INDIANAPOLIS – At a race where legends are made and historic moments are branded into NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series fans’ memories Shawn Langdon and the DHL Top Fuel dragster team made two runs for the ages. On the way to his second NHRA U.S. Nationals Top Fuel title and first Top Fuel win since St Louis in 2016 Langdon won a wild semifinal round race against rookie of the year candidate Justin Ashley before dominating the final round against Leah Pruett. The race win moved Langdon up to No. 5 in the Mello Yello point standings and was the fifteenth Top Fuel win of his career.

“With how much uncertainty there is this year, where we are racing, if we’re racing this team has really hunkered down,” said Langdon. “We have a great group of guys here at Kalitta. To win Indy is awesome. It’s kind of one of those things where you say, no matter what, if you win the U.S. Nationals, you’ve had a good year. I think right now we are free rolling for the rest of the year. We gained some valuable points that we needed to make up from the last couple of races. We went out early with some issues in dropping cylinders and we got it fixed and it shows in the results.”

For the fourth year in a row Kalitta Motorsports won at the NHRA U.S. Nationals. Langdon extended the streak started by Funny Car teammate J.R. Todd who won in 2017 and 2018. Last year Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools Top Fuel team won Top Fuel at the biggest race of the year for the first time and now Langdon has collected his second Indy win and first with crew chief and drag racing icon Connie Kalitta at the helm.

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Shawn Langdon and the DHL/Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster team earned the 87th No. 1 Top Fuel qualifier for Kalitta

2020 DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA U.S. Nationals

Motorsports, the multi-time world championship team, today at the 66th annual U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Langdon powered down the track on Friday night in the first qualifying session with a 3.728 second pass at 313.22 mph. The run held up through two more qualifying sessions today and gave Langdon his second No. 1 qualifier at the historic event and 19th overall Top Fuel No.1 in his career.

“It feels good. It feels like we are back to how the car was running in testing and the first day of Pomona this year,” said Langdon. “This DHL dragster is fast. We were fast last night. At the top end it dropped cylinder and ended up hurting the motor pretty good. Today we were trying to take a conservative approach. We missed a little on the second qualifying session. We went after it on the final session. The reason the miles per hour were down is because it was a planned shut off. We weren’t really sure if it would drop a cylinder. It was probably going to run 3.69 seconds or a 3.70.”

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Indianapolis – Shawn Langdon will enter the NHRA U.S. Nationals focused on getting his second Top Fuel title at the historic event and keeping a Kalitta Motorsports streak alive. Langdon picked up his first U.S. Nationals win in 2013 on the way to his Top Fuel championship. Since 2017 Kalitta Motorsports has hoisted a Wally in victory in either Funny Car or Top Fuel. His DHL Top Fuel team has been making steady progress over the last three races held in Indianapolis as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series as restarted but the results haven’t translated to victories yet.

“We have been making good runs in qualifying and we have won some rounds on Sunday but we haven’t put a whole race together yet,” said Langdon. “Connie (Kalitta) and Kurt (Elliott) have a good handle on the race car and we just need some things to fall our way. I did a lot of bracket racing over the break and with the last three races I feel good in the car. I am looking forward to this weekend for sure.”

Coming into the NHRA U.S. National Langdon has more seat time than most of his competitors thanks to a dedication to racing that got him into his bracket car in the weeks preceding the restart of the season. Langdon, a world champion at the sportsman level, was able to compete at regional events winning rounds and keeping his starting line skills sharp. Those reaction time abilities will come in handy this weekend.

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Indianapolis – Coming to the NHRA U.S. Nationals has been a Labor Day tradition for J.R. Todd for as long as he can remember. He has attended as a fan, as a crew person and as a driver in Top Fuel and Funny Car. The driver of the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car is in elite company as a two-time back-to-back winner of this prestigious race. Todd took the title in 2017 and 2018 and last year almost raced to three finals in a row before bowing out in the semifinals.

“Winning Indy is a career event,” said Todd. “You look at the drivers that have won and they all talk about that win as being so special. I agree. When I won it in 2017 I don’t think it really sank in right away. Everyone who puts on a helmet and firesuit dreams of winning Indy. I want to get another U.S. Nationals win to raise my career to the next level.”

Only five other Funny Car drivers have won three U.S. Nationals titles and Todd would like to make it an even half dozen. The names are almost surely Hall of Famers and Todd would like to continue his career trajectory in that direction.

“You look at the drivers that have won three U.S. Nationals Funny Car titles,” said Todd. “John Force. Ed McCullloch. Snake (Don Prudhomme). Those guys are legends and then Robert Hight and Cruz Pedregon are on that list too. Also those guys have multiple world championships and I want to be on that level.”

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Indianapolis – One year ago Doug Kalitta won the biggest race of this career. After 25 years the veteran driver and perennial championship contender got four win lights at the NHRA U.S. Nationals and won the prestigious race for the first time. It was a hard fought win that saw him defeat some of the toughest drivers in the category. This weekend Kalitta and his Mac Tools Top Fuel team will be looking to do something that hasn’t happened in over a decade, win back-to-back Top Fuel titles at the biggest race of the year.

“That win last year was big. We were having a good season but getting that U.S. Nationals win gave us a boost and we made a serious run at the championship,” said Kalitta. “It was great to share that win with (team owner) Connie (Kalitta) and the boys. I am looking forward to trying to do it again.”

This season Kalitta has held the Mello Yello points lead from the first race of the season with a win at the Winternationals. He has raced to two more final rounds and continued to be one of the most dominant drivers on the tour. Heading into the U.S. Nationals after three previous races in Indianapolis Kalitta is a laser focused as ever on the task at hand.

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Indianapolis – The DHL Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster made its best showing of the weekend when it counted the most. After two tough qualifying runs Shawn Langdon was entering the third installment of NHRA National events in Indianapolis from an unfamiliar starting spot, No. 14 in the sixteen car field. The team had been steadily improving on their runs on Saturday and was confident they could make an even better run in the first round.

“We were hazing the tires down track on Saturday and that cost us,” said Langdon. “With only two qualifying runs you can get behind the eight ball pretty quick out here. I know Connie and these DHL guys have been figuring somethings out so I am feeling good going into the first round. Anything can happen and you just have to be ready to take advantage of every opportunity.”

In a tough first round match-up with Leah Pruett the DHL dragster was up to the task. Langdon got the jump off the starting line and was on a great run. While he was making his best run of the weekend Pruett was on a solid run as well. At the finish line it was Pruett getting the win light after she made the quickest run of the event. Langdon and his DHL team improved tremendously from qualifying posting a 3.839 second run at 304.19 mph which would have qualified him No. 3 during Saturday’s qualifying sessions.

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Indianapolis – Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools Top Fuel team will leave Indianapolis with the Mello Yello point lead for the fifth race in a row of the 2020 NHRA season. Yesterday the team battled through two frustrating qualifying sessions and rolled into race day as the No. 12 qualifier. The veteran team was not deterred and focused their attention on the first round match-up with Cory McClenathan.

“We started out 12th and we kind of missed it in qualifying,” said Kalitta. “The cooler conditions definitely helped us in the first and second round.”

Race day showed a whole new Mac Tools team as Kalitta and his Rob Flynn tuned Top Fuel dragster roared to a first round win with a stout 3.767 second run. It was a flawless run to start the day and add another round win to Kalitta’s season stat total. Kalitta never trailed in the race and took the win light as well as lane choice to the second round against Clay Millican.

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Indianapolis – The DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car and driver J.R. Todd took full advantage of a fast race car today at the third NHRA National event in a row outside of Indianapolis. In the final round of qualifying Todd posted the second quickest time of the session and the 2018 Funny Car champion took that momentum into race day as the No. 5 qualifier.

In the first round Todd took out upstart Funny Car driver Mike McIntire with a blistering 3.962 second run at 322.65 mph. The support of team sponsors Mobil1, NGK Spark Plugs and Toyota Racing Development all came together over the weekend to propel Todd to victory. The two-time U.S. Nationals winner never trailed in the race and took his win light into the quarterfinals with lane choice over veteran Cruz Pedregon.

Another three second run advanced Todd to the semifinals. The third round race pitted Todd versus Paul Lee and another tough match-up. Lee smoked the tires at the hit of the throttle and Todd took advantage of the mishap. His 4.329 second pass was enough to advance him to his fourteenth Funny Car final round.

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Indianapolis – For J.R. Todd, the two-time U.S. Nationals winner, getting back to the track in Indianapolis is always a special event. It is a track where he raced junior dragsters growing up and then captured the biggest single day win in drag racing not just once but twice. The second win paved the way for his first NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car world championship in 2018. This weekend Todd and his DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car team will be rolling on the property for the third installment off the NHRA Nationals in Indianapolis as the pandemic affected NHRA season marches on.

“I love racing at Indy,” said Todd. “Lots of history here for me personally and for the sport of NHRA. This will be our third shot at getting another win and I like our chances. We are making good runs on Saturday and we just need to string a few more round wins together on Sunday.”

For Todd the chance to go rounds on Sunday could lead to another move up the Mello Yello Funny Car point standings. He is tied for sixth place and is just 63 points out of fourth. A strong race this weekend could help the former Funny Car champ reel in the top three Funny Cars.

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Indianapolis – For Top Fuel point leader Doug Kalitta this weekend’s race could not get here fast enough. Since the start of the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season Kalitta has had the best race car, the Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster, in any of the categories across the series. He has raced to three final rounds including a season opening win at the Winternationals. Two weeks ago he stumbled dropping a quarterfinal race to Justin Ashley snapping his final round streak at four races total extending all the way back to the Auto Club Finals in November of 2019.

“My crew chief Rob Flynn and the boys have this Mac Tools dragster running awesome,” said Kalitta. “We went blue last week with new sponsor Osborn and we didn’t get as far into the race as we would have liked. Those guys were great to have at the track and I know we connected them with some of our other partners. You love having new sponsors come to the races and we got a lot of quality time with them.”

For Kalitta this season is one more in a long list of successful endeavors. Earlier this year he picked up his 700th round win and he is two wins away from 50 career Top Fuel victories. As the point leader the veteran driver knows he has a bulls-eye on his back every time he comes to the starting line.

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