Top Fuel’s Shawn Langdon certainly had the need for speed.
Langdon broke the NHRA’s speed record on Friday during a qualifying run at South Georgia Motorsports Park, reaching 345.00 mph. Brittany Force had the previous record of 343.51 mph, which she set last year in Indianapolis.
Langdon had several runs of 340+ mph in preseason testing, but the 43-year-old said members of the team weren’t sure if the numbers were legit.
“It was special for the guys,” Langdon said. “I was happy for them, especially (crew chief) Brian (Husen). We were able to do that testing, and some people had different ideas on what they thought — if it was legit or not. We kind of talked about it and Brian was like, ‘Well, we’ll just do it in the season to prove it was legit.'”
“It’s also good to be able to do that here, at this new track, in front of these new fans. I knew it was on a good run, but I was actually a little surprised because you don’t really notice the mile per hour,” Langdon said, according to NHRA.com.
Langdon covered the 1,000-foot track in 3.724 seconds, not far behind Force’s record run of 3.623 seconds during that same run in 2025. He entered the weekend second in points, trailing only Doug Kalitta after four events.
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Langdon’s record-breaking pass came during the NHRA debut at South Georgia Motorsports Park, one of the newest stops on the drag-racing series’ 20-event schedule.
The NHRA added two new tracks to its 2026 schedule, marking the drag-racing series’ first expansion in more than a dozen years. After racing at South Georgia Motorsports Park near Valdosta, Georgia, the series will run in Mechanicsville, Maryland, for the first time later this month.
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Three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, racing his third full season in NHRA’s top division, was second in qualifying with a 3.758-second run at 334.40 mph.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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