Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Southern Nationals outside of Valdosta, Ga.
1 – THE FAMILY NITRO TRADITION – It felt like a movie where Chariots of Fire collided with Funny Car Summer.
Jordan Vandergriff had just won his first NHRA national event Sunday at South Georgia Motorsports Park, defeating top qualifier J.R. Todd in the final round of Funny Car. Then, instead of taking the slow ride back, he climbed out of his Cornwell Quality Tools Chevrolet SS and did what the Vandergriff family has done before. He ran.
Full firesuit. Full sprint. Full joy.
Just like his uncle, Bob Vandergriff Jr., used to do in Top Fuel, Jordan took off from the shutdown area and charged back toward the starting line. Halfway there, Bob and Jack Beckman met him with water, laughter, and the kind of scene nobody scripts right.
The win itself was no accident. Vandergriff ran 4.007 at 314.17 mph in the final, capping the best day of his young Funny Car career in only his fifth event driving for John Force Racing. He beat Jeff Arend, Spencer Hyde, and Hunter Green before closing the deal against Todd, who left town as the points leader.
“This moment is something I’ve thought of for a very long time,” Vandergriff said. “Since my last final in 2019 when I lost to Billy Torrence in Dallas, the running up the track was something I always thought about doing. My uncle did it out of pure joy and I had to do it.”
He decided on his celebration plan before the run ended.
“I was contemplating it in the car before the run and I was like, ‘If I get on the radio and they tell me I won, I’m doing it no matter what,’” Vandergriff said.
Then came the halfway point and reality.
“The thought that came through my head when I was halfway up the return road was, ‘I think this is what I trained my whole life for,’” Vandergriff said. “It’s a little longer than you expect, though, so I won’t do it again.”
That may be the most honest winner’s quote of the season.
Vandergriff said he knew in preseason testing the team had something real with crew chief Chris Cunningham and tuner Jason Bunker. Teammate Beckman even joked the over-under was five races before Jordan would be holding a trophy.
“It was five,” Vandergriff said. “So it’s unbelievable.”
The weekend also carried emotion for the John Force Racing family after the recent passing of John’s daughter Adria [Hight], whom Vandergriff credited as a vital part of the organization.
“Adria got this win for me and I truly believe that,” he said. “She was a pivotal part of this organization.”
There were high expectations stepping into a championship-level car. Vandergriff said he wanted them.
“Big shoes to fill,” he said. “I wanted those shoes.”
2 – THE FINE ART OF PLAYING TIP-TOE HAUL-ASS – Along the road to drag racing stardom, Shawn Langdon played plenty of beer-league softball. Competitive guys learn two truths there; i.e., everybody loves the long ball, but championships are usually built on base hits.
On Friday at South Georgia Motorsports Park, Langdon became Top Fuel’s cleanup hitter when he blasted to a record 345.00 mph and grabbed headlines across the country. On Sunday, he won the NHRA Southern Nationals by becoming the guy who will dink one through the infield, take first base, and beat you one smart swing at a time.
That is not glamorous racing. That is blue-collar type racing.
Langdon defeated teammate Doug Kalitta in the final round, running 3.808, 333.16, to Kalitta’s 3.954, 314.61. The victory was Langdon’s second of the season, the 24th of his career, and boosted him into the points lead.
After the 345 run, the temptation would have been to come back swinging for the fences again. Langdon said Sunday required something else – and ‘something else’ resulted in a ‘W.’
“Yeah, very satisfying,” Langdon said. “It’s always a good weekend when you can wake up in the morning and see your team on Yahoo Sports, New York Times and all that. A lot of people were following, a lot of people were sending me stuff.”
Headlines are nice. Wally trophies stay on the shelf longer.
Langdon said the real challenge was backing down a car capable of historic numbers and accepting what the racetrack would allow.
“You get the little taste of the 345, and it’s just kind of like … you’ve got to kind of get a little ego check where you just slow it down a little bit and understand you have to make the changes and adapt to what the racetrack’s going to be able to give you,” Langdon said.
Then he gave the weekend its perfect phrase.
Langdon called it “tiptoe haul ass” – ease the car through the bad spots, then hammer it where the surface would allow.
He beat Cameron Ferre, Antron Brown, and Clay Millican to reach the final. The numbers were smaller than Friday, but the execution was cleaner than anybody else’s.
Crew chief Brian Husen kept the final-round strategy simple.
“Brian said, ‘I’m just going to try to get the car to match what I think Doug’s going to run, and I’ll let you and Doug have it out,’” Langdon said. “I didn’t exactly particularly like that scenario, because I wasn’t really hitting the tree well today, but we got it done.”
Langdon also made it clear how he views the Kalitta Air operation right now.
“Yeah, I do,” he said when asked if he had the best car in the class. “I really feel like this is one of the best teams I’ve ever driven for.”
Friday gave him the home run. Sunday gave him the standings lead.
And if beer-league softball taught him anything, it’s this: the box score remembers RBIs more than style points.
“We got the headlines on Friday,” Langdon said. “We got the trophy on Sunday.”
3 – GLENN WON A BRUISER – Some Wally trophies come with clean timeslips and easy smiles. Dallas Glenn earned one Sunday that probably needed ice packs.
The defending NHRA Pro Stock champion won the Southern Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park by surviving one of the roughest elimination days the category has seen in a while. Glenn beat Troy Coughlin Jr. in the final with a 6.642, 211.39, but that clean pass came after a full day of hanging on.
Before the winner’s circle photo, there was plenty of wrestling. Glenn got through a first-round pedal-fest against Jeg Coughlin Jr., then beat Matt Latino in round two with a solid 6.587. He later survived another ragged semifinal against Greg Stanfield before finally getting the kind of run racers expect in a final round.
“Today was definitely pretty weird,” Glenn said. “This is probably the weirdest elimination day of Pro Stock car I can remember. I’ve seen bad rounds before, but never continuously all through the day.”
That is a polished way of saying the race was mean. Glenn said the combination of strong air and a difficult track kept teams chasing setups all day. Cars had power to run big numbers, but the racing surface wanted none of it.
“It was not a good day to be a crew chief,” Glenn said. “They definitely struggled, and I just had to be on my toes.”
When the setup is wrong, the tire chatters, and the car does something stupid, somebody still has to drive it to the stripe. Glenn did that better than anyone else Sunday.
He also admitted that Lady Luck was riding with him on the passenger side of his car.
“I had to be good enough, but anybody makes a clean run against me on either one of those two runs, first round and the semis, I’m dust, easy,” Glenn said.
4 – SMITH WAS BOTH LUCKY AND GOOD – Every racer catches a break now and then. The smart ones know what to do with it.
Matt Smith got his early Sunday at South Georgia Motorsports Park, then turned it into his first victory of the 2026 season. Smith ran 6.724, 202.06, on his Denso Auto Parts Buell to beat reigning NHRA champion Richard Gadson in the final round for career win No. 43.
The speed had been there all year. The trophy had not.
“It’s not only rewarding for me, it’s rewarding for our team ’cause our team, we worked so hard this winter to find a little bit of power,” Smith said. “We found some power. We worked with Red Line Oil exclusively over the winter, developing a new oil for us. They came on board with us and we found some power, and we’re showing it.”
That showing nearly got interrupted in round one. Smith had the bye run when trouble hit immediately.
“We got our toggle switch break first round. I had the bye run first round, and as soon as I dropped the clutch, the toggle switch on the fuel pump went out,” Smith said. “So we lost lane choice.”
That mattered because Smith believed the right lane was gold for Pro Stock Motorcycle.
“For our class, the right lane was the [better] lane for our class,” Smith said. “And if you had lane choice, it was worth 200, 300. We stuck it out over there in the right lane from that point forward and took the win.”
He backed it up in round two, defeating Chase Van Sant with a 6.685, 203.06, the quickest elimination pass in the class. Then another issue surfaced.
“Second round, we hurt the motor. I heard a knock on the shutdown,” Smith said. “We thought we broke a rocker arm.”
The team swapped engines before the semifinal against his wife, Angie Smith, then kept rolling.
“It ran pretty good,” Smith said. “Not quite as good as our other one, but we’ll take it.”
Smith made it clear the mission is bigger than one Sunday.
“My ultimate goal is to get seven” championships, Smith said. “That’s what our goal is. We want seven.”
5 – IT’S A SELLOUT, AGAIN – By Sunday afternoon, the hottest ticket in South Georgia was not a concert or a football game, it was a drag race at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
NHRA officials announced a second straight sellout crowd for the debut Southern Nationals, giving the facility back-to-back packed houses in its first national event. Fans sat through Saturday’s lengthy rain headaches, then came back Sunday like nothing happened.
That’s proof the market was hungry.
Plenty of facilities can hold an event. Not many can get people to fight mud, traffic changes, delays, and wet bleachers, then line back up the next day wanting seconds. South Georgia did.
Track owner Raul Torres could hardly have been happier.
“Dreams do become a reality, but it isn’t me,” Torres said. “It’s my staff, my wife, my daughters, everyone in here. Thank you guys. Give yourselves a round of applause. Thank you.”
5B – SECOND START, FIRST TROPHY, ZERO FEAR – Some drivers spend years learning how to win in NHRA Pro Mod. Jason Collins needed two starts.
Making just his second career appearance in the JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, Collins drove straight to the winner’s circle Sunday at South Georgia Motorsports Park. He defeated Mike Thielen in the final round of the NHRA Southern Nationals.
That kind of jump usually belongs in fairy tales or bench-racing stories. Collins made it real with a 5.731 at 252.99 mph and a killer .009 reaction time that ended the suspense before half-track.
Wire to wire. No debate. No nerves visible.
After qualifying No. 2, Collins backed up the number all day. He beat Mason Wright, Sidnei Frigo, and Lyle Barnett to reach the final, running as quick as 5.685 along the way. That is not beginner’s luck. That is a car and driver showing up loaded.
“It’s hard to believe,” Collins said. “I mean, I have to thank the Lord. I have to thank my dad and my mom. They spent a lot of money helping me learn how to drive a race car. I know it’s my second NHRA race, but I’ve done a lot of racing in my life.”
That last sentence matters. Second NHRA race does not mean rookie to racing. It means rookie to this room.
Collins also made clear this was no one-man miracle.
“I want to thank Scott Tidwell for putting me in this ride. I want to thank my crew and the guys who do the tuning,” Collins said. “This is a bad racecar. It is very good.”
Then came the line with which other racers in the pits probably nodded in agreement.
“It has aborted one run in about 27 runs, and that was the pedal fest that I won,” Collins said. “So even though it didn’t make it down, it still won the race.”
Thielen reached the final by beating J.R. Gray, Charlotte winner Mike Stavrinos, and Derek Menholt. Good day. Wrong opponent.
6 – MADDI THE BADDIE STRIKES AGAIN – Not only did Maddi Gordon lay down the quickest run of her young career during the weekend, she also had low elapsed time and top speed for the first round in the win over Will Smith. Gordon, who ran 340 in Saturday’s qualifying, proved she was no 340 flash in the pan.
“That’s amazing to back it up and get another 340,” Gordon said. “To run it once is awesome. Run it two in a row, that’s just bad to the bone right there. Oh, man, light it up. I was really nervous. Will Smith’s great out there. They got a great car. But, man, our Carlyle Tools boys, they’ve been busting their butts and it’s showing off. I’m so proud of them. No one else I’d rather drive for than Ron Capps Motorsports, Rob [Flynn] and Troy [Fasching], but this is bad to the bone.”
7 – THE KID IS DANGEROUS – As if the challenges of a complex race track weren’t enough of a monster variable, Matt Latino’s 6.508, 209.75, No. 2 qualifying position was wiped out by a safety equipment violation that pushed him down to the No. 16 qualifier position. Instead of racing Erica Enders in the first round, Latino ended up against teammate and No. 1 qualifier Greg Anderson.
The safety violation, one Latino admitted he knew better, was when he removed his safety equipment before his car had come to a stop. The sting of the penalty disappeared as soon as Latino gt the best of Greg Anderson in the first round.
Latino left on Anderson, and beat him by a much smaller margin, 6.548, 211.23 to a 6.512, 211.39, and led him him all the way to the stripe for the monumental win.
“Greg and Dallas [Glenn] have handed it to me so many times and I’ve been waiting for the day that I can get them back,” Latino said. “I love these guys. These guys have taught me so much in my very short Pro Stock career. And to be able to go out from the No. 16 spot, it’s been a real rough couple days and I’m just so thrilled to be able to take the FASS Diesel Solutions Ace Race Parts, CDS, Odyssey Battery car into the next round.
“It’s going to be tough. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s a crazy day and anything can happen. And I think it’s turning around for us.”
Latino lost to Genn in the second round.
7B – THE REJUVENATED DODGE WINS ONE – A recent rules adjustment to the Dodge RPM limit and weight might not have had as much to do with Brandon Miller’s first round victory over Cody Coughlin as much as a complex track did, but at this point in the game, Miller will take it.
Miller won with a 9.370, 142.96, as both cars struck the tires at the hit.
“We never quit out here,” Miller said. “I let the clutch out, blew the tires off. I look over [and he] wasn’t driving away, and I got it in any gear that it could find and ease back into it. And I drove around him. I couldn’t believe what I was watching, actually.
“it’s a driver’s racetrack out there right now. It’s tough. There’s not many cars are getting down. I saw every car in front of me really didn’t make it, but hopefully that didn’t burn the clutch out of it too bad. And if we could turn this thing around, make round two. It’s awesome. Finally win a round.”
Miller’s day ended in the second round to Aaron Stanfield.
8 – THE FIRST OF THE FIRST – Let the record reflect, Antron Brown was not only in the first pair of Top Fuel cars to race in Southern Nationals eliminations, but was the first to score a round win in beating Shawn Reed. He did it on a holeshot, beating Reed, 3.746, 331.94 to a 3.727, 333.58, recording the first of only two wins in the left lane. Both drivers ran their best runs of the weekend in the opening pair.
“Credit to the racetrack and Safety Safari after last night and qualifying. That left lane was horrible,” Brown said. “So to get back and get it back and groove right there and you got side-by-side runs the first pair down the racetrack, I mean that just shows a testament of what this competition’s all about. I mean, that could have went either way with us and Shawn.”
It’s been a tough row to hoe fthis year or the multi-time Top Fuel champion, who hadn’t won a round of competition since his semifinal finish at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals.
“We just need to get some more laps learning for our hot rod to get it back where it needs to be. I know Brian’s [Corradi] been pulling his hair out with [John] Medlen and Brad [Mason] and everybody over there, but we’re keeping our heads down and we just want to get back in a fight.”
Brown’s day ended in the second round against eventual event winner Shawn Langdon.
8B – FAMILY FEUD – Hunter Green got a chance to square off against his dad, Chad Green, in the second round of Funny Car. It marked the second time the father-son team raced one another in national-event competition since the second-generation Funny Car driver climbed behind the wheel of the team’s second car. The first time they raced, Chad won in Brainerd. On Sunday in Valdosta, it was the kid’s time to take the win light.
He was grateful for the opportunity his dad had provided, even if it meant beating him to advance to his first career nitro Funny Car semifinal round.
“It’s really cool to get to line up against him after watching him for all these years,” Hunter said. “Obviously we’d rather do that in a final, and I’d rather whip him in a final.”
Chad, relishing in a proud father moment, quickly transitioned from being a defeated competitor to watching his son’s accomplishment with pride.
“We definitely wanted that win big time, but when we spun the tires right there, I saw Hunter go by me, I couldn’t help but have a big smile on my face just for him,” Chad said. “So I’m happy.”
9 – U-G-L-Y – There’s an old saying that suggests something was so ugly that it would make a train take a dirt road. To hear some of the professionals speak off camera, a dirt road might have been a legitimate option.
In the first 16 first-round nitro races, there were 12 wins in the left lane and only four in the right. Pro Stock was just the opposite, with seven wins in the left lane. Aaron Stanfield was the only winner in the right lane for Pro Stock, where the first four races resulted in severe tire shake at the hit.
The second was a bit more even with Top Fuel producing three left lane wins, and Funny Car with three in the right.
Shawn Langdon, whose 345 mile-per-hour prowess in qualifying made him Friday’s top storylines, pointed out the Kalitta team, who lost crucial lane choice to Antron Brown in the second round, remained true to their objective of going A-to-B as opposed to their proven rapid transit method from Friday.
“We’re getting win lights and that’s all that matters on Sunday,” Langdon said after beating Brown with a pedestrian 3.812 at 332. “So I know with first round smoking the tires, we’re trying to make a good run and lost lane choice to Antron. So we knew we had to make a good run, but it’s just tough. You don’t want to call it a handicap lane, but obviously a lot of people have struggled over there. You just got to get it right. And fortunately Brian [Husen] and everybody at Kalitta got it right there.”
Six-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders reached the second round where she beat Kenny Delco, one of four bottom-qualified entries to make it past the first round, and came prepared for the unexpected in the first couple of rounds.
“You go up there and when Richard [Freeman], bends down and tells me, ‘Just be ready for anything’ that you know what’s ahead of you is totally unexpected and unchartered territory,” she said. “Pedaling is not something that we practice because it’s extremely hard on parts and clutch units and it’s not what you want to do, but you got to do anything you can to get the win.”
10 – SPORTSMAN RESULTS – If at first you don’t succeed, try again. That’s exactly what NHRA Lucas Oil Sportsman icon Dan Fletcher did. When he lost the Stock Eliminator final, he didn’t sweat it. Fletcher made the most of his second opportunity, in Super Stock, and became a 110-time NHRA national-event winner.
Fletcher headlined the sportsman winners that included Michael Brand (Stock), Sherman Adcock (Super Comp), Tracy Barnes (Super Gas) and James Brown (Top Dragster).
“It was really good fortune for us,” Fletcher said. “It was a really big scramble for us. We didn’t get any eliminations until this morning. You gotta get by … by a couple of thou here and there. I don’t think I was particularly good in the final. I’d rather be not good and win than good and lose.”
Fletcher used a .027-second reaction time and a 9.518 run on a 9.49 dial to defeat Casey Smith, who ran 8.902 after a .055 light.
The veteran then doubled down by reaching the Stock Eliminator final, but Brand denied the sweep. Brand left first with a .028 reaction time and ran 8.767 on his 8.77 dial to edge Fletcher’s 10.974 breakout on a 10.98 dial for his seventh career Wally.
Adcock captured Super Comp by doing what wins often require in the category – leaving first and staying clean. He posted a .022 reaction time and 8.888 to hold off Lauren Freer, who ran closer to the 8.90 index at 8.880, but gave up too much at the tree with a .046 light.
In Super Gas, Barnes earned the first Wally of his career with a sharp starting-line advantage. Barnes cut a .011 light and ran 9.920 to beat Chris Lewis, whose 9.890 breakout effort came after a .016 reaction time.
Brown won his first Wally in his first final-round appearance after opponent Chris Roe took too much finish line. Brown ran 6.631 on a 6.65 dial at 202.85 mph, overcoming Roe’s better .025 reaction time and quicker package.
