Shawn Langdon, Ron Capps and Dallas Glenn each left Sonoma Raceway with momentum Saturday, capturing Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victories and positioning themselves for a potential weekend sweep at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals presented by PowerEdge.
With a capacity crowd on hand, the trio claimed bonus money and valuable championship points in the specialty race, turning Saturday into a statement day before Sunday’s eliminations in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.
Langdon continued the Kalitta Motorsports stranglehold on the Top Fuel bonus event, surviving a dramatic final-round duel with Clay Millican. His 4.491-second pass at 227.50 mph wasn’t clean, but it was enough after pedaling his Kalitta Air dragster late in the run to edge Millican at the finish line.
The victory marked Langdon’s fourth Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win of the season. Between Langdon and teammate Doug Kalitta, the team has now accumulated 17 championship bonus points through the Saturday program.
“They told me not to pedal. I did, and the first thought that came to my mind was that I was going to be in so much trouble,” Langdon said. “But at the end of the day, it’s good to get another Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty win, which continues that success on Saturday.
“It’s the consistency of what the Kalitta group has done the last couple years of going rounds on Sundays and taking advantage of opportunities and being able to be in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty on Saturday, and then just kind of, no pun intended, chipping away at it.”
Funny Car delivered another crowd-pleasing finish when Capps and Jack Beckman both fought their cars through trouble in the final round. Capps kept his NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra under control just long enough, crossing first with a 4.429 at 225.03 to earn his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory of the season.
The win carried added significance for the Sonoma native, who also leads the Funny Car championship standings heading into Sunday’s eliminations.
“As I said earlier, Guido [crew chief Dean Antonelli] is not going to be happy. I’m not looking forward to walking into the trailer because while it’s great money that Mission Foods puts up for this and the points are incredible, it could have been expensive,” Capps said. “Guido would have been like, ‘You won $10,000, but if you had blown the body off it would have been $110,000.’ Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
“I was just thinking about getting to the finish line first, and I didn’t know that [Beckman] was doing the same thing over there, getting sideways. I can’t wait to watch it. It’s got to be pretty epic to watch.”
In Pro Stock, Glenn added another Saturday trophy to his growing collection by defeating Aaron Stanfield with a 6.526-second run at 210.14 mph in his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro.
The victory was Glenn’s third Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge triumph, although he admitted his team is still searching for the performance level it enjoyed a year ago.
“Honestly, I felt like when I left and the whole run, it felt better than a 6.52. I was hoping to see a 6.51 or even a 6.50 out there,” Glenn said. “I feel like we’re not where we should be, especially compared to last year.
“I know we were really fast last year, and it’s hard to compare to that, but I feel like we should just be at least a couple of hundredths faster, especially looking at the weather and corrected numbers. Still, it’s good to win one of these [Mission Challenge events] and I hope we can do the same tomorrow. I really like the diamond [75th anniversary] Wally.”
With Saturday’s specialty race complete, Langdon, Capps and Glenn will each attempt to convert bonus-race success into Wally trophies when eliminations begin Sunday at 11 a.m. PDT.
