- \n
- Three runners-up<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Four semifinals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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- Four No. 1 qualifiers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Five Mission Foods Challenge wins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate in the last three years to have two firsts and a second,\u201d Kalitta said. \u201cI\u2019m in a good spot with my team. Shawn and J.R. are right there. Shawn and his team are just really good, so that\u2019s definitely gonna be a car to beat, and J.R.\u2019s guys have been good all year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to see if we can pull off a season championship,\u201d added Kalitta. \u201cThat\u2019s the goal; I have the best crew behind me with Alan Johnson. I couldn\u2019t be a more fortunate individual to be in the situation I\u2019m in with all Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) gives our teams. He\u2019s 88 and has a jacked-up knee, but he\u2019s still right there. To be in this situation with all three of our teams and to have the opportunity we\u2019re having, it\u2019s a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/KM-PicSLcandid-KM.jpg\")
Shawn Langdon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Shawn Langdon\u2019s Kalitta Air Careers team was just as impressive in the regular season. Langdon led the NHRA Top Fuel point standings following nine of the 14 regular-season races. He won five races, including last weekend\u2019s NHRA U.S. Nationals, and a streak of three-straight wins in the spring: Valdosta, Ga., Chicago and Budds Creek, Md., in addition to the NHRA Arizona Nationals. He finished the regular season in second place on the strength of this amazing performance:\u00a0<\/p>\n
- \n
- Five wins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Three runners-up<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Two semifinals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Five No. 1 qualifiers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Four Mission Foods Challenge wins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a crucial time to start winning,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cIndy was definitely a big confidence boost for the team. If you can get your car right, the team\u2019s working right, and everything\u2019s going well, this is the time to do it. A lot of it is because we only have six races left so if the car\u2019s running well, and everything\u2019s working properly, you can get on a good run and have a really good shot at the championship. We know what our group\u2019s capable of doing; hopefully, we can get back on that hot streak.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to keep doing what we\u2019re doing. Everything\u2019s going well; the team\u2019s doing great, the car\u2019s running well. We\u2019re just going to keep our heads down and keep progressing. We\u2019re doing a great job, but we have to be perfect come countdown time.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/KM-PicJRTcle-KM.jpg\")
J.R. Todd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In Funny Car, J.R. Todd and his DHL GR Supra team were strong competitors throughout the regular season, winning a race and advancing to at least the semifinals eight times. In addition to his Seattle win, Todd had a runner-up, five semifinals, and three No. 1 qualifiers, along with two Mission Foods Challenge wins. He completed the regular season fifth in points and will enter the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs as the fifth seed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis car is definitely the best one I\u2019ve had since we won the championship in 2018,\u201d Todd said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like it\u2019s that long ago, but it definitely was. We\u2019ve just been lacking little things here and there, and it kind of reminds me of what happened with the dragsters. They were in kind of a lull. They brought AJ (Alan Johnson) in, and it took him a while to get going. Then Brian (Husen) went over to Shawn\u2019s team, and after a couple of years, look what they\u2019re doing.\u201cI think our DHL Funny Car is on definitely on that path. We have the right guys and the right crew chiefs in place, and the things we did in the off season with the new cars, parts and pieces, everything\u2019s paying off. If we keep going to the later rounds, more wins will come.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post Kalitta Motorsports Completes Stellar NHRA Regular Season With 10 Wins, Prepares For Countdown<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To say the NHRA regular season was stellar for Kalitta Motorsports would be quite an understatement. Collectively, the team won 10 times in 14 races, and all three individual teams led the point standings. The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series resumes next weekend with the opening race of the Countdown to the Championship NHRA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Four Mission Foods Challenge wins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Five No. 1 qualifiers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Two semifinals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Three runners-up<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Five wins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Five Mission Foods Challenge wins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Four No. 1 qualifiers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Four semifinals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n