By Matthew Thomerson/TheFourthTurn.com 

ROCKINGHAM, NC – In the inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock, both Shawn Langdon and Matt Hagan scored big victories.

The weekend at Rockingham Dragway marked the second race of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship, making it all the more important to have a successful three days. 

Sunday started off with the first elimination rounds, as Langdon picked up the Round 1 win against Cameron Ferre, setting up a second round against Billy Torrence. In the semi-final round, Langdon faced Will Smith, powering through to set up the fourth and final round matchup this season with teammate and championship rival, Doug Kalitta. 

Langdon got off the tree better than Kalitta and captured the win with an ET of 3.739 at 342.73 mph. The win is important for the tight title fight, giving Langdon a 25-point lead over Kalitta heading into the NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway.

“We knew for the final round we had to make a picture-perfect run,” Langdon said. “AJ (Johnson, Doug Kalitta crew chief) has been running really well. He’s got a great handle on that car. The Mac Tools guys have been doing a great job, and Doug’s been really lights-out this year.

“I knew going to the final, I had to figure out a way to how to find something on the starting line, and Brian (Husen crew chief) knew we were down four-hundredths in the semis, and we’re going back to that same lane and AJ wasn’t 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.” 

The win is Langdon’s sixth of the season, 29th of his career and second three-race winning streak of 2026, sweeping all four of the new venues the series has visited.

In Funny Car, the four-time champion Hagan couldn’t be stopped Sunday. The Tony Stewart Racing driver got through the first few rounds against Dave Richards, No.1 qualifier Ron Capps and JR Todd. This set up a final round against Paul Lee, where Hagan powered through with an ET of 3.922 at 327.75 mph to take his fourth win of the season and 59th of his career. Much like in Funny Car, Hagan also extended his points lead to 84 over Jordan Vandergriff.

“To race Paul in the final round here was incredible,” Hagan said. “At the end of the day, I’m just so proud of my guys. We’ve got a heck of a start to the Countdown, but there’s a lot of work ahead of us. The biggest thing we can do is to continue to stay humble and keep working hard. We’re having fun and we’re just very, very blessed.” 

In the other pro categories, it was Greg Stanfield picking up his eighth career win in Pro Stock, extending his championship lead to 31 in the process. In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Richard Gadson won an exciting matchup against teammate Gaige Herrera. Herrera went early, handing the reigning champion Gadson his seventh career victory.   

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads to St. Louis, Illinois, for the NAPA Auto Parts Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway for the fourth-to-last race weekend of the season. 

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com