Shawn Langdon Prepared For Seattle

Langdon says its time to start thinking about a playoff run

The start of the NHRA Full Throttle Series' Countdown to the Championship is just four races away and for Shawn Langdon and the Lucas Oil/Speedco dragster team, it's time to build momentum.

This weekend's 24th annual O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Northwest Nationals marks the last leg of the Western Swing, and also the first part of the stretch run for the end of the regular season.

"You have to have everything clicking together," Langdon said. "You can’t go into the first race of the Countdown with a car that's not happy. You really have to have that momentum built up headed into that first race.

Shawn Langdon

Photo by: Ted Rossino

"Crew chief, car chief, driver, crew and car all have to be on the same page to be successful to perform well in the Countdown."

Langdon said the team has made a major step forward from issues they've had earlier in the year with damaging the engine on almost every run.

"Our parts have been looking great for us," Langdon said. "Internally the motor has been looking really good after runs the past couple of races."

Now the next step is to get their "happy" engine to go down the track quickly and consistently.

"Last weekend we saw a lot of cars running quick," Langdon said. "So just going A to B isn’t going to cut it. You are going to have to be going fast. Having an A to B racecar isn't going to win you a championship."

Langdon is in eighth place in the Top Fuel standings, 25 points behind seventh-place Brandon Bernstein.

"We should be close to what were in Sonoma as far as making power goes," Langdon said. "It's just going to be a matter of applying all that power to the racetrack."

By: lucas oil racing