YPSILANTI, Mich. (Nov. 12, 2024) – To say Shawn Langdon had an interesting weekend in Las Vegas two weeks ago would be quite the understatement, yet he enters the final race of the season with a legitimate chance to win his second-career Top Fuel title. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs conclude Nov. 15-17, 2024 at the In ‘n Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., the last of six playoff races.
Most things went quite well for Langdon and his Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team in Las Vegas with one glaring exception: his semifinal run against teammate Doug Kalitta. Langdon was the No. 2 qualifier. He defeated Jasmine Salinas in the first round and then took out points leader Justin Ashley by .0027 seconds after leaving the starting line before Ashley which is quite an accomplishment.
In his semifinal matchup with Kalitta, he was cruising to an easy win because of Kalitta’s mechanical failure when the Kalitta Air Careers car veered towards the centerline. Langdon did all he could to correct it, but he still crossed the centerline, took out some scoring pylons, cut a rear tire and then veered towards the retaining wall. He did a masterful job keeping the car off the wall but was disqualified for his centerline violation.
“We were able to win a good race against Justin on the hole shot and give our team an opportunity to continue to make a run at the championship, but in the next run, the car got away from me a little bit and hit the cone and blew the tire,” Langdon remembered. “It’s long process to get the car back together. We got the car in the trailer and left Las Vegas the next morning; the guys drove straight through to Indy.
“Luckily, the guys at Precision Built Race Cars are an awesome group of guys. They had everything ready and were waiting for us when the car arrived. It took them just 51 hours to front half and back half the car. When we got it back, we were over at Josh Hart’s shop, Ron Douglas opened up the shop and Jason McCulloch and a couple other crew chiefs were over there helping – it was actually pretty cool, pretty humbling how great the sport is in times like that.
“It was a lot of work for a lot of people which was unfortunate. We have a great group of guys and a great team. Nobody said anything other than, ‘we’ll get this car ready for Ponona to go win that championship!’ That’s some incredible support from my Kalitta Air Careers team. I still can’t help feeling like crap that I put them in this position, but we are all 100 percent focused on going to Pomona and winning the championship. There’s no other option.”
Langdon trails second-place Antron Brown by one point and first-place Justin Ashley by 45 points entering the last race of the season. He leads the drivers tied for fourth place, his teammate, Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence, by 40 points. With 30 points per round win at stake in the season’s final race rather than the normal 20 points, Langdon is very much in contention for his second Top Fuel title.
“If we can gain 16 points on Justin (Ashley) in qualifying, we can cut it within one round going into race day,” the 2013 Top Fuel champion said. “We’ll do the best we can. If we can get an opportunity to nip it down less than a round, we’re gonna try to take full advantage of it. If we can’t, then we’ll just have to go two more rounds on Sunday. Like Brian (Crew Chief Brian Husen) says, ‘we just have to trust the process.’
“I honestly feel, not to sound arrogant or anything like that, but I really feel like we’ve had the best car on the property for these last few races. That’s just a testament to this Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team of how hard these guys have worked this year and how good a job they’ve done. I honestly feel that way, but we have to take it one day at a time and not really think about everything that’s going on. We just have to do our jobs like we’ve been doing all season. It would make for a great story if we could win this championship, that’s for sure. Probably one of the greatest stories ever told, but we’ll have to wait and see. I just have one priority: win the race and the championship at Pomona and leave everything else in the past.”
Race Information:
In ‘n Out Burger NHRA Finals In ‘n Out Burger Drag Strip, Pomona, Calif.
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
2023 In ‘n Out Burger NHRA Finals Recap: Qualified No. 10; lost to Billy Torrence.
Shawn Langdon Career Stats: 348 events, 19 wins, 25 runner-up, 375 round wins, 21 No. 1 qualifiers.
2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Results to Date (wins in italics):
All Images Courtesy: NHRA
The post SHAWN LANGDON HAS ONE PRIORITY: WIN IN ‘N OUT BURGER NHRA FINALS first appeared on Team Kalitta Motorsports.
Continue reading...
Most things went quite well for Langdon and his Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team in Las Vegas with one glaring exception: his semifinal run against teammate Doug Kalitta. Langdon was the No. 2 qualifier. He defeated Jasmine Salinas in the first round and then took out points leader Justin Ashley by .0027 seconds after leaving the starting line before Ashley which is quite an accomplishment.
In his semifinal matchup with Kalitta, he was cruising to an easy win because of Kalitta’s mechanical failure when the Kalitta Air Careers car veered towards the centerline. Langdon did all he could to correct it, but he still crossed the centerline, took out some scoring pylons, cut a rear tire and then veered towards the retaining wall. He did a masterful job keeping the car off the wall but was disqualified for his centerline violation.
“We were able to win a good race against Justin on the hole shot and give our team an opportunity to continue to make a run at the championship, but in the next run, the car got away from me a little bit and hit the cone and blew the tire,” Langdon remembered. “It’s long process to get the car back together. We got the car in the trailer and left Las Vegas the next morning; the guys drove straight through to Indy.
“Luckily, the guys at Precision Built Race Cars are an awesome group of guys. They had everything ready and were waiting for us when the car arrived. It took them just 51 hours to front half and back half the car. When we got it back, we were over at Josh Hart’s shop, Ron Douglas opened up the shop and Jason McCulloch and a couple other crew chiefs were over there helping – it was actually pretty cool, pretty humbling how great the sport is in times like that.
“It was a lot of work for a lot of people which was unfortunate. We have a great group of guys and a great team. Nobody said anything other than, ‘we’ll get this car ready for Ponona to go win that championship!’ That’s some incredible support from my Kalitta Air Careers team. I still can’t help feeling like crap that I put them in this position, but we are all 100 percent focused on going to Pomona and winning the championship. There’s no other option.”
Langdon trails second-place Antron Brown by one point and first-place Justin Ashley by 45 points entering the last race of the season. He leads the drivers tied for fourth place, his teammate, Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence, by 40 points. With 30 points per round win at stake in the season’s final race rather than the normal 20 points, Langdon is very much in contention for his second Top Fuel title.
“If we can gain 16 points on Justin (Ashley) in qualifying, we can cut it within one round going into race day,” the 2013 Top Fuel champion said. “We’ll do the best we can. If we can get an opportunity to nip it down less than a round, we’re gonna try to take full advantage of it. If we can’t, then we’ll just have to go two more rounds on Sunday. Like Brian (Crew Chief Brian Husen) says, ‘we just have to trust the process.’
“I honestly feel, not to sound arrogant or anything like that, but I really feel like we’ve had the best car on the property for these last few races. That’s just a testament to this Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team of how hard these guys have worked this year and how good a job they’ve done. I honestly feel that way, but we have to take it one day at a time and not really think about everything that’s going on. We just have to do our jobs like we’ve been doing all season. It would make for a great story if we could win this championship, that’s for sure. Probably one of the greatest stories ever told, but we’ll have to wait and see. I just have one priority: win the race and the championship at Pomona and leave everything else in the past.”
Race Information:
In ‘n Out Burger NHRA Finals In ‘n Out Burger Drag Strip, Pomona, Calif.
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
- Qualifying Show: 10 a.m.-Noon Sunday, Nov. 17 on FS1
- Finals: 4-7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17 on FS1
- Post Show: 7-7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17 on FS1
2023 In ‘n Out Burger NHRA Finals Recap: Qualified No. 10; lost to Billy Torrence.
Shawn Langdon Career Stats: 348 events, 19 wins, 25 runner-up, 375 round wins, 21 No. 1 qualifiers.
2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Results to Date (wins in italics):
- Gainesville: Qualified No. 1; defeated Cody Krohn, Justin Ashley, Antron Brown and Billy Torrence.
- Pomona: Qualified No. 7; defeated Krista Baldwin; lost to Tony Schumacher.
- Phoenix: Qualified No. 5; defeated Josh Hart, Antron Brown, Steve Torrence and Justin Ashley.
- Las Vegas 4W: Qualified No. 8; lost to Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence in the first round.
- Charlotte 4W: Qualified No. 7; lost to Antron Brown and Brittany Force in the first round.
- Chicago: Qualified No. 4; defeated Cody Krohn, Shawn Reed and Dan Mercier before losing to Antron Brown.
- Epping: Qualified No. 4; defeated Shawn Reed and Billy Torrence before losing to Doug Kalitta.
- Bristol: Qualified No. 4; defeated Shawn Reed; lost to Tony Schumacher.
- Richmond: Qualified No. 1; defeated Lex Joon, Steve Torrence & Antron Brown before losing to Doug Kalitta.
- Norwalk: Qualified No. 6; lost to Clay Millican.
- Seattle: Qualified No. 13; defeated Justin Ashley, Josh Hart and Clay Millican; lost to Steve Torrence.
- Sonoma: Qualified No. 4; lost to Tony Stewart in the first round.
- Brainerd: Qualified No. 5; defeated Shawn Reed, Doug Kalitta and Ida Zetterstrom; lost to Justin Ashley.
- Indianapolis: Qualified No. 16; lost to Brittany Force.
- Reading: Qualified No. 5; defeated Ida Zetterstrom, Tony Stewart and Justin Ashley; lost to Antron Brown.
- Charlotte: Qualified No. 6; defeated Josh Hart; lost to Doug Kalitta.
- St. Louis: Qualified No. 5; defeated Doug Kalitta; lost to Justin Ashley.
- Dallas: Qualified No. 4; defeated Jasmine Salinas, lost to Justin Ashley.
- Las Vegas: Qualified No. 2; defeated Jasmine Salinas and Justin Ashley; lost to Doug Kalitta.
All Images Courtesy: NHRA
The post SHAWN LANGDON HAS ONE PRIORITY: WIN IN ‘N OUT BURGER NHRA FINALS first appeared on Team Kalitta Motorsports.
Continue reading...
