When Kalitta Motorsports shuffled things in the offseason and Brian Husen was named crew chief of the Kalitta Air Careers team, it was to get driver Shawn Langdon’s team headed in the right direction.

Well, mission accomplished through qualifying at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals.

Langdon, in Q4 Saturday, clocked a 3.682-second time at 334.15 mph to leapfrog Steve Torrence for the No. 1 qualifying position.

“Yeah, I mean I haven't done anything different, right? I mean I just go out there and hit the gas, hold the thing straight, and run it to 1,000 feet. That just shows you just the changes that we've made,” said Langdon, the 2013 NHRA Top Fuel champion. “We had a good car at times the last couple of years, but with Brian coming in and Justin coming in and a couple other guys and just rearranging some things, the changes have just showed a great reward so far. Obviously in Bradenton we made some really good runs there. …

“Brian just has a really, really good control of the race car right now. I mean just like that run, I said, ‘What do you think?’ And he goes, ‘Well, if it makes enough power, should go 3.67.’"

This is Langdon’s 20th No. 1 Top Fuel qualifier and his first since the fourth race in Indianapolis during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season.

“I'm really, really proud of Brian, and I've worked with him for many years dating back to the Al Anabi days,” he said. “I'm really excited for him to get this opportunity because he's a very smart guy and he's a very, very hard worker. I'm just, I'm really lucky to be his driver.”

Langdon has made trips to the tower the last four years, but not for a press conference.

“The only thing I really came to the tower for is to use your all's restroom because it is kind of nice. It’s nice to come back in the right way,” he said.

Some may think it would take some time for Husen and Langdon to develop some chemistry together, but that has been years in the making.

“Brian and I, even through the years, we've gone our different ways as far as different teams, we’ve always kept in touch,” Langdon said. “I've always considered Brian a really good friend and like I said, I'm excited for his opportunity really more than anything else. Because I know what Brian's capable of and this right here just shows it. I saw on the cake that it's the first race of the year, I guess humbly (I’m) ready to say we expect a lot more of these results. We know what he's capable of.”

Langdon has won 17 Wallys in his career – which also includes driving and winning in a nitro Funny Car for Kalitta Motorsports – but he has not won since taking the Top Fuel title at the 2020 U.S. Nationals in Indy.

“It is cycles of drag racing, right? I've done the same job for the last five years,” he said. “It just hasn't worked out for the last couple of years and results didn't look well, but I'm just going to go up there. I'm going to do the same thing that I've always taught myself to do. … Obviously, having a better car gives you that little good feeling in your stomach going into race day.”

Although Langdon finished atop the qualify ladder, he lost in round one of the Pep Boys Callout race Saturday to eventual winner Antron Brown.

“Running Antron, you don't take them lightly, and so being first pair out, it's kind of a crap shoot after the rain and everything,” Langdon said. “We didn't lay up for him. We weren't just trying to make a run down the track. We were trying to go down there and throw it down, and being first pair out, it just didn't stick. It's back to the drawing board. And like I said, Brian came out for the last run and says, ‘If it makes the power, it should go 3.67 so don't get stung by that loss.’ … No, we're good. Yeah, it's a very good feeling.”

Langdon’s hoping that feeling is a winning feeling – as soon as Sunday.

“It's tough when you struggle, but it is part of racing. And we had a lot of good moments last year where it's like, ‘All right, here we go. We're going to turn the corner.’ And just didn't end up working out,” he said. “But everything happens for a reason and just excited for the opportunity now with the changes that we made over here and thankful they've kind of put it all together with Connie (Kalitta) and with Chad Head and just all the brain trust putting all the right pieces in the right places. And I feel like we're going to have really two really good competitive cars this year with (teammate and 2023 NHRA champ) Doug (Kalitta) and my cars.”