Maddi Gordon Takes Positives from Inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals

MARTIN, Mich. (Sept. 21, 2026) – Maddi Gordon continued to make strides behind the wheel of the Carlyle Tools Top Fuel dragster during the inaugural Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by Mopar at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, the opening race of the NHRA Countdown to the Championship. Gordon qualified No. 13 before drawing points leader and eventual race winner Shawn Langdon in Monday’s rain-delayed first round, where the rookie delivered a .018-second reaction time to leave first before losing traction. Though the early exit wasn’t the start Gordon and the Ron Capps Motorsports team wanted for the six-race playoffs, the weekend provided another valuable set of lessons as they move on to the next stop on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule.

Without any data at U.S. 131, Gordon and crew chiefs Rob Flynn and Troy Fasching went into Friday’s first qualifying session wanting to establish a solid baseline. They accomplished that with a 3.832-second pass at 318.70 mph to sit No. 10. Gordon lost traction early in her second qualifying attempt and ended the day No. 14. She moved up a few spots to No. 11 in the third qualifying session on Saturday, posting a 3.746 E.T. at 336.57 mph. Gordon then ran into mechanical issues in the final session and locked in the No. 13 position going into eliminations.

After persistent rain pushed eliminations into Monday, Gordon staged up next to former world champ Shawn Langdon in the first round. Gordon, who’s been focused on honing in on her driving abilities over the course of her rookie season, cut a .018-second reaction time to leave first ahead of Langdon. Gordon drove into nearly instantaneous tire smoke, though, and had to watch as Langdon charged ahead to get the round win.

“The first race of the Countdown definitely did not go the way we were hoping,” said Gordon, who carried increased OKUMA branding on her Carlyle Tools dragster this weekend. “We struggled a bit in qualifying, so we had to race Shawn Langdon, which is definitely not the optimal opponent for our first-round matchup. He ended up running the quickest run of the entire year against us, so we would have had to run a career-best E.T. and career-best speed to win that race. We were pushing pretty hard, but we had a little too much in the tank and ended up shaking the tires right at the starting line. But on a positive note, I got off the starting line ahead of Langdon, which is exciting as a driver. That was a different pedal job than I’ve ever done before, a new learning experience, so I’ll take that knowledge with me as a driver, and our crew chiefs will take the knowledge that we learned at this race, and we’ll go to the next race and we’ll try again.”

Another new stop on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour, the NHRA Nationals at The Rock, is next up for eighth-ranked Gordon and the Carlyle Tools Top Fuel team. Set for Sept. 25-27 at Rockingham Dragway in Rockingham, North Carolina, it’s the 16th of 20 races on the schedule.

Qualified: No. 13 (3.746 E.T. at 336.57 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 4.861 E.T. at 171.17 MPH defeated by Shawn Langdon 3.652 E.T. at 344.04 MPH