Jack Beckman Wins Funny Car All-Star Callout As NHRA U.S. Nationals Fields Are Set

Jack Beckman already has one trophy from the 2026 Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals weekend. Now he wants the one that matters most.

Beckman drove the John Force Racing PEAK Chevrolet SS to victory in Sunday’s PlayNHRA All-Star Funny Car Callout at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, defeating Matt Hagan in the final round to earn his remarkable fifth victory in the Indy Funny Car specialty race.

Meanwhile, the fields for Monday’s U.S. Nationals eliminations are set. Shawn Langdon earned the Top Fuel No. 1 qualifier, Ron Capps took the top spot in Funny Car, Matt Hartford led Pro Stock, and Matt Smith finished qualifying No. 1 in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

Jack Beckman Collects Fifth Indy Funny Car Bonus Race Win

Beckman’s John Force 1996 championship tribute Funny Car already looked the part this weekend. On Sunday, he made sure it performed like a winner, too. The former Funny Car world champion ran 3.980 seconds at 323.19 mph in the All-Star Callout final to defeat Hagan, who slowed before the finish line. That gave Beckman his fifth career victory in Indy’s Funny Car bonus race.

He reached the final by defeating Chad Green in the opening round and J.R. Todd in the semifinals before taking down Hagan.

“Our first shootout win was special to get one, and then when you get two, you’re like, ‘This is awesome,’ and then when I got four, and then I was done driving [after the 2020 season], I thought, ‘Still pretty good amount of trophies, more than I ever thought or dreamed I was going to get in here,’ and to come back into a competitive car right away, and then to get to close the deal on a day like today is incredible,” Beckman said. “We just treated it like race day, and it worked out.

“It’s a long race and if you can’t handle the ups and downs of that, you’re in the wrong sport. Our performance is measured in thousandths of a second, so I’m going to try to get a good night’s rest and hopefully come back a little bit closer to normal tomorrow because I know we’ve got a car that can repeat.”

The word “repeat” carries plenty of meaning here. Beckman has already won the U.S. Nationals twice, and a Monday victory would give him a third Indy title while completing a massive Callout/U.S. Nationals double.

The weekend has added another chapter to the history of Beckman’s throwback paint scheme. The PEAK Camaro is wearing a tribute to the black-and-white Funny Car John Force ran during his dominant 1996 championship campaign. Force’s original version won the only race in which it appeared. Beckman has now put the modern tribute version in a winner’s circle as well.

Ron Capps Takes No. 1 And The Funny Car Points Lead

While Beckman was collecting a trophy Sunday, Ron Capps finished qualifying with something potentially even more valuable: the Funny Car points lead. Capps’ 3.914 at 332.18 mph in the Carlyle Tools/NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra held up for the No. 1 qualifying position.

The bonus points from qualifying also pushed Capps ahead of Hagan in the regular-season standings.

“In our book, we felt like we should win the regular season,” Capps said. “Our plan coming into qualifying was absolutely to try to get those little points. But who does it ever? Not very often. I promise you that if you walked into anyone’s trailer and they had that written as their goals – every crew chief, driver, team member had that thought. Like, but could you do it? You get the four points here instead of three and yesterday I was like, ‘Wow, we’re already technically at that point where Hagan was. We had passed him just in qualifying,’ and I’m not sure I’d ever done that.”

Those little qualifying points turned out to be huge. Capps enters Monday with a three-point lead over Hagan. Jordan Vandergriff is 12 points behind Capps, while Todd is 30 points back. With Indy paying points-and-a-half, every elimination-round victory is worth 30 points. Translation: the Funny Car regular-season championship is basically wide open.

Capps also has some serious Indy history working in his favor. He’s looking for his third career U.S. Nationals victory after winning the race in 2022 and 2023. Austin Prock qualified second with a 3.921 at 317.87 mph, while Beckman will start third with his 3.937 at 326.79 mph.

Shawn Langdon Needs A Big Monday In Top Fuel

Shawn Langdon’s Friday night run turned out to be untouchable. His 3.727 at 334.98 mph in the Kalitta Motorsports SealMaster dragster survived all five qualifying sessions to give Langdon his sixth No. 1 qualifier of 2026.

“Yes and no that I thought the No. 1 would hold,” Langdon said. “I thought there could be an opportunity for someone else to take it. It was a good run for Friday night, but we weren’t really satisfied with that. We obviously wanted to do a little bit more, but we were just trying to see what we could get away with, and we weren’t able to do that Saturday.

“So the last run we really had to slow everything down, get everything back in check and get some information for tomorrow. We were able to do that and feel very confident for tomorrow.”

Because elimination rounds are worth 30 points at Indy, Langdon essentially needs to make up three rounds on his teammate if he wants to claim the $150,000 regular-season championship. Langdon will open eliminations against Clay Millican as he chases his third U.S. Nationals Top Fuel victory. Kalitta qualified third with a 3.746 at 335.82 mph, while Tony Stewart starts second after his 3.744 at 328.22.

Matt Hartford Finds Speed At The Perfect Time

Matt Hartford saved some of his best runs for when the conditions improved.

The Total Seal Chevrolet Camaro was the quickest Pro Stock car over the final three qualifying sessions, ultimately producing a 6.572 at 208.97 mph to earn the No. 1 position. It’s Hartford’s first No. 1 qualifier of the 2026 season.

“It just feels great that our entire team is making some good decisions in the trailer before we roll up,” Hartford said. “The weather conditions that we started with from Friday to today are completely different, but we knew that when we got here that Sunday Q4 and Q5 were going to be the two best sessions. When we went low in Q4, we knew it wasn’t remotely safe, and that E.T. would probably be in the bottom half by the time we got done with Q5. I’m just really, really thankful for my team and how hard they’ve worked to allow this to happen.”

Hartford already has three victories this season and won the U.S. Nationals in 2023.

Hartford doesn’t have much separation from the rest of the Pro Stock field. Dallas Glenn qualified second with a 6.574 at 208.01 mph, while rookie Cody Anderson also ran 6.574 but recorded a 207.91-mph speed to take third.

Matt Smith Finishes Where He Started

Matt Smith began U.S. Nationals qualifying in the No. 1 position.

Five sessions later, he ended up right back there. The six-time Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion closed qualifying with an impressive 6.757 at 200.98 mph on Sunday, reclaiming the top spot and earning his third No. 1 qualifier of 2026.

“You know, I’ve won this race three times. I’d like to get a fourth one,” Smith said. “If I can’t do it, then I want one of the other three bikes that we have on our camp to do it, and I think we have a really good shot at doing it. I mean, we have three bikes in the top eight.

“We came back in Q5 and put it all together. I made a little axle adjustment and it went right down the track and took the top spot. I’m totally confident with how we tested at Rockingham coming here with this kind of weather. I felt good. I’ve felt good all weekend. We’ve just got to turn on four win lights tomorrow.”

Smith’s confidence isn’t limited to his own motorcycle. Three Matt Smith Racing bikes qualified inside the top eight, giving the operation multiple opportunities to chase the U.S. Nationals title. Gaige Herrera qualified second with a 6.781 at 198.79 mph, while Angie Smith starts third after recording a 6.787 at 198.50. Matt Smith’s ideal scenario is pretty straightforward: put multiple team motorcycles deep into eliminations and let them race one another for the trophy.