Ron Capps Motorsports Post-Race Recap: Valdosta

NHRA Southern Nationals
Event 5 of 20
South Georgia Motorsports Park
Adel, Ga.
May 1 – 3, 2026

By: Ron Capps Motorsports (Photo Courtesy Ron Capps Motorsports)

Maddi Gordon Sets New Career-Best Numbers
With 340-MPH Passes at NHRA Southern Nationals

ADEL, Ga. (May 3, 2026) – Top Fuel rookie Maddi Gordon’s first trip to South Georgia Motorsports Park for the NHRA Southern Nationals resulted in new career-bests in both elapsed time and speed for the driver of the Carlyle Tools Top Fuel dragster. She became only the second woman and fourth Top Fuel driver to eclipse the 340-mph barrier, hitting the mark twice across qualifying and Sunday eliminations. The Ron Capps Motorsports driver closed out the weekend with a quarterfinal exit at the fifth of 20 races on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule and leaves Georgia ranked sixth in the Top Fuel points standings.

Before heading to South Georgia, Gordon joined teammate and team owner Ron Capps for a visit to NAPA headquarters near Atlanta. She also threw out the first pitch at Wednesday night’s Atlanta Braves game versus the Detroit Tigers, adding to the excitement leading up to the NHRA Mission Foods Series’ first visit to South Georgia.

The hype continued when qualifying kicked off on Friday as Gordon powered to the provisional No. 1 spot with her 3.775-second pass at 329.75 mph, earning three championship bonus points for having the quickest run of the first session. Tire smoke followed in the second session, with Gordon settling into the No. 4 position to end the day. Heavy rain on Saturday pushed the remainder of qualifying into the early evening, but it was worth the wait for Gordon, who set new career-best numbers with an impressive blast of 3.748 seconds at 340.05 mph to lock in the No. 4 position for race day.

Gordon paired up with Will Smith in Sunday’s first round of eliminations. She piloted the Carlyle Tools machine to more career-best numbers and another 340-mph pass, a 3.728-second run at 340.22 mph, to move on to the second round. In the quarterfinal match against Smith’s teammate, Justin Ashley, Gordon drove into tire smoke early and watched as Ashley raced by for the win.

“Of course, we wanted to go further than the second round,” Gordon said. “We all thought we had a really good shot this weekend. But we’re still learning. I’ve never smoked the tires instantly before, so I got to learn what that felt like. There was no way I was going to pedal it because I saw him out there anyways, but we’ll learn from that and take it to the next one.”

The energetic and optimistic Gordon found plenty of positives in the weekend, from the pre-race festivities and meeting passionate new fans at a new track to making more history with her 340-mph passes.

“The 340s were really insane,” said Gordon, who credited crew chiefs Rob Flynn and Troy Fasching, car chief Chuck Grospitch, and the Carlyle Tools team. “That is such a huge milestone, especially afterwards realizing not very many drivers have done that. There are world champions out there who haven’t gone 340 yet, so to hit that milestone this early in my career was just really, really exciting and just a huge morale booster. We’ve been having a great season, but those little milestones are just so, so cool. Everything has to go perfect for that to happen.”

Gordon’s rookie season with the Carlyle Tools team and Ron Capps Motorsports will continue May 15-17 at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., outside Chicago.

Qualified: No. 4 (3.748 E.T. at 340.05 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.728 E.T. at 340.22 MPH defeated Will Smith 4.056 E.T. at 258.12 MPH
E2: 10.440 E.T. at 80.96 MPH defeated by Justin Ashley 4.035 E.T. at 246.35 MPH

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial):

1	Shawn Langdon	481
2	Doug Kalitta	477
3	Leah Pruett	352
4	Tony Stewart	332
5	Josh Hart	298
6	Maddi Gordon	296
7	Justin Ashley	280
8	Billy Torrence	244
9	Clay Millican	220
10	Antron Brown	218

Ron Capps Looks Ahead to Chicago After Challenging Southern Nationals Weekend

Three-time Funny Car world champion Ron Capps entered the inaugural running of the NHRA Southern Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park seeking a fourth consecutive final-round appearance after winning two of the first four races on the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour and powering to a runner-up finish in Pomona, Calif. last month. Capps and the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car team had an uncharacteristic weekend at the series’ first Valdosta outing, struggling to make it down the track throughout qualifying. Their weekend woes carried into Sunday, where Capps was up in smoke early while his opponent made a clean pass in the opposite lane, ending the 79-time race winner’s day after the first round of eliminations. Capps, who started the weekend with the points lead, will head into the sixth of 20 events ranked second in the Funny Car standings.

Capps’ first trip to the South Georgia facility opened with a tire-smoking run on Friday afternoon. During the day’s second session, he experienced a loss of traction yet again, placing him in the provisional No. 13 position to start Saturday. After sitting through a lengthy rain delay, which caused NHRA to pare the schedule down to one qualifying session, teams pulled up to the line that evening ready to throw down in the stellar cool-weather conditions. The session also served as the first and only elimination round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. Without the advantage of lane choice for the Mission Foods-backed race-within-a-race, the NAPA team found themselves in the unfavorable left lane. Like most of the nitro field, the NAPA team struggled to get down the troublesome lane with their 12,000-horsepower machine overpowering the track, forcing Capps to lift off the throttle. With qualifying wrapped up, Capps, who started race day from the pole in Gainesville, Fla. and last week’s Charlotte event, found himself in unfamiliar territory, starting from the bottom half of the field for the first time all year. As the No. 13 qualifier, Capps drew Chad Green as his first-round opponent. Starting from the left lane yet again, Capps was first to hit the gas, but his car immediately went up in smoke while Green clocked a 3.925 E.T. to advance.

“We had a bit of an issue with the left lane continuing to rear its head all weekend,” Capps explained after his first-round loss. “I’m sure Guido (crew chief Dean Antonelli) would’ve pulled back a little bit in that Q1 run when we were in the right lane on Friday had we known the left lane was going to be what it was. It was probably well on its way to an .85 or .86. And then Saturday, because we were in the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, and we didn’t have lane choice, we ended up in that left lane again. Obviously, there were a couple of cars that did make it down that lane today, so hats off to Safety Safari. They always seem to find a way to make the lanes as good as they possibly can be, but still, it was definitely the inferior lane during the first round this morning, and we just put ourselves behind the eight ball. The silver lining today was I got to go up to the line and cheer for Maddi (Gordon) in the quarterfinals. She’s been running so well, and it’s been fun to see what that team has been able to do in such a short period of time.”

After a busy back-to-back stretch that saw Capps and Gordon visit NAPA headquarters near Atlanta with his 75th anniversary NHRA 4-Wide Nationals diamond Wally trophy earlier this week, Capps is looking forward to the weekend off before the NHRA Mission Foods Series schedule ramps up with five races over seven weeks.

“We’re coming off a great run these last few races, and Guido felt really comfortable with the car leading into this weekend,” added Capps, the only repeat winner in the Funny Car category in 2026. “But sometimes, that’s just how it goes. That’s what makes the Funny Car class so tough. We have a weekend off before Chicago and the guys will be able to regroup, and then we kick off that stretch of summer races. It’ll be one of those things where, you blink and we’ll have run through several races, and you want to make sure you come out on the other side of that with the points lead like we had, or at least, high up in the standings.”

Capps and the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car team compete next at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway, May 15-17, where Capps returns as a two-time winner at the Joliet, Ill. facility.

Qualified: No. 13 (4.399 E.T. at 200.08 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 16.631 E.T. at 35.73 MPH defeated by Chad Green 3.925 E.T. at 326.95 MPH

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car Point Standings (Unofficial):

1	J.R. Todd	411
2	Ron Capps	409
3	Matt Hagan	386
4	Jordan Vandergriff	383
5	Chad Green	340
6	Alexis DeJoria	297
7	Spencer Hyde	275
8	Jack Beckman	245
9	Dan Wilkerson	202
10	Dave Richards	171