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<\/p>\nShawn Langdon went to the top on Friday\u2019s final run at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, taking the provisional No. 1 spot to kick off the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals.<\/p>\n
Jack Beckman (Funny Car), Greg Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers in Indianapolis at the 14th of 20 races during the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.<\/p>\n
Langdon went 3.727-seconds at 334.98 mph in his 12,000-horsepower SealMaster dragster for Kalitta Motorsports as the past champion looks to pick up his sixth No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 28th in his career.<\/p>\n
In Brainerd, Langdon dropped to second in points behind teammate Doug Kalitta, putting a premium on doing well at Indy. He\u2019s currently 67 points behind the reigning world champion as Langdon attempts to win the regular season championship and get his third Indy victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a big confidence boost for the team and it takes some of the pressure off for the rest of the weekend,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cThe last couple of races, things just didn\u2019t really seem to go our way. We still have a good car, though, and we still know what our group is capable of, so this is definitely a good start to the weekend. With the amount of cars that we have (22 in Top Fuel), we know we\u2019re in, so not qualifying goes out of your head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tony Stewart, who clinched the regular season world championship a year ago, is currently second with a 3.744 at 328.22 and Leah Pruett is third after going 3.772 at 326.24.<\/p>\n
For the second straight year, Funny Car\u2019s Jack Beckman is atop the field after Friday night at The Big Go, going 3.937 at 326.79 in his 12,000-horsepower PEAK Chevrolet SS for John Force Racing.<\/p>\n
For the second straight year, Beckman is also in a John Force throwback, with Friday\u2019s car sporting an homage to Force\u2019s dominant 1996 championship season 30 years ago. It was a stellar debut for Beckman with the throwback Indy look as he seeks his third No. 1 spot of the year and the 36th in his career. It\u2019s the start of a big weekend for Beckman, who is also the No. 1 seed in Sunday\u2019s PlayNHRA All-Star Callout bonus race.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to be No. 1 qualifier when there are 16 cars, but I don\u2019t want to say it\u2019s essential when there are 23 cars \u2013 it just sets you right,\u201d Beckman said. \u201cIt\u2019s a unique race because we get five qualifiers. It\u2019s the only event where we\u2019re only scheduled for one run on Friday, and we only get one night session. This might be an interesting weekend. Sunday, it looks like the forecast is a lot more favorable. Maybe there\u2019s a chance to swing harder than that, and I hope there is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so rewarding when you step on the throttle on one of these things, and it just keeps motoring down there. I don\u2019t know if ours mixed a cylinder up \u2013 it wasn\u2019t a great mile an hour, but it was efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ron Capps is right behind in second after a 3.938 at 329.10 and back-to-back event winner Austin Prock is third after a run of 3.943 at 313.37.<\/p>\n
In Pro Stock, Greg Stanfield enjoyed a strong start in his Janac Brothers Racing car for Elite Motorsports, taking the provisional No. 1 spot with a run of 6.650 at 206.01. Should that hold for the veteran, he would pick up his second top qualifier of what has been a solid regular season.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s currently third in points and has been the front-runner for Elite Motorsports thus far in 2026. This race also means a lot to Stanfield, who won in Pro Stock at The Big Go in 2010 and would love to do so again this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you could be number one at the end of the session, it\u2019s a great day for us, so we\u2019re tickled to death with where we finished up,\u201d Stanfield said. \u201cLooking at the weather for Sunday, and as the race goes on, I think the weather\u2019s going to get better, so things will kind of get jockeyed around, but it feels good to start out on top for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love this race. It\u2019s our best race. So, hopefully, we can just keep moving forward and we need luck. That\u2019s what we need more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erica Enders, the defending event winner in Indy, is second with a 6.661 at 206.67 and points leader Greg Anderson, who has seven Indy victories, is right behind with a 6.661 at 205.60.<\/p>\n
Pro Stock Motorcycle officially returned to the track for the first time since late June and Matt Smith Racing was ready, taking the top three spots to open the weekend, including a top run from Matt Smith, who delivered a run of 6.864 at 198.90 on his Denso Auto Parts Buell.<\/p>\n
Eight riders took part in the GETTRX All-Star Callout in July, but the entire class hasn\u2019t competed in more than two months. But the two-wheeled category will be at the final seven races, including this weekend at The Big Go and Smith is off to a great start as he seeks his third No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 62nd in his career. Currently fourth in points, Smith hopes a big finish to his year starts this weekend at the world\u2019s biggest drag race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was pretty good. We went to Rockingham [Dragway] and made a bunch of test laps,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe spent two days down there in conditions just like this. It was hot and humid, and we dedicated ourselves to it because we knew it was probably going to be hot here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSunday might be a little different, but right now I think we got a good little start. We had some time off and we worked really hard preparing motors and getting everybody\u2019s stuff fresh for this race and for the Countdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s wife, Angie, is currently second with a 6.905 at 196.64 and John Hall sits third after Friday with a 6.910 at 195.65.<\/p>\n
Qualifying continues at 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on September 4, 2026. <\/p>\n
The post Langdon, Beckman, G. Stanfield, and M. Smith Open Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals At The Top<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shawn Langdon went to the top on Friday\u2019s final run at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, taking the provisional No. 1 spot to kick off the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals. Jack Beckman (Funny Car), Greg Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers in Indianapolis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}