Shawn Langdon was the No. 5 qualifier at the NHRA Midwest Nationals. During the second of two qualifying sessions Saturday afternoon, Langdon made a 3.738-second pass at 320.13 mph to take the No. 5 position. Qualifying was shortened to two rounds due to weather.
Langdon defeated his teammate, Doug Kalitta, in the first round and raced Justin Ashley in the second. Both drivers left at virtually the same time; the race was close until the end, but Ashley won the round 3.721 to 3.731 seconds; the margin of victory was .0167 seconds.
Langdon leaves St. Louis in third place in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series point standings. He trails second-place Justin Ashley by 26 points, leads his teammate, fourth-place Doug Kalitta, by 27 points and trails points leader Antron Brown by 60 points with three races remaining in the season.
“The Kalitta Air Careers team made four solid runs in St. Louis – we were on the wrong end of a good race today,” said Langdon. ‘Great job by Brian Husen and this whole team and thanks to everyone at Kalitta Air, Toyota, Revchem and Future Energy Solutions. We’ll get ‘em in Dallas.”
Doug Kalitta was the No. 12 qualifier in the rain-shortened qualifying process at the NHRA Midwest Nationals. During the second of two qualifying sessions, Kalitta made a 3.779-second run at 312.93 mph.
Kalitta raced his teammate, Shawn Langdon, in the first round. Both cars left the starting line together. Kalitta was leading the race when the Mac Tools dragster smoked the tires, and Langdon cruised to the win with a 3.727-second run to Kalitta’s 5.399-second effort.
Kalitta leaves St Louis in fourth place in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series point standings. He trails his teammate, third-place Shawn Langdon, by 27 points, leads fifth-place Steve Torrence by one point and trails points leader Antron Brown by 87 points with three races remaining in the season.
“A first round loss in St. Louis was definitely not what we were looking for this weekend,” said Kalitta. ‘We just overpowered the race track, but it’s interesting how it all worked out. We’re still in the hunt. This whole Mac Tools Toyota team is a pretty resilient group – it’s just a matter of shaking it off and hitting the ground with some good performances from here on out.”
J.R. Todd was the No. 13 qualifier at the NHRA Midwest Nationals. Todd’s best qualifying attempt came during the second of two qualifying sessions when he made a 4.230-second run at 219.47 mph. Qualifying was shortened to two rounds due to weather.
Todd made his best run of the weekend by far in his first-round race with Jack Beckman who is filling in for the injured John Force. Todd made a 3.926-second pass at 326.63 mph, but it was not enough to beat Beckman’s 3.878-second run.
Todd leaves St. Louis in sixth place in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series point standings. He trails fifth-place Matt Hagan by 58 points and leads seventh-place Alexis DeJoria by 46 points with three races remaining in the season.
“We struggled coming off the trailer in qualifying so we were runs behind going into race day,” said Todd. “Hopefully this DHL GR Supra team can find the performance we need these last three races and try to get a win before the end of the year.”
This story was originally published on September 30, 2024. 
