LANGDON’S SEMI-FINAL LEADS TOYOTA AT BRISTOL NHRA
BRISTOL, TN – Shawn Langdon advanced to the Top Fuel semi-finals to lead Toyota at today’s NHRA Thunder 
Valley Nationals at the Bristol Dragway.
The 2013 Top Fuel world champion defeated a pair of fellow Toyota drivers in Doug Kalitta and Antron Brown to advance to the semi-finals. After a lengthy rain day, he was eliminated by Leah Pritchett. Langdon, who missed the season’s first four races, has now advanced to the semi-finals in two of the past three events.
“The track was very difficult and threw a lot of curveballs at the crew chiefs this weekend,” said Langdon. “We did the best we could and tried to make the right calls. We were able to win some pedal-fests the first couple rounds and then we dropped a cylinder in the semis. We feel like we’re starting to roll. We made up some points toward trying to get in the top 10 for the Countdown, so we felt good about that. We’re coming. We’re making moves. We’re learning every weekend. When we get this thing right, it’s going to be a bad hot rod.”
Brown knocked off Pat Dakin in his first round run before his match-up with Langdon.
“We just lost a really close race against Shawn (Langdon) and that hurts,” relayed Brown. “We were right there. This series is just so competitive and so close. This track has always been tricky and we had some very difficult conditions out here. We really haven’t faced this type of heat and humidity this year. But we learned some things that are going to help us down the road.”
Troy Coughlin Jr. lost in the first round to Leah Pritchett.
In Funny Car, Alexis DeJoria lost to eventual winner Ron Capps in her opening run, while Del Worsham, Cruz Pedregon and J.R. Todd also lost in the first round.
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, June 23-25, for the final race in four races in four weeks stretch of the schedule.
