Knuckle Sandwich/Bass Pro Shops Toyota Dragster Heads to E-Town

Shawn Langdon enters the Toyota NHRA SummerNationals in seventh place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails sixth-place Larry Dixon by three points and leads eighth-place J.R. Todd by 62 points. The third through seventh positions in points are separated by just 74 points.

Alan Johnson Racing has three wins at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Langdon won there in 2013, and former AJR driver Larry Dixon won there in 2009 and ’10. One year ago at this event, Langdon was the No. 3 qualifier; he defeated Terry McMillen and Bob Vandergriff before losing to event winner Richie Crampton in the semifinals.

Langdon prior to Englishtown:

“I don’t think anything in particular is wrong with the Knuckle Sandwich Bass Pro Shops Toyota team. We’ve struggled a little bit with our tune-up. We lost a good race to Doug Kalitta in Topeka. We had a great car in Houston but lost on a hole shot. We didn’t have a good race in Atlanta, but sometimes, that’s how drag racing goes. Sometimes things fall your way, and sometimes they don’t. Lately, we’ve had some tough first-round draws with Doug Kalitta, Antron Brown and Larry Dixon in the first round at the last three races. Generally, those are guys you would race later in eliminations if you qualify in the top half of the field. We’ve had some tough races and tough draws. We’ve struggled a little bit as a team, but we’re definitely looking to rebound this weekend in Englishtown.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the competition in Top Fuel this season. A long time ago, the field was spread out by a couple tenths of a second. Now you’re seeing the top 12 or 13 cars in the field separated by five or six hundredths of a second. So even if you qualify in the top half of the field, there’s a good chance you’ll have a pretty tough draw in the first round – the level of competition is great for NHRA Drag Racing, and it’s great for the fans. In this day and age, that’s how it is in Top Fuel. It’s a really tough class right now.

“It should be a good race in Englishtown this weekend. The track can be tricky at Englishtown when the sun comes out, but it looks like we could have cloudy conditions for most of the weekend so that should bring some quick times, high speeds and great competition in Top Fuel. We’re definitely ready to get back on the track, and we’re very excited to go to New Jersey to and represent our sponsor at the Toyota SummerNationals.”