Baytown, TX – Shawn Langdon and the DHL Toyota Top Fuel team will be looking to the final NHRA national event at historic Houston Raceway Park as the perfect time to begin building momentum for the 2022 NHRA season. The 2013 Top Fuel world champion who is the only NHRA driver to have won a world championship at every level of the various drag racing series will attempt to grab his first SpringNationals Top Fuel win this weekend. During his world championship season Langdon raced to the final round but came up one win light short of hoisting the Wally. Houston Raceway Park is one of just a handful of national event tracks Langdon has not collected a pro win.

“I definitely would like to get the last Top Fuel win in Houston,” said Langdon. “Our goal every weekend is to get four win lights for this DHL Toyota Top Fuel dragster. We are working towards that goal every race and I am proud of how hard everyone is working on this DHL team.”

During the NHRA Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals Langdon and his DHL team showed some sparks of improvement when they advanced out of the first round quad as the No. 11 qualifier. He narrowly missed advancing to the final quad in the unique format. The team took the best information from their time in the desert and will work to improve at a track that is basically at sea level.

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Baytown, TX – Doug Kalitta will be looking to secure the all-time Top Fuel career win mark for Houston Raceway Park this weekend at the annual NHRA SpringNationals. The perennial Top Fuel championship contender will be racing a Mobil1/Toyota branded 11,000-horsepowrr race car looking for his fourth Top Fuel SpringNationals win to break a four-way tie at the top of the Top Fuel leaderboard with Hall of Famer Kenny Bernstein, Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher. The new look for Kalitta this weekend will be a departure from his traditional red, white and black Mac Tools livery and the 49-time Top Fuel winner is looking forward to showing off for what is expected to be a record crowd at Houston Raceway Park as they host their final NHRA national event.

“We have had a lot of good luck in Houston and last year we raced our Mobil1 dragster to the final round,” said Kalitta. “Our partnership with Mobil1 and Toyota has been a big plus for our whole Kalitta Motorsports team. We are going to have a good number of people from both companies in our pits and we want to put on a good show for them.”

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Las Vegas – Through four rounds of qualifying at the NHRA Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals 49-time Top Fuel national event winner Doug Kalitta posted the quickest run of the first session and the third quickest run of the second session on Friday. His overall effort driving the Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster positioned the perennial championship contender as the No. 6 qualifier going into race day. Last year Kalitta grabbed two win lights and was runner-up at this event.

Today his first round quad included his teammate Shawn Langdon, Leah Pruett and Ron Passey. Kalitta was second off the line and was blasting down lane one looking to advance to the next round. As the finish line was closing in his dragster suffered a quick engine explosion robbing the Mac Tools machine of much needed momentum and opening the door for two opponents to sneak around him.

The team will take the positive runs from qualifying and turn their attention to the upcoming NHRA SpringNationals in Houston an event where Kalitta posted a runner-up finish in 2021.

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Las Vegas – Two-time NHRA Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals Funny Car winner J.R. Todd was looking to add a third trophy to his collection this weekend. Through four rounds of qualifying Todd and the DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car were qualified No. 9 with a 3.943 second run at 327.27 mph. The tough Funny Car category had Todd aligned with reigning Funny Car champion Ron Capps, veteran Tim Wilkerson and Jason Rupert in the opening quad.

Todd was first off the starting line and had his hands full as his Toyota GR Supra Funny Car lurched down track and he was on and off the throttle. The wildness of the four-wide racing style was in full effect in this quad as Wilkerson was loose off the starting line and had to abort his run in the first second of competition. Rupert smoked the tires at the hit of the throttle and was not a factor. While Capps was on a smooth pass Todd crossed the finish line right behind him after his own eventful run.

Todd’s second round opponents included Capps as well as Matt Hagan and Bob Tasca III. Three of the four drivers were world champions and the opportunity for advancing to the final quad left little room for error. Once again Todd was the first off the line and made his best run of the weekend for the DHL Funny Car, a 3.936 second blast at 326.08 mph. Unfortunately, it was not enough to get around eventual event winner Ron Capps and Hagan.

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Las Vegas – Shawn Langdon and the DHL Toyota Top Fuel dragster entered the NHRA Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals looking to capture their first win at the unique event. He wanted to add a Top Fuel trophy to the Funny Car title he won at the 2019 NHRA Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals. After four qualifying runs at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Langdon was sitting in the No. 11 spot but the veteran driver knew his team was in a good position to continue to improve.

In a first round quad that included teammate Doug Kalitta as well as Leah Pruett and Rob Passey, Langdon was looking to advance with Kalitta to the second round. When the tree flashed Langdon was right behind Kalitta and quickly advanced down lane two. As the finish line closed in Langdon was in a prime position and crossed the finish line second behind Pruett. Langdon’s elapsed time of 3.853 seconds was just a shade off his best qualifying effort of 3.808 seconds. His winning run was smooth and right down the middle of his lane.

In the second round the 2013 Top Fuel world champion was joined by four-time world champion Steve Torrence, Brittany Force and Pruett. Langdon was the first dragster off the starting line with a strong .052 reaction time. As he was closing in on the finish line his dragster experienced some issues losing power and dropping him back in the pack.

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Las Vegas, NV – After the first three races at the start of the season 2013 Top Fuel world champion Shawn Langdon is ready to start building some momentum. The DHL Toyota Top Fuel dragster team is looking to the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals as the perfect race and location to turn their luck around. Langdon along with his Toyota teammates J.R. Todd, Antron Brown and Alexis DeJoria will meet with the media in advance of the Las Vegas NHRA national event to talk about their wildly popular “Hangover” themed Toyota social media campaign which launcher earlier this season.

“This weekend will be a great time to start building some consistency,” said Langdon. “We will get four qualifying runs which will be great to get that data and then on Sunday the racing should be really competitive. There are a lot of tough race teams out here that are in the same position as us. This is a great opportunity for this DHL Toyota Top Fuel team to make some good runs and go rounds on Sunday.”

Langdon has had success in the four-wide racing format picking up his first career Funny Car win in 2019 racing a Toyota Funny Car at the Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals. Later that same season he picked up his second Funny Car win at the St Louis Midwest Nationals. In his Top Fuel career Langdon has collected fifteen national event wins.

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Las Vegas, NV – This weekend Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel team will be looking to improve on their 2021 runner-up performance at the NHRA Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals. The No. 1 qualifier at this year’s Arizona Nationals has shown improved performance at each of the first three NHRA national events this season and has a history of strong runs at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Through three rounds of tracing last year in the desert Kalitta who was the No. 3 qualifier, advanced to the final quad comprised of eventual winner Steve Torrence, Clay Millican and Antron Brown and he was only edged out by Torrence.

“We came pretty close last year at the Vegas four-wide,” said Kalitta, who also racked up a runner-up finish at Houston’s SpringNationals in 2021. “I am really happy with the direction this Mac Tools team is moving. We had some good runs two weeks ago at the Gatornationals. I am excited to get to The Strip and see what we can do.”

Over the off-season Kalitta Motorsports added world champion Top Fuel tuner Alan Johnson along with Brian Husen to the Mac Tools team. The pair of world championship winning crew chiefs and an experienced crew has started to show progress in a highly competitive Top Fuel field that has seen not only three different winners to start the season but six different finalists.

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Las Vegas, NV – Two-time Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals Funny Car winner J.R. Todd is ready to get to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. With three races under his belt behind the wheel of the newly designed DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car Todd is ready for a breakout event. Last year the 2018 Funny Car world champion started the season with a win at the first race and it set up him up at the top of the standings for the rest of the season. This year Todd is battling a tough group of Funny Car competitors and everyone is looking for a competitive performance edge.

“I am really loving driving this new Toyota GR Supra Funny Car,” said Todd, a ten-time Funny Car national event winner. “I am getting more comfortable in this race car with every run. I don’t think most people understand how hard it can be to bring a brand-new design into competition. We tested over the off-season, but you really don’t start getting great information until you are in race day conditions. We have three races behind us and we are getting better with every pass.”

Todd’s dominance in the desert began behind the wheel of a Top Fuel dragster when he raced to three runner-up finishes in 2006, 2014 and 2016. When he made the switch to Funny Car in 2017 wins at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway began piling up. In 2018 he won the four-wide race followed by a win at the fall national event on the way to his first Funny Car world championship. The next Spring he won for the third consecutive event picking up back-to-back four-wide wins.

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Gainesville, FL – As last year’s Gatornationals Top Fuel runner-up Shawn Langdon and his new-look CMR Construction & Roofing Top Fuel team had high hopes for this weekend’s race. In addition to racing for their first Gatornationals title Langdon was also competing in the Pep Boys All-Star Callout $130,000 specialty race. Massive rain showers for two days washed out a full day of qualifying on Friday and on Saturday all the teams were in a holding pattern until mid-afternoon when the NHFRA Safety Safari delivered a well prepared yet green race track for what turned out to be one round of qualifying.

For Langdon that qualifying session was also the first round of eliminations for the Pep Boys Callout. On Friday Langdon was “called out” by veteran Mike Salinas as his preferred first round opponent. When Saturday’s racing started, he pulled up beside veteran Salinas and his CMR Construction & Roofing Top Fuel dragster experienced a mechanical issue on the burnout. The 2013 Top Fuel world champion was able to stage but a rear end malfunction doomed his efforts to advance to the second round or post an elapsed time since his dragster barely moved off the starting line when he hit the throttle.

If was a disappointing turn of events for a driver who was building momentum at the start of the season. Due to weather conditions, there was only the one qualifying session, and the field was set before Langdon’s CMR Construction & Roofing dragster could get back on track. In two weeks he will be back in action at the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals looking to pick up his first win of the 2022 season.

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Gainesville, FL – Last year J.R. Todd tore through the Funny Car class and took home the Gatornationals trophy winning the historic event for the first time. Todd powered his DHL Toyota Camry to the season opening win and he was looking to become one of just a handful of Funny Car drivers to go back-to-back with a win this weekend.

In the only qualifying session J.R. Todd’s brand new Toyota GR Supra Funny Car experienced extreme tire shake as incredibly cool track temperatures made traction management an issue. Todd’s 11,000 horsepower Funny Car lost traction almost immediately and he had to shut off his race car and coats across the finish line with a time of 8.381 seconds. He generated enough power to qualify No. 11 and faced Blake Alexander in the first round.

Alexander was making his first appearance in 2022 and Todd’s DHL team felt confident going into the first round. Once again Mother Nature was making an impact on the racing conditions as unseasonably cold temperatures delayed the start of final eliminations by almost an hour and half to allow the air temperature to rise to a reasonable level for racing at over 330 mph. As both race cars staged it was Todd getting the jump off the starting line, but his race car once again smoked the tires immediately generating too much power to stay connected to the race track. Alexander was on an issue free pass that moved him to the quarterfinals.

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