Shawn Langdon and the Global Electronic Technology team advanced to their first final round of the season.
Langdon, who began the weekend with the huge announcement about his move to Funny Car, had two nice runs in qualifying on Friday that secured the Global Electronic Technology team a spot in the top half. They decided to sit out the final session of qualifying as Sunday’s weather forecast was much different than the conditions we had seen thus far.
The conditions proved to play right into the hands of Connie Kalitta and Rob Flynn. In the first round, Langdon faced a tough draw of record holder Clay Millican. Langdon would have issues down track, but Millican’s were much more severe and the Global Electronic Technology team would move to the quarterfinals, where they were handed a gift: a bye run, after Terry Haddock could not make the call. Langdon would smoke the tires, but by taking the tree moved to the semi-finals.
In the semis, reigning champion Antron Brown was in the other lane. They left with identical reaction times, but the Global Electronic Technology team made the right setup call and was able to drive to the final. It was Langdon’s first final round as a member of Team Kalitta and 29th of his career.
Connie Kalitta was the fourth owner Langdon had delivered a final round appearance to (Morgan Lucas, Alan Johnson, Don Schumacher).
In the final, Langdon came up against Brittany Force. Langdon got the jump at the tree with a stellar .048 second reaction time, and was ahead all the way to the eighth mile. Shortly after, Force was able to drive around and score the win by one thousandth of a second.
Statistics:
Qualified: No. 7 (3.748 sec., 320.13 mph)
E1: Langdon defeated Millican – 3.993 sec., 219.54 mph to 8.830 sec., 83.31 mph
E2: Langdon defeated Haddock – 5.862 sec., 105.23 mph to no run
E3: Langdon defeated Brown – 3.702 sec., 322.88 mph to 3.716 sec., 326.71 mph
Final: Langdon defeated by Force – 3.693 sec., 326.56 mph to 3.681 sec., 326.87 mph
Quotable: “The guys did a fantastic job in giving me a great race car. I had all the confidence. I felt good on the tree and we stepped it up in the finals. Unfortunately, we came up one-thousandth short. Brittany did a great job. If you had told me before the final that I would go .048 and 3.69, I would have liked my chances. They were just one thou better. It stings a little bit, but I’m just proud of this whole Global Electronic Technology Toyota team for fighting hard. They fought hard all day and gave me a great race car. My plan is to win the next two – that’s my goal.”
Point Standings: Eighth; leads Terry McMillen by 46 points for ninth, trails Clay Millican by 75 points for seventh.
Kalitta Motorsports PR
