Not From That School: Maddi Gordon, Don Prudhomme, and the Shift in Who Gets a Chance in NHRA
- Crystal Clay
- Jul 27
- 4 min read
By Crystal Clay
SONOMA, Calif. (July 27, 2025) — Maddi Gordon wasn’t at the track this weekend. She wasn’t in the pit area, suiting up, or standing behind the ropes. She was somewhere off the grid, in Cabo, unbothered while her name came up in one of the most quietly defining press conference moments of the weekend.
When NHRA legend Don “The Snake” Prudhomme was asked if he saw anything in Gordon that reminded him of the early days of mentoring Ron Capps, his response was blunt.
“I don’t know. Would I have picked a little girl to drive my race car? I don’t think so. I mean, that’s just my opinion. I’m not from that school. It’s more of a family sport now, I guess. A lot of these guys with money, the scrappers guys and all that — they put their daughters in the car, race them, and it’s fun, it’s fine. I’m just from a different school. I don’t think they would have cut it back in our day, the way the cars were. The funny cars were a different deal.”
He called Gordon a “nice kid” and said he was happy for Capps, but did not acknowledge her performance, her wins or the fact that she will debut in Top Fuel next year with Ron Capps Motorsports.
Prudhomme’s answer did not go unnoticed.
There was an unsettling pause before he finished with “I’m just not into it, you know…Anyone else want to dare ask me a question? About women or anything?”
Several in the media center later expressed visible discomfort and frustration, describing the response as outdated and dismissive. The room moved on, but the moment lingered. For some, it served as a reminder that even now, in 2025, a woman’s qualifications can still be downplayed, even after the work, even after the wins.
His comments reflected more than a generational gap. They revealed how opportunity in today’s NHRA is still evolving, and still uncomfortable for some.
In Prudhomme’s era, giving someone like Maddi Gordon a ride, especially without major sponsorship or Top Fuel experience, could have cost him everything. His reputation was hard-earned and tightly protected. Ron Capps, on the other hand, operates in a different landscape.
Capps didn’t make this move in spite of Prudhomme. He made it because of him. He inherited the credibility that Prudhomme helped build, and with it came the freedom to take a risk his mentor never could. Maybe Prudhomme didn’t make that call because the sport didn’t give him space to. Capps has that room now, and he’s using it.
When asked what grit looks like today, and how Gordon reflects it in ways that might go unnoticed, Capps was clear.
“I love Snake, I love Garlits, I love all those guys. I love the mentality they had back then, but it’s a different world today,” Capps said. “Snake’s going to fall in love with her the more he’s around her. When he realizes I’m hiring Maddi for the same reasons he hired me back in the day — and that it doesn’t matter if she’s a girl — he’s going to enjoy being around her.
“She works on the car and gets in and drives the wheels off the thing. We didn’t offer up that seat to the first million-dollar deal that came along. That’s not how we’re doing it.”
He added, smiling, “Whatever he said, he was probably hungry when he said it. He’s still my hero. That doesn’t change anything.”
What was missing from Prudhomme’s remarks wasn’t intent. It was recognition.
Gordon has earned her seat. She works on her car. She has won on the national stage. She knows that her last name, while familiar, is not enough to carry her. She was given a shot by her own family, and she was the first to question whether she was ready for it.
“Honestly, I might suck,” she said earlier this year. “They were winning championships, and they let me try.”
She didn’t suck. She delivered.
Gordon just went back-to-back in the Northwest Nationals last week and became the 100th woman to win an NHRA national event with her win in 2024. She collected victories in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Seattle, often working alongside her family. Her grandmother builds the team’s clutch packs to within thousandths of an inch. It is not a marketing campaign. It is a system. A blueprint. In a sport that has not always made room for outsiders, Gordon did not push her way in. She worked her way forward.
Capps was once the gritty young driver Prudhomme believed in. Now, he is the one taking the leap, trusting that Gordon’s mindset and mechanical knowledge matter more than the way it looks from the outside.
Maybe that is the legacy now. Not just fire suits and trophies, but the ability to recognize grit, even when it shows up looking different than it did a generation ago.
Prudhomme was honest. Capps was bold. Gordon wasn’t even in the room, but she still changed the shape of the conversation.
Sometimes, standing up for someone in a room they aren’t in doesn’t require confrontation.
Grit doesn’t always look like it used to, but that doesn’t mean it is not there. And Maddi Gordon wears it just fine.