Another week, another win for Top Fuel star Shawn Langdon.
Langdon piloted his Kalitta Motorsports dragster to his third Countdown to the Championship race win in a row, his latest coming Sunday at the NAPA NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis.
Langdon clocked a 3.732-second elapsed time at 335.90 mph to defeat first time national-event finalist Will Smith, who crossed the finish line in 4.024-second elapsed time at 269.03 mph at World Wide Technology Raceway.
“Each ‘Wally’ [trophy] we get, it just continues to grow. At the beginning of the year, we had some goals in mind for our team,” Langdon said. “We’ve been so close [to winning the championship] the last couple of years. We had the equipment, we had the personnel, we had the team to compete for championships, but it just didn’t work in our favor. This year, we’ve kept focusing on the details, kept focusing on the little points. [Crew chief] Brian Husen kept pushing everybody to strive for perfection, and I think this team’s showing it right now. Thanks to everybody at Kalitta Air, Gerber, Mac Tools, DHL, SealMaster, PJH, Mobil 1, Hounder and all the partners that stick behind us. It’s a great time to be a part of Team Kalitta right now.”
The Kalitta Motorsports team, led by Langdon, has been a dominant force this year.
In the 17 races this season, Langdon has a class-best and career-best eight wins, followed by his teammate Doug Kalitta’s four. Sunday’s victory was the team’s seventh in a row. Kalitta won Sonoma, Calif., Seattle, and Brainerd, Minn., and Langdon won the prestigious 72nd annual Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, the inaugural Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals in Martin, Mich., Rockingham, N.C., and St. Louis.
“It really is incredible – all the credit goes to my guys, my whole Kalitta Air team. From Brian, Aaron [Cave], Justin [Groat], the whole Kalitta Air group, every one of the crew guys, the hospitality guys, everybody back at the shop, everybody at Kalitta Air. It’s just a huge team effort.
“Obviously, we’re doing all this for [team owner] Connie Kalitta. He gives us everything we need to live our dreams, have some fun, race a race car and go 346 mph. To be able to put on performances like this is just a testament to the guys, their hard work, their perfection putting the car together, giving Brian an opportunity to put a great tune-up in the car and giving me an opportunity to keep the thing straight and go as fast as I can.”
Langdon now has earned 30 national events in his career, 28 of which are in Top Fuel. Langdon also won two Wallys in 2019 while driving a nitro Funny Car for Kalitta Motorsports.
On Sunday, Langdon defeated Tony Schumacher, Leah Pruett, Justin Ashley, and Smith on his route to the winner’s circle.
In the first round, Langdon set the World Wide Technology Raceway speed record when he reached 341.68 mph. Langdon has three wins at the track east of St. Louis – two in Top Fuel and one in Funny Car.
“Each run just builds more confidence. The car is great right now, and it listens very well. It does what it’s told to do, but the more runs we make, the more confidence we build,” Langdon said. “We just try to make the best run that we can depending on the conditions. I feel like I’m living a dream right now, but it’s a reality and it’s great to be a part of it.”
With his latest victory, Langdon holds the upper hand in the points standings by 116 sits over teammate and reigning champion Kalitta.
Langdon won his lone NHRA Top Fuel championship in 2013 driving for Al-Anabi Racing. That season he won a career-best seven races, which he surpassed Sunday.
“We’ve been good when we need to be good, but we’ve been great when we need to be great. And I think a lot of that just comes down to the preparation that the guys do on the car,” Langdon said. “They put the car together perfectly the same every time, and it allows Brian to go up there where he can just feel like he can go make run after run and know that the car’s put together perfectly. It makes his job easier, which in turn gives me the confidence inside the race car that I know every time I hit the gas, I’m going to have a really good race car, and hopefully I don’t mess that up.”
With a winning streak that Langdon is on right now it would seem he would be feeling some pressure, but that’s not at all the case.
“I race Super Comp for a living. Pressure was winning Super Comp so you could pay your bills,” Langdon said. “This is just fun.”
As the season is winding down, Langdon knows his team’s success couldn’t be better.
“I think a lot of it’s just momentum based. And, you know, one thing Brian always talks about is peaking at the right time, and I feel like right now we’re peaking at the right time,” Langdon said. “Everything that we’re putting into the car, everything’s working, all the parts are looking good, everything’s coming out consistent. I mean, everything works consistently. So, we just kind of got to just almost plug and play a little bit, you know? And so that’s just what we’re going to kind of do, just go to Dallas, look back at the notes from last year, and see if we can’t go make some more good runs down there.”
The remaining three national events of the 2026 NHRA season are the Texas NHRA FallNationals near Dallas, Oct. 16-18; the Mopar Las Vegas Nationals powered by Dodge (Oct. 29-Nov. 1; and the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals (Nov. 12-15).
Top Fuel star Steve Torrence is the only driver to sweep all six Countdown races (2018).
“I mean, it’s such a tall task. There’s a lot of great cars out there. I mean, you know, internally, do we think we have the capability to do it? Absolutely. But I mean, at the end of the day, there’s still a lot of racing left,” Langdon said. “There are three more races, a lot of good competition, and we know that, you know, with what we’ve done, we’re going to have a big target on our back. So, people are going to be going for us, trying to lay down really good runs. So, it’s up to us to rise to the occasion and to do even better at the last three.”
