It was all in the eyes Sunday at the Kansas Nationals.
 
The National Hot Rod Association and its fans kept their eyes on the skies once again at Heartland Park Topeka as the threat of a tornado bore down on the Kansas capital and this eighth race of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

 Top Fuel winner Shawn Langdon said his Al-Anabi/Toyota Racing team “had the fire in their eyes” to record their second victory of the season.
 
Pro Stock winner Jeg Coughlin, who paused earlier in the whirlwind day to appreciate earning his 500th elimination-round victory, said, “It almost brought a tear my eye to see the win light come on” against Rickie Jones in the quarterfinals.

 And Funny Car winner Johnny Gray has his eye on the championship with his third victory this year in the Pitch Energy Dodge Charger, saying, “If the same car keeps showing up and Rob [crew chief Wendland] keeps her running like she’s running, we have as good a shot as anybody out here. That’s a true fact. These guys are giving m such a great car right now I really can’t screw it up.”

As the racers prepare to travel to Englishtown, N.J., for the May 31- June 2 Toyota Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) continue to lead the standings, and Gray has sole possession of the Funny Car lead for the first time in his career.
 
Here’s how it unfolded:
 
LANGDON THE PHILOSOPHER – After defeating Tony Schumacher once again in the final round — in his 100th start of his Top Fuel career — Shawn Langdon said, “If you want to be competitive in Top Fuel today, you can’t be fast without being consistent, and you can’t be consistent without being fast.” He was both, and he was dominating all weekend, winning from the No. 1 qualifying position (which he had for the second straight week) and setting low elapsed time of the weekend against Schumacher and the U.S. Army Dragster team. His 3.750-second performance marked his seventh consecutive 3.7-second run of the event. He was top qualifier for the seventh time in 15 races. Langdon ran a 3.750-second E.T. at 324.20 mph to beat Schumacher’s 3.781 at 327.27 mph, the top speed of the meet. Langdon improved one spot, to second place. He’s 34 points off Schumacher’s pace and 38 ahead of No. 3 Antron Brown.
 
“The Al-Anabi crew guys just did a phenomenal job this weekend. We’ve been close for the last few races. The car has been running well, but we just haven’t been able to finish it out on Sunday,” he said. “The Al-Anabi crew had the fire in their eyes today. We didn’t want to go four races in a row feeling we had the car to win and not getting it done.”

“We had a great weekend where the car was running both fast and consistent,” Langdon said. “Last year, we were fast, but not consistent. This year, we’ve consistently been fast and we’ve been winning rounds, but not quite finishing on Sundays and today we finished.”
 
He said he’s “just happy to be a part of” the team and for bosses Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani and Alan Johnson, who he said “don’t settle for second place — they always want to be the best, they always want to be No. 1 and have the fastest car.” He said he and crew chief Brian Husen “have great team chemistry. They did a great job before I got there, and they’re doing a great job now. I’m just lucky to be the one driving the car.”

Langdon also won the Winternationals, reached the final foursome at the Charlotte Four-Wide race, and was runner-up at Houston.

　
DRAG RACING’S INTIMIDATOR? – After scoring his second victory in as many weekends, Funny Car’s Johnny Gray said Lawrence, Kan., native Rob Wendland, his crew chief, had tuned the Pitch Energy Dodge Charger “to where she was a little intimidating today. Rob Wendland gave me a race car that ran real hard all day. You can win a lot of races off the intimidation factor.”

Gray faced Robert Hight for the fourth time in a final round (with Hight carrying a 3-0 advantage) — and for the third straight race after beating him in the opening round of the past two events. This time Gray outran Hight, 4.067, 314.90 to Hight’s 5.085, 149.40 in the Auto Club Ford Mustang out of the John Force Racing organization.
 
“Robert had a great race car, too,” Gray said. “They just missed it a hair, and you know, Rob didn’t. I owe it all to Rob, Rip [assistant crew chief Reynolds], Ryan [team member Elliott], and the guys. I’ve got a great, great team. I just can’t say enough about them.”
 
He said he and Hight had agreed during pre-race ceremonies Sunday morning that they both were “pretty happy that we didn’t have to run each other first round again.” Gray said, “We’ve run into each other a whole lot first round here lately, and really, neither one of us ever want to run each other. That’s a great team over there, Robert is a great guy, and I’m just as scared of him as he is of me. After the semifinals, we were both at the top end and I looked at him and said, ‘I still don’t want to run you.’ Robert said, ‘Well, I don’t want to run you either.’ We both went out there loaded for bear, and we made it. He didn’t.”
 
Wendland, acknowledging that this final season for Gray includes a tribute to Gray’s late father. J.R., said, “There is a whole lot of meaning to this season for the Gray family, but also for all of us. We’re here this year in recognition of Johnny’s father, and Johnny is who he is today because of what that man instilled in him. For Johnny Gray to step up and run this car with his sister, Terry Chandler, and to allow us to do what we love to do – well, it means everything to me and to this whole team. That right there makes you dig a little bit deeper, work a little bit harder, work a few more hours, and stay up a little later at night thinking about this race car. We all want to do well because this is a very special year.”

MEMORABLE VICTORY – Pro Stock veteran Jeg Coughlin has insisted for months that this first-year association with reigning class champion Allen Johnson and his Team Mopar / J&J Racing would pay off. It did Sunday, ultimately at Johnson’s expense. Coughlin drove the Jegs.com Dodge Avenger to his first triumph of the season and first since the August 2010 race at Brainerd, Minn. He posted a winning 6.680 seconds at 206.20 mph to top teammate Johnson’s 6.698, 206.57 in his Avenger.
 
“That final round ranks up there with some of the best races I’ve ever won,” the 52-time winner and four-time champion said. Both drivers launched with .013-second reaction times and raced door-to-door down the quarter mile.

“We’ve been knocking on the door all year. We’ve had our ups and downs and never quite been able to seal the deal and get a race win,” Coughlin said. “We came out of a test in Tulsa earlier this week really happy with what we had and were extremely aggressive all four runs. A.J.’s had my number this year. We’ve met three times already, and he’s got the best of us. So it felt great to get that win in the final round.”

 “As many times has he and I have gone head-to-head in 2013, we’ve been so evenly matched,” Coughlin said. “I knew if I could be .015 on the tree or better, I’d be OK. It was a drag race exactly how you’d script it. We were welded together from start to finish. I could hear him over there, but we were able to stay out front.”
 
That he notched his 500th round-win was a plus. “Any day you are hoisting a Wally at the end – it’s what you yearn for. Today was extra special for a lot of reasons,” Coughlin said. “To win a Wally at the end of the day has been exactly what the doctor ordered.”

 500 CLUB – JEGS.com/Mopar Dodge Avenger driver Jeg Coughlin Jr., who has a Super Gas national title and four in Pro Stock, said achieving 500-plus elimination-round victories has “been a product of 15 years of dedication from a lot of great teams I have worked with. It’s a testament to them from our family teams in the beginning to the Cagnazzi group, [Don] Schumacher, and now with Allen Johnson. I’ve been blessed to have a great career. My family has been behind me 100 percent. They are as much a part of this win as anyone.”

Coughlin hit the milestone with his second-round victory Sunday against Rickie Jones at the NHRA Kansas Nationals on the way to his 52nd event victory. And he received congratulations from Funny Car legend John Force, who has more than 1,000 round-wins.
 
Force said, “It’s been well earned by him. What he needs to do is not do what I did and run down the road and forget all about that. Take a few days and enjoy what you accomplished. Once it has been a week, you move on to the next race. We are all proud of him and his whole family. Enjoy this day.”

 Coughlin allowed himself at least a moment to soak it in, saying, “We do take trips down memory lane occasionally, and this is one of those times. “
　
SHARING THE SPOTLIGHT – Sportsman winners were Alan Bradshaw (Top Alcohol Dragster), Jirka Kaplan (Top Alcohol Funny Car), Tim Nicholson, (Super Stock), Austin Williams (Stock Eliminator), Tommy Phillips (Super Comp), Steve Williams (Super Gas), John Dasher (Super Street), Larry Piper (Top Dragster).