Langdon, Albalooshi set sites on Vegas – Working for Victory
Shawn Langdon, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (silver):
Shawn Langdon enters the Toyota NHRA Nationals, the fifth of six events that comprise the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs, in first place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He leads second-place driver Doug Kalitta by 83 points and third-place driver Spencer Massey by 85 points with two races remaining in the season.
Langdon prior to Las Vegas:
“It was nice to have a couple of weeks off to reflect on how the Countdown has played out. So far, the Countdown has been good to us. We’ve had some ups and downs, but the Al-Anabi car has been running very well this year. The Al-Anabi guys have been working really hard these last couple of weeks to fine-tune a couple of things on the race car that we are hoping will help our performance a little bit heading into the last two races of the season.
“The Al-Anabi car has been really consistent in the last few races, and we are doing everything we can to make sure that continues. That’s something we expect as a team. We go to every race knowing we want to win and that we are capable of winning. We have been fortunate to have a good year this season, but in the Countdown, it’s crunch time; you have to perform, and you can’t go out in the first round. You have to continue to go rounds and get into those key situations like in Reading, when we ran Doug Kalitta in the semis and Antron Brown in the finals. You have to win those rounds. With only six races in the Countdown, there’s no room for error. We have been fortunate to go some rounds at a lot of races this year and get into the semifinals. Getting into 10 final rounds in 22 races is just consistently going rounds and getting into the late rounds. When you get into those slumps, that’s what really hurts you. We’ve had some bad races, but we’ve been able to bounce back quickly after them so it hasn’t hurt us that much.”
“Alan Johnson is going to win races and championships no matter what, and I am very fortunate to be on his team; if you could pick anybody, that’s the one guy you would want. When the Countdown starts, you can just see his attitude change. You can see the hunger in his eyes – he wants to win, and that’s exactly what you want. Every time we go up there to make a run, and I’m sitting in the water box, you can see his determination, and it gives you that much more confidence because you know he’s out there to get every single bit of ET he can out of the car.”
“Going into the last two races with a points lead is kind of a different feeling for me. I am very excited, and I am very proud to be in this position with a four-round lead going into Las Vegas. But we have keep working as hard as we can because there are still eight rounds of racing left. We’ve seen it year after year. Somebody always gets hot in the last couple of races, and a four-round lead can deteriorate quickly. The Al-Anabi team has had a really good year, and we would love nothing more than to finish it off with a Mello Yello championship so our team will keep working as hard as we can. If we can manage to leave Las Vegas with a lead like we have now, I’ll probably be a lot more excited about it.”
Khalid alBalooshi, Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel Dragster (gold):
Khalid alBalooshi enters the Toyota NHRA Nationals, the fifth of six events that comprise the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs, in eighth place in the NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings. He trails seventh-place Clay Millican by nine points and leads ninth-place Bob Vandergriff by 36 points with two races remaining in the season.
AlBalooshi may not have driven his Al-Anabi Top Fuel dragster in a couple of weeks, but he was behind the wheel of a Pro Mod car this past weekend. He won the ADRL World Finals IX at Royal Purple Raceway, near Houston. AlBalooshi drove a 2013 Chevrolet Camaro that Mike Castellana normally drives in the NHRA Pro Mod series.
AlBalooshi prior to Las Vegas:
“It was fun to be back in a Pro Mod car last weekend; it is always fun when you win, but I had a good time racing in Houston with the Al-Anabi Pro Mod team. Now it is back to work in the gold Al-Anabi Top Fuel car this weekend, and I am looking forward to racing in Las Vegas. Our gold Al-Anabi team had some bad luck in the Countdown so now we want to finish the season the best we can do in the last two races.
“We want to win the race, but if we can help Shawn win the championship, that will be good, too. If we have a chance to race against Doug(second-place driver Doug Kalitta) or Spencer (third-place driver Spencer Massey), our team will do everything it can to take them out so we can help Shawn win the Championship. We want to win the race, but we also want to help Al-Anabi win a third world championship because we have two cars, but we are one team.”
