{"id":104898,"date":"2026-09-28T05:44:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T05:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/hagan-langdon-g-stanfield-and-gadson-roll-to-wins-at-nhra-nationals-at-the-rock\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T05:44:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T05:44:04","slug":"hagan-langdon-g-stanfield-and-gadson-roll-to-wins-at-nhra-nationals-at-the-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/hagan-langdon-g-stanfield-and-gadson-roll-to-wins-at-nhra-nationals-at-the-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Hagan, Langdon, G. Stanfield, and Gadson Roll To Wins at NHRA Nationals At The Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan rolled to his fourth victory of the season for Tony Stewart Racing on Sunday in front of a near-capacity crowd at Rockingham Dragway, defeating Paul Lee in the final round at the NHRA Nationals at The Rock.<\/p>\n

Shawn Langdon (Top Fuel), Greg Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Richard Gadson (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won 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

Hagan went 3.922-seconds at 327.75 mph in his 12,000-horsepower Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat Funny Car, powering past Lee, who lost traction midway through the run. It is Hagan\u2019s 59th career victory as the four-time world champion defeated Dave Richards, Ron Capps and J.R. Todd to reach the final round.<\/p>\n

He now has an 84-point lead over Jordan Vandergriff with four races left in the season, advancing to the finals for the fourth straight race, including back-to-back appearances to open the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Hagan won in Brainerd and now Rockingham during that stretch, as he remains in command in his search for a fifth Funny Car world championship, which would pair the veteran with John Force as the only two drivers in NHRA history to win five or more Funny Car world titles.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Matt Hagan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable that I get to have a great race car underneath me, and it\u2019s going down the racetrack, and I know that every time I sit in that car every Sunday morning, I have an opportunity to win, and that\u2019s huge,\u201d Hagan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe points chase is super competitive. There\u2019s six cars that could just change the landscape at any given moment. As much as I\u2019d love to sit here and say how great we\u2019re doing, it takes one or two races of going out the first round, and it changes it. We have to keep working hard and keep putting that foot forward. I want to win this fifth championship not just for me but for my crew chief and the team. I\u2019m excited for what we have. I\u2019ve been very, very successful in this sport as far as four championships and so many races and a bunch of world records and all other stuff that\u2019s happened, but I\u2019ve never had what I\u2019ve had what I have right now with this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee reached his first final of 2026 with round wins against Cruz Pedregon, Alexis DeJoria and Austin Prock. Todd is currently third, 106 points behind Hagan.<\/p>\n

Top Fuel\u2019s Shawn Langdon saved his best for last and delivered in a big way, giving Rockingham Dragway its first 340 mph run by defeating Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta in the final round on a holeshot with a 3.739 at a booming 342.73 in his 12,000-horsepower Kalitta Air dragster.<\/p>\n

Kalitta ran a quicker 3.722 at 330.40, but Langdon left first with a .024 reaction time, holding off the reigning world champion at the finish line, in part thanks to the massive speed in the championship round.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Shawn Langdon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the second time this year the points leader has won three straight races, giving the past world champion his sixth victory of the year and the 29th in his career. This one comes at a perfect time, as Langdon has strung together victories at the U.S. Nationals and now the first two races in the Countdown to the Championship, opening up a 25-point lead over Kalitta.<\/p>\n

The pair of teammates have put significant distance between themselves and the next batch of competitors, as Tony Stewart is currently third in points, a distant 155 points behind Langdon. On Sunday, Langdon defeated Cam Ferre, Billy Torrence and Shawn Reed to reach the final round, moving one step closer to a second world title.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew for the final round we had to make a picture-perfect run,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cAJ [Alan Johnson, Doug Kalitta crew chief] has been running really well. He\u2019s got a great handle on that car. The Mac Tools guys have been doing a great job, and Doug\u2019s been really lights-out this year. I knew going to the final, I had to figure out a way to find something on the starting line, and Brian [Husen crew chief] knew we were down four-hundredths in the semis, and we\u2019re going back to that same lane and AJ wasn\u2019t going to lay up. Brian was very, very aware of that, so he was doing some homework and I knew I had to do everything I could.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrian\u2019s really worked with the guys and the guys have done a great job working together to be perfect. We\u2019re out here to win races and you have to be perfect in order to do things like this. We\u2019re just bonding together and working hard and keeping our heads, working just as hard for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kalitta reached the finals for the eighth time this season and 134th time in his career with wins against Rit Pustari, Maddi Gordon and Will Smith.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Greg Stanfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greg Stanfield helped Elite Motorsports stay undefeated in the Pro Stock championship race, moving into the points lead and knocking off rookie Cody Anderson in the final round on a holeshot with a run of 6.537 at 210.48 in his Janac Brothers Racing car.<\/p>\n

Stanfield was a deadly .019 on the starting line, which was enough to hold off Anderson\u2019s 6.525 at 209.99, denying the standout first-year driver his first career win. It gave Stanfield his second victory this season and continued a strong performance in the Countdown to the Championship for Elite Motorsports, following Troy Coughlin\u2019s victory at Martin last week.<\/p>\n

It was a huge day for Stanfield, moving past Matt Hartford for the points lead and finishing his day at Rockingham Dragway with his eighth career Pro Stock victory. To reach the final round, Stanfield had to get by his son, Aaron, Matt Latino and reigning world champion Dallas Glenn, posting an incredible .005 reaction time against Glenn in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

His lead stands at 31 points over Hartford and 39 over Glenn.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to do this today, it definitely feels good,\u201d Stanfield said. \u201cAny time you can hold a Wally, it\u2019s a great day. I\u2019m just trying to do the best I can and not let everybody down who works their butt off for me to be able to drive. I think I\u2019ve let our team down through the year, getting to the semis, then not closing it. For me to be able to close it out today, it means a lot. There\u2019s a lot of young drivers that are really talented right now, and for me to try to rise up to their level and race with them is tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody can win in this class right now. I mean, it\u2019s incredible how tight it is. So, the points battle is going to go all the way to the end. I feel like it\u2019s going to be that way. So what\u2019s going to happen next week? I can\u2019t predict it. We\u2019re just going to try to work hard, work smart and if it\u2019s meant to be, it\u2019ll be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson reached the final round for the first time in his young career by knocking off Erica Enders, his father, six-time champion Greg Anderson and Hartford.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Richard Gadson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Richard Gadson got the victory on the starting line when teammate Gaige Herrera went red in the championship round, handing the points leader and reigning world champion his third victory of the year on his RevZilla\/Motul\/Vance & Hines Suzuki.<\/p>\n

Herrera left .018 early, handing the victory to Gadson, who delivered a solid run of 6.789 at 199.65 en route to his seventh career victory. After an early loss last week in the playoff opener, Gadson got back on track in a major way, opening up a 64-point lead over Herrera with four races remaining.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, he got past Geno Scali, Ryan Oehler and Chase Van Sant to reach the final round and set up another marquee matchup with his Vance & Hines teammate. They\u2019re now 3-3 against each other in final rounds, but it was Gadson who took the victory at Rockingham Dragway to keep him in a great position to win a second straight world championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I got away with one here this weekend. It\u2019s kind of been our M.O. It wasn\u2019t fancy. It wasn\u2019t glamorous. It wasn\u2019t headline-worthy, but you know, we\u2019re here holding our third diamond Wally,\u201d Gadson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGaige and I are extremely competitive with each other, sometimes to the point where the lines are blurry in our competitiveness because he\u2019s a friend. I\u2019ve got a lot of respect for the guy, but I\u2019m playing mind games the whole time. He\u2019s playing games the whole time, and you know I said. \u2018It\u2019s his race to lose,\u2019 hoping that he would lose the race somehow. In order to win the race, you\u2019ve got to be green four times. Gaige went for the E.T., and he got away with it three rounds, but we decided we\u2019re just going to race our lane, so it\u2019s a lot of strategizing, and it paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herrera reached the finals for the fourth time this season and 36th time in his career thanks to round wins against Lance Bonham, Clayton Howey and Joey Gladstone. M. Smith is 81 points back in third.<\/p>\n

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action Oct. 2-4 with the 15th annual NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on September 28, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Hagan, Langdon, G. Stanfield, and Gadson Roll To Wins at NHRA Nationals At The Rock<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan rolled to his fourth victory of the season for Tony Stewart Racing on Sunday in front of a near-capacity crowd at Rockingham Dragway, defeating Paul Lee in the final round at the NHRA Nationals at The Rock. Shawn Langdon (Top Fuel), Greg Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Richard Gadson (Pro […]<\/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-104898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104898","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=104898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}