By Jerry Jordan, Editor
LAS VEGAS – Shawn Langdon spent a rain-interrupted Friday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway doing what he has done most of the season, putting the Kalitta Air dragster at the top of the Top Fuel qualifying sheet and tightening his grip on the championship.
Langdon, the Top Fuel points leader, ran 3.672 seconds at 332.59 mph in Friday’s second session at the MOPAR NHRA Las Vegas Nationals powered by Dodge to take the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot, edging Tony Stewart by four thousandths of a second. If the run holds through Saturday’s final two sessions, it will be his ninth No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 31st of his career.
Langdon, who was second quickest in the opening session, said the desert air carried more moisture than usual and turned Friday into a search for the right power level. He began laughing when asked by Kickin’ the Tires about what it was like to experience torrential rains in the middle of the desert. It’s something that will also affect Saturday’s action at The Strip.
“Typically here it’s really dry. So this is a little different conditions … a little bit of moisture in the air. So just a matter of, you got to find the power,” Langdon said. “Having two good runs today just definitely gives you a little bit of confidence going into tomorrow, to be able to press it a little bit and see exactly what it can hold.”
With rain in the forecast, NHRA moved Saturday’s two qualifying sessions up an hour and shortened the turnaround time between them, a squeeze Langdon said lands on the crew rather than the driver.
“Not on me. It’s tough on the guys,” he said. “It’s tough on the decisions crew chiefs got to make. Everything’s kind of rapid fire. But when you’re in the zone and things are clicking around, it kind of works into your favor too. I think for us, it’s not a bad thing. I think our guys are fully equipped and fully prepared for it.”
Langdon has refused to spend the title fight thinking about his chances or even locking it up early, which could come this weekend in Las Vegas. In fact, since there was an off-weekend between the race in Texas and this week’s action in Las Vegas, Langdon said he went and did some bracket racing.
“The worst thing for me is to sit around and think about it, because then you start overanalyzing it. So for me, all I know is racing, so I just go racing,” Langdon said.
The championship math is why Friday was important beyond the qualifying sheet. Langdon arrived in Las Vegas with a 139-point lead over his Kalitta Motorsports teammate, reigning champion Doug Kalitta. He then outscored Kalitta five points to none in Friday’s session bonus points, pushing the lead to 144, while Kalitta ended Friday fourth at 3.695 seconds. The season finale at Pomona pays points and a half, so Langdon must leave Las Vegas at least 191 points ahead to clinch the championship on Sunday. If he pulls it off, it would be his second Top Fuel title and his first since 2013.
Again, Langdon would bite at the title questions, saying the plan stays the same.
“Just what we did today, just keep going out there, doing what we’ve been doing, making good runs, not getting caught up in the extra addition of little things,” Langdon said. “At the end of the day, we can’t falter, because we know the history of Alan Johnson and we know what they’re capable of. So we still have to go out there and do our jobs at the end of the day. Because if we do falter, they will capitalize.”
Qualifying concludes Saturday with two sessions, and final eliminations are scheduled for 11 a.m. PT on Sunday.