Shawn Langdon was sitting in the Lucas Oil Stadium stands at an Indianapolis Colts NFL game last December when he received a text from NHRA drag-racing boss Alan Johnson.

The message: “Call me.”

Alan JohnsonShawn Langdon was sitting in the Lucas Oil Stadium stands at an Indianapolis Colts NFL game last December when he received a text from NHRA drag-racing boss Alan Johnson.

The message: “Call me.”

Johnson hadn’t messaged to say, “Happy Holidays.” Instead, he shared the lump of coal that Qatar’s Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al-Thani regretfully deposited in his Christmas stocking.

Since then, the sheikh, who for six years sponsored and branded Johnson’s Top Fuel (and for awhile Funny Car) operation as Al-Anabi Racing, has found himself on the Naughty List of many drag-racing fans.

But before qualifying began Friday at the NHRA season-opening Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., Johnson explained what happened and shared what he could about why the Qatari royal family member made such an abrupt departure.

The news was a complete surprise to Johnson, he said Friday. He said he had absolutely no warning – “zero” – that the funding would be withdrawn immediately.

Johnson said he is unable to discuss all the details of the deal that ended 31 days ago, at least four years short of its expected run. However, he did shed some light on the situation. And he said he’s moving forward, unsure if his Shawn Langdon-driven dragster will be able financially to race past the Phoenix event that’s the second of 24 scheduled Mello Yello Drag Racing Series races. (“I can’t guarantee anything after that,” Johnson said.)

“I have talked to him a number of times,” Johnson said of Al-Thani. “He certainly isn’t delighted about it. It wasn’t his decision. There’s still a number of things we have to resolve in our relationship, so there’s not a tremendous amount of things I can say about it right now. There’s a number of things that we can’t talk about, but I think there’s enough information out there that you can kind of deduce that we were funded not by Sheikh Khalid but the government of Qatar. They have their issues, as we all do. I’ll leave it at that.”

Shawn LangdonHe said the sheikh never indicated to him that dropping oil prices in the oil-rich kingdom and the Middle East overall were what fueled the decision to halt the drag-racing sponsorship.

Johnson characterized Al-Thani’s feelings as “disappointed.”

As for his own reaction, the team owner said, “I was not disappointed in the fact that our six-year period with them ended, because we had six great years. I don’t want to cloud that. We did a great job. We had a good time and a successful period working with them. It was just the timing of the announcement was unfortunate. That’s the only thing that I’m disappointed about it.

“Nothing lasts forever,” he said. We knew that it was a wonderful situation that we were blessed to be involved with. Everything comes to an end. It’s just the timing was disappointing. It started as a five-year program. It turned into a commitment for 10. Turns out we only got six. But we have nothing to complain about.”

Johnson emphasized that he and Al-Thani are cordial to one another and that the sheikh “was disappointed . . . he was apologetic . . . This is not what he wanted. He wasn’t funding us out of his pocket. He was funding us out of money that he got from the state of Qatar. So when Qatar cut him off, he was forced to cut us off. He wasn’t really pleased about that.”

He said he couldn’t account for the timing that certainly was poor from Johnson’s business point of view.

“Being they’re 11 hours away from me, there’s not a tremendous amount of one-on-one conversations that go between myself and the ministers who control funding,” Johnson said.

The Arabian Drag Racing League still is in operation. Khalid alBalooshi, who won the Winternationals last February as a member of Alana Johnson Racing, drives for Al-Anabi Racing there in Doha in the Pro Modified class.

However, Johnson described that ADRL series as “very trimmed down – I know all about it, and trust me, it’s not nearly the budget it used to be. In fact, I would suspect it’s Khalid himself that funded that.”

Johnson addressed the issue of many drag-racing fans being uncomfortable with Qatari money being involved with American drag racing.

“I can tell you that over a period of six years there was in excess of $50 million that got spread within our industry. And there were at least 25 to 30 people that were able to put food on their table, pay their rent, and raise a family on that money. So you can’t really – anybody that says that money was bad, tainted, and shouldn’t have been in the United States is ill-informed,” Johnson said.

The next step, Johnson said, is to do “the same thing everybody else does when they lose sponsors. You’ve got to get out there and start working real hard to try and find a company and companies that are willing and understand the value that we can bring them and try to get them to sign on.”

He said the sponsorship-procurement process is too fresh at this point to assess how much luck he might be having. (Food Network star Guy Fieri, best known for hosting his popular “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” program, contributed funding for this event. His “Knuckle Sandwich” cutlery was featured on the side of Langdon’s Top Fuel dragster Friday.)

“We haven’t hit any roadblocks yet. But then again, we don’t have a bank full of money, either,” Johnson said. “We’re moving forward. We’re focused on going forward.

“There has been some interest in certain cases. But we have a plan that we’re trying to develop, and it’s going to take a little time to get it going,” he said, acknowledging that his operation was not funded in advance for 2015. “Budgets for most companies are set in September. Here we are in February. So that’s an uphill battle in itself. We have our work cut out for us.”

Langdon said “knowing that Alan wants to proceed with the team and try to be able to run the 2015 season gave me a little bit of hope. I want to race with Alan. So whatever we’ve got to do to make it work for this year, I’m 100-percent game.”

Langdon said a driver will “tend to block out” distractions once he’s in the cockpit and said his singular focus here is to win the race and to win the Phoenix race when he arrives there in two weeks.

 Jason McCulloch and Brian Husen stayed on as crew chiefs, and Brandon Bernstein remains as the team’s general manager. Joe Barlam moved to Bob Vandergriff Racing, and Ronnie Thompson was one of two who joined John Force Racing.

“We still have a really good, capable crew. A number of the crew guys that came from the Army crew with me when I left [Don Schumacher Racing] are still there. We’ve laid off a number of people, because we’re only planning on racing one car for the time here to give everybody else an opportunity to find a job. For the most part, they’ve done quite well,” he said.

Some team members reportedly had decided before the surprising announcement to leave racing, so Johnson alluded to that, saying, “I think everybody out there that’s gotten laid off that needed to find work has. So I’m pretty happy about that.”

Johnson’s attention has been split by the dual tasks of seeking money to continue racing and directing the Xs and Os of the tune-up for the events the team is able to attend. But he indicated that hasn’t been a problem so far.

“I’ve got a good staff of people who can handle that stuff for me,” he said. “I’m just overseeing things. We have qualified people doing that work.”

It paid off, for Langdon went out shortly afterward and seized the tentative No. 1 qualifying spot with a 3.803-second pass. But by the end of the day, he tentatively was No. 9 as others improved and he lost power just after his launch in the second qualifying session. Two final qualifying sessions are scheduled for Saturday.

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