This was quite the season-opening weekend for Shawn Langdon.

Langdon qualified No. 1 and then raced his way to the title at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals on Sunday in Gainesville, Fla.

Langdon capped the memorable weekend by defeating Billy Torrence in the final round. Langdon clocked a 3.711-second elapsed time at 335.40 mph to defeat Torrence’s 4.050-second lap at 228.50 mph.

“Weekends like this just really make you appreciate the life that you live,” Langdon said. “Being able to race for a legend like Connie Kalitta, and he gives me the keys to his race car, and we come out here and go to Scott (Kalitta’s) Hall of Fame induction. And just being a part of this, it's like you take a step back and you are kind of in awe of like, man, ‘I'm so lucky to be a part of all this, really.’ And win, lose or draw, we're very fortunate to be able to race for Team Kalitta and be a part of a great team. But to be able to be a part of the first double up, again, you just take a step back and it's like kind of pinch yourself a little bit. Don't really know what I'm doing here, but this is great, man. I'm really excited for the opportunity.”

This was Langdon’s 18th national-event Wally and 16th in Top Fuel. He also won two national events in the nitro Funny Car ranks for Kalitta Motorsports in 2019. His Kalitta Motorsports teammate, JR Todd, won the nitro Funny Car title Sunday at the Gators.

Sunday was Langdon’s first trip to the winner’s circle since he captured the Top Fuel title at the 2020 U.S. Nationals in Indy, a race where he also qualified No. 1.

Langdon ousted Cody Krohn, Justin Ashley, Antron Brown and then Torrence to claim his first career victory at the storied Gatornationals.

“Obviously today, this weekend, even dating back to the PRO Superstar Shootout (Feb. 8-10 in Bradenton, Fla.), we started there and made some good runs and we just kind of, Brian and I had a lot of discussions,” Langdon said. “It's like, this new car is showing a lot of potential, and so we were really excited about it. We're excited to get here and then it rained for a couple days, so we couldn’t do any testing. But we come out and, yeah, we're running right behind (Steve) Torrence the first two laps. He's kind of been the class of the field for the last five, six years. And so, the car showed a lot of potential. Honestly, I'm so happy for Brian” Husen, his crew chief.

A year ago, Langdon had a tough season for Kalitta Motorsports, finishing 12th in the points standings and having a just one final-round appearance when he lost to Ashley in Phoenix. 

Langdon finished the season by losing in the first round at the final four races of 2023 at St. Louis, Dallas, Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif.

Those results led to some major changes at Kalitta Motorsports in the offseason.

Husen, 50, was named crew chief of Langdon’s Kalitta Air Careers team. The Grand Rapids, Mich., native came to Langdon’s team after two seasons assisting crew chief Alan Johnson on Kalitta’s Mac Tools team, which he and Johnson guided Doug Kalitta to his inaugural Top Fuel world championship in 2023.

Langdon is no stranger to Husen. The duo worked together when Langdon won his lone world championship in 2013 piloting a Top Fuel dragster for Al-Anabi with Johnson as his crew chief.

“This is my first Gatornationals win, and we're double up and all this stuff, but honestly I'm so happy for Brian,” Langdon said. “He puts in so much time, so much effort behind the scenes, things that it's just he deserves every ounce of credit he gets, every ounce of success that he gets, he deserves it. And I'm so thankful to be his driver. I remember working with him in the Al-Anabi days, and I even knew back then, I'm like, ‘Someday he's going to get an opportunity to be crew chief on his own.’ And I'm lucky how things played out and I get that opportunity now.”

Langdon is also thrilled that his team has an avalanche of momentum heading into the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals, scheduled March 21-24 in Pomona.

“Obviously we got a lot of confidence going into Pomona. We have a lot of confidence about the future of the team,” Langdon said. “But when you have great leaders like Connie Kalitta and Chad Head, and they make decisions like that because they give you great opportunities to be able to do that. And really today, with what Brian gave me and all the crew guys, they gave me a flawless race car. We didn't have any problems today. I really honestly just hit the gas and held on. It was really just a dream to drive. Honestly, all day today, I didn't feel any pressure. I just went up there and I'm like, ‘Brian's doing a great job, the guys are doing a great job, don't screw it up.’”

Although Langdon has worked with several crew chiefs in his NHRA career, he acknowledged there’s plenty of chemistry between himself and Husen.

“This isn't to say anything about any other crew chiefs that I've had in the past or anything, but there's just people that you click with,” Langdon said. “Dating back to 2012, when I started on the Al-Anabi team, Brian, and I, I always felt like we clicked from Day 1. It's just when I say something, he gets what I say. He says something, I understand what he says. You can have short conversations and you just kind of understand where each other's coming from. There's nothing personal. Sometimes I may say something a little chippy, he may say, or whatever the situation is, but at the end of the day, you're in for the betterment of the team. You're there to win races. We've just always got along very well.”

Despite Al-Anabi Racing disbanding, Langdon remained friends with Husen when they went their separate ways.

“Even when the Al-Anabi deal went away, him and I always stayed in contact and I've always had great respect for Brian,” Langdon said. “So then, yeah, when it all kind of came back around and the opportunity, I got the phone call of, ‘Hey, this is what we're thinking about doing. What's your opinion on this?’ And I'm like, ‘Why’re you calling me? Of course, yes, yes, yes, yes.’ So, obviously I'm going to sing praise for Brian. Like I said, I'm so proud of Brian. I'm so happy for him.”

Even though there was plenty at stake in the finals for Langdon he kept his focus on what he could control.

“Like JR said, he doesn't really think about the double when he goes up there because he is running Austin (Prock),” Langdon said. “Well, it's easy for him to say because he's first. And then he wins and then I'm like, ‘Well, here again, don't screw this up.’ Right?

“There's so many pressure situations going on. First opportunity to win a Gatornationals, get the double up for Connie, it's a big weekend for Scott Kalitta. And then obviously with Brian. Yeah, there's so many things, but you think about it and really how I addressed it, I thought about the stage and lanes, and then obviously when JR won right there in front, I saw the guys jumping up and down. So, I just took a deep breath and honestly, I told myself, ‘Don't screw this up.’ That was kind of my motto all day long: ‘Don’t screw this up. I got a good race car.’”

Langdon then took a moment to praise the sport that is NHRA drag racing and the new fans they are attracting.

“What else are you going to do? It's Sunday, show up. Yeah, Gatornationals. Yeah, obviously it's the baddest sport on the planet,” he said. “Where else do you get? The coolest thing, big fan and big fan of Braun Strowman (WWE wrestler). And he was out there on the starting line. I got to talk to him a little bit pre-race, but it's hearing those stories where they come in, they're like, man, this is awesome. And you just feel it and you hear their stories about it. Sometimes you just kind of, not take for granted what you do, but you just kind of go through your motions. At the end of the day, you're doing your job. But then you get that kind of excitement level again. You're like, yeah, this is pretty bad ass.”

Langdon is hopeful the Gators celebration will be one of many this year.

“Obviously a lot of this sport is results driven. So, when you go in a drought of a couple years, you hear all the crickets online and they start chirping at you a little bit,” Langdon said. “So, you just take it with a grain of salt, keep your head down, you keep working. But you're with a great organization. Connie gives us the best of everything, and he is a great leader. He sets a great example. He takes care of all his employees and takes them in as family. So, we really just feel like we race as a family over there. It's a great atmosphere.

We need to “go back, go through everything, get everything ready. Obviously, Pomona, great track. Like JR said, we consider that one of the majors. So, we're just going to go back and keep working and keep trying to progress the team.”