LANGDON LEADS TOYOTA IN NHRA NEW ENGLAND NATIONALS QUALIFYING

EPPING, NH – Shawn Langdon qualified third in Funny Car to lead Toyota in front of a sell-out crowd at the New England Dragway in preparation for Sunday’s NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire.

The third-place showing marks Langdon’s best Funny Car qualifying effort since moving over from Top Fuel after last season. He had previously qualified fourth at Gainesville. Langdon will square off with Jim Campbell in Sunday’s opening round.

“We had a great test at Norwalk last week,” said Langdon, the 2013 Top Fuel world champion. “We learned a lot with our Global Electronic Technology Toyota Camry. I’m still learning in the Funny Car and there’s a lot more to come, but hopefully we’re starting to turn the corner.”

Langdon’s Kalitta Motorsports teammate J.R. Todd placed seventh in his DHL Camry, setting up a first-round match-up with Tim Wilkerson. Cruz Pedregon will start from the ninth position in his Snap-on Toyota and open Sunday’s festivities against Tommy Johnson, Jr.

The Toyota-sponsored Top Fuel cars struggled in the cooler temperatures during Friday night’s session, which essentially set the top half of the field. Doug Kalitta was the quickest among the Toyota drivers with a 3.874-second pass, good for ninth. He will meet Terry McMillen in the first round.

Richie Crampton jumped up to tenth on his final qualifying run of the weekend with a 3.884-second pass to set up a match-up with championship implications against rival Scott Palmer on Sunday. Palmer entered the weekend just one point ahead of Crampton for the tenth and final berth in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

Antron Brown, the 2016 Epping winner, was the quickest in Saturday’s first session to earn three bonus points on the way to qualifying 12th overall and will face off with Clay Millican in eliminations.