Shawn Langdon Stays Red Hot While Chad Green, Aaron Stanfield, And Matt Smith Score Big NHRA Route 66 Wins
- TSN MOTORSPORTS INSIDER
- May 19
- 3 min read
Shawn Langdon, Chad Green, Aaron Stanfield, and Matt Smith earn pro wins at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Performance, the sixth of 20 events in the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.
op Fuel points leader Shawn Langdon rolled to his second straight victory, defeating four-time world champion Antron Brown in the final round on Sunday to close out the 26th annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK at Route 66 Raceway.
Chad Green (Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won the sixth of 20 races during the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
Langdon went 3.775-seconds at 335.90 mph in his Kalitta Air dragster to get past Brown, who went up in smoke early in the run. It is the 25th career win for Langdon, who extended his points lead and knocked off Shawn Reed, teammate Doug Kalitta and Josh Hart to reach the final round.
The weekend started as a struggle for Langdon and his Kalitta Motorsports team, but they put together a solid run to close out Saturday and win the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. That momentum continued through four rounds on Sunday and it continues a remarkable first six races for the past world champion, who has already picked up three wins this season, qualified No. 1 twice and made the fastest run (345.00 mph) in NHRA history.
“We definitely had a big turnaround from qualifying,” Langdon said. “Brian (Husen, crew chief) realized that we had to tame some things down in the car. Having to run Doug second round wasn't ideal, but at the end of the day, we had to get some information for our car and make a good run, and then from there, today was a little bit tricky.
“First round was really good and then just with the clouds coming in and out, there were just a lot of last-minute changes. Brian’s gotten really good lately, just off of his gut feeling, making those last-second little changes, but I could tell that they had two different game plans, and one was when the sun was out and one for when the cloud cover was there. They were able to adapt when they needed to and provided a great race car for four rounds.”
Brown reached his first final round of the season and 145th in his career thanks to round wins against T.J. Zizzo, rookie Maddi Gordon and Leah Pruett. Kalitta remained second in points, 54 behind his teammate Langdon.
Funny Car’s Chad Green continued to build his championship contender case on Sunday in Chicago, slipping past Alexis DeJoria in a thrilling final round duel with a run of 3.945 at 324.75 in his Bond-Coat/bproauto Ford Mustang. It’s Green’s second win in the first six races of the 2026 campaign, putting the Texan fourth in points and right in the thick of the championship battle.
On Sunday, he was again consistent against a loaded field, defeating Valdosta winner Jordan Vandergriff, Ron Capps and back-to-back world champion Austin Prock to reach the final round.
Green and DeJoria put on a remarkable side-by-side show in the finals, but Green had enough for the slim wire-to-wire victory, joining Capps as the only two-time winners in the class thus far in 2026.
“The whole team aspect of this sport doesn't get enough recognition. This is 100 percent a team sport, just like football, basketball and any of those other sports,” Green said. “The driver, they get a lot of the fame and glory, but to be honest, what these guys do is just incredible. To go out there and turn on four win lights on a Sunday is so difficult. These guys have to do everything perfectly every round, and we have to go out there and beat the best guys out there doing it. So, I can't say enough about the team.
“(Alexis) is driving a John Force car, and that was a dang good race. I never saw her during the race. When the win light came on, I thought, ‘Oh, she probably had problems or something,’ but then I looked at the time slip, and man, she was right there with me.”
DeJoria continues to build on her solid season in a class filled with contenders, picking up her second runner-up of the year after round wins against Spencer Hyde, Dave Richards and four-time world champion Matt Hagan. She’s sixth in points, as Capps and J.R. Todd leave Chicago tied for the points lead, with Hagan nine points behind.
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