Alan Johnson Racing, Points Leader Shawn Langdon Will Race NHRA Season’s Fourth Event in Charlotte

Alan Johnson Racing and Top Fuel points leader Shawn Langdon will compete in this weekend’s NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, the team announced today.  The fourth race of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season is set for March 27-29 at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.

Langdon, the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Champion, won the season’s opening race last month in the Knuckle Sandwich/AJPE Toyota dragster.  At Phoenix and Gainesville, Fla., he advanced to the semifinals and maintained his Top Fuel points lead.  In the season’s first three events, Alan Johnson Racing has a win, two semifinals and two No. 1 qualifiers.  Although still searching for sponsorship after unexpectedly losing its funding a month before the 2015 season began, team owner Alan Johnson made the decision to race in the season’s fourth event.  

“We decided to race the early portion of this season to show potential sponsors that we have a championship-caliber race team,” Johnson said.  “We have done that in the first three races.  It is definitely easier to walk into a board room to talk about a team that leads the point standings, and we need to do our best to stay there – it’s helping.  Our marketing staff and our new strategic marketing partner Guy Fieri and his Knuckle Sandwich group are working as hard as they can to find the funding we need.  We are very thankful for our existing sponsors like Toyota and Red Line Oil who continue to support our efforts, and I cannot thank the members of our team enough for their loyalty and commitment – this process is difficult for all of us.   

“Racing the entire season and competing for the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello world championship is still our goal.  Like the last race two weeks ago, we are racing in Charlotte to give ourselves a little more time to put a program together that will allow us to do that.  We have done well in Charlotte over the years, and we are going there this weekend with every intention of winning the 4-Wide Nationals.”  

Alan Johnson Racing, located in Brownsburg, Ind., won NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel world championships in 1997, ’98, 2000, ‘10, ’11 and ’13.  Alan Johnson has won 11 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel World Championships with five different drivers: Gary Scelzi, Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon, Del Worsham and Shawn Langdon; he is a 15-time NHRA national champion.  For additional information on Alan Johnson Racing and driver Shawn Langdon, please visit alanjohnsonracing.com; get Alan Johnson Racing news through its Facebook page or on Twitter: @AJRTopFuel.

Adam Sinclair