Langdon, Kalitta Bring Top Fuel Championship Battle To St. Louis

Team Kalitta has owned Top Fuel lately, but Shawn Langdon has been doing most of the winning. Langdon heads into the NAPA NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway with three consecutive victories, 12 straight round wins, and a 25-point lead over teammate Doug Kalitta in the NHRA Top Fuel standings.

And there’s another significant number on the table this weekend: four. Langdon has an opportunity to win four consecutive races, something that hasn’t been accomplished in Top Fuel since Steve Torrence did it in 2019.

Kalitta, meanwhile, isn’t far behind in the championship battle and returns to St. Louis as the defending event winner. On the Funny Car side, J.R. Todd has quietly put himself into third place after reaching the semifinals at each of the first two Countdown races.

Langdon’s current run started at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis and hasn’t stopped. He followed his Indy victory with a win at the inaugural Great Lakes Nationals in Martin, Michigan, then completed the three-race streak by winning the inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock in Rockingham, North Carolina.

That gives Langdon seven victories this season and marks the second time in 2026 that he’s won three consecutive races, it also gives him 12 consecutive round wins. Rockingham completed another impressive accomplishment for Langdon. He swept all four inaugural races on the 2026 schedule, winning at Valdosta, Georgia; Budds Creek, Maryland; Martin, Michigan; and Rockingham.

Langdon credits much of his team’s success to crew chief Brian Husen and the way he manages the Kalitta Air dragster.

It’s not just about making the big decisions. According to Langdon, the attention to the smallest details has helped transform the team into a championship contender.

“Brian’s (Crew Chief Brian Husen) done a really good job, especially the last couple of years, making good decisions, and a lot of it is last-minute calls. He’s done such a good job over and over. I think he’s built a lot of confidence in himself and feels good about the calls when he’s making his last-minute changes.

“When we struggle a little bit, Brian really digs into the computer and starts getting into all the finer details of everything. That’s one of the reasons this team’s really come into its own this year. It’s all the little things that situationally present themselves. Focusing on certain things that may be significant in giving us a good car may be what allows us to make a deep run for the championship at the end of the year.

“The Kalitta Air guys do a great job – they triple check themselves and work together to be perfect. Brian strives for perfection. You have to be perfect to win races and championships, and what we’re doing so far this year is a testament to the guys who are bonding together and working hard. We keep our heads down and keep working hard for the next one. We’ll do the same for St. Louis.

“The guys feed off Brian, and I feed off the guys. I feed off Brian, Brian feeds off me, and it’s just a good working environment. We all work well together. We had a couple years where we finished second. It’s not a bad spot, but it definitely gives you something to strive for the next season. We had some bad seasons. We barely made the top 10 – it was tough, but years like that make us appreciate years like this one much more. We stuck together – a lot of the guys on this year’s team were with us back then, and all the hard work is paying off. These are scenarios that stay with you for the rest of your life – we’re trying to make the best of it.”

Langdon may have won the first two Countdown races, but Kalitta has done just about everything possible to stay within striking distance. The reigning champion has four victories, four runner-up finishes, six semifinal appearances, and six No. 1 qualifiers this season.

He opened the Countdown with two consecutive No. 1 qualifying performances while adding a semifinal and a runner-up finish. With only four races remaining, Kalitta understands that every available point matters.

“Every point counts, but the 20-point swings on Sunday are the real thing. We’ve all lost close points races, and the qualifying points are also super important. I hate to try to focus too much on it, but you’re down to four races, so you have to. It’s not something I personally get too wrapped around the axle about it. I have a great car and a great group behind me. We have a lot of momentum, so we just got to keep carrying that with everybody pulling together, continuing to be hungry, work hard and see what we can do with Alan and Mac (Crew Chiefs Alan Johnson and Mac Savage) leading our charge.

“I’m all in for this points battle. I feel very confident in the whole effort, and I know our Gerber Collision & Glass team will do whatever it takes to make it happen. We’re just very hopeful we can go rounds. It’s super cool to get to the semis at least but hopefully the final. We’re looking forward to whatever those opportunities are, it’ll be fun doing everything we can to hopefully pull this thing off.

“I’m looking forward to St. Louis. We were able to win the thing last year so there’s no reason we can’t do it again; I know all my guys are hungry. We’ll have to work our tails off there, but we’re up to the challenge. I’m real proud of the job they’re doing. We all know what these Countdown races mean, and there’s plenty of rounds to go so we’re in a good spot.”

If Kalitta needs a place to stop Langdon’s winning streak, World Wide Technology Raceway isn’t a bad option. Kalitta is the defending Midwest Nationals champion. Last year’s victory was his fifth in seven final-round appearances at the track. He also has four No. 1 qualifiers in St. Louis, including last season.

J.R. Todd hasn’t won either of the first two Countdown races, but consistency has kept his championship hopes alive.

Todd qualified fifth and advanced to the semifinals at both Martin and Rockingham. That has moved the DHL GR Supra driver into third place in the Funny Car standings. He’s only 22 points behind second-place Jordan Vandergriff and holds a slim three-point advantage over Ron Capps in fourth.

The problem is that Todd needs to start gaining ground on the front of the standings rather than simply matching the other contenders.

“We’re definitely pleased with the runs we’re making and the way the DHL car is running; it’s pretty much running like Dickie and Todd (Crew Chiefs Dickie Venables and Todd Smith) are tuning it to run. We just need to pick up a hundredth (of a second) here or there throughout those runs to make it quicker, and I need to be better on the Christmas tree. Hopefully, that’s what it takes to get to the later rounds. We lost a close one in the Martin semis and then another one in the Rockingham semis. It’s good to be going to semifinals, but at the same time, it’s unfortunate to be losing ground to the guys in front of us.

“The last few years, we didn’t have a shot to go out there and win a championship because we couldn’t get out of the first round, but now, we’re in the points hunt. It’s just tough. Winning rounds is not easy; it’s even harder now with so many competitive teams in Funny Car, and one guy went to the final at the first two playoff races and won a race so he’s put a pretty big gap on the rest of the field. We’re getting to the point where we have to not just match his pace, we have to go further than him.

“Competing for championships is why we do this. If I was content just making runs, I probably wouldn’t have a job because I get paid not just to drive a race car but to win races. I’ve been competitive since I was a kid, and this is all I ever wanted to do. I’ve wanted to be in this position for years, so it’s a lot of fun.

“Each track is different, and St. Louis has its own characteristics with some bumps here and there. When it’s cool and the conditions are right, it can be fast. It’s another track that’s somewhat close to Indy so it draws in that Indy crowd of people. It’s somewhat of a home race for a lot of people in our sport that live there. It’s another track where we haven’t won that I’d like to check off the list.”

Todd has good reason to be encouraged by what his car did at Rockingham. The DHL Toyota GR Supra made seven runs during the weekend, and all seven elapsed times were within four-hundredths of a second. In nitro Funny Car racing, that kind of repeatability is valuable.

The first two Countdown races couldn’t have gone much better for Team Kalitta.

Langdon won both. Kalitta qualified No. 1 at both and stayed close enough to remain firmly in the championship fight. Todd reached the Funny Car semifinals at both and climbed to third. There are four races remaining after the first two Countdown events, and every round becomes more important from here.