Shawn Langdon has race wins at many different race tracks to his credit, but New England Dragway isn’t one of them – yet. The 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series continues May 30-June 1 at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, N.H.
Langdon’s career in NHRA’s premier series is now well into its second decade, yet he’s never hoisted the trophy in New Hampshire. This weekend’s race is the 12th Mission Foods Drag Racing Series event at New England Dragway, and while he knows winning at every track on the circuit would be great, he gets it; some tracks just suit some teams better than others.
“Every track is a little bit different in its characteristics,” Langdon said. “There are so many variables, and a lot depends on the power you make, the clutch application you apply and how your car runs. Certain tracks like your setup, but others don’t. I’ve driven for multiple teams at this point, 15-16 years into my career, I guess it’s just how the cookie crumbles.”
If ever Langdon had a good opportunity to make that cookie crumble in his direction, this season just might be it. Langdon has two race wins and three Mission Foods Challenge wins in the season’s first six races and trails points leader Tony Stewart by two markers entering the New England Nationals. He led the point standings until making a surprising early exit two weeks ago in Chicago when the Kalitta Air Careers car smoked the tires in the second round. It was a setback, but only a minor speed bump.
“We just move on,” Langdon said. “We just missed it in the second round at Chicago – not a big deal. Unfortunately, we lost the points lead, but we’re only two points behind so we can possibly regain the lead in qualifying. We move onto Epping and try to really hit these next races hard to hopefully regain the points lead and hopefully get a couple of wins. You can always count on making good power at Epping because the air is typically pretty good.”
This story was originally published on May 28, 2025. 
