Shawn Langdon sets NHRA speed record at 345 mph in Georgia

Shawn Langdon pushed Top Fuel into new territory on a track where precision mattered as much as bravery, ripping to 345.00 mph at South Georgia Motorsports Park and resetting NHRA’s speed record in 3.724 seconds. The run, delivered Friday in Adel, Georgia, topped Brittany Force’s 343.51 mph mark from the 2025 U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis and came on the 1,000-foot strip where every inch of traction and every adjustment in the tune can decide whether a car flashes past the timers or stays glued to the pavement.

The number was the headline, but the context was the story. Langdon’s pass was not the quickest elapsed time in NHRA history, yet it was fast enough to show how the sport’s top teams keep pushing the limit through chassis setup, engine calibration and track preparation. Langdon had already turned heads in preseason testing with multiple 340 mph runs, and crew chief Brian Husen said the team wanted to prove those figures were real in competition, “to prove it was legit.” For Langdon, the surprise was part of the experience because, strapped into the car, drivers do not feel the mile per hour the way the scoreboard does.

NHRA said the run put Langdon on track for his third No. 1 qualifier of the 2026 season and the 25th of his career. The 2013 Top Fuel world champion entered the weekend second in points behind Doug Kalitta, underscoring that the record came in the middle of a title fight, not in exhibition conditions. The leaderboard around him was fierce: Tony Stewart qualified second with a 3.758-second, 334.40 mph pass, while Kalitta, the points leader, was third at 3.762 and 334.40 mph.

The record came during NHRA’s first visit to South Georgia Motorsports Park, one of two new venues added to the 2026 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule along with Maryland International Raceway. NHRA said 2026 marked the first time in a dozen years that it had added new destinations to its national-event calendar, a move tied to the sport’s 75th anniversary season and its push into markets including Atlanta, Tallahassee, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. South Georgia Motorsports Park, open since 2004, was set to host the Southern Nationals from May 1-3 as the fifth event of a 20-race season.

The weekend also delivered another marker when Team Kalitta’s J.R. Todd ran 3.887 seconds at 339.28 mph in Funny Car, the fastest run of the year at that point and the fourth-fastest in class history. For South Georgia Motorsports Park owner Raul Torres, the debut was “monumental,” a sign that NHRA’s fastest machines are entering a phase where spectacle and risk are climbing together, and where rulemakers will have to keep pace with the speeds.