Langdon leads Kalitta teammate in NHRA Top Fuel title fight at Pomona

On Friday, November 13, at Pomona Dragstrip, Doug Kalitta topped Top Fuel qualifying. The man he was trying to catch was his own teammate.

Shawn Langdon goes into the final day of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals running November 12 to 15, with a 107 point lead over Kalitta, 2,630 to 2,523, according to Drag Racing List's reporting on the points outlook heading into Pomona. Both men drive for Kalitta Motorsports, the team Connie Kalitta built and now runs with his nephew Doug as a driver. Between them, Langdon and Kalitta have won 13 of the 19 races held this season. Whichever of them leaves Pomona with the trophy, the team collects its seventh NHRA world title.

None of this will be shown live in India, and neither driver's name means much outside a small circle of fans who follow American drag racing on phone screens at odd hours. But the numbers are worth knowing, because they show what the sport looks like at its absolute limit. Langdon reset the NHRA national speed record twice this season, touching 346.95 mph, Drag Racing List reported. India's own national quarter mile record, set barely 11 months ago, stands at 8.693 seconds, run by Sean Rogers Pachigalla in a twin turbo Audi R8 at round 5 of the Indian National Drag Racing Championship, as Autocar India reported in December 2025. It was the first car in the country to go under nine seconds. Top Fuel dragsters have been doing that for decades, and going faster than 300 mph while they do it.

The finale carries points and a half, NHRA's way of making its richest weekend also decide its titles. Langdon clinches the championship outright if his lead after Saturday qualifying stretches past 120 points. If it does not, he needs only to win his first elimination round on Sunday. Kalitta's path is narrower. He has to cut Langdon's advantage below 90 points before eliminations begin, then outlast him through the rounds that follow. "For this weekend in Pomona, we just have to get the job done," Langdon said, as quoted by Drag Racing List. Kalitta, who has won at Pomona seven times, called it "one hell of an opportunity" in the same report.

It is not the only title still open. Matt Hagan leads Funny Car by 39 points over Jordan Vandergriff and is chasing a fifth world championship that would put him alongside John Force as the only driver with that many, Drag Racing List reported. Hagan's own teammate, J.R. Todd, trails by 104 points but is not conceding anything. "We won't quit fighting until somebody tells us we're done," Todd said, according to Dragzine's event preview. In Pro Stock, defending champion Dallas Glenn leads Matt Hartford by 87 points as he chases back to back titles. In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Richard Gadson leads his own teammate, Gaige Herrera, a two time champion.

Weather has already forced NHRA to move Friday's qualifying sessions earlier in the day, with rain forecast to arrive by evening, Drag Racing List reported. By Sunday evening, one Kalitta Motorsports driver's name goes on the seventh championship the team has ever won. The other will have spent the biggest weekend of his year trying to beat the one rival he cannot avoid in the pits, the garage or the flight home.

Sources

• KALITTA 2026 TOP FUEL WORLD TITLE: LANGDON OR KALITTA?
• NHRA Pomona Finals Weather Report and Points Outlook
• Kalitta Motorsports' Championship Showdown in Pomona
• Championships on the line as historic 75th anniversary season concludes in Pomona
• Audi R8, Pachigalla break India quarter mile record