Langdon rockets to 345-mph; Todd, Anderson, and Matt Smith also lead at South Georgia Motorsports Park
Top Fuel’s Shawn Langdon made the quickest cross in NHRA historical past on Friday, making an enormous splash in NHRA’s debut at South Georgia Motorsports Park and taking the provisional No. 1 spot at the NHRA Southern Nationals.
JR Todd (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the fifth of 20 races throughout the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
Langdon went 3.724-seconds at an unbelievable 345.00 mph in his Kalitta Air dragster, shattering the earlier pace report of 343.51 set by Brittany Force final 12 months in Indianapolis. The record-breaking cross places Langdon, a previous world champion within the class, on monitor for his third No. 1 qualifier of the season and the twenty fifth in his profession.
Langdon made spectacular passes in testing earlier than the season-opener in Gainesville and had made 340-mph runs in his profession, however making the quickest run in NHRA historical past on Friday definitely qualifies as an unbelievable assertion for the driving force named to NHRA’s Top 75 Drivers checklist earlier than the season.
“To see that [345 mph] pop up on the scoreboard, I think it was special for the guys. I was happy for them, especially Brian [Husen, crew chief]”Langdon said. “We were able to do that testing and some people had different ideas on what they thought, whether it was legit or not. We kind of talked about it and Brian was like, ‘Well, we’ll just do it in the season to prove it was legit.’
“It’s also good to be able to do that here, at this new track, in front of these new fans. I knew it was on a good run, but I was actually a little surprised because you don’t really notice the mile per hour.”
Tony Stewart went to second with a 3.758 at 334.40 and points leader Doug Kalitta is third after going 3.762 at 334.40.
Not to be outdone by his Kalitta Motorsports teammate, Funny Car’s JR Todd had his own spectacular showing on Friday at South Georgia Motorsports Park, making the fastest pass of the year in Funny Car with a fantastic run of 3.887 at 339.28 in his DHL Toyota GR Supra.
It sets a massive career-best speed for the past world champion and puts Todd in position to pick up his second No. 1 qualifier of the season and 16th in his career. After going five years between No. 1 qualifiers, Todd now has a chance for two in the past three races, which is a great showcase for the progress of his team.
He’s third in points and closing in on his first victory of the season, and Todd was also impressed with the 3,930 the team ran in the second round of qualifying, giving him the best pass of both sessions on Friday.
“Obviously, today was a good day and kind of continues everything we’ve done so far this year,” Todd mentioned. “We hit the ground running in testing and I knew we had a really good car. What I’m happy with is Dickie [Venables] and Todd [Smith] adjusting to the conditions. Even here, the track is good, but it’s still a bit tricky, and you see a lot of people struggling to get down. We made that good run in Q1 and the speed surprised me when I got out and saw the time slip.
“We went again and sort of slowed it down for Q2, as a result of we simply wished to be certain we acquired down the monitor. We weren’t making an attempt to throw down, however they mentioned we just about acquired all of it. It was refreshing to hear that we did not depart something on the desk.”
Jordan Vandergriff sits second with his pass of 3.924 at 325.14 and Pomona winner Matt Hagan jumped to third in the second session after going 3.933 at 328.78.
Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson continues to be nearly unstoppable in qualifying and that was evident on Friday, blasting to a 6.498 at 210.60 in his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro as he looks for his fourth straight No. 1 qualifier of the season.
No other car sniffed the 6.40s on Friday at SGMP, putting the six-time world champ in a great position to claim his 144th career No. 1 qualifier. Anderson has praised the car all year and the results have shown, as he’s advanced to the final round at three of the first four races, winning in Pomona. He’d love to do it again at NHRA’s debut at the facility and add another impressive accomplishment to his legacy.
“This is an effective racetrack, however it looks like fairly a number of of us acquired somewhat grasping at this time, simply because the air was so good. We made plenty of energy on the market at this time, and a few of us missed, together with myself,” Anderson said.
“We missed somewhat bit on the beginning line, simply acquired somewhat bit too aggressive, however aside from that, we simply have to regulate for tomorrow. It’s not a giant adjustment.”
Eric Latino is second after Friday thanks to his 6,508 at 209.75 and Aaron Stanfield is third with a run of 6,525 at 210.60.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Matt Smith made his NHRA debut at SGMP on his Denso Auto Parts Buell a good one, making the first run in the 6.60s in 2026 with a standout pass of 6.669 at 203.03. It’s the quickest run of the season in the category and puts Smith on track for his second straight No. 1 qualifier.
This comes a race after he became Pro Stock Motorcycle’s all-time leader in No. 1 qualifiers with 60. Smith, a six-time world champion is now looking to make it 61 and he had a consistent Friday with the quickest run in each session. Next on the to-do list for Smith is finishing the job and he hopes Friday’s strong start at a new track leads to his first victory of the 2026 campaign.
“You know, we examined rather a lot, even after we left Charlotte, we went and examined once more in Rockingham, so, I imply, we’re out right here to be higher and it is making an attempt every single day. We’re getting higher and higher, and that is the secret,” Smith said.
“Looking at the climate I mentioned we must always run 6.69 to 6.70, and it went 6.699, so it was as shut to a 70 as you will get. On the second run, we had a headwind, so we knew we have been going to decelerate somewhat bit.”
Charlotte winner Gaige Herrera is at the moment second with a run of 6.723 at 200.23 and reigning world champ Richard Gadson is correct behind after going 6.730 at 201.37.
Qualifying continues at 12:30 pm ET on Saturday at the NHRA Southern Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park.