The DHL Toyota Top Fuel dragster and Shawn Langdon raced to the quarterfinals today at the NHRA Northwest Nationals. The No. 6 qualifier took out Mike Salinas in the opening round before losing a close race to eventual winner Tony Schumacher in round two. Through two races of the western swing Langdon and his DHL team have been making solid efforts racing to a runner-up finish in Denver and a semifinal finish last weekend in Sonoma. The success on the three-race stretch has moved Langdon up to seventh in points and essentially two rounds out of fifth place.
Today at Pacific Raceways Langdon took his opening round win on a single pass after Salinas was unable to stage his Top Fuel dragster. Salinas and Langdon executed their burnouts, but Salinas was unable to shift his racecar into reverse and was pushed back to the starting line by his team. Langdon staged and Salinas could not take the tree giving Langdon a single which he powered to the finish line stripe in 3.796 seconds and major improvement over his qualifying time. He earned lane choice in the quarterfinals for his strong effort.
Facing the eight-time Top Fuel champion Schumacher in the quarterfinals Langdon and his DHL Toyota Top Fuel dragster made another strong run on a hot race track. He tripped the beams with a 3.797 second pass, but it was not enough to advance him to his third consecutive semifinal round of the swing.
“We really stepped it up today on a hot race track with this DHL Toyota dragster,” said Langdon. “We made a lot of progress over the three races of the western swing and really since our semifinal in Epping we have been running really well. I am looking forward to these last three races of the regular season to see how high in the top ten we can move up.”
Statistics:
Qualified: Qual. 6 (3.847 sec, 318.17 mph)
Bonus points: 0
Race Details:
First Round
Qual Driver RT ET MPH
6 Shawn Langdon .199 3.796 321.73 (W)
11 Mike Salinas No Time
Second Round
Qual Driver RT ET MPH
6 Shawn Langdon .121 3.797 304.32
3 Tony Schumacher .045 3.827 313.66 (W)
Kalitta Motorsports PR
