Shawn Langdon qualified his DHL Toyota dragster fifth in Top Fuel, with Alexis DeJoria earning the sixth spot in her Bandero Camry Funny Car to lead Toyota into Sunday’s Lucas Oil NHRA WinterNationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
The fifth marks Langdon’s best qualifying effort of the season. He will begin Sunday’s eliminations against Jim Maroney. Langdon enters race day fourth in the Top Fuel point standings.
Just one spot and .001 seconds behind Langdon was Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta, who will face Clay Millican after placing sixth. Antron Brown will start from the 11th seed and will take on point leader Steve Torrence in round one to complete the Toyota Top Fuel contingent.
In Funny Car, DeJoria jumped up to sixth on her final pass of the weekend with a 4.021-second run at 313.13 mph. She’s now qualified in the top six in nine of the ten races run this season. Her first-round opponent will be Jason Rupert. She’s advanced to the semifinals or beyond in each of the last three events.
J.R. Todd qualified one position behind DeJoria in seventh and will face fellow Camry driver Jeff Diehl in round one.
Sunday’s Camping World Drag Racing Series eliminations will be televised live on FOX at 4:00 p.m. (ET).
Quotes:
Shawn Langdon, DHL Toyota Top Fuel dragster: “We got into the top half of the field for tomorrow. Obviously, it’s going to be some hot conditions, so we’ll have to figure out a way to get down the racetrack, but I like our chances.”
Toyota NHRA WinterNationals Qualifying
| Funny Car | Qual. | Rd. 1 Opponent | Q1 Time/Speed | Q2 Time/Speed | Q3 Time/Speed |
| Alexis DeJoria | 6th | Rupert | 7.277/87.52 | 6.183/107.21 | 4.021/313.13 |
| J.R. Todd | 7th | Diehl | 4.044/322.04 | 5.505/129.42 | 4.234/265.38 |
| Jeff Diehl | 10th | Todd | 4.259/272.23 | No run | No run |
| Alex Miladinovich | DFN | *** | No run | 6.827/101.87 | 6.129/121.49 |
| Top Fuel | |||||
| Shawn Langdon | 5th | Maroney | 5.158/132.46 | 4.010/303.16 | 3.854/292.01 |
| Doug Kalitta | 6th | Millican | 6.343/109.52 | 4.047/310.91 | 3.855/311.41 |
| Antron Brown | 11th | Torrence | 5.792/116.59 | 5.255/138.84 | No run |
* (Qualifying Points Earned in Session)
Toyota Racing PR
