Toyota St. Louis NHRA Preview

LANGDON, LUCAS IN TIGHT TOP FUEL TITLE FIGHT – With two of six Countdown to the Championship events completed, Toyota drivers Shawn Langdon and Morgan Lucas are clearly in the middle of a four-way battle for the 2013 Top Fuel world championship.   Langdon currently sits in a tie with Doug Kalitta for the lead, while Lucas is fourth, just 35 points behind the two leaders.  Equally as important, each continues to carry the momentum they brought into the Countdown.  Over the past six races, Langdon has two victories, a runner-up and two semi-finals, while Lucas also has two wins and a runner-up finish to go with one semi-final appearance.  Making the story even more intriguing – the pair were high school classmates, roommates during junior college and former teammates at Morgan Lucas Racing before Langdon was hired away by Al-Anabi Racing.

Fellow Toyota drivers Antron Brown and Khalid alBalooshi currently sit eighth and ninth after each has failed to qualify at one of the first two Countdown events.  They have dropped 150 points back, but could get back in the hunt with a victory this weekend.

PEDREGON SITS SECOND, EYES THIRD FUNNY CAR TITLE – While a late-season slump dropped Cruz Pedregon to sixth-place in the final regular season standings, the two-time Funny Car champion has shown the form that put him on top of the point standings earlier in the season.  In the Countdown opener, he was the number one qualifier before being upset in the second round.  This past weekend, Pedregon registered the low ET in four of six Funny Car rounds, qualifying second and then going on to win his fourth race of the season by defeating John Force in the final.  He now sits second, only 51 points behind point leader Matt Hagan, yet is tied for the series lead in wins and number one qualifiers with four each.