Team Kalitta Brings Seven-Race Top Fuel Winning Streak To Texas FallNationals

The NHRA Countdown to the Championship has reached its halfway point, and Team Kalitta has put together one of the most impressive stretches of Top Fuel racing in recent memory. Shawn Langdon has won four consecutive races, Doug Kalitta is trying to chase down his teammate for the championship, and J.R. Todd is still very much alive in the Funny Car title fight.

As the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads to Texas Motorplex for the Texas NHRA FallNationals, all three Team Kalitta drivers have plenty on the line.

Langdon enters the fourth of six Countdown races with a 116-point advantage over Kalitta and an opportunity to accomplish something only two other Top Fuel drivers have done. Kalitta returns to Dallas as the defending event champion, knowing he’s already erased an even larger deficit to his teammate this season. Meanwhile, Todd is looking to turn the consistency of his DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car into the round wins needed to climb the championship standings.

Winning four consecutive NHRA national events is difficult enough. Winning five straight puts a driver in some very exclusive company, and that’s exactly what Langdon will be attempting at Texas Motorplex.

The Kalitta Air Top Fuel driver has been nearly unstoppable since winning the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. He followed that victory with wins at Martin, Michigan, Rockingham, North Carolina, and St. Louis. His latest victory at the NHRA Midwest Nationals was his eighth of the season and 30th of his career. It also completed a sweep of the first three Countdown races.

Langdon hasn’t lost an elimination round since the second round at Brainerd on August 23. His winning streak now stands at 16 consecutive rounds.The last Top Fuel driver to win four straight national events was Steve Torrence in 2019.

Langdon’s performance this season hasn’t happened overnight. Crew chief Brian Husen and the Kalitta Air team have spent the past several seasons developing a combination capable of consistently competing for victories.

Now that work is paying off in a big way.

“The results we’re showing now are from the hard work from the last couple of years. We’ve had some good results since Brian (Crew Chief Brian Husen) came on board. We finished fourth the first year, finished second the second year, and finished second in the regular season both years, but I knew the capabilities of this team. It just was a matter of time until things started coming together.

“Kalitta has had some great success in the past, but we had a couple of years that the Top Fuel cars struggled a little bit. Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) allowed Chad Head, our General Manager, to make some changes. Some great people worked on these cars, but for whatever reason, things didn’t work out. Right now, I think we have absolutely the best of the best across the board, from crew chiefs to car chiefs to assistant crew chiefs to crew guys to drivers. We have a great organization that’s never satisfied, always striving for perfection. A lot of hard work’s gone into it, and fortunately, now we’re able to get some of the dividends.”

A 16-round winning streak is the kind of accomplishment that can become a distraction if a driver starts thinking too much about protecting it, and Langdon isn’t interested in doing that.

Instead, he’s sticking with the approach that has helped him win eight races this season.

“I try not to really think about it (the 16-round win streak). I just try to do the task at hand, take each run for what it is, and address each run in that moment. I try not to dwell on the past or think too far ahead. I try to live in the moment and think about the next run. The thing for me is a simple-minded approach and trying not to think about it too much. The car is good; it’s making smooth runs and responding very well to the changes Brian makes. It’s a great listener, so it’s a great racing car. We just have to try not to mess up. We need to keep doing what we’ve been doing, continue to attack it, and keep our game plan.

“Brian talks about peaking at the right time, and I feel like we’re peaking at the right time. Everything’s working, the parts look good (after runs). Everything works consistently, so we almost have a plug-and-play deal right now, so that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll go to Dallas, look back at the notes from last year, and see if we can make more good runs.”

Doug Kalitta might be chasing the hottest driver in Top Fuel, but he has firsthand experience overcoming a large points deficit, in fact, he did it earlier this season.

Heading into Sonoma in July, Kalitta trailed Langdon by 150 points with three races remaining in the regular season. Kalitta then won three consecutive races at Sonoma, Seattle, and Brainerd. That impressive stretch allowed him to turn the 150-point deficit into a 67-point lead entering the U.S. Nationals. Langdon won Indianapolis, but Kalitta still captured the regular-season championship. Now Kalitta finds himself in a similar situation.

He enters Dallas 116 points behind Langdon and 109 ahead of third-place Tony Stewart.

“We have three races to go, and the last one’s points and a half so we still have a lot of racing left. If Brian (Langdon Crew Chief Brian Husen), Shawn (Langdon) and those guys continue going to the final round, it’ll be tough to catch them so we’ll do the best we can and see how the chips fall in the remaining three races, but I’m feeling positive about the opportunity. We’ll see what happens.

“When the guys are all clicking, and everybody’s doing their thing, it’s great to be part of that for sure. That’s how I feel with my team, but going out first round (in St. Louis) got us a little behind. It’s not all just one race; the Countdown is six races, so we have time to catch up, but we definitely don’t need to be going out first round again, that’s for sure.”

If Kalitta needs a track where he can make a championship move, Texas Motorplex is a good place to start. The Mobil 1 Top Fuel driver is the defending Texas NHRA FallNationals winner. Last year’s victory was his third at the facility in six final-round appearances. He also has one No. 1 qualifying position at Texas Motorplex.

He has four victories, four runner-up finishes, six semifinal appearances, and six No. 1 qualifying positions, but the problem is that his teammate has been even better.

Kalitta understands that catching Langdon will require strong performances from his own team and potentially some early-round losses by the points leader.

“As long as one of our two cars wins, that’s obviously the goal, but I guess at this point, if we’re going to catch them, Shawn’s gonna have to go out in the earlier rounds. I’m certainly not wishing any bad luck on Shawn. He’s a very deserving driver that’s been doing this a long time, and he’s had a great season.

“To keep it competitive and keep it fun for everybody out there paying attention to what we’re doing, it’s always more fun when you have a couple cars competing that are close in points. That’s kind of where we are right now; 100 points is doable. We caught up from further back with the regular season championship that we ended up winning so we’ve proven we can do it. We were a little bit behind, won a couple races, and all of a sudden, we got ahead of them so I’m hoping that’s how the rest of the year plays out.”

While Team Kalitta’s Top Fuel operation has been dominating the headlines, J.R. Todd is still fighting for the Funny Car championship.

Todd enters the Texas FallNationals fifth in the standings, 132 points behind leader Matt Hagan. That might sound like a substantial deficit, but the standings behind Hagan remain tightly packed. Todd trails fourth-place Jack Beckman by only nine points and leads sixth-place Ron Capps by 39.

The drivers ranked second through fifth are separated by just 60 points. A strong weekend could dramatically change Todd’s position in the standings.

“We need the points leaders to go out early so we can gain some ground on them, but there’s still a lot of racing left. I feel like second or at least third through sixth have been going back-and-forth every week so, outside the points leader, there’s still ground to be made up. We definitely need to win, but we’re definitely still in it. I don’t think we have to win out to have a shot, but winning out is the goal.

“We obviously want to be at the top of the points like everyone else, but (Matt) Hagan started off the Countdown in the points lead and hasn’t really faltered since then. It can be frustrating, but it’s not over – we’re only halfway through the Countdown. My DHL guys don’t need pep talks or anything like that; they take the same approach week in and week out. They know we’re capable of winning every time we show up.”

Todd has already experienced success at Texas Motorplex, earning one victory in three final-round appearances and qualifying No. 1 twice. He’s confident his current combination is capable of adding to those numbers.

“I definitely like the combination we have – strong, aggressive-minded crew chiefs. They come up with a plan of what the car’s gonna run, and it’s spot on with what they said. It’s awesome to have that confidence in the crew chiefs and the guys putting the thing together. It’s pretty much in my hands to do my job and get this thing off the starting line on time all the time and get this DHL GR Supra to the finish line first. We just need to pick up another hundredth (of a second) or so, and we’ll be where we need to be.”

The Texas NHRA FallNationals arrive at a critical point in the 2026 championship battle.

Langdon has the momentum, a 116-point advantage, and an opportunity to become just the third Top Fuel driver to win five consecutive national events. Kalitta has the experience, a proven race car, and the knowledge that he can overcome a substantial points deficit. Todd has a consistent Funny Car and an opportunity to climb the standings with a strong weekend.