Shawn Langdon is stepping behind the wheel of his Global Electronic Technology Dragster at zMAX Dragway this weekend with a bruised knee following an incident at a go-kart track.

“We were racing [at the GoPro Motorplex in Mooresville, North Carolina] and we get done with the first race and so I pulled into the pits first and I think [Richie Crampton] was a little upset that I was nudging him on the track and he took it back in the pits,” Langdon explained. Langdon then made the mistake of trying to get out of his kart before all of the cars had come to a stop. “I felt J.R. [Todd] kind of come right behind where he tapped the back of my car, he’s there. Well I start getting out and Richie comes in and hits J.R.’s kart and then it hits my kart, so as I’m trying to get out of it and it just takes my feet out from underneath me.

“So I’ve been ripping Richie all weekend that he was trying to take me out because he’s trying to take my ride and all this kind of stuff. But we’re having fun with it. I got a little battle scar on my knee but it’s no big deal. We had a lot of fun actually. It was a neat event to be able to go out there and have fun doing it. I told Richie I’ll have my attorney’s talk to him on Monday about my knee.

“I think Richie actually had the overall quick time… he was rubbing it in… he came out of there with all the laughs for sure. I came out of there with a bruised knee and a little bit of a bruised ego, but that’s OK.”

Langdon, who enters the countdown in 10th in the points, believes that activities such as go-kart racing help to keep him competitive heading into the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events.

“Anything I do, I do to win. So, I think it’s just having that competitiveness, the competitive mindset that whatever you do, you’re trying to be the best at. So I think you can kind of parlay that over to during the week when you’re doing different things, being competitive, trying to constantly up the ante to get yourself better at whatever you’re doing.

“It’s just your mindset so you don’t come into a race being in a relaxed state of mind.”

Langdon will need that competitive mindset if he hopes to make up the deficit he has to the points leaders in the countdown, having missed the opening several rounds of the NHRA Top Fuel season.

“It’s just all about getting hot at the right time,” summarized Langdon. “If we can capitalize on making good runs and going rounds in eliminations, our key is going to be the first three races of the countdown. We’ve got to do good at the first three races to put ourselves in a position for the last three races. So you know at this point, you know we definitely need to get a win or two here or there.

“I definitely think that we have a top five team. We just started a little behind the eight ball… we’ve been playing a little bit of catch up all year long.

“We have the capabilities of winning rounds, winning races, and competing for the championship. I mean this team with J.R. Todd a couple years ago, I believe they came from the ninth spot starting out the countdown and finished second. So I mean there’s a possibility, there’s always a possibility of it.”