NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Top Fuel’s Shawn Langdon is headed to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for this weekend’s 25th annual Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals powered by Direct Connection with a singular focus, and that’s winning for the fourth time this season.

The past Top Fuel world champion enters the weekend third in points, but knows it will take a near-perfect finish, plus a falter from his Kalitta Motorsports teammate, points leader Doug Kalitta, to win another world championship.

Rather than wish for that, Langdon is focused solely on winning the race, which serves as the fifth of six playoff races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. At the very least, a victory this weekend in Las Vegas in his Kalitta Air 25th Anniversary dragster would at least keep him in championship contention heading into the finale.

“We have to win the last two races,” Langdon said. “Doug’s been on a pretty good run; when Doug and AJ [crew chief Alan Johnson] get in the zone, they’re very tough to beat. Justin [Ashley] is a great driver, and when his team gets their car going down the track, they’re very tough to beat. We just need to win. We’ll go to Las Vegas, and we have to keep going rounds and hopefully get a couple of wins.

“I always seem to drive better when my back’s up against the wall, I feel like I have something to prove, and I’m chasing someone down and driving aggressively. I seem like I’m more in my element when I’m out there driving aggressively and knowing exactly what I have to do to win. I feel like sometimes, when I got in the lead in the past, I got a little bit conservative and more of ‘don’t want to make mistakes and just keep the status quo.’ I drive better when I drive with intent and aggression.”

Brittany Force (Top Fuel), Austin Prock (Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock), and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) each won the fall race in Las Vegas last year. The event will be broadcast on FS1, including eliminations at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, and is the 19th of 20 races during the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.

Kalitta has taken command in the playoffs, advancing to the finals at the first four Countdown to the Championship events. He won in Dallas and has an opportunity to clinch his second world championship this weekend in Vegas, should Justin Ashley and Langdon falter early.

Ashley is currently 141 points back of first, while Landgon is 159 points back. Kalitta needs to hold a 192-point lead or more at the end of the weekend to clinch the world title, something Langdon would like to try and prevent. A win would assure the title race would at least head to Pomona, but it won’t be easy as Langdon will also have to face off with the likes of Tony Stewart, who won in Las Vegas in the spring, reigning world champ Antron Brown, Clay Millican, and Force, the defending event winner who is making her final appearance in Las Vegas.

But with Langdon’s teammate in command in the title chase, the veteran is focused only on what he can control.

“For us to have a shot, Doug will have to kind of fall pretty badly at the last couple of races, but at the end of the day, we’re definitely not wishing anything bad on Doug,” Langdon said. “We’re just going to go to Las Vegas to do the best we can and try to have an opportunity in Pomona. 

“If we’re not going to win the championship, we want Doug to win. It’s a little bit out of our control at this point because Doug has a pretty good lead. Ideally, we want to have a shot at the championship. If we don’t have that, then finishing one-two is the next best thing. That would be a really good feat for the team as a whole.”

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series qualifying will feature two rounds at 12:30 and 3 p.m. PT on Friday, Oct. 31, and the final two rounds on Saturday, Nov. 1 at noon and 2:30 p.m. Final eliminations are scheduled for 11 a.m. PT on Sunday, Nov. 2. Television coverage includes qualifying action on FS1 at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday and then eliminations coverage starting at 5 p.m. ET.

To purchase tickets to the Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals powered by Direct Connection at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, please call 800-644-4444 or visit www.lvms.com. For more information on the Dodge brand, visit Dodge.com.