Langdon Drives to Second Consecutive Top Fuel Win at Route 66, Extends Points Lead
JOLIET, IL — Shawn Langdon delivered another dominant performance Sunday at Route 66 Raceway, driving his Kalitta Air Careers Top Fuel Dragster to a final-round victory over four-time champion Antron Brown to win the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK. It was Langdon’s second consecutive win, his third of the 2026 season, and the 25th of his career.
Langdon entered eliminations as the No. 9 qualifier after posting his best run of the weekend in the final qualifying session — a 3.770-second pass at 336.57 mph that also earned him the Mission Foods Challenge bonus.
Four Rounds, Four Wins
Langdon worked his way through a tough side of the ladder, defeating Shawn Reed in the opening round before taking down his own teammate Doug Kalitta in the second round. He then eliminated Josh Hart in the semifinals to set up a championship-caliber final against Brown.
In the final, Brown left the starting line first, but Langdon’s Kalitta Air Careers dragster ran him down, ultimately winning by .4354 seconds with a 3.775-second pass at 335.90 mph.
Points Leader
Langdon leaves Joliet on top of the NHRA Top Fuel standings, now holding a 54-point advantage over teammate Doug Kalitta in second place.
Langdon in His Own Words
“It’s a dream of a season with a dream team. I didn’t do anything special today; I just wasn’t messing up. Brian and the whole Kalitta Air crew gave me such a great race car all day. We definitely had a big turnaround from qualifying. Brian (Crew Chief Brian Husen) realized that we had to tame some things down in the car.
“Having to run Doug second round wasn’t ideal, but at the end of the day, we had to get some information for our car and make a good run. Today was a little bit tricky. Brian’s gotten really good lately, just off of his gut feeling, making those last-second little changes. I could tell that they had two different game plans — one for when the sun was out and one for when the cloud cover was there. They were able to adapt when they needed to and provided a great race car for four rounds.
“Great job to the team — Connie is at home so, Connie, we got another one for you! To everyone at Kalitta Air, everybody back in Michigan, Mobil 1, Mac Tools, DHL, Revchem, thank you. Two in a row — that’s pretty good.”
Finals Broadcast Replay: Wednesday, May 20, 6–9 p.m. ET on FS2
Photo courtesy: Kalitta Motorsports
