Shawn Langdon and DHL Fall to Teammate in First Round

Madison, IL – The DHL Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster and driver Shawn Langdon tried to make the best of a tough situation during the NHRA Midwest Nationals. Racing at World Wide Technology Raceway under dramatically different conditions than the previous week at the Gatornationals in Florida Langdon was looking for his second consecutive win in St. Louis. On the lone Saturday qualifying session Langdon’s DHL Kalitta Air dragster did not make a representative run and Langdon was forced to pedal his dragster to record a top sixteen elapsed time.  His time secured a spot on race day but he was forced to run teammate Doug Kalitta in the first round.

Once again Langdon’s dragster experienced issues on the starting line. As both dragster’s launched Kalitta and the Mac Tools dragster moved off the line without issues but the DHL dragster smoked the tires. Langdon expertly pedaled his race car in the event Kalitta experienced issues he was hoping to chase him down. There was no chance for a comeback as Kalitta blazed down the right lane.

“We just couldn’t get a handle on the track,” said Langdon. “We only got one shot on Saturday and then this morning was just a tough deal. We were ready to race Doug and we are racing for a championship too. You never want to race a teammate early. I am glad he went on to win the race. If you have to beat a teammate you definitely want to go all the way.”

Quotable:
Langdon on racing Doug Kalitta: “Doug is one of the toughest competitors out here. He is a great teammate but you definitely want to give him your best. I hated to race J.R. in the early rounds when we were in Funny Car together and it is just as painful to race Doug in the first round.”

Statistics:
Qualified: No. 12 (5.990 sec., 271.35 mph)
Bonus points: 0

Race Details:

First Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
Shawn Langdon         12        .092     9.260   77.20
Doug Kalitta                5          .024     3.731   328.22 (W)