Team Kalitta's Drivers Ready For The Rock

Shawn Langdon has already done a lot in 2026, but what he did at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park last weekend was on another level.

The Kalitta Motorsports driver won the inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals, reclaimed the Top Fuel points lead, reset the NHRA speed record at 346.95 mph, and backed that monster number up with another 346.15-mph blast in the final. Now Langdon heads to another new stop on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule.

The inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock at Rockingham Dragway will be the second race of the six-event Countdown to the Championship, and Langdon arrives with an 11-point advantage over teammate Doug Kalitta. J.R. Todd, meanwhile, enters Rockingham fifth in Funny Car after reaching the semifinals in Michigan.

Langdon has made a habit of moving the Top Fuel speed record this season. At the Southern Nationals in Georgia, he ran 345.00 mph and 344.91 mph. In the semifinals at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, against Kalitta, Langdon blasted to 346.95 mph, smashing his own record. He followed that with a 346.15-mph run in the final against Spencer Massey.

Langdon enters Rockingham with victories in the last two events: the U.S. Nationals and the Great Lakes Nationals. A win at The Rock would give him his second three-race winning streak of the season. Earlier in 2026, Langdon won three straight at Valdosta, Joliet, and Budds Creek. He also won the Arizona Nationals, bringing his season total to six victories.

The NHRA Nationals at The Rock is the fourth inaugural event on the 2026 schedule, and Langdon won the first three with victories at Valdosta, Maryland, and U.S. 131.

“Internally, we know what the team’s capable of. We have a great team from top to bottom; earlier this year we were able to go to five straight final rounds, win three straight races, and then we had a couple races where we just couldn’t get out of the second round for no particular reason. Some things just didn’t fall the right way, and we lost some good races. That’s just how the sport goes. We know we have a great opportunity; we’re excited about the Martin win, but we’re not going to dwell on it too much because we have to get back to work and get ready for Rockingham.

“We know Rockingham is another track that we don’t really have much information on, and big credit to my team because at the three races we’ve gone to this year were at new facilities where you have no information, I felt like we had, hands down, the best car. We won all three of those races on brand new tracks. It just goes to show that these Kalitta Air guys do a great job, and they do a lot of homework.

“I just think we have a very well-prepared race car, and it comes from all the guys on the race team from top to bottom. Everything is triple checked – everything. I get in the race car, and I don’t ever doubt anything and never second guess anything. I know the guys do a fantastic job with the car. It starts with the guys putting the car together perfectly, then giving Brian an opportunity to put in a tune-up, and everything has to go right to make those kinds of runs. It’s just having a really good team and a really good team leader in Brian.”

Langdon may hold the points lead, but he doesn’t have much breathing room. Kalitta enters Rockingham only 11 points behind his teammate. The reigning world champion opened the Countdown with a No. 1 qualifying effort and a semifinal finish in Michigan.

He has four victories, three runner-up finishes, and five No. 1 qualifiers in 2026. Combined with Langdon’s six wins, Team Kalitta has won 10 of the season’s first 15 Top Fuel races and competed in 57 of 59 possible rounds, that’s a staggering level of dominance.

Kalitta has been through enough championship battles to know there isn’t much benefit in looking too far ahead.

“You just have to take it (The Countdown) round by round. I’ve never really tried to think I’m better than anybody or going to whoop this guy. It’s just a matter of getting it done. Each round, especially in this countdown deal, is important; you have to get to the third round at least and try to get to the final. That’s the first thing on the list is to just get to the final somehow and then have a shot at the win. With the confidence I have in my team and how things have been going, Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) giving us everything we need for all three of our cars and Chad (General Manager Chad Head) running around trying to make everything as perfect as possible, we have a great team effort going on.

“I’m pretty humble. I just try to take it as it comes and don’t get too far ahead of myself because drag racing is probably one of the most humbling things I’ve done for the better part of my life. You have to take advantage of the opportunities when you have them, and right now, with just six races in the Countdown, we all realize how important it is. I hope we can just keep the pressure on these guys.

“Rockingham is another new place, so you’re just going to look around to see how the staging lanes are as far as getting the car up to the starting line – just simple stuff. Then down at the other end – I’ll just want to just see how long the shutdown area is. I’ll just look things over. A lot of good people are working really hard to make it a great event. We’re looking forward to it.”

Todd enters Rockingham fifth in the Funny Car standings. He trails fourth-place Ron Capps by six points and leads sixth-place Austin Prock by 40. Todd reached the semifinals at the Countdown opener in Michigan, which would normally be considered a good weekend.

The problem is that several of the drivers ahead of him also went deep.

“I would say reaching the semifinals in Martin was kind of bittersweet because it’s good to go to the later rounds, but we also lost ground to cars in front of us. We’re gonna have to keep pace with those in front of us, which means putting ourselves in a better position to win the race. We just need to run harder when the times call for it

“You never know if we’ll see conditions like we had in Martin again this season. Pomona can be good; anywhere we go could be just as good because it’s just a matter of what the weather is gonna be. I don’t know exactly what it’ll take, but we have to keep running hard from here on out – there’s no letting up.

“These Countdown races are more exciting because the intensity rises, so I think everybody takes it to a different level this time of year. Every run down the track matters, so there’s no time for screwing around. Like I said, we gotta be aggressive from here on out.”

With Team Kalitta having won 10 of the first 15 races, the Top Fuel championship fight has increasingly become an internal battle. Todd has lived towards the top of the Funny Car standings this season. That means the chances of a Team Kalitta sweep of the nitro categories shouldn’t be counted out in 2026.