The math is simple for Shawn Langdon heading into the Mopar NHRA Las Vegas Nationals: leave town with a lead of 191 points or more, and the 2026 NHRA Top Fuel championship is his. Standing in his way is the one driver who knows exactly how fast a big lead can disappear, his own Kalitta Motorsports teammate and reigning two-time champion, Doug Kalitta.
With the fifth of six Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs races on deck, Langdon leads Kalitta by 139 points. And over in Funny Car, J.R. Todd sits third, close enough to the top of a tightly bunched field to keep his own title hopes alive heading into the desert.
Shawn Langdon: One Run at a Time With the Title Within Reach
Langdon opened the Countdown the way champions do, winning the first three playoff races to build a commanding lead. That streak finally came to an end in the semifinals at the Texas NHRA FallNationals, snapping a four-race win streak and an 18-straight elimination-round win streak. It was his first round loss since Aug. 23.
Even so, the numbers on Langdon’s 2026 campaign are staggering: eight wins, three runner-ups, three semifinal appearances, and eight No. 1 qualifiers. Two weeks ago in Dallas, he also put a new career-best elapsed time on the board, a 3.648-second pass at 340.39 mph that earned his eighth top qualifying position of the season.
Langdon credits that performance to a team that obsesses over the details, starting with crew chief Brian Husen.
“What this team has done this year just goes to show this teams’ collective attention to detail. From the crew guys putting the car together perfectly, to Brian (Crew Chief Brian Husen) paying attention to every little detail. He doesn’t look at the whole run. He looks at every quarter-second of the run and dissects it. To get those quick ETs (elapsed times) and fast speeds, you have to look at every inch of that track, and fortunately, we’ve been able to do that a lot this year, but it’s just a testament to a good team and good parts.”
Despite the cushion, Langdon isn’t counting anything before it’s official. He’s already seen a big midseason lead evaporate once this year.
“It’s one run at a time; it has to be that way. We know the goals and what we like to do, but we just have to keep working. We’ve seen what can happen. In the middle of the year, we had a big lead, and that went away quickly. It has to be one run at a time, and we have to keep getting those little points. The results are going to be what they’re going to be, but we keep trying to do the best we can. We’re just trying to keep it as simple as possible. It’s just keep doing what we’re doing. Our goal is always to win the race and if that’s the case, some good results will follow, but we’re not trying to look too far ahead.”
As for chasing a second career Top Fuel title, Langdon admits the attention is humbling, but he’s keeping his eyes on finishing the job.
“It’s pretty cool; you look at it (challenging for a second championship) and you read some articles where they put your name up against some other people; it’s pretty humbling, but you know, at the end of the day, I try not to read too much into it because as nice as it is, if we can’t finish the deal, then it doesn’t really mean a whole lot. Our goal is to win the championship. A lot of things happened with our team in the last couple of years, so we have a lot of motivating factors. The guys are putting in the extra time, they’re putting in the extra effort, and I think we’re all pretty much on the same page. We really want to get this done.”
Doug Kalitta: The Comeback Blueprint Is Already Written
If anyone can erase a 139-point deficit, it’s Kalitta and his Mac Tools team, because they’ve done something very similar this year. Heading into Sonoma in July, Langdon led Kalitta by 150 points with three races left in the regular season. Kalitta then won Sonoma, Seattle’s follow-up stop, and the next race after that, sweeping three straight to enter the U.S. Nationals with a 67-point lead over his teammate.
The reigning and two-time Top Fuel champion will need that same kind of run over the final two races. He currently sits second, 139 points behind Langdon and 85 points ahead of third-place Antron Brown.
Kalitta’s season includes four wins, four runner-ups, six semifinals, and six No. 1 qualifiers. He knows what it’s going to take.
“We still have a shot at this thing, but it’ll have to be perfect. I know my guys will do everything they can to make it happen, but we’ll need a little help from Shawn (Langdon) and Brian (Husen) with what they’ve got going on. At this point, the goal is to just try to win those last two and see where it leads us. Things went pretty well with the testing in Dallas, so I think we’re in pretty good shape heading to Vegas for sure.”
The final two stops on the schedule have historically treated Kalitta well, and he’s leaning on that history.
“The good news for this Mac Tools team is that the last two tracks have been really good to us over the years so it should be interesting. My guys are hungry and looking forward to it. The guys are making sure everything is ready to go for Vegas.”
With points and a half on the line at the season finale, Kalitta isn’t writing himself off.
“This weekend is a hell of an opportunity for my team – it’s been a good place for us over the years. The fans there are awesome really; it’s kinda cool that they run early enough that people can still do what they do on the strip. It’s a beautiful facility, and we’re super excited to get there. I definitely like going to Vegas – it’s always exciting to hit the last two races at the end of the year, be in contention to win those and see where you shake out. It’s definitely a crap shoot when it comes to these last two races with points and a half at the last one. You never count yourself out, but we definitely have to collect as many points as we can to make it happen.”
Whichever way the Top Fuel title falls, 2026 is already one for the Kalitta Motorsports record book. Between Langdon’s eight victories and Kalitta’s four, the Team Kalitta dragsters have won 12 of the season’s 18 races and competed in 68 of the 71 rounds of racing. Pomona, Calif., Norwalk, Ohio, and Ennis, Texas, are the only stops where neither driver reached the final round.
Add J.R. Todd’s two Funny Car wins, and the organization has 14 victories this season, the most in team history.
J.R. Todd: Still in the Funny Car Championship Conversation
The Funny Car title fight is far more crowded. Todd enters Las Vegas third in the standings, 21 points behind second-place Jordan Vandergriff and 36 points ahead of fourth-place Austin Prock. He trails points leader Matt Hagan by 119 points with two races to go, and just 62 points separate the drivers ranked second through fifth.
Todd’s surge came two weeks ago at the Texas NHRA FallNationals in Ennis, where he earned his second win of the season and his second career victory at Texas Motorplex. The win vaulted him from fifth to third, and more importantly, put the points lead within reach.
“We’re still in the (Championship) conversation, so we’re not going to quit fighting until someone says we’re done. I don’t want to say it’s a long shot because anything can happen in Las Vegas, and you have points and a half in Pomona. All you can ask for as a driver or a team is to have a shot.”
Todd has a clear target in mind for where he wants to be when the tour rolls into Pomona.
“I think, ideally, if we can get it (the points lead) to around 60, that’s a good number going into Pomona, but man, I want all of it. I’d like to go to Pomona with it being around 30 something so we can rack up some qualifying points and get it within a round, but I think if you can go into Pomona and you’re within two rounds, that’s doable for sure.”
Qualifying bonus points could make the difference, and Todd’s DHL team knows it needs to collect them more consistently.
“We can only control what we can control. We just got to do our part and qualify the best we can. We need to start racking up those qualifying points where we can. We’ve been getting them here and there all season long, just not consistently during qualifying. It’d be nice to focus in on getting those; you can’t count on those guys going out early, and we’re not going to line ourselves up in qualifying or anything like that. We just gotta qualify at the top, race hard, try and win the race and let the points shake out where they may.”
“I’ve been in this position before. We’ll keep battling until it’s over, and it’s definitely a team effort; there’s no ‘I’ in team so it’s a group effort. I couldn’t do it without the DHL guys behind me. We have our work cut out for us, but like I said, we’re still in the conversation.”
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