Competition in the inaugural Dodge Great Lakes Nationals was hosted this year at the US131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan. With the US131 on one side and surrounded by trees, the track provided a great environment for the opening round in the Countdown to the Championship series. The track surface had been redone to become the flattest and smoothest surface in the series, and the performances would show it. Most of the race teams had little or no tuning data for this track, putting real tests on their tuning skills. Then final eliminations were rained out on Sunday, moving the event conclusion to Monday, Sept. 21.

Shawn Langdon’s average speed for race day was 344 mph (344.97); average elapse time was 3.6664-seconds. Langdon took out Maddi Gordon (344.04 mph), Will Smith (342.73 mph) and Doug Kalitta (346.95 mph) during his thundering march to the final round. On the opposite side of the ladder was Spencer Massey (#10 qualifier), who had just completed putting together his own race team. Massey had 21 career victories, while driving for Don Schumacher racing. He marched into the final round by taking out Tony Schumacher, Josh Hart and Tony Stewart. In the final round, Massey got away first (0.0224 to 0.0345), but could not hold off Langdon’s thundering 3.6647 at 346.15 mph to 3.7643 at 327.75 charge. It was Langdon’s sixth win of the season and 28th of his career. It gives him an 11-point lead over Doug Kalitta in the championship battle.

Jordan Vandergriff (#16 qualifier) could not get his car down the track under power at all in qualifying. In round one, the car again failed to go down the track. Then a miracle or racer’s luck hit for him. Austin Prock (#1 qualifier), who won in Vandergriff’s car last year, to go along with two consecutive season championships, was his opponent. Prock won their first match up in Indy. Prock went after it a little too aggressively on the tree as he red-lighted with a -0.005 light and ran 4.917 at 273.22 mph, while Vandergriff battled for control of his car, as it lost traction again, but took the win. That was the lucky break that he needed. After his crew found a small malfunctioning part, they never looked back. Vandergriff then took out Daniel Wilkerson and JR Todd to glide into the final round, where he would square off against points leader Matt Hagan. In the opening round, Hagan faced newcomer Joey Haas. Hagan’s car immediately lost traction and Haas was driving away until it suddenly did a large wheel stand, causing it to lose traction. This allowed Hagan to get around him for the win. Next Hagan took out Alexis DeJoria and then faced off against Jack Beckman. Using a starting line advantage (0.0296 to 0.0417), he ran the same exact performance (0.3642 at 333.09 mph to 3.8642 at 333.09 mph) to take the win by the exact margin as his starting line advantage, 0.0121-seconds. In the final round, Hagan’s team took the right lane, having just beaten Beckman from there. Vandergriff had never gotten down the left lane and had no run data from the left lane. So, strategy came into play. Hagan’s team decided to stick Vandergriff into the left lane. At the flash of the tree, the strategy failed. Hagan got away first (0.0155 to 0.0370) and never led again, as his car immediately lost traction. Vandergriff quickly sped away to his third win of the season, going 3.8587 at 329.43 mph. Hagan still has the points lead by 23 over Vandergriff and 54 over Beckman.

The “racer’s luck” did not stop with Top Fuel and Funny Car. Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle had their fair share. Dallas Glenn, coming in as the points leader, was gone in the opening round, when his car had too much traction and shook. This allowed his opponent to easily advance to the next round. The door was then wide open for Greg Anderson to take the points lead and build on it. But that ended in the second round against opponent Troy Coughlin Jr., who came in sitting 10th in the points. Coughlin took a 0.0090 to 0.0254 advantage and then drove away for a 6.5281 at 2028.62 mph to 6.5306 at 209.59 mph win. The two top points leaders were gone. In the final round it was Matt Hartford (who just took over the point lead) against Coughlin, who had last won in 2023. When it was over, Coughlin took the win over Hartford, 6.5158-209.69 mph, 6.5272-208.14 mph. Hartford has the points lead by five over Greg Stanfield and 11 over both Glenn and Anderson.

Pro Stock Motorcycle featured a final round involving none of the points leaders. Gaige Herrera, Richard Gadson, Matt Smith and Angie Smith were all gone before the semifinal rounds. In the final round it was Marc Ingwersen and Mark Hall. It was Hall who took the fifth win of his career when Ingwersen fouled out, 6.804 at 194.22 mph. Gadson now has just a one point lead over Hall and 25 point lead over Matt Smith.

The racers all loved the track and said they can hardly wait for next year. For a rain out Monday race date for the final round, fan attendance was good as well.