NORWALK, Ohio (June 28, 2026) – Jack Beckman was seeking his career fourth Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals title to celebrate his 60th birthday today but the PEAK SQUAD had to settle for their third runner-up finish of the season when Ron Capps beat the PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car to the finish line.
John Force Racing’s Alexis DeJoria was a semifinalist, Josh Hart bowed out in the second round and Jordan Vandergriff’s day ended in the first round.
The long-time competitors and former teammates left the starting line with nearly identical reaction times (Beckman’s .051 to Capps’ .048) and it was a close race throughout but Capps grabbed the win with his run of 3.969 seconds at 328.54 mph to Beckman’s 4.011 seconds at 323.43 mph. It was the second time this season the two squared off in a final round, with Beckman also finishing runner-up in Charlotte.
“The PEAK SQUAD was three hundredths of a second away from the perfect weekend,” said Beckman. “It was a darn good weekend. Our PEAK Chevy was making good, consistent, quick laps and this is what’s going to win championships. We’re getting into the hot summer months and we’re running good in cool conditions on hot race tracks. We haven’t done the autopsy on the engine but I think we wounded it in the final round. It’s frustrating to get that far and not close the deal. But, to put it in perspective, we were the second-best Funny Car here this weekend. We made a move up in points. We tightened to everybody in front of us except Capps.
“The nice thing is this is when other cars start taking a shot against you because they know we’re driving solid, we’re tuning solid, and the PEAK Chevy’s just gonna be a really tough combination to get around. We’ve gone to three final rounds in the last four races and we got our first win. Just give me any racetrack.”
Beckman, who earned victories at Norwalk in 2009, 2015 and 2017, made his 81st final round appearance in this year’s event. He defeated Spencer Hyde in Rd. 1, Daniel Wilkerson in the second round, and Austin Prock in the semifinals.
DeJoria faced Capps in her fourth semifinals showing of the 2026 season. She grabbed the holeshot by just two thousandths of a second (.079 to .081) but hazed the tires before halftrack, slowing to a run of 4.905 seconds at 160.81 mph to Capps’ 4.051 seconds at 310.13 mph.
“We had the best, most consistent, fast race car through most of the day until the semifinals,” said DeJoria. “That was the first run, we didn’t make a sub 4-second run. We’ve earned 47 points this weekend and that’s strong. There are no issues. We know exactly how our car is running. We now know exactly what this Bandero Café Chevy is capable of and we feel really strong about it. I’ll say it again, any one of these upcoming races is going to be ours. We know we have a car to win. And that’s all that matters.”
DeJoria defeated Blake Alexander in Rd. 1 and Chad Green in the second round.
Hart defeated Scott Farley in Rd. 1 with a run of 3.962 seconds at 275.39 mph to Farley’s 5.396 and 135.54. Matched up against Clay Millikan in Rd. 2, the Speedmaster Top Fuel Dragster grabbed the holeshot (.065 to .076) but lost traction and smoked the tires 100 feet into the run. He pedaled the throttle, trying to hook the rear tires back up and Millican lost traction at halftrack but, by then, had enough momentum to take the win, running 4.290 seconds to Hart’s 5.290 seconds.
“It was a rough day for the Speedmaster team,” said Hart. “I felt like I did a good job on the tree in the second round but, when the car started to haze the tires and I attempted to pedal it, it just sat sideways and didn’t like it. There was zero traction at that point. The track and weather conditions changed pretty quickly today and we weren’t able to adapt quick enough. We’ll regroup and be ready for Sonoma in three weeks.”
In his Rd. 1 matchup against J.R. Todd, Vandergriff had a good reaction time (.060) and a solid run of 3.946 seconds at 329.83 mph but Todd had a great reaction (.043) and took the win despite a slower run of 3.951 seconds at 329.42 mph.
“That one was really tough but that’s drag racing,” said Vandergriff. “I had a good performance but Todd had a fantastic performance. We put ourselves in that position by qualifying 11th and we obviously want to be higher than that coming into race day. When you go up against J.R. Todd and the Yellow Fellas, you know you’re going to throw down. But, overall, it was a great week getting to spend time with everyone at Cornwell Quality Tools leading into the weekend and then competing for them at the track. We know we have a great race car and we can’t wait for the rest of the year.”
The 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel point standings after 10 of 20 races are: 1. Shawn Langdon, 1,010; 2. Doug Kalitta, 860; 3. Leah Pruett, 731; 4. Maddi Gordon, 614; 5. Antron Brown, 608; 6. Tony Stewart, 592; 7. Josh Hart, 559; 8. Billy Torrence, 498; 9. Justin Ashley, 450; 10. Clay Millican, 439.
The 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings after 10 of 20 races are: 1. Ron Capps, 812; 2. Matt Hagan, 691; 3. J.R. Todd, 689; 4. Jack Beckman, 684; 5. Jordan Vandergriff, 651; 6. Chad Green, 633; 7. Alexis DeJoria, 608; 8. Austin Prock, 526; 9. Spencer Hyde, 490; 10. Daniel Wilkerson, 443.
NEXT RACE
The 11th of 20 races of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is the July 17-19 DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals presented by PowerEdge at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
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