NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

By Elon Werner, Special to NHRA.com

As Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon and crew chief Brian Husen marched toward the possibility of winning the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series world championship, one storyline quickly picked up momentum at the beginning of the Countdown. A win at the historic Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals followed by three more consecutive wins to start the playoffs had whispers growing louder in the pits and grandstands about the chances of a Countdown sweep for the KalittaCareers.com Top Fuel team.

Drag racing is a sport rich in streaks and dominant performances. Gaige Herrera’s all-time record 11 Pro Stock Motorcycle national event wins came in a row in 2023 and 2024. Pro Stock’s Bob Glidden’s nine-race national event streak that spanned from the 1978 NHRA Summernationals to the 1979 NHRA Springnationals is a record for the age. In Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher reigns supreme with seven consecutive wins in the 2008 season.

In 2018, Steve Torrence was chasing his first world championship, and his Capco Top Fuel team set the standard for playoff dominance that, until this season, no one thought was repeatable.

“I don't remember how many races we won that year. I think we might have won 11 races,” said Torrence, now a four-time Top Fuel world champion. “Winning all the Countdown races wasn't even in the possibility of things on my mind. My mindset was more, 'Let's go win this championship.' I was living off the driving force from losing the championship the year before with a wreck in Dallas.”

Coming into the 2026 Texas NHRA FallNationals, Langdon and Husen looked unstoppable with their consistency and performance numbers outpacing the entire Top Fuel field. For Torrence, who has stepped out of the cockpit to oversee the operations of the family business, losing sole possession of his 2018 achievement was not top of mind.

“I had heard chatter of it. I kind of keep up with what's going on because I'm watching my dad,” said Torrence. “Brian and Shawn have basically dominated this season. When they got all their ducks in a row, they're basically unbeatable. The performance of the car has shown that. I knew what they had been doing, and I knew how strong they'd been. They won Indy and four in a row. They were marching toward looking like they could sweep the Countdown heading into Dallas.”

Torrence was on the scene at Texas Motorplex in the NHRA on FOX TV booth alongside Brian Lohnes when Langdon’s streak ended in the semifinals against Antron Brown. There was no gloating or celebration from Torrence because his appreciation for the ongoing accomplishments of Husen and Langdon went back years.

“We were talking about this in the booth, Brian went back and looked at some stats,” said Torrence. “In 2018, I won the final round of the final race against Tony Schumacher. That's probably the biggest round of my life. To sweep the six-race Countdown, win the championship, beat Tony Schumacher in the final on a holeshot to do it all. Everything worked. I performed and did my job when I had to do it and pulled it off.”

Torrence also knows that the road in front of Langdon would have gotten significantly rougher if he had in fact continued the streak with a fourth Countdown win in a row in Dallas. With only two races left in the season and tight playoff races in all three remaining NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series classes, the interest in a second sweep would have been a major storyline heading into this weekend. The possibility of distraction for the driver, crew chief, and team would have grown exponentially.

“From the driver perspective, it is mentally straining,” said Torrence. “They were three races in, and the further you go, the more hype is generated around it, and there is more exposure, more talk, more everything. Even though you try to put that in the back of your mind and just focus on the job at hand, everybody is keeping that on the forefront of the conversation.”

Now that Torrence sits alone with the record for another season, he is not gloating. In the NFL, the remaining members of the Miami Dolphins 1972 undefeated season team pop champagne each season when their historic record is preserved. Torrence isn’t going to go that far, nor is he expecting his accomplishment to last for more than five decades like the Dolphins.

“It's definitely something that is achievable,” said Torrence. “Winning races that count toward the championship makes it mentally more of an obstacle, not only for the driver but for the crew chief and everyone else on the team. As much as we say, 'This is the driver, and this is the crew chief,' this is also about every one of the guys who are on the team. One guy doesn't torque one head stud correctly, and it blows your chances. You go up there and push too hard, and it's a long Tree, and you double step, you blow your chances. Everybody must be perfect, and then everything has to go your way. Langdon and Husen didn’t mess up in the semi's against Antron. Antron just beat them.”

When the four-time champion looks back on the 2018 season and that six-race stretch, he does take a moment to take it all in. He considers that Countdown — and particularly the final race in Pomona — fondly and with a reverence reserved for significant moments in a Hall of Fame career.

“It's probably the biggest moment of my career,” said Torrence. “There's so much more at stake when it's the Countdown. There's no pressure during the regular season because you're just trying to win races and go into the Countdown No. 1. The mindset and the aggressiveness that we had for that six-race swing, looking back on it, it’s absolutely mental trauma.

“Everything had to be perfect. I've caught a lot of flak for a lot of things I've said and a lot of things I've done, and some of it's justified, some of it isn't. I hope people can look back and say, 'Steve Torrence was one of the fiercest competitors in the sport.' I backed myself into a corner a lot of times, and I had to fight my way out. Mentally, that's what needed to happen for me to be in the mindset of winning. I think that that's probably the biggest moment of my career right there.”

After the Dallas race was over, Torrence took time to call both Langdon and Husen and congratulate them on an epic run and wish them luck for the rest of the season. His conversations with both conveyed his respect for their season-long accomplishment as well as their run at a perfect Countdown.

“I called Brian and Shawn both Sunday night and congratulated them,” said Torrence. “And I said, 'In no way was I rooting against you. I know how difficult it is mentally, and how hard you had to work to get there and do what you've been doing. If you did do it, I was going to be the first to congratulate you because I know what it takes to get there, and it's nothing less than hard work, mental fortitude and just determination.' ”

The Countdown streak will live for another year. For Langdon and Husen, they have unfinished business over the final two races of the season. Torrence will be following from his home in Texas while the rest of the NHRA fans admire his accomplishment and what could have been throughout the offseason.