Dallas: Toyota Motorsports final report

Langdon's Finals Appearance Leads Toyota At Dallas NHRA

TORRANCE, Calif. (September 26, 2010) -- Shawn Langdon advanced to the Top Fuel final to lead the Toyota contingent at today's O'Reilly Super Start Batteries Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas on Sunday.

Langdon's finals appearance is the second of his young Top Fuel career and was well-deserved after defeating Larry Dixon on a hole-shot, 3.83 to 3.80 in round two and then defeating Brandon Bernstein in the semi-finals. In the final, the second-year driver fell just shy of his first career victory as he fell in a close race to Tony Schumacher after gaining the advantage on his trademark quick reaction time on the start. Both Dixon and Antron Brown advanced to the second round today after qualifying in the top four, with Dixon earning his seventh pole position of the season on Saturday. Morgan Lucas was defeated in the first round.

In Funny Car action, Del Worsham advanced to his fifth semi-final appearance of the season before losing to John Force. He defeated both Ron Capps and Bob Tasca to reach the semis. His Al-Anabi Toyota Camry Solara registered the fastest Funny Car pass of the weekend with an outstanding 4.085-second/308.49 mph run in his match-up with Tasca. With the strong performance, Worsham climbed two spots in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs, moving from 10th to eighth.

Cruz Pedregon advanced to the second round where he was eliminated by eventual race winner Mtt Hagan after a strong sixth in qualifying. The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series will take next weekend off and then resume with the fourth round of the Countdown to the Championship playoffs at the Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., on Oct. 7.

Larry Dixon maintains a 69-point lead in the Countdown to the Championship Top Fuel point standings with three races remaining. Shawn Langdon is now sixth, Antron Brown is currently seventh and Morgan Lucas is eighth. Del Worsham is eighth in the Funny Car standings.

Larry Dixon, Al-Anabi Racing Toyota Top Fuel Dragster: "To be straight up, any time you lose, I don't think anybody wants it to be because of them. On that run, Alan (team manager Alan Johnson), Jason (crew chief Jason McCulloch) and the whole Al-Anabi team did a great job. They gave me plenty of car to win the round, and I didn't get it done. I'm very disappointed. As far as the points, I guess the least amount of damage was done with Cory (McClenathan) going out the following round. I'll lick my wounds, go to the next race and try to be more of an asset to the team."

Del Worsham, Al-Anabi Racing Toyota Camry Solara Funny Car: "It was nice to win a couple of rounds today and see the Al-Anabi Toyota closer to where we all know it can run. Hopefully this can be a building block for the future. It's great to move up in the point standings; we'll see what we can do in the 12 rounds we have left this season."

Shawn Langdon, Lucas Oil/Speedco Toyota Top Fuel Dragster: "Today showed the potential of this team. We can beat these guys, we can run with them, we can win these races. It just wasn't meant to be today, unfortunately. Hopefully we'll get it by the end of the year. It's what the Countdown is all about -- bringing out the best in your team, yourself and your car. I think we showed a little bit of that today. (About the finals, where he led before losing a cylinder) It left really well, as it had all day, and I felt really good on the tree. Right at about 400 foot, I felt it drop the hole and drive me toward the center line. At that point I heard him beside me and felt my heart sink a little bit."

Morgan Lucas, GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil Toyota Top Fuel Dragster: "After losing in the first round another weekend, we decided the best thing us is to extinguish our last testing day here. We want to recover some dignity for the back-half of the season, and do whatever we can to solidify our place in the points. GEICO Powersports, Lucas Oil, and Toyota are winners. It's time we joined their way of doing things."

-source: toyota motorsports