LANGDON, KALITTA AND TORRENCE IN PRIME SPOTS FOR LAS VEGAS NATIONALS
NHRA Countdown to the Championship reaches penultimate eliminations
LAS VEGAS (Nov. 2, 2024) – Eager to close the gap in the Top Fuel points standings with just two races remaining, Shawn Langdon earned the No. 2 seed for Sunday’s Las Vegas Fall Nationals after posting a 3.672 elapsed time in the final qualifying session on Saturday. This is the fourth consecutive race Langdon has qualified within the top six of Top Fuel, as well as the sixth time in the last seven events. Landon currently sits in third position in the Top Fuel points standings, 76 points behind the lead, as he aims for his second world championship with the NHRA season nearing its conclusion.
Langdon’s teammate and defending Top Fuel world champion, Doug Kalitta, earned the third overall qualifier for Sunday, followed by Steve Torrence in fourth. Justin Ashley, the Top Fuel points leader, will be No. 7 to begin tomorrow and his closest competitor in the championship fight, Antron Brown, is the 11th seed.
Ron Capps leads the Toyota GR Supra Funny Car contingent by earning the seventh seed heading into Sunday. Coming off consecutive final round appearances in the last two races, Capps is also looking to close on those in front of him in the points standings, beginning tomorrow in the fourth position. J.R. Todd qualified in the eighth position and Alexis DeJoria will fire off 10th on Sunday.
Tomorrow’s eliminations from The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway begin at 2 p.m. EST with live TV coverage beginning at 5 p.m. EST on FS1.
Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas Fall Nationals
Race 19 of 20
TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Brittany Force* | Chevrolet Top Fuel Dragster | 1st | J. Hart |
| Shawn Langdon | Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 2nd | J. Salinas |
| Doug Kalitta | Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 3rd | I. Zetterstrom |
| Steve Torrence | CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 4th | T. Schumacher |
| Justin Ashley | SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 7th | S. Massey |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 11th | T. Stewart |
| Billy Torrence | CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 12th | C. Millican |
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Austin Prock* | Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Funny Car | 1st | T. Gibbons |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 7th | A. DeJoria |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 8th | C. Pedregon |
| Alexis DeJoria | Bandero Café Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 10th | R. Capps |
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
SHAWN LANGDON, Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports
TF Qualifying Result: 2nd
How are you feeling heading into tomorrow’s eliminations?
“The car’s really making great runs – great job by Brian (Husen, crew chief) and this whole Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team. We put ourselves in a pretty good spot on the ladder, and we feel like we’ll be able to control our own destiny. The car’s looking good and running well – that gives me a lot of confidence so I’m pretty excited for tomorrow.”
RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports
FC Qualifying Result: 7th
Describe your outlook for tomorrow’s eliminations.
“Yeah, obviously, the weekend has shown strange (Las) Vegas weather, and for these race cars, ideal conditions. In Saturday night’s (qualifying) run, we were throwing everything at it to see if we could go the quickest we’ve ever gone here (Las Vegas). You know, sometimes, you have to find that edge and back up a little bit. I’d rather do that on Saturday night, then have it happen Sunday morning. No matter what, we always try to have lane choice in the first round and being in the top eight, it does that for us. And it’s a whole new day tomorrow, but it’s going to be cool conditions. They say windy, probably some of coolest conditions we’ve seen on race day in (Las) Vegas in a long, long time. So, I have a lot of confidence in our NAPA Auto Care team with Guido (Dean Antonelli, crew chief) and our GR Supra was flying right off the trailer. I always feel good about it. We have some ground to make up. We have less than two rounds (worth of points) from second place (in the points standings), and I think this is going to be a great time to pull a lot of points together.”
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