Shawn Langdon will look for his first national event win in Las Vegas this weekend, but at the same time, he hopes to make it three straight wins. The 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series continues April 11-13, 2025, at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas.
Langdon has never won a national event on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he still has a shot at a third-straight win this weekend. After his runner-up finish in Gainesville and his Phoenix win, Langdon raced in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at both Phoenix and Pomona and won both. Should he win the Mission Foods challenge this weekend, it would be three straight, but what he really wants is that national event win.
“It doesn’t bug me, but I would love to get a win in Vegas,” Langdon said. “It’s the one that’s alluded me since the beginning my career. I’ve won other classes in Vegas, but I just haven’t gotten a national event there yet.”
The 2013 Top Fuel champion enters this weekend’s race with a win, a runner-up, and a semifinal in the season’s first three races. He enters with a 77-point lead in the Top Fuel point standings, and one would think this week’s NHRA Four-Wide Nationals would be among his best chances to check that Vegas victory off the list while, at the same time, winning his first four-wide race in Top Fuel.
“The Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team made really good runs throughout the whole season so far,” Langdon added. “I really feel like we have the best car out there right now. The guys have done a great job putting the car together, and really, with the exception of a couple little things, we’ve had almost a picture-perfect season with a win, a runner-up and two wins in the Mission Foods Challenge. We lost a good race to Antron (Brown) in the final at Gainesville and dropped a cylinder in the semifinal in Pomona so we’re a couple little things away from being picture perfect for the first three races.
“Brian (Crew Chief Brian Husen) and the team are making great calls putting the car together, and that just gives me confidence to do a better job driving the car. I feel like I’ve held my own on the starting line this year so everything’s just clicking pretty well. At this point, we just need to do the same thing we’ve been doing; we don’t want to change the mindset or anything else. I need to do what I can on the starting line and just keep making good runs.”
This story was originally published on April 9, 2025. 
