Jack Beckman, Shawn Langdon and Greg Anderson claimed victories in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge on Saturday during the 43rd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.
Beckman defeated Matt Hagan in a final-round duel of former NHRA Funny Car champions, with a 3.942-second run at 324.59 mph, earning his third specialty win of the season.
“At first, I didn’t make a big deal out of this [Mission Challenge], but sometimes Saturday can be a bit anticlimactic,” Beckman said. “Typically, we’d get data for Sunday but now, I think it’s one of the smarter moves NHRA has made. It makes [Saturday] matter. Those points that go into the Countdown are huge. That’s a big carrot. I thought it was cool before I won the first one. Now that I’ve won a couple, I really love it.”
In Top Fuel, Langdon earned his fourth #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win of the year with a holeshot victory over Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta. Langdon left the line first with a .059 reaction time and held on with a 3.742, 334.32.
The win tied Langdon for the most #2Fast2Tasty victories in 2025 and increased his bonus points total to 18 for the Countdown to the Championship.
“We were trying to move up in qualifying, so we’re trying to run a little bit better than a 3.74,” Langdon said. “I think my [stage light] was blinking pretty good, so maybe that distracted him. We wanted to have a good race. It wasn’t intentional by any means. I was just trying to stage shallow.”
Langdon added, “Now, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. We really appreciate everything that Mission Foods does. This is a great program, but we also have to focus on tomorrow, especially with the U.S. Nationals and the Countdown coming up.”
In Pro Stock, Anderson picked up his first Saturday victory of the year, defeating KB Titan Racing teammate Dallas Glenn in the final with a 6.561, 208.23 run.
The reigning NHRA champion also secured the No. 1 qualifying position earlier in the day with a 6.555 at 207.59, narrowly missing the track record. On Friday night, Anderson won the American Rebel Light “Battle for the Rebel Axe” bonus event.
“It’s been two perfect days and that’s all you could hope for,” Anderson said. “I’m excited for tomorrow. My race car is great and I feel like we’ve got a great chance. Competition brings out the best in everyone out here. Matt Hartford has worn me out in these [Mission] deals. I want to win anytime we go down the race track.”
