The Team Kalitta hits keep coming. Shawn Langdon won his third #2Fast2Tasty Mission Foods NHRA Challenge of the season, and Doug Kalitta took his fourth No. 1 in the six races this season. Both will race in tomorrow’s Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Joliet, Ill.
Langdon kept Team Kalitta undefeated in this season’s Top Fuel Mission Foods Challenges. Langdon won the challenge in Phoenix, Pomona and today while Kalitta won it at both Las Vegas and Charlotte. The drivers who advanced to the semifinals in Charlotte two weeks ago raced in today’s Mission Foods Challenge in a rematch of the semifinals and finals.
Langdon was not qualified entering today’s third qualifying attempt, but the Kalitta Air Careers team did not disappoint. Langdon made a brilliant 3.687-second pass at 335.65 mph to beat Justin Ashley by .0033 seconds to advance to the Mission Challenge final and move into the No. 3 starting spot. Langdon raced Tony Stewart in the final and made another excellent pass, a 3.704-second effort at 332.10 mph, to win the Mission Foods challenge cash prize and three championship bonus points.
“Hopefully, we can keep this Mission Foods thing going,” Langdon said. “All the credit to (Team Owner) Connie Kalitta, (General Manager) Chad Head, everybody at Kalitta Air, Toyota, Dayco, SealMaster and Revchem. It’s just a collective effort from everybody across the board. Brian (Crew Chief Brian Husen) and the whole Kalitta Air Careers team have given me such a great race car. My job, and my mentality, is don’t mess it up. Fortunately, I didn’t mess that one up; we got a couple extra bonus points for the countdown and a pretty good qualifying effort, so I feel pretty confident for tomorrow.”
Kalitta claimed his fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season, the 62nd of his career and his fourth at Route 66 Raceway. Kalitta was No. 1 after Friday’s qualifying sessions in warm conditions. Saturday was far cooler, but no worries. Kalitta made a 3.661-second pass at 335.23 mph to claim the No. 1 spot. Kalitta’s elapsed time set the Route 66 Raceway Top Fuel track record.
“Yeah, it was it was definitely truckin’,” Kalitta said. “They did a great job with the track and it cooled off quite a bit today. Alan, Mac (Crew Chief Alan Johnson, Assistant Crew Chief Mac Savage) and this whole Mac Tools, Toyota SealMaster, Applied Innovation group, man, we’re ripping it right now. We definitely need to go rounds tomorrow. We start from a great spot, and I love running Chicago. Thanks to Connie, Chad (Team Owner Connie Kalitta, General Manager Chad Head) and everybody with the Kalitta Motorsports effort here – we’re real proud of what we have going on, and we just have to keep it rolling.”
Kalitta will race No. 16 qualifier Lex Joon; Langdon qualified No. 3 and will race No. 14 Kyle Wurtzel. In Funny Car, J.R. Todd qualified No. 4 equaling his best qualifying effort of the season. He was the provisional No. 1 qualifier after Friday’s sessions but slipped to fourth today, Todd reached 336.40 mph in his final qualifying attempt which was his career best speed and the track record. Todd will race No. 13 qualifier Cruz Pedregon in the first round.
This story was originally published on May 17, 2025. 
