Four-wide drag racing returns to zMAX Dragway this weekend for the 2026 NHRA 4-Wide Nationals — the only event of the season in which four Top Fuel dragsters, Funny Cars or Pro Stock machines launch from the staging beams at the same time — and the storylines around the quad format have shifted significantly on the eve of the fourth Mission Foods Drag Racing Series round of the year.
The biggest change is the absence of Steve Torrance. The four-time Top Fuel world champion has been the undisputed king of the four-wide format for the better part of a decade, owning six event victories and a reputation for thriving in the sensory overload that four simultaneous nitro launches generate. Torrance is not contesting the 2026 season, and the hole he leaves in the four-wide record sheet is gaping.
First in the queue to capitalise is Antron Brown. The Matco Tools dragster has suffered back-to-back first-round exits heading into Charlotte, and the four-time Top Fuel world champion will see this weekend as the perfect format to reset his season. Brown has reached the final quad 13 times across 23 four-wide starts — the best mark in Top Fuel history — and owns three event wins and two runner-up finishes. When the format skews weird, Brown has historically found another gear.
He will not have an easy time of it. Kalitta Motorsports team-mates Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon currently sit first and second in the Top Fuel points standings, and between them they bring the kind of combined four-wide pedigree that could lock Matco out of its expected reset. Kalitta has reached the final quad 11 times, a testament to the consistency this format rewards over a single blistering run. Langdon is one of only two drivers in NHRA history to have won four-wide races in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, and he heads to Charlotte as the defending event winner.
The Funny Car conversation is dominated by Austin Prock. The reigning two-time world champion swept all three four-wide events in 2025 across Charlotte and Las Vegas — a historically dominant run. But 2026 has started in the worst possible way for the John Force Racing driver. Prock failed to qualify at the season opener and has backed that up with first-round exits at Phoenix and Pomona.
Standing in the way of any Prock reset are two of Funny Car's most experienced four-wide operators. Matt Hagan owns three four-wide Funny Car victories and has reached the final quad 13 times — the class record. Ron Capps has captured two four-wide wins and reached 10 final quads. When the broadcasters talk about experience mattering in the four-lane format, Hagan and Capps are the drivers they tend to mean.
Pro Stock arrives at Charlotte with a near-certain favourite. Dallas Glenn swept all three four-wide events in 2025, adding to an already remarkable record. The reigning world champion now holds a class-best five four-wide victories and has reached the final quad in eight of the last nine four-wide races. KB Titan Racing team-mate Greg Anderson owns three four-wide wins of his own, and six-time world champion Erica Enders (three event wins) will not let the format decide itself without her having a say.
Pro Stock Motorcycle returns for the first time since the Gatornationals, and series points leader Richard Gadson has already banked one four-wide final at zMAX during his championship run last year. Home-state veteran Matt Smith will be defending turf — he won the inaugural four-wide event back in 2010 and was on the top of the podium again in Charlotte last spring.
The support classes add further depth, with Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Pro Mod and the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown all running the four-wide format across the weekend. New for 2026, the Ride Trailers Outlaw Street Series makes its NHRA-weekend debut, with Street Outlaws names including Shawn Ellington, Ryan Martin, Scott Taylor and Jeff Lutz headlining a 10-car field across Friday and Saturday qualifying before Sunday eliminations.
Four-wide racing has a habit of rewriting the form book in the time it takes two sets of Christmas-tree bulbs to go green. Records and momentum matter, but once four cars roll into the staging beams at the same time, the pressure does the rest. Charlotte will decide who handles it best.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/nhra-4-wide-nationals-2026-charlotte-preview-brown-glenn-prock-langdon). Visit for full coverage.*