Shawn Langdon didn’t need St. Louis to establish himself as the hottest Top Fuel driver in drag racing. Sunday just provided another race track for him to prove it.
Langdon continued a stretch that has gone from impressive to oppressive, winning the NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway for his fourth consecutive victory and third straight to open the Countdown to the Championship. Austin Prock (Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock), and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) joined him in the winner’s circle on a day when the title picture tightened everywhere except Top Fuel.
Langdon defeated first-time finalist Will Smith with a 3.732-second pass at 335.90 mph as Smith smoked the tires early. It was Langdon’s eighth victory of the season and 30th of his career, pushing his championship lead over Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta to 116 points with three races remaining.
The numbers only begin to explain how thoroughly Langdon has controlled this stretch. He closed the regular season by winning the U.S. Nationals, then rolled through Michigan and Rockingham before arriving in St. Louis and doing it again.
Langdon qualified No. 1, beat Tony Schumacher, Leah Pruett, and Justin Ashley on Sunday, and opened eliminations with a track-record 341.68-mph blast before putting Smith away in the final.
“The results we’re showing now come from the hard work of the last couple years. I’ve had a lot of faith and confidence in this race team,” Langdon said. “I knew the capabilities this team had. It was just a matter of things coming together, and I really feel like this year a lot of things have come together.
“We’ve been good when we needed to be good, but we’ve been great when we needed to be great. Every time I hit the gas, I know I’m going to have a really dang good race car. Hopefully, I don’t mess that up. With what we’ve done, we’re going to have a big target on our backs. People are going to be gunning for us. It’s up to us to rise to the occasion and do even better at the last three races.”
Kalitta’s first-round loss to Shawn Reed allowed Langdon to stretch the lead, while Tony Stewart left St. Louis third and 225 points back. Smith reached his first Top Fuel final after beating Maddi Gordon, Stewart, and Reed, then ran into the same problem everybody else has encountered lately: Langdon.
Funny Car hasn’t provided anything close to that kind of separation, and Prock made sure it stayed that way.
The two-time defending NHRA champion finally converted months of speed into the kind of Sunday his Tasca Racing team had been threatening to produce. Prock beat Ron Capps, J.R. Todd, and No. 1 qualifier Jack Beckman before putting away Jordan Vandergriff with a 3.909 at 332.84 mph.
That path carried plenty of championship weight. Capps, Todd, and Beckman all entered Sunday ahead of Prock in the standings, and Prock eliminated each before using a .045-second reaction time to lead Vandergriff wire-to-wire in the final.
The victory was Prock’s second of the season, first at St. Louis and 23rd of his career. More importantly for a team trying to climb back into the championship fight, it moved him to third in the standings, 106 points behind leader Matt Hagan.
“This was a big win. For the points, for our family, for our team — this is the time to get hot,” Prock said. “After everything we’ve been through this year, all the hours we haven’t slept and seven days a week working at this, it really pays off when you get a win. We’re hot right now, and we’ve been hot for the last 12 races. We just haven’t been able to finish the job.
“We had a really dominant Ford Mustang this weekend. We had to run through a lot of hitters today. Each round was like a final round. Everybody we beat was in front of us in the Countdown. It was an epic way to cap it off. You don’t have days like this very often. When you run through four hitters like that, that’s like winning two races in one.
“We’re just over 100 points out of the lead. We’re in striking distance now going into Dallas, and I’m really excited for these next three races.”
Vandergriff reached his sixth final of the season after beating Cruz Pedregon, Alexis DeJoria, and Hagan. He remained second in the standings, 72 points behind Hagan, leaving Funny Car with plenty left to settle over the final three events.
Pro Stock produced the family feud of the weekend, and Aaron Stanfield brought the better starting-line weapon.
Aaron beat his father, Greg Stanfield, on a holeshot, pairing a .018 reaction time with a 6.556 at 209.20 mph to hold off Greg’s quicker 6.547, 209.85. The margin at the finish line was one-thousandth of a second.
Greg entered the round with a 6-1 record against his son and had won their only previous final-round meeting. Aaron erased at least one family bragging right while collecting his third victory of the season and 17th of his career.
“It’s hard to get to the final round alone, and to be able to share it with my dad is pretty special,” Stanfield said. “He’s taught me absolutely everything I know in a race car. I told him I was fixing to show him what he taught me. We’re going to race as hard as we can possibly race. A thousandth at the stripe — it doesn’t get any better than that.
“At the start of the day, I would definitely say my car kind of pulled me along. As the day went on, I started finding myself on the Tree, and it ended up with me in the final round with my dad. As a whole, the entire Elite team ran really well this weekend. We just need to keep that trajectory.”
Aaron defeated Deric Kramer, Matt Hartford, and Troy Coughlin Jr. on his way to the final, giving Elite Motorsports its third consecutive Countdown victory after wins by Coughlin and Greg Stanfield.
The elder Stanfield didn’t leave St. Louis empty-handed. He strengthened his championship position by reaching his fourth final of the season and heads to Dallas 71 points ahead of Dallas Glenn and 81 ahead of Hartford.
The Pro Stock Motorcycle championship, meanwhile, has become an intramural fight at Vance & Hines, and Herrera used St. Louis to pull himself right back onto Richard Gadson’s rear tire.
Herrera beat Gadson, the points leader, in the final with a 6.710 at 200.98 mph against Gadson’s 6.763, 200.08, earning his fourth consecutive victory at World Wide Technology Raceway. Herrera had already established himself as the motorcycle to beat by qualifying No. 1 with a track-record 6.644.
He eliminated Michael Phillips and Ryan Oehler before meeting Gadson, becoming the third different rider to win during the first three Countdown races. More importantly, Herrera cut Gadson’s championship advantage to 32 points with three races remaining.
“The Countdown, the last six races, is when it all matters,” Herrera said. “Getting this win here in St. Louis means a lot. St. Louis holds a special place for me. I don’t know what it is with this place, but it’s always been very good to me. I wish we had all the races here.
“Racing Richard in the final puts a lot of pressure on me. He’s the man on the tree. He’s very consistent, and it was awesome to race him in the final. I felt like I was trying to push myself too much the last couple races. This whole weekend, I just reminded myself [that] I’m living the dream, I’m having fun and that’s what it’s all about.
“This is a big deal for me. Points-wise, we gained a little bit on my teammate. He still has the points lead, but it’s going to be a dogfight.”
Gadson reached his seventh final of the season by beating Chase Van Sant, Matt Smith, and Michigan winner John Hall. He still holds the points lead, but Herrera made sure the ride to the Dallas area will be considerably less comfortable.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action Oct. 14-18 with the Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex in suburban Ennis.
