Shawn Langdon is right where he wants to be with five races remaining in the season: in the thick of a tight battle for the Top Fuel title. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs resume Sept. 20-22, 2024 at the Betway NHRA Carolina Nationals in Concord, N.C., the second of six playoff races.
Langdon raced to his seventh final round of the season in Reading, Pa., last weekend but came up a tick short of his third win. With the final-round showing, Langdon is in the middle of a tightly-bunched group of championship contenders. He is in third place five points behind second-place Antron Brown and six points behind points leader Justin Ashley. He leads his teammate, fourth-place Doug Kalitta, by 27 and fifth-place Steve Torrence by 52 points.
“Coming down to the last five races – everything counts whether it’s qualifying or race day,” Langdon said. “There’s still a lot of racing left, but there’s no room for error so we’re trying to carry the momentum from reaching the final last weekend. We have five runner-up finishes and two wins this season so statistically, we’ve been in the final almost half the races, but in order to get this done, we have to start turning the corner and getting some wins. If we can get a couple wins, we’ll be in a really good position.”
Langdon has two wins in seven final rounds this season. Kalitta has three wins in six final rounds, and the two raced in the final at Richmond, Va., in June. After 15 races of 20 in the 2024 NHRA season, a team Kalitta Top Fuel car raced in 12 of the 15 final rounds.
“That just goes to show all the hard work and changes that went into these cars and that we’re definitely heading in the right direction,” Langdon said. “At the beginning of the year, we didn’t have a good race at the four-wides in Charlotte, but we’re looking to turn that around this weekend. We’re pretty familiar with Charlotte and zMAX Dragway so we should be good to go this weekend.”
In addition to his 2013 NHRA Top Fuel championship, Langdon also has NHRA championships in Super Comp and Junior Dragster, but that doesn’t necessarily give him an edge of his competition.
“Not when you’re racing against guys like Doug Kalitta, Antron Brown and Steve Torrence who have been in this position a lot,” Langdon said. “Justin Ashley has been in this position; he hasn’t won a championship yet, but he’s driving like he’s won – he’s driving very well. It’s really anybody’s game at this point. Right now, with the cars that are out there, it’s competitive all the way through. There’s really no ‘qualify in the first couple spots and kinda get an easy round.’ No matter where you are, it’s gonna be a tough draw, and you’re gonna have to do your job. If you do your job four times on Sunday, hopefully everything falls your way.”
This story was originally published on September 18, 2024. 
