NHRA Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon had a mixed weekend at the recently completed NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event marked the fourth race of the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule.
Langdon defeated Krista Baldwin and Clay Millican to advance to the second round of eliminations along with Mike Salinas. In the second round, the four-wide semifinals, Langdon raced Salinas, Steve Torrence and Josh Hart. As the four drivers were staging for the run, Langdon and Hart were the last to stage with Langdon going in last. Unfortunately, Langdon staged more than seven seconds after the first driver staged which caused him to be eliminated before the run began.
“We were timed out today which is unfortunate because we had a really good race car, a car that was capable of winning on a hot track,” said Langdon. “We have a good setup for that, but I didn’t stage quick enough. As I’ve been saying all season, our DHL car is running really well – we have a top-five car, and the guys are making the right calls on the tune-up. I really appreciate all the hard work the guys are putting in, and I know it will pay off.”
Langdon leaves Las Vegas in seventh place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails sixth-place Leah Pruett by 18 points and leads eighth-place Austin Prock by three points.
“The bottom line today was that Josh Hart hangs everybody out; the whole class has been talking about it,” concluded. “I decided to take a stand at the four-wides which was the wrong decision because Steve Torrence and Mike Salinas were innocent in the matter. At the end of the day, we can’t have a guy like that come into the sport and dictate the staging procedures because he stages slow. Everyone has a right to do whatever they want; you have seven seconds to stage. I made the mistake of not getting in within the seven seconds today, and it cost us a chance to win the race. I expect we’ll see a lot more drivers taking a stand against Josh Hart because he hangs everybody out, and quite frankly, everybody’s tired of it. I took a stand at the wrong time. DHL deserves better, our race team deserves better, and I messed up. We’ll be ready to go at Charlotte in two weeks.”
This story was originally published on April 17, 2023. 
