Shawn Langdon, Kalitta Air Careers Top Fuel Dragster​


2025 NHRA Nationals at The Rock Recap: Inaugural event

Shawn Langdon Career Stats: 384 events, 28 wins, 32 runners-up, 452 round wins, 28 No. 1 qualifiers.

Current Points Position: 1

Pre-Race Notes:

  • Shawn Langdon enters the inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock in first place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. Entering the second race of playoffs, Langdon leads his teammate, Doug Kalitta, by 11 points.
  • Langdon is the fastest driver in organized Motorsports. He made history at last week’s inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals when he smashed his own speed record reaching 346.95 mph in his semifinal win over his teammate, Doug Kalitta. The previous record was the 345 mph pass Langdon made in May. He followed his semifinal speed by reaching 346.15 mph in the final round win over Spencer Massey.
  • During the winner’s circle celebration after last weekend’s race, Langdon presented his medal for winning the race to Crew Chief Brian Husen, a native of nearby Grand Rapids, Mich. (See photo attached.)
  • Langdon will go for his second three-race win streak of the season this weekend. He won last week’s Great Lakes Nationals in Martin, Mich., and the prestigious U.S. Nationals three weeks ago. He has six wins on the season including three-consecutive wins at Valdosta, Ga., Joliet, Ill., and Budds Creek, Md., and the Arizona Nationals early in the season. With Kalitta’s four wins, the Team Kalitta dragsters won 10 of the season’s 15 races and competed in 57 of the 59 rounds of racing.
  • Langdon has six wins, three runners-up and two semifinal showings along with six No. 1 qualifiers this season. In the last six races, he qualified first, second, fourth, third, first and fourth.
  • Langdon owns the four fastest runs in NHRA history. At the Great Lakes Nationals, he recorded speeds of 346.95 and 346.15. At the Southern Nationals in Georgia in May, he recorded speeds of 345.00 mph and 344.91 mph.
  • This weekend’s race will be Langdon’s first in Rockingham, but he could easily be considered the favorite. The NHRA Nationals at the Rock is the fourth of four inaugural races on this season’s schedule; Langdon is 3-0 in inaugural races this season
  • Langdon is the 2013 NHRA Top Fuel Champion and has 28 wins in his career.

Pre-Race Quotes:

“Internally, we know what the team’s capable of. We have a great team from top to bottom; earlier this year we were able to go to five straight final rounds, win three straight races, and then we had a couple races where we just couldn’t get out of the second round for no particular reason. Some things just didn’t fall the right way, and we lost some good races. That’s just how the sport goes. We know we have a great opportunity; we’re excited about the Martin win, but we’re not going to dwell on it too much because we have to get back to work and get ready for Rockingham.

“We know Rockingham is another track that we don’t really have much information on, and big credit to my team because at the three races we’ve gone to this year were at new facilities where you have no information, I felt like we had, hands down, the best car. We won all three of those races on brand new tracks. It just goes to show that these Kalitta Air guys do a great job, and they do a lot of homework.

“I just think we have a very well-prepared race car, and it comes from all the guys on the race team from top to bottom. Everything is triple checked – everything. I get in the race car, and I don’t ever doubt anything and never second guess anything. I know the guys do a fantastic job with the car. It starts with the guys putting the car together perfectly, then giving Brian an opportunity to put in a tune-up, and everything has to go right to make those kinds of runs. It’s just having a really good team and a really good team leader in Brian.”

Langdon Photo Courtesy: Kalitta Motorsports

For Shawn Langdon’s 2026 race-by-race results, please click here.

TV Schedule (All times eastern):

  • Qualifying Show 1: 11 a.m.–1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 on FS1
  • Finals No. 1: 3-6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 on FS1

The post Speed Racer Shawn Langdon Seeks Lucky Win No. 7 at NHRA Rockingham first appeared on Team Kalitta Motorsports.

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