Entering his 16th year of NHRA competition, Shawn Langdon is determined not to be the weak link at Kalitta Motorsports.
It’s been slow going the last few years for the three-car operation as a whole, with little hardware to show for their efforts.
Of course, that all turned around when Doug Kalitta took home the Top Fuel championship last year, but unfortunately, the surge of success didn’t translate to Langdon. The California native’s last win came at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in September, 2020, during a pandemic-shortened season.
Over the last three years, Langdon, who won the 2013 Top Fuel title, has consistently managed to qualify for the Countdown to the Championship and finish top 12 in the standings. However, his highest points result in recent history was ninth in 2021.
“It absolutely sucks when you go week-in and week-out and lose first round and just don’t feel like you’re quite there with the competition,” Langdon said.
The 41-year-old believes the Kalitta Air Careers team will turn the corner this season for two reasons. One, a few “hush-hush” changes on the dragster. Two, the hiring of Brian Husen as crew chief.
Langdon is familiar with Husen’s capabilities, as he’s been assisting Alan Johnson with tuning Kalitta’s dragster the past two years. Though, this will be the first time Husen has taken lead as a Top Fuel crew chief.
It’s also a reunion of sorts, as Langdon and Husen worked together about a decade ago at Al-Anabi Racing. Husen was on the crew when Langdon won his championship in 2013.
“Brian (Husen) just has the racer mindset. He’s as good as it gets,” Langdon added. “Working under A.J. (Johnson) for so many years, he learned from the best.”
Husen agreed, “Alan (Johnson) and I have worked together so long that we kind of think the same and approach things the same mostly because he taught me how to do that.”
And that’s a very positive thing, considering Johnson is a multi-time, championship-winning crew chief with a laundry list of accolades in NHRA. Langdon hopes Husen’s addition to the team is a sign of good things to come, once the Michigan native takes the reins on the DHL dragster.
“I’m excited to have, or what I feel like is, a competitive car this year,” Langdon said, laying praise on his new crew chief. “(Husen) is a good competitor and a great crew chief. I think we work very well together, relaying information back and forth.”
The team’s underlying motive in moving Husen to Langdon’s crew was to make the performance of Kalitta and Langdon’s dragsters more equal.
“In order to make the cars run the same, they have to be exactly the same. That’s what I spent most of the winter doing — making sure Doug’s car was prepared the way it needed to be prepared and then also training the new guys on Shawn’s car to make sure it’s prepared the way it needs to be,” Husen said.
“When we went to Bradenton (for the PRO Superstar Shootout), they pretty much ran the same so it appears all the hard work is paying off so far.”
Time will tell, and the test begins this weekend at the season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway.
“It’s going to be a very competitive season,” Langdon said. “I don’t want to be the weak link this year. It’s already on my mind that we’re going to have a fast car, so I’ve got to get back to the drawing board a little bit and get to work.”