Shawn Langdon, Kalitta Air Careers Team Want ‘Perfect World’ Scenario in Las Vegas
Most people want to live in a perfect world, and that’s where Shawn Langdon wants to finish this weekend. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs resumes Nov. 1-3, 2024 at the NHRA Ford Performance Nationals in Las Vegas, the fifth of six playoff races.
The 2024 season has been good for the 2013 Top Fuel champ. Langdon has two wins and five runner-up showings; he enters Las Vegas 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. It’s time to turn a couple of those runner-up finishes into race wins.
“We definitely need to have a good race to stay in contention for the championship so we’re looking forward to Las Vegas – we’re ready to go,” Langdon said. “We need to go more rounds that Justin Ashley – ideally, we need to win the race and have him go out early, but if we can just go one more round than him, that’ll improve our chances. In a perfect world, we win the race this weekend and take the points lead. We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing all season but turn a couple of those runner-up finishes into race wins. Where it ends up, it ends up. Our goal is to win the last two races – we’re not focused on anything else.”
The Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team took care of business in the regular season, but the Countdown has been challenging. Despite qualifying well, the team has not been racing deep into race day, and that is not conducive to challenging for a championship. Still, the team knows it has what it needs and has what it takes to get the job done in the season’s final two races.
“We’ve won races and have quite a few runner-up finishes – that gives me confidence in this Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team,” Langdon said. “We know how to go rounds; know how to win races – we just have to execute. Execution wins championships, and we have two more opportunities to execute. The points are pretty tight near the top, but our only focus is Justin Ashley because he’s the points leader. That’s where this Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team wants to be – that’s our only goal; that’s our only focus. If we win the last two races, we’ve done everything we can do.”
This story was originally published on October 29, 2024.
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