Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Route 66 Nationals outside of Chicago.
1. SMITH WINS AND LOSES IN PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE FINAL – Any way you sliced it, a Smith was both the winner and loser in Sunday’s Pro Stock Motorcycle final.
For only the second time in their combined PSM careers, Angie Smith met husband Matt Smith in the event’s determining final round – the first time was at New Hampshire in 2014 when she was victorious.
It may have taken 12 years, but Matt avenged that ’14 loss. Even though diamonds are supposed to be a girl’s best friend, it was Matt who took home the diamond Wally winner’s trophy Sunday with a time of 6.835 seconds at 185.41 mph.
But he was somber about the way it happened.
As the couple got to the starting line and performed their burnouts, something apparently broke in Angie’s bike. And when the go light came on, Matt motored down-track for the win, while Angie sat, stuck at the starting line, without any ability to move forward.
“For all the rumors out there probably starting, I’m not getting a divorce,” Matt quipped when introduced at the post-race press conference. “She hurt her transmission in the semifinals. We got back and it was broke. We rushed to [put in a new trans]. We only had a 20-minute turnaround. So we got the tranny out, put another tranny in. Everything was great.
“For some reason, when it went to go get it in the water, I saw her struggling over there to get it into gear. She did a burnout, but after the burnout, there was no gear – no first and no third.”
Angie Smith had set the pace from Friday’s first round of qualifying. Her husband said she had the strongest bike in the field.
“I feel so bad for her, I mean, this was her race,” Matt said. “She was low of every round until the final. And it’s frustrating because I had the best bike last race and she had the best bike this race. I feel so bad for her. But it’s coming. I told her, ‘Keep your head up because you have the fastest bike here this weekend.’ Everybody knows that. So she’s leaving here with the best E.T. this weekend, the top speed this weekend. And she got runner-up.”
In addition to being her husband and teammate, Matt is also Angie’s crew chief. When they got to the starting line, he knew something was wrong with her bike.
“That’s kind of why I didn’t start up because I saw her struggling with getting the bike in gear,” Matt said. “But once she fired and I saw her bike do the burnout, then we cranked up because I thought everything was fine.”
Matt then said something that shocked several reporters.
“You know, if her bike wouldn’t have done the burnout or something was wrong, I wouldn’t have started up,” Matt said. “[NHRA] could have kicked both of us out because it wouldn’t matter at that time. I wanted a fair race, a good race.”
But with the upcoming week off, Matt will tear his wife’s bike apart, and he’s confident she can duplicate the type of performance shown at Route 66.
“She’ll get it in Maryland,” he said. “I feel confident that we will get things under control for her bike and get it back. Like I said, everybody here knows that she has the best bike. I’ve got faith. I think she’ll get it back next race. We’re coming, again, guns a-blazing.”
Matt suffered a slight injury on his winning run. A wind gust pushed him into the retaining wall, denting his steel-toed left boot and scraping the color off it, as well as scraping his leg through his firesuit.
“It’s not the track’s fault, it’s just the wind,” Matt said. “Everybody knows this is called the Windy City for a reason. And when you have a side wind like that, anything over 20 miles-an- hour, it’s dangerous for motorcycles. And when you have gusts 35 and 36 miles-an-hour like we were seeing, that’s dangerous.”
While Matt racked up the 44th win of his career, the six-time champ and his wife both would rather have seen Angie earn her fourth career win.
“This one sucks,” Angie said. “I had the dominant bike all day. Man it was so fast. I just let the clutch out and there was nothing there. This one really sucks.”
Defending PSM champ Richard Gadson remains atop the points standings: 1. Richard Gadson, 393; 2. Matt Smith, 349; 3. Gaige Herrera, 324; 4. Angie Smith, 301; 5. John Hall, 260; 6. Clayton Howey, 234; 7. Chase Van Sant, 230; 8. Ryan Oehler, 186; 9. Brayden Davis, 179; t10. [tie] Jianna Evaristo, Steve Johnson, 168.
2. LANGDON’S DREAM SEASON CONTINUES – There have been six NHRA national events thus far this season, and as of late Sunday afternoon, Kalitta Motorsports’ Shawn Langdon has won half of those.
“It’s been a dream season with a dream team,” Langdon said after claiming his third diamond Wally winner’s trophy and second in a row. He won the previous event, held at South Georgia Motorsports Park, two weeks ago.
After struggling in Friday’s qualifying and stacking up 14th, Langdon was able to climb to the No. 9 qualifying spot Saturday. He then roared through Sunday’s four elimination rounds, starting by defeating his teammate, two-time and defending Top Fuel champ Doug Kalitta, in the first round.
“Having to run Doug in the second round wasn’t ideal, but at the end of the day, we had to get some information for our car and make a good run,” Langdon said. “And then from there it was just a little bit tricky.”
The semifinal match with Josh Hart was pivotal for Langdon. He managed to get past Hart to put him in the 58th final round of his career. Meanwhile, longtime friend and competitor Antron Brown reached the finals over Leah Pruett, who shook the tires at around the 330-foot mark and was forced to shut down.
In the final-round match with Brown, Langdon went 3.775 seconds at 335.90 mph, while Brown spun his tires, finishing with an effort of 4.225, 206.48.
“We’ve been great friends for a long time, talk on the phone all the time, share a lot of information,” Langdon said of his relationship with Brown. “It’s always a good race in Antron. You know it’s always going to be a good race – a good, straight-up race. You know what you’re going to get over there, and they’ve got a good car, so you know you’ve got to make a good run.”
It was the 25th career win for Langdon, a native of Danville, Ind., about 175 miles southeast of Joliet, Ill. He also extended his lead in the Top Fuel points standings, topping second-ranked Kalitta by 54 points: (1. Shawn Langdon, 594; 2. Doug Kalitta, 540; 3. Leah Pruett, 429; 4. Tony Stewart, 388; 5. Josh Hart, 376; 6. Maddi Gordon, 358; 7. Antron Brown, 313; 8. Justin Ashley, 311; 9. Billy Torrence, 282; 10. Clay Millican, 252).
Even with an upcoming week off, Langdon is confident he can keep the momentum going.
“The sport just goes in waves, and you’ve got to capitalize when you can and your car’s running good,” he said. “Fortunately, right now, we’re able to capitalize and just make good runs when we need to and make appropriate runs when we need to as well. All the guys have been doing a great job putting the car together with no mistakes. And Brian [crew chief Husen] has been doing a great job making last-minute calls and putting a great tune-up in the car and not making any mistakes there.”
Langdon is still riding the high of his massive national record 345-mph run in Georgia. That, coupled with his three wins already this season, have Langdon ultra-confident. But he hasn’t forgotten some of the rough times he’s had in his career, particularly how things went south after winning the 2013 Top Fuel championship. That’s something he never wants to repeat.
“A few years ago, we were barely hanging in the top 10 – or we weren’t even in the top 10,” he said somberly. “So it’s just been a nice turnaround the last couple years.”
Being teammates with a two-time champ and now being ahead and more successful than Kalitta thus far this season, Langdon was asked if he’s getting any trash talking yet from Kalitta.
“Doug does not do trash talking, he’s like the nicest guy,” Langdon said. “Sometimes if you kind of throw a little jab, he just kind of gives you a little chuckle and walks off. I’m like, ‘That didn’t work.’ But he did say the other day, he’s like, ‘I need to get in his head,’ so he’s thinking about it. I like that he’s thinking about it.”
Even with a 75th anniversary diamond trophy and a big paycheck from Sunday’s win, Langdon remains humble.
“It’ll be nice to be able to go home tonight and sleep in my own bed, but I’ll probably just start mowing my lawn in the morning,” he quipped.
3. HE’S NOT GREEN WITH ENVY, BUT HE IS GREEN WITH SUCCESS – Chad Green and Ron Capps are in good company thus far this season: Green has joined Capps as the only two-time winners in NHRA Funny Car competition this season after this weekend’s Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals.
Green won the season-opening Gatornationals for the second straight year in early March, defeating Alexis DeJoria. On Sunday, it was a rematch of the Gainesville contest, with Green (3.945 seconds, 324.75 mph) again keeping DeJoria (3.965, 328.86) from winning her first race since Bristol in 2021.
“We didn’t have easy matchups today, that’s for sure,” said Green, who got past Jordan Vandergriff, Capps, reigning Funny Car champ Austin Prock, and DeJoria. “That final against Alexis, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m so worried. Like, is she going to get me back?’
“She’s driving a John Force car, and those cars, that was a dang good race. I never saw her during the race. I thought, oh, when the win light came on, I thought she probably had problems or something. But then I looked at the time slip, and, man, she was right there with me. She even had a good light, left right there with me. So a very close race, a good championship drag race right there.”
Green’s semifinal win over Prock kept the 2025 champ still winless, but it was arguably the best showing for the Tasca Motorsports driver thus far this season.
DeJoria can’t feel all that bad, given that she won Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge.
Green moved up to fourth in the standings, behind the first-place duo of J.R. Todd and Capps. (t1., Ron Capps, J.R. Todd, 468; 3. Matt Hagan, 459; 4. Chad Green, 443; 5. Jordan Vandergriff, 416; 6. Alexis DeJoria, 389; 7. Spencer Hyde, 312; 8. Jack Beckman, 311; 9. Daniel Wilkerson, 233; 10. Dave Richards, 222).
Sunday’s win was a great way to end the weekend for the Texas native, made even sweeter because it was also the birthday weekend for both he and his daughter.
After his win in last season’s opener at Gainesville, Green struggled at times until they got back on the upswing when the Countdown to the Championship began. Now that he has two wins in the first six races, he wants to keep the momentum and avoid another downturn like last year.
“I think our car is in a good spot right now,” Green said. “We’ve had a good car for several races. We’ve qualified good in every race [although] this race we didn’t qualify as good as we have been. But, no, I’m feeling really good about the car.”
Now that he’s in the top four in the standings and is one of only two multi-race winners thus far this season, Green was asked whether he may be one of the best-kept secrets in the NHRA right now.
“I hope that’s the case,” Green smiled. “I think we’re getting people’s attention. And definitely to come out here and win another race, that helps a lot.”
4. AARON STANFIELD HOPES FIRST PRO STOCK WIN IN NEARLY TWO YEARS IS A SIGN OF BETTER THINGS TO COME – Aaron Stanfield was obviously happy to win the Pro Stock class Sunday at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals, his first victory since 2024.
But in a way, it’s also a blessing in disguise: his father Greg may have to hit Aaron up for some cash to help pay for dad’s race car, which caught fire after Aaron beat him in a semifinal match.
Even though his father faced misfortune, Aaron had good fortune. In the final round, Aaron was an underdog to defending Pro Stock champ Greg Anderson. But as the Christmas tree counted down to start the race, Anderson uncharacteristically red-lit, giving Aaron [6.595 seconds, 208.46 mph] an easy win and a diamond Wally trophy.
“I saw the red light,” Stanfield said. “This team has been waiting for this one for a long time. We thought we were going to get it at South Georgia. This goes to all the hard work, it’s special and I’m just glad to be back in victory circle. Whoo!”
Not only was this Stanfield’s 15th career win, it was also the first Pro Stock win for his team, Elite Motorsports, since last year’s U.S. Nationals (not counting Tony Stewart’s Top Fuel win at Pomona last month).
“Our team’s definitely been waiting on this moment for a pretty good while,” Stanfield said. “The best feeling you can get out here is when you see that win light come on in the final round. We had a great weekend and a great day today and kind of had some luck kind of roll my way in that final round.”
While he saw Anderson’s red light, Stanfield would have rather seen a regular head-to-head race and not have a gimme.
“You definitely want to have a good, clean race, but, you’ve got to take them how you can get them,” he said. “I think luck kind of rolled our way there in the final round. We haven’t had much luck here lately, at least with my hot rod. And it just all came together today. And it goes to all the hard work and all the boys at Elite Motorsports. It’s been pretty brutal the past year and a half. So I can say for Elite Motorsports, this is a special win.”
Whether Sunday’s win will help turn things around for Elite’s Pro Stock program remains to be seen, but Stanfield is optimistic that’s the case.
“You’re only as good as your last race, so we’ve got to keep our head down and keep grinding,” Stanfield said. “We’ve definitely made some performance gains. I still think we’ve got some work to do, but it’s definitely a huge step in the right direction.”
The win moves Aaron up to sixth in the standings, with the points as follows after the event: 1. Dallas Glenn, 528; 2. Greg Anderson, 499; 3. Greg Stanfield, 399; 4. Matt Hartford, 376; 5. Erica Enders, 368; 6. Aaron Stanfield, 345; 7. Matt Latino, 344; 8. Cody Coughlin, 289; 9. Jeg Coughlin, 286; 10. Troy Coughlin Jr., 253.
“We’ve got some very competitive guys on our team and they take it very personal when we’re not doing well. So I do think it’s going to kind of let everybody take a breath and maybe some light at the end of the tunnel and just a step in the right direction.”
The biggest thing Stanfield hopes to avoid is a repeat of his last win, the 2024 U.S. Nationals.
“In 2024, we got very close to winning a championship and just came up short right there at the last race,” he said. “And we went an entire year and we’re a good ways into the season this year without winning one race.
“So it definitely feels good and it’s definitely a weight lifted off. Being really, really competitive and being in a spot to win a championship to fighting for a round win. It definitely feels good to turn that last win light on today.”
5. ANTRON BROWN CALLS OUT MADDI GORDON … BUT IN A GOOD WAY! – Antron Brown is definitely a Maddi Gordon fan.
Brown defeated Gordon in a quarterfinal battle in Sunday’s eliminations of the Gerber Glass & Collision Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, Ill. In his top-end TV interview, Brown was absolutely effusive about Gordon and the energy she brings to the sport, anointing her as a budding “superstar in the making.”
Brown talked more about Gordon and her bubbly persona than how he beat her in their duel at Route 66 Raceway, saying her personality has more energy behind it than if she gulped down a can of Monster Energy drink.
A curious Gordon was nearby and kept creeping closer to Brown to hear what he had to say on-camera, especially if he had anything to say about her.
When the interview was over, Gordon immediately popped up in her usual excited fashion and quipped, “Thank you, guys!”
6. UH, SON, WHERE’S THE FAMILY LOYALTY? – In Sunday’s first round of Funny Car eliminations, No. 1 seed Jack Beckman squared off with No. 16 seed and Chicago-based part-time Funny Car driver and full-time Chicago Fire Department lieutenant Chris King.
Beckman easily beat King, and in an ironic twist, it was Jason Beckman, Jack’s son, who designed the paint scheme on King’s Funny Car.
Unfortunately for the elder Beckman, who was No. 1 qualifier for both this year’s and last year’s race in Chicago, his triumph over King would be the last win of the day for the John Force Racing driver. Beckman smoked his tires in the quarterfinal match versus four-time NHRA Funny Car champ and rival Matt Hagan in the second round.
7. KRISTA BALDWIN CAME SO CLOSE TO A CAREER BEST AND THE BIGGEST UPSET OF HER CAREER, BUT ULTIMATELY NOT QUITE – On a weekend when NHRA honored Top Fuel driver Krista Baldwin’s grandfather, former Top Fuel driver Chris Karamesines, as “Legend of the Weekend” to mark the sport’s 75th anniversary season, Baldwin gave it her all to pay tribute to her grandpa in her own way.
First, Baldwin came to Route 66 with a special paint scheme honoring Karamesines on her Brownsburg, Ind.-based dragster. Then, between Friday’s two qualifying sessions, Baldwin appeared on TV with a faux mustache to commemorate the longtime cookie duster on his face.
In Sunday’s first round of final eliminations between Baldwin and NHRA rookie sensation Maddi Gordon, Baldwin appeared to be headed toward the best run of her Top Fuel career. She was leading at the 330-foot mark and was on track to run the 1,000-foot surface strongly in the 3.70-second range, which she said “would have been the fastest [and quickest] I’ve ever run.”
But Baldwin’s dragster lost traction at the 330-foot mark and Gordon cashed in, driving around her to capture the round win and earning a second-round match against four-time NHRA Top Fuel champ Antron Brown.
Even though Brown greatly respects Gordon’s talent and ability, and said so on NHRA.TV, he wasn’t about to give her an easy time in their quarterfinal match. He easily won to advance to the semifinals.
8. HERRERA’S WINDY CITY SUPREMACY ENDS … AND IRONICALLY WIND PLAYED A PART IN IT – In each of the first three times he’s raced at his home dragstrip, Route 66 Raceway, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Gaige Herrera has returned to his DeMotte, Ind., home – roughly 75 miles away from Route 66 in Joliet, Ill. — with a Wally winner’s trophy.
Herrera came back to Route 66 this weekend seeking his fourth straight win there – and more importantly, his second overall win of the 2026 season. Herrera won a few weeks ago in the four-wide event at Charlotte.
Unfortunately, the 35-year-old Herrera came up short in both instances Sunday, losing to six-time PSM champ Matt Smith’s 6.832 at 197.57 mph. Herrera got caught up in some strong crosswinds that prompted him to shut off early for fear he might lose control of his bike, and he finished with a run of 8.170, 114.54.
After climbing off his bike, Herrera told NHRA.TV that he questioned whether bikes should have been running in winds that were gusting above 30 mph.
9 – MENHOLT STOPS THE REVOLVING DOOR IN PRO MOD – Through four races of the 2026 JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod season, nobody had managed to separate from the pack. Different winners, changing storylines, and shifting momentum had become the norm. Derek Menholt changed that script Sunday at Route 66 Raceway.
Menholt became the first repeat winner of the season by driving around Jason Collins in the final round at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals, adding a Chicago victory to the season opener he captured in Gainesville. More importantly, he climbed back into the points lead with only one regular-season event remaining.
For a class that has made a habit of spreading success around, Menholt put together the kind of weekend championship contenders eventually need. He qualified No. 1 with a 5.667-second run at 250.92 mph, then backed it up when eliminations began.
His road wasn’t built against light competition, either.
Menholt had to work through Alex Laughlin, defending champion J.R. Gray, and Justin Bond before reaching the championship round. Bond entered the weekend among the points leaders.
The final round looked immediately like it could swing Collins’ way.
Collins fired first with a near-perfect .004-second reaction time, but trouble developed quickly and Menholt capitalized. His .012 reaction time, paired with a 5.692 at 250.23, proved more than enough to secure his third career NHRA Pro Mod victory.
The win also snapped the recent run of first-time or one-off winners that had defined the season’s early stretch.
Collins, meanwhile, continued making noise despite the loss. Racing in only his third NHRA Pro Mod event, he reached his second consecutive final round after winning in Valdosta and advancing past Kevin Rivenbark, Mike Stavrinos, and Billy Banaka in Chicago.
Menholt understands the standings may say points leader, but nobody in Pro Mod is under the illusion that breathing room exists.
“It’s going to be a battle all the way to the end,” Menholt said. “Jason has made a big run in the past three races and there’s going to be a lot of guys coming for us, but this one feels good.”
