Shawn Langdon Reaches Quarterfinals; Doug Kalitta, J.R. Todd Exit Texas NHRA FallNationals Early
Shawn Langdon was the No. 4 qualifier at the Texas NHRA FallNationals. During the first qualifying session Friday afternoon, Langdon made a 3.727-second run at 328.61 mph. Although the Kalitta Air Careers team made four good qualifying attempts, the team’s first was its best.
Langdon defeated Jasmine Salinas and then faced Justin Ashley in the second round. Both drivers left the starting line together, Langdon smoked the tires, and pedaled; Ashley smoked the tires and pedaled. When Langdon got back into the throttle, the engine on the Kalitta Air Careers dragster exploded, and Ashley raced to the win and the points lead.
Langdon leaves Dallas in third place in the NHRA Mission Foods Top Fuel point standings. He trails second-place Antron Brown by 32, leads fourth-place Steve Torrence by 12 points and trails points leader Justin Ashley by 76 points with two races remaining in the season.
“We made a good run in the first round – great job to Brian (Crew Chief Brian Husen) and all the Kalitta Air guys, DHL, Toyota and Revchem,” said Langdon. “The Kalitta Air Careers car was great in qualifying and great in the first round, but we just smoked tires second round. I pedaled it, but he was ahead of me, and then mine blew up. The track warmed up, and we didn’t make the right adjustments so we’ll head to Vegas and see what we can do in these last two races.”
Doug Kalitta was the No. 10 qualifier at the Texas NHRA FallNationals. The Mobil 1 50th Anniversary team struggled on Friday and was not qualified entering the third of four qualifying sessions. Kalitta made a 3.796-second pass at 329.60 mph in session three to move into the 14th position and then ran a 3.775-second pass in the final session to move up to the 10th position.
Kalitta raced Clay Millican in the first round; both cars left at the same time, but Kalitta’s Mobil 1 50th anniversary dragster smoked the tires giving the round win to Millican.
Kalitta leaves Dallas in seventh place in the NHRA Mission Foods Top Fuel point standings. He trails sixth-place Clay Millican by nine points, leads eighth-place Brittany Force by 67 points and trails points leader Justin Ashley by 133 points with two races remaining in the season.
“I thought the Mobil 1 team had something for them this weekend – I was really excited for today,” said Kalitta. “This thing sure looked good on Saturday; for whatever reason, it wasn’t meant to be today. We definitely hate it for Mobil 1, Mac Tools, Revchem and everyone else that helps us get it done. I know my guys – we’re all hungry. I just have a ton of confidence in this program, and we’re still trying to make it happen. We have two more races – you never can tell what kind of streak we can go on.”
J.R. Todd was the No. 10 qualifier at the Texas NHRA FallNationals. Todd’s best of the four qualifying attempts came during the Friday night session when the DHL GR Supra reached the finish line in 3.913 seconds at 326.44 mph.
Todd raced Cruz Pedregon in the first round. The cars left the starting line together. Todd was leading early in the race, but the DHL GR Supra smoked the tires, and Pedregon raced to the win light.
Todd leaves Dallas in eighth place in the NHRA Mission Foods Funny Car point standings. He trails seventh-place Blake Alexander by 11 points and leads ninth-place Chad Green by 13 points with two races remaining in the season.
“The DHL GR Supra team made some solid runs in qualifying, but our performance isn’t up there with the front runners,” said Todd. “We didn’t get it done on race day – that’s really unfortunate for DHL, SealMaster, Revchem, Toyota and everyone that supports us. We have two more chances to win – we’ll give it another shot in Las Vegas.”
Team Kalitta will be back in action Nov. 1-3, 2024, at the NHRA Ford Performance Nationals in Las Vegas, the fifth of six races making up the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs. For additional information, please visit www.nhra.com. For additional information on Kalitta Motorsports, please visit www.teamkalitta.com.
This story was originally published on October 14, 2024.
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