LANGDON DRIVES CAMRY TO NHRA CHARLOTTE FOUR-WIDE VICTORY
CHARLOTTE, NC – Shawn Langdon came from behind to drive his Global Electronic Technology Toyota Camry 
Funny Car to victory in Sunday’s NHRA NGK Spark Plugs Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte.
Langdon opened his day by defeating Jeff Diehl and Terry Haddock in the opening round. He then eliminated teammate J.R. Todd and Tommy Johnson Jr. in round two to advance to the finals with a star-studded quadrant featuring Langdon, Robert Hight, John Force and Matt Hagan – all world champions.
In the final, Langdon was behind Hight early, but was able to go around him at the finish line and take the win by .019 seconds for his first career Funny Car victory. With the win, the 2013 Top Fuel champion became just the 17th driver to triumph in both Top Fuel and Funny Car.
“The guys we had to go through today in the second round and the finals were the best in the class,” said Langdon, who also earned his first Top Fuel win at zMax Dragway in 2012. “To get this win is very gratifying. I went .069 in the final and left fourth. It just shows how good these guys are and how hungry they are to win. There’s so many things going on in my life, that I just sat in the car while staging and closed my eyes and said just give me this one time right here, I need to use it. I don’t say that too often, but this time it worked.
“Going down the track (in the final), you have so many emotions in your head and I’m thinking this thing really isn’t running well and it was kind of just petering down there and I’m actually glancing off to my left and I’m thinking, damn, I don’t see anybody. So obviously, I leg it. Then I go through the finish line and I see a blinking light and I’m thinking, ok, I haven’t seen that yet today and I know that I’ve been second twice and it’s been a solid light. So I’m thinking we might have won. I got on the radio and asked if we won because I’ve got a flashing light, but I don’t know what that means, though. I didn’t get any response, so I’m thinking they’re probably at the bottom of the mosh pit if we won or that they’re ticked off. Then I came around the corner and they pointed me to the good side, so at that point I knew. I had about 10 seconds to think, cool, I just won, and to pop out of the car and go through the process. It’s just an awesome feeling. This is cool.”
Todd easily won his opening round over Hight, Bob Tasca and Bob Gilbertson, with Tasca and Gilbertson being eliminated. In the second round, he went up in smoke at the hit, attempted to pedal it, but he was too far back to make up the difference.
In Top Fuel, Doug Kalitta was the top performing Toyota driver of the day as he advanced to the second round. After three straight top-four runs in qualifying, he registered another solid pass with a 3.779 in knocking off teammate Richie Crampton and Lex Joon in round one. Unfortunately, Kalitta’s day would come to an early end when he lost traction early in round two and went on to finish third in his quad. Neither Antron Brown nor Crampton were able to make a clean pass in the opening round and were eliminated early.
The 2019 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to Georgia next weekend for the Arby’s NHRA Southern Nationals at the Atlanta Dragway, May 3-5.
