying for the NHRA Texas FallNationals.
But Dallas Glenn outdid him by nine-thousandths of a second with a 6.434-second run – the quickest in Pro Stock history.
Glenn came to Texas Motorplex ranked second, 71 points behind leader Greg Stanfield. But the two could meet in the second round of eliminations Sunday. Although Glenn is aware he could pull within 20 points or fewer of Stanfield, he said, “There’s a lot of work to do.”
Glenn will meet Stephen Bell in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations, and Greg Stanfield will have an equally tough test against Jeg Coughlin.
He said, “We have to do our job in the first round, and Greg Stanfield has to do his
job in the first round. There’s potential we could match up in the second round. We’re having a blast.”
Gaige Herrera retained his lead in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class.
9 – HADDOCK IN, OVERCOMES INCIDENT – Terry Haddock, who makes his home at New Braunfels and regards himself “a small team racing against the big boys” and wanting to excel at this race especially for his San Angelo, Texas-based primary sponsor Concho Supply, had a rough Saturday but made the field.
When Haddock came to the starting line for the final qualifying session, he was outside the field of 16 after a tough third session. His parachutes came out late, and his car was on fire.
“Yeah, on Q3, it ran good, but it put a cylinder out,” he said, “And when it puts a cylinder out, it beats on the rod bearings and the main bearings. So it hurt a crankshaft, so we had to change motors after that run, and we got it all back together and took it up there and ran it and it ran 4.03. Real happy.”
He took the No 16 and final spot in the lineup when Chris King failed to qualify.
“Concho Supply has been with us for almost a decade, and we are proud to represent them on our Funny Car and at events across the country,” Haddock said. “Our program has grown and continued to improve every year. We have made big strides this year, and I know our progress on and off the track is directly related to the support from all our sponsors.”
“We are working very hard to be as competitive as possible in the toughest Funny Car class I can remember,” he said. “We want to make quick, fast, and clean runs every time we are on the track. Our team is focused on getting good qualifying positions and making great runs on Sunday. We have an awesome crew.”
10 – DID YOU KNOW? – Funny Car team owner Big Jim Dunn has raced at Texas Motorplex since it opened in 1986, but he competed twice, in 1970 and 1971 – in two different classes – at the NHRA Spring Nationals at the old Dallas International Motor Speedway at Lewisville.
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – LANGDON THUNDERS TO ANOTHER PROVISIONAL WHILE NHRA EXHIBITS WHAT PRO STOCK USED TO BE AND WILL BECOME
1 – IT’S THE LANGDON SHOW, AGAIN – Shawn Langdon is making a habit of giving the Top Fuel competition something to think about before eliminations even begin. On Friday night at Texas Motorplex, he collected $15,000 and delivered the quickest run of the NHRA season for good measure.
The Top Fuel points leader blasted to a career-best 3.648 seconds at 340.39 mph during JEGS Friday Night Live, earning the provisional No. 1 qualifying position and winning the Battle for the Saddle bonus. The performance came as Langdon arrived at the Texas NHRA FallNationals riding a streak of four consecutive national-event victories.
Langdon’s Kalitta Air dragster has been the car to beat throughout the Countdown to the Championship, winning the first three playoff races. His latest performance puts him in position for his eighth No. 1 qualifier of the season and 30th of his career.
And if the rest of the field was hoping Langdon had finally reached the limits of his equipment, his post-run assessment wasn’t particularly encouraging.
“We were actually trying to run a little bit better than that, but in these conditions, you have to have everything perfect to do it — too much, you’ll smoke, and not enough, you’ll shake,” Langdon said. “So it’s a fine line. You have to hit it right, and, fortunately, we were able to.”
The conditions at Texas Motorplex offered the kind of opportunity nitro crew chiefs wait for, and Langdon’s team wasn’t about to waste it. The night-time session also provided a $15,000 incentive for whoever could put together the quickest run.
“I’ve been a big advocate for night runs. I love racing at night and being able to make qualifying runs [under the lights] is awesome,” Langdon said. “Obviously, the track’s good here. You have good conditions. You know with a little bit of incentivized money those things are going to happen.”
Tony Stewart was second with a 3.668 at 343.70 mph, establishing a Texas Motorplex speed record. Defending event winner Doug Kalitta matched Stewart’s elapsed time with a 3.668 at 338.80, leaving Langdon two-hundredths ahead of his closest challengers.
2 – HE’S QUICK JACK ON A FRIDAY NIGHT – Jack Beckman didn’t come to the NHRA Texas FallNationals looking for a consolation prize. But with his championship hopes needing a boost, collecting $16,000 and grabbing the provisional Funny Car pole Friday night wasn’t a bad way to get started.
Beckman drove his John Force Racing PEAK Chevrolet SS to a 3.852-second pass at 330.13 mph during JEGS Friday Night Live at Texas Motorplex, winning the $15,000 Battle for the Saddle bonus and another $1,000 from JEGS. The run also put him in position for his fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season.
The timing couldn’t have been much better for Beckman, who entered the fourth Countdown to the Championship event fourth in the standings. With only three races remaining, including Dallas, he needs to start taking points away from the drivers ahead of him. And the man sitting atop those standings, Matt Hagan, wasn’t far behind Friday night.
Hagan ran 3.855 at 334.80 mph, missing Beckman’s number by three-thousandths of a second. Cruz Pedregon also posted a 3.855, although his 323.83-mph speed left him third in the provisional order.
Beckman had the advantage of getting down the track early enough to establish the number everyone else had to beat. Unfortunately, that also meant sitting through the remaining Funny Cars and hoping nobody found another four-thousandths.
“We were sixth pair, and there’s 10 pairs here with a huge Funny Car turnout here. So we ran well, but then we’ve got to watch eight quality cars behind us, any one of which could have exceeded our run, and Hagan came closest, but nobody exceeded us,” Beckman said. “So, it’s 15 grand from the Texas Motorplex, and then JEGS sweetened the pot with another 1,000 bucks. I just thought that was fantastic.”
The run wasn’t without some work behind the steering wheel. Beckman said the car wanted to move right, forcing him to make corrections while trying not to upset the rear tires.
“We were pushing hard. I could feel it, but I had my hands full,” Beckman said. “The car started going right, and when you’re pushing that hard, any steering input is detrimental to performance, and too much steering input is going to upset the rear tires. So I moved it back into the groove. I thought I did a reasonable job, straightened it out and started going to the right again.”
3 – POINT LEADER STANFIELD LEADS ON A SHORT DAY – Winds gusting in excess of 30 mph forced NHRA to cut Friday’s Pro Stock qualifying at Texas Motorplex to a single session. Greg Stanfield made his one opportunity count, putting his car atop the qualifying order heading into Saturday.
The NHRA Pro Stock points leader drove the Janac Brothers Racing entry from Elite Motorsports to a 6.460-second pass at 212.80 mph, securing the provisional No. 1 qualifying position at the Texas FallNationals. Three qualifying sessions are scheduled for Saturday, including the Battle for the Saddle bonus-money competition.
Stanfield didn’t exactly put much distance between himself and the competition. Troy Coughlin Jr. was right behind him in second with a 6.464 at 212.74 mph, while Greg Anderson held the third position with a 6.468 at 210.51.
Just eight-thousandths of a second separated the top three qualifiers, leaving plenty of opportunity for the order to change Saturday. With three qualifying sessions remaining, Stanfield’s provisional No. 1 position is far from secure.
But Stanfield didn’t get to the top of the standings by worrying about who’s in the other lane. His approach has been to keep the car consistent, avoid mistakes and take whatever qualifying points are available.
“This says a lot for our team. Things are going well for us, and we’re just trying to keep that momentum going,” Stanfield said. “We haven’t made any mistakes, and we’re just trying to build off of that. We did a little testing last week, and we’re working hard to try to keep this thing up front.”
The testing apparently paid off, although Stanfield wasn’t convinced Friday’s run represented everything his team had available. He believed there was another hundredth in the combination, which would have provided considerably more breathing room.
“We felt like we needed to go a .45 to be what I call a ‘perfect pass,’ so there was a little bit left there,” Stanfield said. “We were just trying to pick it apart as best as we can and trying to get those little points.”
4 – GAIGE DOING GAIGE THINGS AGAIN – Gaige Herrera didn’t need much time to show his St. Louis victory wasn’t a one-race turnaround. The two-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion arrived at Texas Motorplex with a renewed title opportunity and promptly put his Suzuki atop the qualifying order.
Herrera covered the quarter-mile in 6.676 seconds at 202.22 mph Friday, earning the provisional No. 1 qualifying position at the NHRA Texas FallNationals. High winds limited the two-wheeled category to one qualifying session, matching the abbreviated schedule for Pro Stock.
Three qualifying sessions are scheduled for Saturday, including the Battle for the Saddle bonus-money competition. If Herrera’s number holds, he will collect his fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season.
The timing couldn’t be much better for Herrera, who entered Dallas just 32 points behind teammate and reigning NHRA champion Richard Gadson.
His St. Louis victory put him back within striking distance in the Countdown to the Championship, and Friday’s performance offered another indication that his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki is responding when he needs it most.
Apparently, crew chief Andrew Hines saw little reason to disturb a combination that was already getting the job done.
“My bike’s been phenomenal lately. I don’t think Andrew [Hines] touched it since St. Louis. He said it was good. He put the cover on it and headed to Dallas,” Herrera said.
That confidence was put to the test Friday as 30-mph wind gusts created difficult conditions at Texas Motorplex. Herrera managed to keep his motorcycle straight and put together the quickest run of the session.
“Today we were battling with the weather and the wind. For me to go up there and go a nice straight run, I was very happy with that,” Herrera said. “I didn’t feel the wind much at all. So we’re off to a good start here in Dallas. This track has been good to me and I hope to keep it going throughout the weekend.”
Herrera wasn’t without company near the top of the qualifying sheet. Matt Smith, another established championship contender, was second with a 6.709 at 201.86 mph, while Angie Smith followed in third at 6.725, 202.28.
5 – NO 350 YET – With the cool temperatures this weekend at this all-concrete dragstrip, many wondered/thought/hoped conditions would produce the first-ever 350-mph pass.
Tony Stewart set the Texas Motorplex speed record at 343.70 mph immediately before Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta pulled to the staging lanes and Langdon reeled off a 340.39 run en route to the provisional No. 1 position. Stewart’s speed was the sixth-fastest ever in the sport’s history, and he already owned No. 8.
But no one hit 350 Friday, and points leader Langdon – the national record-holder at 346.95 mph with his pass at Martin, Mich. – honestly didn’t expect that to happen.
“It’d be difficult,” he said earlier in the week. “I wouldn’t have thought that 346.95 was achievable in the beginning of the year. So with that being said, 350 would be really tough. I mean, there’s always a possibility. I know we’re continuing to work on things to make things quicker and faster, but, yeah, it’d be really tough. There typically has to be big changes. You look at the last couple years, a couple years ago, 340 was getting ticked off in the Funny Cars, but it wasn’t really close in the dragsters. And then Brittany [Force] was doing that. But once we took the side panels off the car, the ‘mud flaps,’ it really changed how these cars ran, and that gave us an opportunity to be able to achieve the speeds that we have now.
“So, without any big changes, you have what you have and there’s things that you can do, tinker with this or that to help things. But we kind of felt like we did a lot of that when we were in Martin. But it’s difficult to do, too, because when the tracks get cold like that, there’s a very small window on making a really good run. But the opportunity could be there.”
Brian Husen, Langdon’s crew chief, has said many times that the win light is more valuable than a shiny number.
“Well, 100 percent,” Langdon said. “It’s kind of like you have the mentality, you have to race to win. Yeah, the numbers are nice, and they give you a little bit of bragging rights, but at the end of the day, how you make your living is off of the win light. So you have to race for the win light, and you have to race or you have to make runs in qualifying to set you up good for race day. So there’s sometimes where you kind of have to reel yourself back a little bit, and sometimes you just need to make appropriate runs to set yourself up for success on Sunday.”
6 – McGAHA GETS LOTS OF SEAT TIME – Mason McGaha knew nothing this week would be easy for him. The Pro Stock racer will have to earn his place in that 16-car field with 19 other rivals. He also competed in the 28-car Comp Eliminator class in his ’25 Chevy Camaro, so he got no break there, either. After driving approximately 500 miles from his Odessa, Texas, home to Ennis to compete in the Division 4 race, he began a week of work behind the wheel.
“I’ll be for seven days at least making a run somewhere,” he said last Sunday.
McGaha qualified fourth and advanced to the third round in Comp Eliminator but lost to eventual winner Chase Williams.
“The Comp deal, it’s always pretty full at this race. Division 4, I feel like, is probably the toughest division. And especially with the All Stars, you got to bring all them guys over and they’re always, me and the All Stars, they’re the good guys from each of those divisions. So there’s always a ton of really good cars at this race for Comp,” he said.
“We did the same thing a year ago – ran the divisional on Monday, Tuesday, and then the national after the divisional; just the whole week of festivities.
And Dallas is our home race, so last year it was a no-brainer to do it. It was kind of like, ‘Well, as long as there ain’t a whole ton of issues going on or whatever, we need to just support the Comp deal. We’re going to run the Comp deal again.’ So we decided a year ago,” McGaha said.
He put the Comp car back on the quarter-mile for the Texas FallNationals and bowed out in the first round against Brian Stufflebeam.
As for Pro Stock, he said, “There’s never a guarantee in the Pro Stock deal anymore, as stacked as it is.” He opened qualifying with a 14th-place showing early Friday.
7 – HEY, BABY! – Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Jianna Evaristo and husband Eldrich Evaristo announced this week in a social-media post that they’re expecting a baby in the coming year. She has been sidelined since September. The couple produced a video of themselves holding signs. Hers read, “Need money 4” and his read “Bike Parts.” Then he dropped his sign to reveal another sign that read, “BABY.” The message read, “Our greatest adventure yet. Baby Evaristo coming 2027.”
Eldrich Evaristo is a U.S. Air Force veteran, a former logistics officer who works now as Operations Manager for Valley Services, her father’s San Jose, Calif., company.
8 – HART-FELT – John Force Racing Top Fuel driver Josh Hart, ninth in the standings coming into this weekend, said Friday before qualifying began that he and crew chief David Grubnic “set our goals. We’ve done a lot of that stuff. It’s still been an OK season. No one here has given up. Everybody here knows what we need to do, and we’re going to go do it. Yeah, we’re down. We’re definitely not out. And this is when you find out what people are really made of. I believe in him, and he still believes in me. And we’re going to get this thing turned around, and we’re going to get back on the right track.
“In my life, there’s a lot of people that are kind of lined up to kick you when you’re down. The ones that you trust the most are usually the ones that you want protection from, and it’s just never worked like that with me,” Hart said.
He said the problem is not parts or pieces or parts failure: “We have had no parts issues that I’m aware of. There’s very little mechanical mistakes. So it’s just getting everybody to gel together properly. So that’s where we’re at.
“In my history,” Hart added, “When the chips are down, you get to see what everybody’s really made of. And chips have been down, and this team’s going to dig deep and we’re going to rise back up to the top. We all know what we need to do.”
And Hart and his team earned the No. 5 spot in the first-session order, accompanied by the class’ fastest speed at 337.64 mph that matched No. 2 Doug Kalitta’s speed.
9 – JUST HAVING FUN AND BEING COMPETITIVE – Spencer Massey, who was runner-up to Shawn Langdon at the Martin, Mich., Countdown opener, knows he could be a championship force to be reckoned with if he had a full-time crew and a robust sponsor. But he simply is racing now for pure enjoyment.
“We’re trying to keep up with all these heavy hitters out here. We don’t have all the funds. But we definitely have the talent, and we definitely have the work ethic.”
He was series runner-up in 2011 to champion Del Worsham, but he said the urge to return to full-time racing isn’t there.
“No, we’re just trying to have fun with it,” said Massey, who’s competing in just his sixth event this year. Besides, he noted, “Half our crew here has full-time day jobs. They do their own stuff with their families, and I don’t want to lose those guys. These guys are the guys that have put this team together. We can do about 10 races a year, and everybody can survive doing their home jobs and still come out.
“It’s not a full-time deal to where they have to service the car every week. Give us about two weeks between every race or maybe a month and then we’ll hit it hard again. And if we come out here and qualify decent, qualify well like we did last week [fourth, at St. Louis], and go some rounds, everybody knows we’re here – and that’s the whole point of it. If we try and do every race and wear ourselves thin, we might not perform as well,” he said. “I don’t want that. I want to come out and perform at the top notch, at the best level we can. And that’s what we’re trying. We’re going to final rounds now.”
Massey said the majority of the crew members, including full-timer Ryan Jenks and Dan Minnich, are those who raced for years with owner-driver Pat Dakin. “And I have a few other new guys. Scott Graham’s still tuning. And the car that we bought from Bobby and Dom Lagana, I’ve known those guys forever and ever. Everybody knows the car is very capable of running well. It took us a couple races to get our tune-up, but it’s coming around, and we’re excited. We’re happy to be here, obviously being my hometown track.”
The team plans to run at the final two events of the year, at Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif.
“I wanted to do 10 races this year, and we were going to do some of the other stuff and then that went away. So I decided let’s just do as much as we can. And I have my friends with Rad Torque Systems. We don’t have a huge sponsor, but Dan [Provost] is a huge sponsor because it’s a huge company. Rad Torque Systems makes good torque tools for all the high-rise buildings or any kind of big nuts and bolts. That’s where everybody has to buy their equipment from to put it together. Great company, great people. I want him on the car just because we’re friends. And that’s what we’re trying to represent.
“If we’re not having fun, we shouldn’t be here. This is not a job. This is what we love to do,” Massey said. “A Top Fuel car is not going to make you much money, it’s going to make you spend money, and so let’s just come out here and have fun while we’re doing it.”
10 – THE SCOOP ON THE SCOOP – Veteran sportsman racer Mike DePalma gave fans a sneak peek at the modern version of the Pro Stock car with hood scoop that will return in 2027 with a Friday exhibition pass.
Seeing him clock a 6.515-second elapsed time at 211.69 mph in the Elite Motorsports-developed spec car brought out opinions from drivers about the design switch that swept across the spectrum from positive to complete disdain.
Aaron Stanfield said he likes it, and Chris McGaha was lukewarm about the move the NHRA has mandated.
“I think it’s a good thing. I mean, the Pro Stock I grew up watching had hood scoops, so it kind of excites me. That’s what I’m used to watching when I was a kid,” Stanfield said. “And I think from a tuning standpoint, I think it should change the game up a little bit. Maybe just overall change the game up for the whole class a little bit and almost have a little reset. So I don’t see it as a negative thing. We’re all going to work hard on it, and we’ll make it the best it can be.”
McGaha said, “Well, at first I was really optimistic about it and excited, and I still am. But I have run one testing even before what we saw today. It’s got some issues to work out, but I think it’ll be all right. I’m starting to think that maybe with time the cars will be faster, but I think it’s going to be a wash, I really do. I think the cars will be about the same as they are right now to start off with.”
Others were not as optimistic or enthusiastic.
Kenny Delco said, “They should have never taken it off, but now that we have it on and spent all that money, time and money, I don’t know why they’re going back. We have to spend more time, more money to get that to work. That’s my opinion. It doesn’t look like it’s much faster.”
DePalma’s 6.515-second E.T. would have been 13th in the early Friday qualifying order, and his 211.69-mph speed would have been right in line with the field.
KB Titan Racing’s Eric Latino figures the move is setting the class back.
“So in 2016, these cars were converted and we put EFIs. There’s been so much money developed in intake and air intakes and hoods and aerodynamics to run the style of hood. And the only reason the hood scoop came up is because the Elite team had an issue trying to keep up with us,” he said. “They’re 23-hundredths behind us.” He said the “only way they can really stir it up is they talk to” the sanctioning body to “put the hood scoops on. And what it does is it makes it easy to tune the car. It really does. And the hood scoop disperses the air equally across the intake manifold. So it’s easier to tune up. But the cars look like they’re back at frigging 2010. And here’s my biggest concern. Mountain Motor Pro Stock, they’re coming next year. They’re going to run 620s with the hood scoop.
“Cars are identical, except they got an 835-inch engine,” Latino said. “We’re going to run 650s, and the people are going to say, ‘Holy s—, Greg Anderson, he’s so far behind. He’s so much [slower] than the other car.’ Because the crowd doesn’t know, right? So for sponsorship and everything, they’re not happy about it. We have a lot of sponsors that are completely against it.”
Derek Kramer declared, “I’m not a fan. I mean, as somebody who has to pay for the changes, there’s not a lot of standardization. So a hood scoop is going to be a point of contention and testing. Every new one’s going to need to be tested. And I’m a lease customer, so maybe that comes with my lease. I don’t know. I know from a driver’s perspective, it’s way nicer not having a hood scoop because I’m probably one of the few people out here that have done both. And looking around the hood scoop at the tree in one direction and then looking around the A pillar on the other side, I mean, it’s just going to be harder to see the tree for frankly not a lot of benefit, as far as I’m concerned. If you can run a computer, you can tune one of these engines. So I’m not really a fan of it. I understand we’re playing in their sandbox and we kind of will get rules pushed at us as they see fit, but this is one I could do without.”
Matt Hartford was more blunt. He said, “It’s an absolute waste of money for every single team. It’s going to hurt the small teams. NHRA refuses to raise the purse money, but yet we all have to put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the cars with all the testing it’s going to take. Yes, the hood scoop doesn’t cost that much, but all the testing and trials it’s going to take to get them to perform, it’s going to hurt the small teams. And it shouldn’t have happened.”
