Photos by Ron Lewis
Hollywood couldn’t have written a better script.
Eighteen years to the date of Eric Medlen’s death after suffering a traumatic brain injury in a testing crash March 19, 2007, his father, John Medlen, along with his tuning protege Jonnie Lindberg, propelled Paul Lee to his first NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car title. He also leads the NHRA Funny Car points.
Lee stopped John Force Racing’s Austin Prock in the final round of the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park, a final which had emotional ties to both teams. Eric Medlen was a member of JFR when he passed. The McLeod-sponsored driver ran a 4.030, 313.22, when Prock went up in smoke.
Joining Lee in victory ceremonies in the pro ranks were Shawn Langdon (Top Fuel) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock).
Lee has been a fuel Funny Car win waiting to happen for the last two seasons, finishing runner-up twice in 2024 and also winning the Pep Boys All-Star Callout title during the NHRA U.S. Nationals last Labor Day weekend.
This weekend, he entered eliminations as the No. 5 seed, and stopped Chad Green in the first round. It was sweet revenge, because at the NHRA Gatornationals earlier this month, Green beat Lee in the first round and went on to win the season-opener.
Lee took out Blake Alexander and then No. 1 qualifier Bob Tasca to reach the final.
“I think this is like a dream come true,” Lee said. “Today was just surreal. I mean, the whole pit was calm. We were calm all day. We prayed that Eric was with us, and he was. And I’m going to tell you something, this trophy is going right to John Medlen on the starting line because we are blessed to have a guy like him still in the sport and helping all our young guys learn the sport of drag racing. So, God bless John.
“And thanks to all our partners, Mainline Sales, McLeod, FTI, Gates, Redline Oil, Justice Brothers, this is for you guys. Thank you.”
An emotional John Medlen admitted he’d witnessed a day when the fastest car didn’t always win. On this day, it was the team with the most fate on its side that took home the grand prize.
“Breathtaking to me. It’s a big deal because this is the anniversary of Eric passing away this day today,” Medlen said. “And we saw more fours on that scoreboard than I ever seen in my entire life. So I think he just took his thumb and he pushed that car right into the winners circle.”
Eric Medlen’s spirit might have had a thumb on Lee’s car Sunday, but he clearly had a hand on multi-time Funny Car champion Ron Capps, who had a crash eerily reminiscent of John Force’s Virginia crash last June that left him with a traumatic brain injury.
Capps said he was very grateful for the improvements made in the wake of Eric Medlen’s passing.
“The paddings, all the stuff that Eric Medlen and Force’s accidents, and all those things over the years have thankfully been fixed and upgraded so that I could be okay right now,” Capps said after his first-round incident. “I feel fine.”
Langdon, who finished runner-up at the season opener in Gainesville, Florida, sealed the deal Sunday by winning an all-Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel final round. It was his 28th career NHRA win, and his 18th since moving up to the nitro dragster ranks.
Langdon left on teammate and No. 1 qualifier Doug Kalitta, who had been .02 quicker than him all day, and never looked back en route to a 3.724, 330.39 run to better Kalitta’s 3.770, 325.53.
“Brian (Husen) and the team, man. I’ve been saying all along, Brian’s turned this whole team into a bunch of superstars, all-stars, and all the credit to him,” Langdon said. “He brought Adem Cave on board, but all the guys, man – all the guys have done such a fantastic job. No mistakes, giving me such a great race car. We knew going to the final, you’re running (crew chief Alan Johnson) and Doug, so what are you going to do? You got to throw down.
“Brian said, ‘We got to get this thing to go a low 70.’ I said, ‘I’ll try to be in the 50s (on reaction time),’ and that’s what we did. We called our shot a little bit. Just proud of the guys. Everybody at Kalitta Air Careers, Toyota, everybody. It’s a win-win for Connie Kalitta. Most importantly, put a smile on his face.”
Whoever said there’s no such thing as an ugly victory obviously didn’t witness the final round between Anderson and Gainesville winner Dallas Glenn.
In one of the wildest Pro Stock final rounds in recent memory, Anderson picked up his second straight Phoenix win when Glenn left before the Christmas tree was activated. Anderson, the reigning world champ, barely moved off the starting line as his car had its own trouble, lost power, and didn’t even make it to half-track.
“I’m still trying to figure out how the heck I won,” Anderson said. “When you go into a final against Dallas, you know he’s going to be double .00 (reaction time), and you’re just on edge trying to leave the starting line. I saw some sort of flash of light, and I let the clutch out and redlighted, but obviously that flash of light was Dallas’ red light coming on first – so he redlighted before I did under the ‘first or worst’ (rule).
“My car made it about a foot and it shut right off, and now I’m going to have to sit in front of the grandstands and want to sink underneath the seat, because I just redlighted, and you just threw the race away and I wondered why Dallas didn’t go by me. I reached up and I’m trying to restart the car, and it won’t start. Something went wrong. I don’t know if the ignition blew out on it or what happened, but I redlighted, and somehow Dallas did something worse than I did. So, crazy final round, but, like they say, a win is a win.”
Anderson got past Fernando Cuadra Jr., Eric Latino and Aaron Stanfield, setting up the third straight Anderson-Glenn showdown dating back to last year’s NHRA Finals.
Glenn, who won the opener in Gainesville, defeated David Cuadra, Greg Stanfield and No. 1 qualifier Matt Hartford to reach the final round for the 29th time in his career.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action March 27-30 with the 65th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
