Story By: SCOTT SMITH / NHRA – DINWIDDIE, VA – Shawn Langdon has a championship resume, strong backing from a championship team in Kalitta Motorsports and a talented crew working with him. But when the former Top Fuel world champion was still searching for his first career Funny Car victory, the team needed a jolt only a NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series win could provide.
That much-anticipated victory at Charlotte came in Langdon’s 30th career start in Funny Car, providing the type of spark only a win can provide. With that added confidence, Langdon is now ready to take advantage of the next opportunity to celebrate in the winner’s circle in his 10,000-horsepower Global Electronic Technology Toyota Camry, and the 15-time event winner will get that chance at this weekend’s second annual Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.
“It gives everybody involved with the team a little bit of a boost,” Langdon said. “Winning is a cure-all. We had a lot of learning curves last year and, this year, it seemed like we were right there. We would look at all the information and we knew we were close. We knew we had a car and a team capable of getting a win, but when it doesn’t happen, it reaches a certain point where you’ve got to do something. Everything just kind of fell into place at Charlotte and it was pretty exciting.”