Another race weekend, another Kalitta Motorsports domination fest.
More specifically, another Shawn Langdon showcase.
The deeper the NHRA season moves into summer, the harder it becomes to find a Top Fuel team operating at the level currently occupied by Langdon and the Kalitta Air dragster.
“It feels great to have such a strong running car,” Langdon said. “I think the best thing is that Brian [Husen, crew chief] was trying to go 3.74 before that run.
“He had said if everything goes right, maybe a high .73 on the slow side, maybe a .75 and we went right in the middle at .74 so he’s just got a really good handle on the car. He’s doing such a great job, and his gut instincts are really being showcased right now. He’s just making the right decisions.”
Fast race cars aren’t unusual in Top Fuel. Predictable fast race cars are.
When a crew chief starts forecasting elapsed times and the race car lands almost exactly where expected, that’s usually a sign the team has moved beyond searching and into executing. That appears to be where Langdon and crew chief Brian Husen find themselves right now.
Saturday’s results backed up every word.
Langdon won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, secured his third No. 1 qualifier of the season and improved on Friday’s provisional low qualifier with a 3.744-second pass at 336.23 mph. The performance delivered Langdon’s 25th career No. 1 qualifier and another reminder that the current Top Fuel standard runs through Kalitta Motorsports.
The results continue stacking up for Langdon and Kalitta Motorsports. Four victories already sit on Langdon’s 2026 résumé, and Saturday added another Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge trophy and another No. 1 qualifier to a season that increasingly resembles a championship march.
The scary part for the rest of the field is that Kalitta Motorsports isn’t relying on one car to carry the load.
Reigning Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta qualified second with a 3.771-second run at 333.00 mph. Leah Pruett landed third with a matching 3.771 at 331.12 mph, giving Kalitta Motorsports two of the top three positions entering eliminations.
That kind of depth creates problems for everyone else. For years, teams chased one dominant Top Fuel operation at a time. Right now, racers pulling into the staging lanes are looking at multiple Kalitta Motorsports entries capable of ending their day.
Langdon’s victory over Pruett in the Mission Challenge final only reinforced that point. Every round feels like a matchup against a contender, and every qualifying sheet seems to include another Kalitta car near the top.
Top Fuel has always operated in cycles. One team finds something, then the rest of the field spends months trying to catch it. At the moment, Kalitta Motorsports looks very much like the team everyone else is chasing.
The team unloaded in Maryland carrying momentum and heads into Sunday carrying even more.
Just as important, Langdon earned a first-round bye for Sunday’s eliminations by securing the No. 1 position.
