NHRA Rookie of the Year contender Maddi Gordon made her presence known Sunday at the NHRA Gatornationals when she raced to a semifinal finish at Gainesville Raceway. Gordon piloted her Carlyle Tools Top Fuel dragster out of the Ron Capps Motorsports camp to round wins over two of the most accomplished drivers in class history before tire smoke ended her run at the opening race of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season. She leaves Gainesville ranked fourth in the points standings.
Gordon was the first Top Fuel driver to hit the track in Friday qualifying. Just a couple hours after announcing a multi-year major associate partnership with Monster Energy, Gordon posted a 3.861-second pass at 319.29 mph to take the provisional No. 11 position. She stepped up to a 3.793 E.T. at 321.35 mph in the Friday night session and ended the day in the No. 15 spot. On Saturday, Gordon encountered tire smoke on her third qualifying attempt but came back with a consistent 3.797 E.T. at 328.06 mph in the final qualifying session. It was the quickest pass of the round, netting Gordon three bonus points. She solidified the No. 15 slot going into race day and became the 591st driver and the 23rd woman to qualify for an NHRA Top Fuel field.
In her first-ever Top Fuel competition round, Gordon lined up against No. 2 qualifier and former world champion Shawn Langdon, who was recently named to NHRA’s Top 75 Drivers list. Crew chief Rob Flynn guided Gordon to her quickest pass of the event, a 3.762 E.T. at 334.48 mph, to get past a tire-smoking Langdon. The competition didn’t get any easier for Gordon, as she went on to face the winningest driver in the history of the class, eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher, when Top Fuel returned to the starting line for the quarterfinals. Gordon powered to a 3.783 E.T. at 331.53 mph to defeat Schumacher and his 3.863 E.T. That sent Gordon to the semifinals and earned her a spot in the first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge of the season, which will take place during Saturday qualifying at the NHRA Arizona Nationals.
The semifinals brought another battle of youth versus experience as Gordon faced her third “Top 75” driver, two-time and reigning world champion Doug Kalitta. Gordon started hazing the tires early and had to lift off the throttle as Kalitta advanced with his quickest pass of the day.
“That was just a really, really good weekend,” said Gordon, who became the 100th woman to win an NHRA national event when she drove her family’s Top Alcohol Funny Car to victory at the 2024 NHRA Northwest Nationals. “Of course, we all want to win the race, but I couldn’t have asked for much more in my debut. It was so cool to line up against Shawn in the first round. Rob was confident that the car would get down the track. When I heard (Langdon) blow the tires off in the other lane, I seriously spoke out loud, ‘That wasn’t me! We’re still going!’ Seeing that first win light was insane. I actually started to lose my voice after that one. It’s just been an amazing weekend.”
Gordon’s rookie campaign will continue at the NHRA Arizona Nationals, March 20-22, at Firebird Motorsports Park near Phoenix.
