The 2026 NHRA 4-Wide Nationals roared into life at zMAX Dragway on Friday with Greg Anderson, Ron Capps, Shawn Langdon and Matt Smith taking provisional number-one spots in their respective categories — and a noticeably reshaped Top Fuel pecking order without six-time event winner Steve Torrence.
The 24th running of the four-across spectacle in Charlotte is the only 4-Wide race on the 2026 calendar and falls within the NHRA's 75th anniversary celebrations, raising the stakes for drivers who pride themselves on mastering the format's notorious staging-tree pressure. Advancing requires finishing in the top two of a four-car quad — a system that has unseated even seasoned veterans.
In Top Fuel, Langdon laid down the marker with a 6.743 at 339.19 mph, including a class-leading 0.829 sixty-foot time. "My goodness, 829 sixty-foot shot. I mean, this was just get out of my way, kid," the broadcast team observed as the Kalitta Motorsports car launched. Langdon, the defending event champion and one of only two drivers in history to have won 4-Wide races in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, arrives in Charlotte sitting second in the points behind teammate Doug Kalitta.
The Top Fuel landscape has shifted markedly with Torrence absent. Antron Brown, the four-time series champion who holds the class record with 13 final-quad appearances in 23 4-Wide events, is hunting a get-well weekend after consecutive first-round exits in the early stages of 2026.
Ron Capps led Funny Car qualifying after Session 1 with an 8.83 at 333 mph as five drivers dipped into the three-second zone despite challenging track temperatures. Gatornationals winner Chad Green slotted in alongside on a 3.941, with Spencer Hyde (3.981), JR Todd (3.987), Capps (3.988) and Daniel Wilkerson (3.993) all making it into the threes. Capps and the JFR-aligned camp face stiff competition from points leader Matt Hagan, who carries 13 final quad appearances of his own into the weekend, and from reigning champion Austin Prock, whose start to 2026 has been brutal — a DNQ in the season opener and early losses in Phoenix and Pomona.
Pro Stock looks set, on Friday's evidence, to be a KB Titan Racing-era reset between Anderson and Dallas Glenn. Anderson seized the provisional pole with a 6.549 at 211 mph, hammering down the racetrack ahead of class points leader Glenn (6.552), Greg Stanfield (6.554) and Matt Hartford (6.555). Anderson noted afterwards that "the car was in a happy spot" — a terrifying thought, the broadcast team suggested, for a field already chasing a driver who has reached the final quad in eight of the last nine 4-Wide events. Brandon Miller carried the new RPM-rule Dodge banner into 14th on a 6.634, with Cody Coughlin holding the provisional bump.
Pro Stock Motorcycle returned to the tour for the first time since Gainesville with a familiar zMAX-area name leading the way. Matt Smith, who won the inaugural 4-Wide race at Charlotte back in 2010, blasted a 6.739 at 203.09 mph with a 1.07 sixty-foot launch, settling at the top of the Friday charts. "A huge speed for Matt Smith, and Matt Smith rockets to the top," the trackside commentary noted as the Buell crossed the line. The home-state favourite faces a fight from class points leader Richard Gadson — who has reached the final quad in every 4-Wide race of his young career and is the most recent zMAX winner — and from Gage Herrera, the back-to-back 2023 and 2024 4-Wide champion.
With qualifying continuing into Saturday and elimination racing on Sunday, the Charlotte weekend already has the makings of one of the most open 4-Wide events in years. Without Torrence, with Glenn under threat, and with Prock and Brown under pressure to rescue early-season form, the only certainty heading into race day at zMAX is that the four-across format will reward whichever combination of focus, reaction time and raw horsepower holds together when it matters most.
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