Competition Plus’ random water-cooler topics from the NHRA Texas Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex at Ennis, south of Dallas
1 – TOP FUEL HAS NON-KALITTA WINNER – Antron Brown broke the Shawn Langdon-Doug Kalitta streak, survived a fierce eliminations lineup, won the final round over Maddi Gordon, and jumped from sixth place to third in the standings Sunday at the Texas FallNationals.
Brown said after recording his third triumph at Texas Motorplex, his 83rd overall, and 67th in the Top Fuel class, “We have a lot of fight. We never quit. When you see a car like Shawn’s and you see [Kalitta Air dragster crew chief] Brian Husen and that whole gang over there, they’re running lights out. To go out there and do what we did today and get through that [semifinal] round is truly amazing. All these cars are ridiculously good.”
With Langdon’s lofty status virtually out of reach, Brown said he’s looking ahead to the 2027 season. “There’s two more races left. We’re going to keep our heads down and try to finish the season as strong as possible. We’re building for next year. Next year, we’re going to come out swinging.”
2 – TODD SURVIVES DIFFICULT FUNNY CAR TASKS – DHL Toyota Funny Car driver J.R. Todd’s championship hopes got a massive boost Sunday, as he took out Spencer Hyde, Alexis DeJoria, Ron Capps, and finally points leader Matt Hagan to move from fifth place into third in the standings.
With just two more events remaining before the NHRA will crown its pro champions, Todd barged into the title conversation, 119 points behind Hagan, and said, “We still have a shot. We’ll keep digging until they tell us we don’t. All you can ask for is a shot, and we’re still in the conversation.
“We’ve been up and down this year,” Todd said. “Now we’ve got to execute and hope we get some help along the way. Hagan’s been making it hard on all of us. I said, ‘Why don’t you take a race off and let the rest of us have a chance?’ We have to do the best we can the last two races.”
Todd said his joy in winning a diamond Wally trophy for the second time this season – he won at Seattle – is doing it for his crew. “I’m happy to get them for my guys. They bust their butts and never complain about anything. It’s pretty wild. Just to get one of these, you’ve got to beat the best of the best.”
3 – GLENN BACK IN CHARGE IN PRO STOCK – Dallas Glenn said, “I’ve been weirdly calm all day,” after defeating Matt Hartford, the Pro Stock title contender closest on his heels, in Sunday’s final round.
It paid off, as he earned his second straight Texas Motorplex triumph and overtook Greg Stanfield to regain the points lead with his fifth victory of the season and 26th of his career. It capped a weekend in which he also set the national elapsed-time record and qualified No. 1.
The KB Titan Racing driver said since he was declared the 2025 champion last November at Pomona, “I’ve been calm. This year I feel super-calm and relaxed. This year I definitely feel a lot more relaxed.” He attributed that to his confidence in his RAD Torque Systems Chevy Camaro, saying it’s helpful to “know you have the best car going into eliminations.”
For example, before the final, he reasoned that “Matt Hartford’s an extremely tough competitor, but I knew my car was good. Even if we lost, we were going to be only six points back. Kind of makes the nerves relax.”
Glenn said he “was a little more nervous for the first round” Sunday than he was for the rest of the day. He had his mind on the fact that if he got past Round 1 opponent Stephen Bell (which he did), he could meet Stanfield in a marquee match-up. But Stanfield fell to surprisingly low-qualified Jeg Coughlin in that opening round.
“My goal,” Glenn said, “was try to take him out second round and win the race. When he lost first pair, I was like, ‘Wow.’ You capitalize and keep putting the pain to ‘em.”
4 – MATT SMITH EYES TITLE NO 7 – Richard Gadson has been working toward a second consecutive championship. Matt Smith is aiming for No. 7.
The six-time champion and Sunday Pro Stock Motorcycle winner said, “I want No. 7 so bad.”
He used a .006-second reaction time for a holeshot victory over Vance & Hines racer Gadson in the final round to secure his fourth win of the season.
“When you’re running that other camp like that, you’ve got to get up on the wheel and go,” Smith said. “I knew in Q4 I went .008 against Richard, so I set my clutch and my switch right back to that, and it went up there and went .006, so I knew where I needed to be. I just didn’t know if I had the bike to beat them. I made one little tune-up change from the semifinals, and she was trucking and went 6.66. So it all paid off.”
Gadson reached the finals for the eighth time in 2026 thanks to round wins against Marc Ingwersen, Angie Smith, and Steve Johnson. He leads teammate Gaige Herrera by 58 points heading to Vegas.
“It’s not over yet,” Smith said of the chase. “We’ve just got to run the table. We’ll go to Vegas and roll some dice.”
5 – MY BOY, HE’S A LOT LIKE ME – Mark and Kyle Pawuk made NHRA history Sunday at Texas Motorplex, becoming the latest father-son combination to win at the same national event. Their victories in Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown and Super Gas, respectively, marked the 19th father-child double in NHRA history.
Mark defeated Lee Hartman with a 7.522-second run at 185.07 mph to claim his sixth Factory Stock Showdown victory. Kyle earned his first national-event Wally in his first final, defeating Jeremy Demers with a .008 reaction time and a 9.920 at 161.98 mph.
The occasion carried special meaning for Mark, whose victory came on what would have been his father’s 101st birthday.
“And you know what is so cool about today? This would’ve been my Dad’s 101st birthday, so he was looking over us all day,” Mark Pawuk said.
Christopher Benham continued the family theme, winning Competition Eliminator 25 years after his father, legendary Modified racer Crawford Benham, won at Dallas. Benham qualified No. 1 and defeated Monty Bogan with a 7.426 at 148.89 mph for his first national-event victory.
Shawn Cowie collected his 29th career Top Alcohol Dragster Wally when Alan Bradshaw couldn’t fire for the final. Cowie completed his single with a 5.207 at 279.69 mph.
Shane Westerfield claimed his 20th Top Alcohol Funny Car victory, defeating Doug Gordon by .016 seconds. Westerfield’s starting-line advantage made the difference, his 5.479 at 266.73 holding off Gordon’s quicker 5.478.
Jeremy Duncan used a .001 reaction time to defeat Larry Hodge in Super Stock, earning his second national-event victory. Chris Knudsen matched that .001 light in Stock Eliminator, defeating Paul Stalba for his third career win.
Kyle Secrest earned his second Super Comp victory, defeating Tom Stalba with a .002 reaction time and an 8.895.
Crystal Peterson-Martinez collected her first national-event victory in Top Dragster, defeating Dylan Hough with a 6.111 at 214.79 mph.
Chanse Bullock earned his first Top Sportsman Wally, defeating Jim Thorp with a 6.526 at 206.01 mph.
Ross Ragland completed the winners list, claiming his first Super Street national-event victory over Cary Huber with a 10.913 at 133.28 mph. – Bobby Bennett
6 – NITRO CLASSES BRUTAL ALL DAY – Announcer Jason Galvin declared after the event finished, “Championship’s over. No one’s getting Shawn Langdon.” While that isn’t official yet, of course, even dominator Langdon – who reached the semifinal round and stretched his points lead – didn’t make it to the final round, another victim of a brutal day in both Top Fuel and Funny Car.
All of the top-seven-ranked drivers in Top Fuel won in the opening round, but they ran into a buzzsaw in the quarterfinals. Round 2 wiped out the Nos. 2-5 racers: Doug Kalitta, Tony Stewart, Leah Pruett, and Will Smith. Kalitta lost to eventual runner-up Maddi Gordon. Justin Ashley got his second win over Stewart in six tries after losing to Stewart four times, including at three races in a row. Langdon beat Smith, who had been coming on strong in the Bluebird Turf/SCAG dragster. And Brown defeated Pruett, who had set low elapsed time of the opening round.
Then, after Brown won against Langdon, he said, “That was huge. That was the team to beat.”
The second round of Funny Car was equally bruising. Three monster match-ups dented the hopes of No. 3-ranked Austin Prock, No. 4 Jack Beckman, and No. 7 Alexis DeJoria. Prock double-stepped to defeat himself, handing the critical victory to nemesis Jordan Vandergriff. Beckman smoked the tires super-early against Ron Capps, and eventual winner Todd ousted DeJoria, who didn’t help her cause with a .265 reaction time.
The semifinals in Funny Car saw Vandergriff lose to Hagan, despite his stellar .007 light at the Tree, in a showdown between the top two ranked drivers in the class. That cost Vandergriff six points, leaving him 78 points off Hagan’s pace as the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series moves to Las Vegas in two weeks for the season’s penultimate race.
7 – NO KALITTA CARS IN TOP FUEL FINAL – For only the third time this year, only the third time in 18 races, a Kalitta Motorsports dragster was not in the Top Fuel final round. Rookie Maddi Gordon defeated two-time and current champion Doug Kalitta in the second round, for her first victory over him in their five meetings. Antron Brown eliminated Langdon in the semifinals, denying Langdon the chance to compete for a ninth triumph.
“We’re obviously disappointed not to get the win in the semifinals,” Langdon said, “but we just lost a good race – no reason to hang our heads. Today doesn’t take anything away from how good this Kalitta Air team is or what we’ve done this year. So, we’ll head to Vegas and see what we can do there. … We have a nice points lead, so that’s good, but I’m not worried about that. We just got to go do our thing, and it’s going to be what it’s going to be. We’ll continue to treat each run as it is, continue to stick to the game plan, get those little bonus points, and hopefully, we can get the job done at the end of the season.”
Kalitta said, “The Mobil 1 car was consistent this weekend, but with the second round there, the thing just got away from us for some reason. It seemed like it was good until it wasn’t. We had a good shot at winning that round, but unfortunately, we didn’t. It could have been a good points day for catching up, but it didn’t happen – thanks to Mobil 1 for being with us this week, and thanks to Mac Tooks, Gerber and SealMaster. Shawn [Langdon] and Brian [Langdon crew chief Husen] lost in the semis, but they’re out there pretty far ahead of us. We’re going to have to be pretty lucky to be able to catch them, but there’s still hope. We’re going to stick around and do a little testing tomorrow and then drag her over to Vegas for the next one. That place has always been good to us, so we’ll see what happens.”
They missed the chance to double up with Funny Car-winning teammate J.R. Todd, who took out points leader Matt Hagan in their final round.
8 – LEARNING, NOT LOSING – Elite Motorsports’ Troy Coughlin Jr. is fifth in the Pro Stock standings. Although the attention has been on Greg Stanfield, new leader Dallas Glenn, Matt Hartford, and Greg Anderson ahead of him, Coughlin said he’s plowing ahead toward an improvement in the standings.
“I think it was a great weekend. I mean, every weekend of racing with Kyle Bates and Kelley Murphy, Alex Lane, and Steven Hurley is a chance to grow. We learn. We don’t lose, we learn. That’s a quote from Michael Jordan, it’s not really me,” he said. “We’re just really learning how to race on these tracks. I think any way we look at it, we’re going to chalk it up as pure growth. We’re going to be positive. We’re going to go to the next race and be ready to put our best foot forward and give the max effort that we possibly can give.
“We’re definitely going to approach the last two races as if we have a legit shot, which is how we would approach it if we were 10th right now,” Coughlin said. “We’re going to get after it every run we make. And I can tell you that racing with these guys is exciting. It’s fun. We race for each other, and it’s really special. This is a special group over here on Team Midnight. It’s a family.”
9 – EAVESDROPPING – Overheard at the Texas Fall Nationals:
“You’re so amped up there on the starting line that I used to have to not want to double-step when I raced Tony Schumacher because we didn’t like each other. Still don’t, but actually … well, I shouldn’t say that, but who cares? Anyway, I wanted to leave on the pre-stage light, so I had to actually calm myself down to race Tony. So that double-step, you’re amped up and if you have a long tree, sometimes that happens. … I’m not a fan of Tony Schumacher. I’m a Doug Kalitta fan.”
Gary Scelzi, discussing Spencer Massey’s foul start in the first round against Tony Stewart and dredging up an old rivalry
“That’s not normal for Spencer. He’s one of the best leavers here. He’d love to do that 20 times over. It’s not what you expect out of him.”
Tony Stewart, regarding first-round opponent Spencer Massey, who two-stepped at the starting line in their first-round match.
“We work super-hard every day, my wife and I, and it’s all because my friends help me. They all got me here. I was a crew guy. I never really thought I would ever become a driver. I didn’t know that I had to build my own race car to become a driver. So to run 3.80, 324 … I just wanted to go 300 miles an hour. I’m like, ‘I just want to know the speed.’ We’re having so much fun. We’re super thankful to even get the opportunity to do this. I have a really good business at home that affords us to do this. So we’ll see if we can do something more next year, see if we can be a menace.”
Jake Sanders, driver of “The Menace” Top Fuel dragster, after losing to Shawn Langdon in the first round but celebrating his pro debut
“What I wanted was for him to stay home.”
J.R. Todd, referring to Funny Car semifinal opponent Ron Capps after the victory that sent him to his 56th pro final
“I’d rather have a great Funny Car and be the weak link than have a marginal Funny Car and push harder.”
2012 Funny Car champion Jack Beckman
“I’ve gone around with some big guys, but he’s a big guy. I don’t want no part of him, I’ll tell you that. I’d hate for him to get a hold of me.”
Drag racing pioneer and 1976 Top Fuel champion Richard Tharp, regarding Funny Car leader and four-time champ Matt Hagan
10 – DID YOU KNOW?
Ron Capps downplayed it, but he said he had soreness in his lower back and “a twinge” in one arm Sunday after Saturday’s dramatic Funny Car engine explosion during qualifying.
J.R. Todd became just the fourth driver to win this race in both Top Fuel and Funny Car. He joins Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein, and Mike Dunn.
The tour’s next event, the 19th of 20 on the schedule, is the Oct. 29-Nov. 1 MOPAR NHRA Las Vegas Nationals powered by Dodge at The Strip at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway.
