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<\/p>\nReigning Top Fuel world champ Doug Kalitta finished Friday\u2019s qualifying with the best run of the day at Rockingham Dragway, rolling to the provisional No. 1 spot to open the NHRA Nationals at The Rock.<\/p>\n
Ron Capps (Funny Car), Matt Hartford (Pro Stock) and Angie Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 16th of 20 races during the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season and the second of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.<\/p>\n
The second session also included a special Last Driver Standing Laptop Giveaway presented by IGTG and Perimeter.One, which handed the top qualifier in the second session an ASUS ROG Flow Z13 Nebula high-end laptop. The low qualifiers in Top Fuel and Funny Car also received a $1,000 bonus.<\/p>\n
Kalitta, who is currently second in points to Kalitta Motorsports teammate Shawn Langdon, went 3.682-seconds at 338.09 mph in his 12,000-horsepower Mac Tools dragster to move past Tony Stewart and take the top spot.<\/p>\n
If that holds, Kalitta would pick up his sixth No. 1 qualifier of the year as he also looks for his fifth win of 2026. He was the only driver to reach the 3.60s on Friday, which comes on the heels of qualifying No. 1 at the Countdown opener in Martin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe car is just going down the track nice and smooth,\u201d Kalitta said. \u201cWhen we were in Michigan, the track was just in great shape there, but it\u2019s a lot happier here for some reason. The track seems nice and smooth. So you know, Alan [Johnson] and Mac [Savage, crew chiefs] and all my guys were super hungry. Brian [Husen and teammate Shawn Langdon] won the last two races, so we\u2019re trying to keep up with him and everybody else out here.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Getting points in qualifying] can be so important. Every point counts. We\u2019ve all lost on close points races. I try not to get too wrapped up in it, more on Sunday where there are 20-point swings, but we\u2019re down to five races, so you have to. I\u2019ve got a great car, great group behind me. We have a lot of momentum, so we just got to carry on and see what we can\u00a0do to keep leading the charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart is in the second spot with a 3.720 at 336.32, while his wife, Leah Pruett, is third with an impressive 3.734 at 323.74. Points leader Langdon is currently qualified seventh.<\/p>\n
Funny Car\u2019s Ron Capps delivered an epic performance to close out Friday at Rockingham Dragway, powering to the No. 1 spot with a stellar 3.870 at 330.40 in his 12,000-horsepower NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra.<\/p>\n
Capps is after his fourth top spot of the 2026 campaign and he was one of only two Funny Cars to dip into the 3.80s through the first two sessions. For Capps, this weekend is a big one for the three-time world champ. He led the points for the bulk of the regular season but is now fourth in points and 63 out of first entering the weekend.<\/p>\n
He made up some ground on Friday and will look to continue that trend the rest of the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuido [crew chief Dean Antonelli] and I, we\u2019re like these two OG dogs. We were\u00a0talking about how we were pulling up the first run. I said, \u2018Man, I\u2019m having flashbacks.\u2019 I was here the last time NHA raced here [in 1998]. I was in the final round actually,\u201d Capps said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a completely different track. it used to be pretty bumpy, but now it\u2019s very smooth. They did a great job. Everybody worried a little bit after the rain on Thursday. It\u2019s got some transitions that everybody was talking about and \u2018Guido\u2019 went up and watched the first Funny Car\u00a0go down, and it hardly moved at all. So we were like, \u2018Wow!\u2019 And then I made my run in the left lane, and we were No. 2 at the time, but smooth. I couldn\u2019t believe how smooth it was. So great job by everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back-to-back defending world champ Austin Prock jumped to second in the second session with a 3.893 at 326.80 and Jack Beckman is third thanks to his 3.911 at 327.03. Points leader Matt Hagan currently sits sixth with a 3.935.<\/p>\n
In Pro Stock, drivers dipped into the 6.40s in the marquee conditions at Rockingham Dragway and it was points leader Matt Hartford who stayed red-hot, taking the No. 1 spot with a standout pass of 6.476 at a stout 212.87 in the opening session in his Total Seal Chevrolet Camaro.<\/p>\n
It puts Hartford, who advanced to the final round at the playoff opener, on track to clinch his third straight No. 1 qualifier and the eighth in his career. He has put together strong runs during a critical point of the season and Hartford is confident he can stay in the 6.40s and deliver several solid performances on what should be a quick weekend in Rockingham.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went 6.476 in the first session and 6.49 in the second session. We knew it was going to be really tight when we rolled up there, and we knew we had to make a run, but we didn\u2019t make the best run,\u201d Hartford said. \u201cFortunately for us, everybody else made some good runs, but not quite quicker than us. We made a respectable run, but not what we were looking for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no data at all for this. We had no data in Martin, Maryland, Valdosta. So these new tracks are a curveball for us, but I\u2019ve got a lot of faith in my crew and my team. They all know how to analyze what the air conditions are, what the track conditions are, and give me a car that has proven that we\u2019ve been able to run pretty well at these new facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reigning world champ Dallas Glenn is second with a 6.478 at 212.06 and Matt Latino went to third after going 6.479 at 211.67.<\/p>\n
Pro Stock Motorcycle put on a thrilling show during both sessions on Friday at Rockingham Dragway, but it was championship contender Angie Smith who had the last laugh on an ultra-quick day, going a career-best 6.674 at 201.61 on her Denso Auto Parts Buell to take over the No. 1 spot.<\/p>\n
Four bikes went in the 6.60s to open the weekend, but Smith was a step quicker than her husband, Matt, as she looks to pick up her fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season. The playoff opener didn\u2019t go as planned for Smith, falling in the second round, but she rebounded quickly on Friday in Rockingham. Currently fourth in points, Smith is after a big weekend to close in on points leader and reigning world champ Richard Gadson.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatt [Smith] went 6.68 in the first session and I went 6.69, so I gave him some crap about it because us racers, we\u2019re greedy,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe always want to go fast. I knew my bike had a little bit more left in it and he said, \u2018Well, I\u2019m going to tune you up, so you better be ready.\u2019 Well, I was ready, and then after the run, he was like, \u2018I guess I tuned you up too much.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it here. We\u2019ve probably made 60 runs here this year on this racetrack. We test here all the time, and the track personnel that runs this track when there\u2019s not a national event here, they do an amazing job prepping the track so all the data that we get when we\u2019re here testing, it always translates, and that\u2019s a really good thing. So, hats off to everybody that runs this facility. I\u2019m really glad to be here because it\u2019s kind of home. It\u2019s an hour and a half from our house, and there\u2019s been a lot of fans stop by the pit to see us, and everybody likes it.\u201d<\/p>\n
M. Smith is second after going 6.681 at a booming 204.17 and Ryan Oehler, who was the top qualifier in Martin, is third after going 6.681 at 202.25. Gadson is right behind in fourth after a run of 6.683 at 202.41.<\/p>\n
Qualifying continues at 12 p.m. ET on Saturday at the NHRA Nationals at The Rock at Rockingham Dragway.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on September 25, 2026. <\/p>\n
The post Kalitta, Capps, Hartford, and A. Smith Start NHRA Nationals at The Rock in No. 1 Spots<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reigning Top Fuel world champ Doug Kalitta finished Friday\u2019s qualifying with the best run of the day at Rockingham Dragway, rolling to the provisional No. 1 spot to open the NHRA Nationals at The Rock. Ron Capps (Funny Car), Matt Hartford (Pro Stock) and Angie Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also the provisional No. 1 […]<\/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-104880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104880","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=104880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}