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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Gainesville, FK – The Gatornationals is an epic event that perennial championship contender Doug Kalitta has won three times driving the Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster. This weekend Kalitta was looking to become just one of five drivers to have collected four or more Top Fuel victories at the race held at Gainesville Raceway. Tough qualifying conditions that included rain and frigid temperatures truncated qualifying to one session and impacted race day. With only one run Kalitta made the most of it posting a 3.718 second pass at 330.47 mph to wind up No. 5 going into eliminations. It was another solid qualifying effort after his No. 1 qualifier two weeks ago at the Arizona Nationals.

In the first round Kalitta faced Top Fuel newcomer Alex Laughlin and the veteran did not take the former Pro Stock racer lightly. Kalitta got the jump off the starting line and never trailed in the race winning with an improved 3.708 second pass at 330.80 mph. It was continued performance dominance for the 49-time national event winner.

In the quarterfinals Kalitta was paired up with Arizona Nationals winner Mike Salinas. In an incredibly close race, the Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster was less than four feet from its first semifinal of 2022. Kalitta and Salinas took off together from the starting line and roared down the track side by side. They both flew across the finish line with strong times of 3.698 seconds and 3.701 seconds at 331.45 mph and 330.47 mph, respectively. It was the closest Top Fuel race of the day with Salinas advancing.

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Gainesville, FL – Kalitta Motorsports and Clean Harbors, along with its Safety-Kleen subsidiary, are teaming up to give increased visibility to environmental sustainability this year at several NHRA tracks.

Drag racing world champion and team owner Connie Kalitta was a pioneer in sustainable practices – seeking better ways to minimize the sport’s environmental impact as early as the 1960s. In the 80s, Kalitta was pleased to become one of Safety-Kleen’s first oil recycling customers.

Today, Clean Harbors, North America’s leading provider of environmental services, continues to provide oil recycling and sustainable parts washer services to the Kalitta Motorsports. Through its Safety-Kleen subsidiary, Clean Harbors is the largest re-refiner and recycler of used oil in the United States. and a leading provider of parts washers and sustainable services to commercial, industrial and automotive customers.

Beginning this weekend at Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., fans, employees and customers alike will see the Kalitta Motorsports and Clean Harbors commitment to sustainable practices firsthand in the form of a Clean Harbors hospitality tent in Kalitta’s pit side area.

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YPSILANTI, MI – Eight of the best Top Fuel racers in the world, including both Kalitta Motorsports drivers Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon, will be competing for $130,000 in bonus prize money this weekend in the Pep Boys All-Star Callout event during the NHRA Gatornationals. Two weeks ago, at the Arizona Nationals, the final event to earn Pep Boys Allstar Callout points, Kalitta moved into the No. 7 Allstar position with a No. 1 effort in Phoenix and Langdon slid into the No. 8 Allstar position with his No. 7 qualifying effort at the national event. Friday afternoon in a unique ‘callout” format No. 1 Pep Boys All-Star qualifier Steve Torrence will choose his first round opponent from the seven competitors in the field regardless of qualifying position. Following Torrence the No. 2 qualifier Brittany Force will select from the remaining six drivers unless she is selected by Torrence.

“The callouts will make this a fun event for sure, and you won’t know who you are racing against until the picks are made,” said Langdon, who will be racing the CMR Construction & Roofing Top Fuel dragster this weekend. “I feel good about my position because there is no pressure. As the No. 8 driver I will either get picked or be in the last pair. I am just looking forward to putting on a good show for the fans. There will definitely be some strategy involved for sure.”

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GAINESVILLE, FL – Feeling confident after a superb runner-up finish at the last NHRA tour stop in Phoenix, Pro Stock driver Troy Coughlin Jr. is hoping to extend a promising winning streak the Elite Motorsports team has put together by winning this weekend’s 53rd annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

Both of the races contested so far this year have been won by drivers from the Elite camp, with four-time world champion Erica Enders claiming the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., and upstart Aaron Stanfield edging Coughlin himself for the trophy in Arizona.

“There’s definitely a lot of momentum in the camp and my crew chief Mark Ingersoll and the boys — Kyle Bates, Ricky Calloway and Kelly Murphy — certainly have the JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ready to win,” Coughlin said. “Why not Gainesville?”

There’s no reason to think Coughlin isn’t a top contender in the Sunshine State. Aside from coming a whisker away at the last meet, Gainesville Raceway is the site of the third national event victory of his career, which occurred in 2013 when he dominated the Super Gas class.

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