NHRA’s Top 9 Suspenseful Scenarios That Will Start Unfolding at Gatornationals

One of the wildest offseason flurries of movement has settled now, and the 2026 season-opening Gatornationals in under way. Here, in random order, are some storylines to follow. Drag racing fans, start your imaginations…

Kalitta Motorsports driver Shawn Langdon has pushed the envelope

Fresh from Doha, Qatar, and a successful winter season with the Arabian Drag Racing League, Shawn Langdon set the NHRA Top Fuel bar in Professional Racers Organization preseason testing with a historic 3.621-second elapsed time at 345.62-plus mph in his Kalitta Air Dragster. That was two-thousandths of a second quicker than Brittany Force’s nearly seven-year-old national record and more than two miles an hour faster than Force’s 2025 mark of 343.51.

However, the feat is not official by NHRA standards because it took place during a non-sanctioned event. But the dazzling numbers raise the question of how much the current Goodyear tire compound can withstand. Especially at this kickoff of the NHRA’s 75th anniversary, with Kenny Bernstein being celebrated for breaking the 300-mph barrier in 1992 at Gainesville Raceway, this season promises a mix of anticipation and concern for safety.

Leah Pruett is returning to action, racing against not only her husband but also her ex-husband

Top Fuel’s intensely passionate Leah Pruett and husband Tony Stewart have joked about racing each other and how their gusto for winning will play out this season if and when they wind up racing each other. Their situation actually isn’t a novelty, as John and Rhonda Hartman-Smith dueled in Top Fuel a decade or so ago and Pro Stock Motorcycle couple Matt and Angie Smith still do. However, what IS unusual is the late development that Gary Pritchett—Pruett’s ex-husband—will race Doug Foley’s Top Fuel dragster after Foley announced he’ll strengthen the team by serving as owner only. So that means Pruett will compete against both her husband and ex-husband. Maybe that’ll be no big deal.

Pruett isn’t making too much of it. She’s laser-focused on getting back in her seat after two years away, concentrating on motherhood: “To say this race is just like any other would be a massive understatement. I’ve been working for months to be prepared for this weekend. The anticipation is high. I’m going to have to try and lie to my body, tell it that it’s just another race,” she said. “I haven’t made a side-by-side pass with someone in years, so I am very much looking forward to that, and the cadence of a race weekend. The competitive spirit inside of me has been reignited in a way that only driving a Top Fuel dragster with this team can do.”

Austin Prock expects to perform the same for Tasca Racing as he did for John Force Racing

Austin Prock is used to winning races and championships. The former Top Fuel winner and two-time and current Funny Car titlist pulled up anchor at John Force Racing and moved to Tasca Racing. He’ll be driving the PPG Dark Horse Mustang after switching loyalties from Chevrolet to Ford as Blue Oval evangelist Tasca stepped away from the seat to hire Prock.

Prock, though not necessarily cocky, has had no shortage of self-confidence since he broke into the NHRA ranks after circle-track racing in 2019. And he has that same assurance as he embarks on a new venture, despite the changes. “It’s been a lot of work and a lot of long hours, seven days a week, for most of the off-season and still right now. We bit off a huge chunk, and we’re just sorting through it,” Prock said. “We’ve had a little bit of success in testing, but we’ll keep working and we’ll be ready. All we have to do is qualify and be ready by Sunday. I’ve got the best people in the business working with me. There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll be a front-runner this year. We do have to be patient, but I don’t think anybody here wants to be patient. We know what we’re capable of doing, and we know we can win the first race.”

Shawn Reed emerging as Top Fuel power but is at a crossroad

Top Fuel owner-driver Shawn Reed made a triumphant return from a serious hand injury last summer, winning an IHRA race and the first NHRA Countdown event—and claiming eighth place in the final NHRA standings. And he clearly is relishing his popular ambush of the elite clique. But the owner of the Reed Trucking and Excavating Dragster is planning to sell 49% of his Tacoma, Washington, business at the end of this calendar year—and he has dipped into his corporate funds to support his racing endeavors.

His latest move is a is collaboration with Ida Zetterström, a savvy social-media user and relentless self-marketer. “Next year, if I’m selling 49% of the company,” he said, “I can’t run a full-time dragster.” So he offered to share the seat with Zetterström. This way she’ll gain experience and possibly attract marketing partners to keep the team afloat—and possibly enable Reed to field dragsters for them both one day. “If she can’t find money, then I’m probably going to have to either go run the IHRA or go to a limited schedule and lay off a lot of people and go to a part-time crew,” Reed said. That’s not what he wants to do. So here’s hoping that doesn’t happen.

John Force Racing has an entirely new vibe

For the most part, John Force has built a drag-racing empire with family recruits. Three of his daughters—Ashley, Brittany, and Courtney—competed, with Brittany earning a couple of Top Fuel crown, setting records, and wowing crowds with her chart-topping speeds. Robert Hight, his former son-in-law, won three Funny Car championships. It was all about family. But it’s different now. The daughters and Hight no longer race, and neither does the 16-time champion boss. The New-Look JFR has Josh Hart in the dragster and Jack Beckman, Alexis DeJoria, and Jordan Vandergriff in Funny Cars. So it’s new era for Force.

Hart, who sold his equipment to Elite Motorsports owner Richard Freeman (who hired Tony Stewart to drive the dragster), promises he doesn’t regret his decision. He said being a Top Fuel team owner and driver, trying to build a winning program through myriad struggles, is “like death by a thousand razor blades” and that selling the team and becoming a hired driver “is kind of like when you have an elephant standing on your chest. It feels so relieving to know that you don’t have to deal with the day-to-day stuff.”

DeJoria, another veteran but newcomer to JFR, said, “I’ve watched John Force race since I was 16 years old, sitting in the stands. John Force signed my Funny Car license, so to be able to say that I’m racing for this man, uh, the legend John Force, to be running the big John Force X on my race car is surreal.”

Vandergriff is the “baby” of the group in age and experience. But he inherited Prock’s seat and is keen to renew his rivalry with his former Top Fuel nemesis—and beat him with the former so-called “Prock Rocket.”

Beckman, elevated from Force substitute to JFR leader, said he still, like DeJoria, has “pinch-me moments.” He said he has gotten to “spend time with the people that were 10 feet tall when I was a kid” and “ just when I think I have everything I’ve ever wished for, a bunch more cool things happen. I’m enjoying the ride thoroughly.”

Eventually, they’ll all become family to Force and to each other, maybe. But with no one named “Force” on the track for the first time, it’s just a different vibe—not less talented, by any means, but just different.

Who moved my cheese?

Reminiscent of Dr. Spencer Johnson’s 1998 book, Who Moved My Cheese, that’s aimed at the dynamics of adjusting to change, almost every NHRA team is facing new challenges and experimenting with new strategies and new personnel. And it will be fascinating to see how everything plays out this season. Drivers, crew chiefs, and sponsors are in unfamiliar places. So what does that all mean? Who knows yet?

Maddi Gordon leaves family race team for Ron Capps’ 12,000-horsepower dragster

The third-generation racer from Paso Robles, California, proved her skills both at servicing her family-owned Top Alcohol Funny Car and putting it in the winners circle. But the lure of a 12,000-horsepower dragster and a chance to learn the nuances of the sport from 76-time winner Ron Capps was too great to pass up.

“I’ve driven through the pro pits my whole life and have always admired how professional it looks, and to now be able to have my name on one of those banners and my face on one of those trailers is so cool,” she said. “There’s just so many things that are going to be a totally new experience for me this weekend. For example, I’ve never done driver intros, I’ve never raced E1 on a Sunday morning, so, it’s hard to pinpoint what all I’m looking forward to the most.” The bubbly 21-year-old should be fun to watch as she makes her debut.

Steve Torrence sitting this one out

Four-time Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence right now appears to prefer staying home in East Texas with his wife and two young daughters to criss-crossing the country, pursuing more victories and titles. He’s content, at least at the moment, with his 56 victories that have him fourth on the class’ all-time list (and just three behind No. 3 Doug Kalitta). If Torrence cared to chase records, he could tie the inactive icon Larry Dixon with six more trophies and challenge No. 2 Antron Brown (who has 65). Dad Billy Torrence is carrying the CAPCO banner all this season. Will Steve come back and join him? Only the CAPCO Boys know.

Will IHRA thrive? Will it have any impact on NHRA?

NHRA observers have been doing just that—observing—when it comes to a resurrected International Hot Rod Association. Ohio business tycoon Darryl Cuttell bought the once-thriving, once-threatening IHRA, then has proceeded to gobble up a variety of racing series and racetracks at an astonishingly rapid pace.

Racers have expressed appreciation for Cuttell providing more places to race and for treating them with respect. But the way the IHRA has hired strong people and dismissed them so quickly is giving people pause. Who knows what Cuttell’s end game is? He doesn’t make many public statements. But perhaps Shawn Reed summed up the consensus: “He spent lots of money. I think it’s great. I mean, I wish one day that the IHRA and NHRA can co-function and get along. That’d even be better. Hopefully they can just keep going full steam ahead.”