SHAWN LANGDON, KALITTA AIR CAREERS TEAM WANT “PERFECT WORLD” SCENARIO

YPSILANTI, MI – Most people want to live in a perfect world, and that’s where Shawn Langdon wants to finish this weekend. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs resumes Nov. 1-3, 2024 at the NHRA Ford Performance Nationals in Las Vegas, the fifth of six playoff races.

The 2024 season has been good for the 2013 Top Fuel champ. Langdon has two wins and five runner-up showings; he enters Las Vegas in third place in the NHRA Mission Foods Top Fuel point standings. He trails second-place Antron Brown by 32, leads fourth-place Steve Torrence by 12 points and trails points leader Justin Ashley by 76 points with two races remaining in the season. It’s time to turn a couple of those runner-up finishes into race wins.

“We definitely need to have a good race to stay in contention for the championship so we’re looking forward to Las Vegas – we’re ready to go,” Langdon said. “We need to go more rounds that Justin Ashley – ideally, we need to win the race and have him go out early, but if we can just go one more round than him, that’ll improve our chances. In a perfect world, we win the race this weekend and take the points lead. We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing all season but turn a couple of those runner-up finishes into race wins. Where it ends up, it ends up. Our goal is to win the last two races – we’re not focused on anything else.”

The Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team took care of business in the regular season, but the Countdown has been challenging. Despite qualifying well, the team has not been racing deep into race day, and that is not conducive to challenging for a championship. Still, the team knows it has what it needs and has what it takes to get the job done in the season’s final two races.

“We’ve won races and have quite a few runner-up finishes – that gives me confidence in this Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team,” Langdon said. “We know how to go rounds; know how to win races – we just have to execute. Execution wins championships, and we have two more opportunities to execute. The points are pretty tight near the top, but our only focus is Justin Ashley because he’s the points leader. That’s where this Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team wants to be – that’s our only goal; that’s our only focus. If we win the last two races, we’ve done everything we can do.”
2023 NHRA Ford Performance Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 8; lost to Tony Schumacher.

Shawn Langdon Career Stats: 348 events, 19 wins, 25 runner-up, 375 round wins, 21 No. 1 qualifiers.

2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Results to Date (wins in italics):

Gainesville: Qualified No. 1; defeated Cody Krohn, Justin Ashley, Antron Brown and Billy Torrence.

Pomona: Qualified No. 7; defeated Krista Baldwin; lost to Tony Schumacher.

Phoenix: Qualified No. 5; defeated Josh Hart, Antron Brown, Steve Torrence and Justin Ashley.

Las Vegas 4W: Qualified No. 8; lost to Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence in the first round.

Charlotte 4W: Qualified No. 7; lost to Antron Brown and Brittany Force in the first round.

Chicago: Qualified No. 4; defeated Cody Krohn, Shawn Reed and Dan Mercier before losing to Antron Brown.

Epping: Qualified No. 4; defeated Shawn Reed and Billy Torrence before losing to Doug Kalitta.

Bristol: Qualified No. 4; defeated Shawn Reed; lost to Tony Schumacher.

Richmond: Qualified No. 1; defeated Lex Joon, Steve Torrence & Antron Brown before losing to Doug Kalitta.

Norwalk: Qualified No. 6; lost to Clay Millican.

Seattle: Qualified No. 13; defeated Justin Ashley, Josh Hart and Clay Millican; lost to Steve Torrence.

Sonoma: Qualified No. 4; lost to Tony Stewart in the first round.

Brainerd: Qualified No. 5; defeated Shawn Reed, Doug Kalitta and Ida Zetterstrom; lost to Justin Ashley.

Indianapolis: Qualified No. 16; lost to Brittany Force.

Reading: Qualified No. 5; defeated Ida Zetterstrom, Tony Stewart and Justin Ashley; lost to Antron Brown.

Charlotte: Qualified No. 6; defeated Josh Hart; lost to Doug Kalitta.

St. Louis: Qualified No. 5; defeated Doug Kalitta; lost to Justin Ashley.

Dallas: Qualified No. 4; defeated Jasmine Salinas, lost to Justin Ashley.