Shawn Langdon knocked off teammate J.R. Todd in an all-Toyota Camry Funny Car final to win Sunday’s AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway and, in the process, he became just the second driver in history to win at the track in both Funny Car and Top Fuel.
The win is his second of the season and his second overall in Funny Car after previously triumphing at Charlotte. He also has 14 wins in Top Fuel.
His history-making day began in stellar fashion with a holeshot victory over Tommy Johnson, despite Johnson running the quickest pass of the day. In round two, Langdon won the wildest round of the day over Jim Campbell. Langdon hit the throttle and immediately went up in smoke as Campbell started to pull away, only to get about 200 feet out and strike his tires. Langdon pedaled his car and got the slicks to take hold and then drove around Campbell for the win. He would face Bob Tasca in the semis with Tasca getting a slight lead at the light, but Langdon reeled him in quickly and was out front by the 60 –foot mark and went on to the victory with a 3.953.
In the all-Camry final versus Todd, Langdon had a slight lead off the starting line, but Todd recovered and had taken the lead by 300 feet, but then hazed the tires with the car moving toward the centerline, forcing him to back off, while Langdon went straight down the groove with a clean, straight pass for the win.
“Man, it was a pretty good day,” said a victorious Langdon. “It was a great morale booster for the whole team. We felt like we’ve had a Global Electronic Technology Camry that’s been capable of winning for a while now, we just seemed to be running into the buzzsaw and the low ETs of every round. Even here again today, we had Tommy Johnson who ran the low ET of the day, but, fortunately, we got the win on a holeshot. We felt like we just needed that one round to turn it around. I felt like we had a big day today.”
While Todd didn’t record the victory, he may have registered the most impressive performance leading up to the finals as he eliminated each of the top-three drivers in the Funny Car standings. Todd opened the day with a win over Jack Beckman, then followed with victories over John Force and Robert Hight to advance to the final.
“Looking at the ladder last night, I knew that if we were going to win or at least get to the final, we were going to have to work for it,” said Todd. “That was probably the toughest ladder I have seen in a long time. You hate to go that far and not win. All in all, it was a good day for this DHL Toyota team and Kalitta Motorsports. We had both Camrys in the final, so it was a good day on the points too.”
In Top Fuel, Doug Kalitta knocked off teammate Richie Crampton in the first round before being eliminated by eventual winner Billy Torrence in a close match-up in round two. Despite the early exit, Kalitta continues to lead the Top Fuel point standings after the second of six playoff races.
Antron Brown was up in smoke quickly in the opening round against Leah Pritchett, giving her the victory.
The Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to zMAX Dragway for the NHRA Carolina Nationals, round three of the Countdown to the Championship playoffs, October 11-13.
Toyota Midwest Nationals Results
| Funny Car | Qual./Finish |
| Shawn Langdon | 10/Winner |
| J.R. Todd | 8/Finals |
| Top Fuel | |
| Doug Kalitta | 10/Rd. 2 |
| Richie Crampton | 7/Rd. 1 |
| Antron Brown | 11/Rd. 1 |
2019 Toyota Wins (7)
Top Fuel (4)– Kalitta (2),Pomona1, Indianapolis; Crampton (2), Gainesville, Maple Grove
Funny Car (3)– Todd, Las Vegas1; Langdon (2), Charlotte1, St. Louis
Notes:
– Shawn Langdon’s win today is his second of the season and his second in Funny Car after previously winning at Charlotte in April. This is Langdon’s 16th career Mello Yello Drag Racing Series victory after registering 14 in Top Fuel.
– With his victory today, Langdon becomes just the second driver in World Wide Technology Raceway history to win events in both Funny Car and Top Fuel, which he won in 2016.
– Today’s win is the third race that a Kalitta Motorsports Toyota has won in either Funny Car or Top Fuel after Doug Kalitta won the U.S. Nationals, the final race of the regular season, and Richie Crampton won the Countdown opener at Maple Grove.
– By reaching today’s final round, defending Funny Car champion J.R. Todd has now advanced to the semifinals or beyond in each of the last three races and has climbed up to fifth in points.
–After two races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs, Doug Kalitta continues to lead in Top Fuel point lead, while Antron Brown and Richie Crampton slipped back into a tie for sixth. In Funny Car, J.R. Todd moved up two spots to fifth (53 points back), while Shawn Langdon climbed up to seventh (80 points back).
Quotes:
Shawn Langdon, Global Electronic Technology Toyota Camry Funny Car:
Walk us through your day
What an incredible day. Going through qualifying, we didn’t have a fast car, but we did have a consistent racecar. After Reading where we smoked the tires a lot and blew the tires off at the starting line, we kind of had to go in a conservative way. It put us behind in qualifying and we ended up qualifying tenth and didn’t give us a good draw in the first round with Tommy Johnson Jr. with a very, very tough car and not an ideal draw to open with. My crew chiefs told me ‘we’re going to get you close. We don’t know exactly what it’s going to do because we made a couple of changes from yesterday. We think it’s going to run well and we’re going to give you the best car we can’. Fortunately, it worked out and we got a holeshot win and gave the guys a little bit of confidence.
On the second round:
We came back for second round and we were just trying to make a good clean run and it blew the tires off at the hit. It was a situation where I felt I had a lot of learning to do in driving a Funny Car because it’s a lot different from a dragster. I just tried to take my time and be patient, especially on the hotter track surface, just allowing the car to recover and kind of squeezed the throttle back on. Then I saw Jim Campbell having some issues and I just tried to get it back full throttle My old Super Comp days came back in. As I was tracking him down I could see I was going to get there first. But I could tell the motor was laboring really hard, so I clicked it off a little bit early before the finish line just to make sure I didn’t blow anything up more than I already probably am.
The upcoming semifinal match-up against Bob Tasca:
The thing with (crew chiefs) Del Worsham and Nicky Bonifante is just how talented they are. The whole Global Electronic Technology Camry team is such a great group of guys. Going into the semis, they were very confident that we were going to get our stuff together and give me a good racecar. Then they gave me a killer run in the semis versus Tasca.
On the finals vs. teammate J.R. Todd:
I’m not really sure what happened in the finals. I hit the gas and I heard that thing was laboring, but man it was the final round in the Countdown and I’m not lifting. I was expecting to see the yellow car and I knew our car was struggling, but I never did and we got the win.
What did today’s win mean to you and your team?
Man, it was a pretty good day. It was a great morale booster for the whole team. We felt like we’ve had a Global Electronic Technology Camry that’s been capable of winning for a while now, we just seemed to be running into the buzzsaw and the low ETs of every round. Here again today, we had Tommy Johnson who ran the low ET of the day, but, fortunately, we got the win on a holeshot. We felt like we just needed that one round to turn it around. I felt like we had a big day today.
Was that second round win the key to your day?
There were so many keys to our day. The first-round holeshot win, the second round pedal job, then coming back and laying down a great run to get low ET in the semis to get lane choice in the finals. It’s getting some lucky breaks, but it’s also making the right calls and having a great group of guys behind you. For them, the biggest thing there was just so many changes that we made to try to make the car quicker. The Funny Car field is just so brutally tough right now, so many good drivers and top crew chiefs that you just can’t be a couple of hundredths behind or you’re going to be left in the dust. We made some wholesale changes and fortunately it paid dividends today.
What kind of momentum does this give you going forward in the Countdown?
Any time you can get a win in the Funny Car class it builds momentum, especially early. From the situation we were in, starting the Countdown in ninth-place, there’s not a lot of room for error. Then just having a bad race in Reading and dropping to tenth, the ensuing phone calls the next couple of days in all the conference calls we had with the team was we had to make some big changes for St. Louis because if we don’t make the finals we aren’t going to have a shot.
They went and front halved the car and that’s a big wholesale change that is not something you normally do in the Countdown. It was just having the faith in the Kalitta fab shop and all the guys back in the Kalitta shop in Ypsilanti (Michigan). Outside of making a little half-turn adjustment, the car was flawless for me to drive.
What are your thoughts heading into Charlotte?
My thought is to win and move into the top five. Like the Friday night song said, Don’t Call It A Comeback.
J.R. Todd, DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car: “Looking at the ladder last night, I knew that if were going to win or at least get to the final, we were going to have to work for it. That was probably the toughest ladder I have seen in a long time. You hate to go that far and not win. All in all, it was a good day for this DHL Toyota team and Kalitta Motorsports. We had both Camrys in the final so it was good day on the points, too. We made up some ground on the guys in front of us. We got some of those top guys out early. We just need to keep doing what we are doing.
(On beating the drivers ranking 1-2-3 in points):
You get a lot of confidence from wins like that. I know I have a racecar and team capable of repeating what we did last year. I said when the Countdown started there were going to be more than two cars racing for the championship. It is going to be tough and it will come down to Pomona for sure. All it takes is one of the top points guys to go out early like today and we need to capitalize on that. We need to build up our consistency. We have struggled a little bit in qualifying. I think it is coming around.”
Richie Crampton, DHL Toyota Top Fuel dragster:“It was just an unfortunate day at the races. We didn’t qualify into a position where we could have raced someone other than our teammate in the first round. That wasn’t ideal. Then we just didn’t get the job done on race day. I think we just tried to run a little too good and we smoked the tires on our DHL Toyota dragster. Doug smoked the tires also and he was able to pedal his car and get the win. It was unfortunate, but at the end of the day, he’s the point leader and my teammate, so I’m happy for him. I’m looking forward to putting today behind me and getting to Charlotte to start fresh.”
Antron Brown, Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster: “That was not the way we wanted it to go. We felt like we had a concrete game plan going into today. We were right there at the right spot and these rounds we’re losing are so crucial right now. In hindsight, we’re learning things as we do it. You never learn anything unless you’re struggling – and we’re struggling right now. We have Charlotte coming up. We’ll go back and do our homework and then come out and be ready. This race is over. We just have to hope we don’t lose too much ground on the people in front of us. A few key players went out in the first round as well, so that will help us a little bit. But we just can’t depend on people losing first round. We have to go rounds and just keep pushing hard and try to get back in the hunt. We have four races left after this and we’re going to need to be pretty much flawless at each of the last four to be where we want to be – and that’s the top spot.”
Doug Kalitta, Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster: “That was a tough first round racing Richie. We would have loved to have raced him in the again in the final. We just need to work on our qualifying and stay away from each other. We held our ground in the points and still have the points lead. Our goal is to take it one race at a time. In the second round, it was just a great drag race that didn’t go our way. That is not a part-time racecar. They don’t run all of the races, but that is a tough team. No one here is hanging their head. We will be ready for Charlotte.”
| Toyota Drivers Top Fuel | Points Behind Leader (2232) | 2019 Wins | 2019 Win-Loss | Career Races | Career Wins | Career W-L |
| 1. Doug Kalitta | 2232 (Leader) | 2 | 29-18 | 509 | 46 | 681-456 |
| 6t. Antron Brown | 2159 (-73) | 0 | 23-20 | 426 | 66 | 725-358 |
| 6t. Richie Crampton | 2159 (-73) | 2 | 15-18 | 123 | 10 | 103-112 |
| Funny Car | (2235) | |||||
| 5. J.R. Todd | 2182 (-53) | 1 | 24-19 | 220 | 18 | 235-198 |
| 7. Shawn Langdon | 2155 (-80) | 2 | 22-18 | 252 | 16 | 285-233 |
Toyota Drivers Midwest Nationals Eliminations Round-by-Round
| Funny Car | Rd. 1 Win-Loss | Rd. 2 Win-Loss | Semis Win-Loss | Finals Win-Loss |
| Langdon | W – Johnson, 3.907-3.898 | W – Campbell, 5.875-6.940 | W – Tasca, 3.953-3.976 | W- Todd, 4.068-4.276 |
| Todd | W – Beckman, 3.954-3.944 | W – Force, 3.986-4.870 | W – Hight, 3.979-12.733 | L- Langdon, 4.068-4.276 |
| Top Fuel | ||||
| Kalitta | W – Crampton, 4.285-5.086 | L – B. Torrence, 3.801-3.827 | ** | ** |
| Crampton | L – Kalitta, 4.285-5.086 | ** | ** | ** |
| Brown | L – Pritchett, 3.764-6.001 | ** | ** | ** |
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