Shawn Langdon Norwalk Final Report

Langdon continues slow upward climb in Norwalk

The Lucas Oil/Speedco Top Fuel dragster has regained its quickness, all Shawn Langdon and crew need to do next is make the car consistent.

Langdon made it to the quarterfinal round of the fifth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals on Sunday before falling to teammate Morgan Lucas and the GEICO/Lucas Oil dragster.

"It's been a while since we've won a round, so that was good," Langdon said. "It's nice to get that on the checklist. But we're still not getting those great runs when we need to."

On Sunday, Langdon said the team felt a round behind all day. After qualifying fourth, Langdon drew Scott Palmer in the first round of eliminations.

Palmer went so far red (minus-.316 seconds) that Langdon reacted off of Palmer's launch. Langdon, who went minus-.072 to the red himself, let off the gas and coasted through.

"I heard his engine go up and it messed me up," Langdon said. "I went red a bunch and as a natural reaction got off the throttle because I knew I went too early."

While the win was nice, getting data from a full run and a shot at lane choice -- a crucial factor at this track -- would have been better.

"We're making good runs, they just aren’t coming at the right times," Langdon said. "It seems like we just don’t have the luck factor. That first round really put us behind a whole run. It's just not all jiving yet."

Against Lucas in the second round, Langdon's car overpowered the track from the hit of the throttle and the Lucas Oil dragster smoked the tires. Lucas ran a 3.964-second pass at 296.63 mph. Langdon coasted through at 7.998 at 88.89 mph.

"It's tough," Langdon said. "It doesn’t matter if it is your teammate or not, losing stinks. So we'll move on an focus on getting the car consistent."