{"id":18341,"date":"2015-09-16T15:14:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T22:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=18341"},"modified":"2015-09-16T15:14:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T22:14:13","slug":"shawn-langdon-to-race-for-don-schumacher-racing-in-countdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/shawn-langdon-to-race-for-don-schumacher-racing-in-countdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Shawn Langdon to Race for Don Schumacher Racing in Countdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2015_Shawn_Langdon_Action\"
Shawn Langdon in the Alan Johnson Racing Top Fuel dragster.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Photos: Courtesy of NHRA<\/p>\n

It looks like Shawn Langdon will get a chance to chase the championship after all. In an unexpected act of cross-team support, Don Schumacher racing announced today that Langdon will drive DSR’s\u00a0Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher\/Sandvik Coromant Top Fuel dragster in the 2015 NHRA Countdown to the Championship.<\/p>\n

Langdon had been driving for Alan Johnson racing, and despite AJR’s sponsorship challenges this season, Langdon had helped the team get to sixth in the point standings, qualifying for the Countdown to the Championship that kicks off this weekend in Charlotte at the zMax Dragway. However, after this week’s announcement that AJR will be withdrawing from the chase until additional sponsorship could be acquired, Langdon was left in the cold.<\/p>\n

But DSR and AJR stepped up to give the driver a chance, even if it means winning for a competitor. According to DSR, owner Don Schumacher said he reached an agreement with Alan Johnson to make Langdon an \u201con-loan\u201d driver to DSR for the six-race Countdown to enable a full 10-car field to contend for the world championship and for the Red Fuel\/Sandvik team and Langdon to have a chance to win the prestigious title.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlan and I were able to work this out and it benefits everyone,\u201d Schumacher said.<\/p>\n

\"Khalid
Khalid alBalooshi driving the DSR Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher\/Sandvik Coromant Top Fuel dragster.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DSR is no stranger to driver changes this season, particularly those with ties to Alan Johnson racing.\u00a0\u00a0Prior to the Chevrolet Performance NHRA U.S. Nationals, former Alan Johnson Racing driver Khalid alBalooshi drove the DSR\u00a0Top Fuel dragster at Indianapolis, replacing Spencer Massey who had been the primary driver this season. However, even with alBalooshi behind the wheel, the team finished the regular season in 11th<\/sup> place and did not qualify for the Countdown.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Although he remains under contract with Alan Johnson Racing, Langdon will compete as if he were the regular driver of the DSR dragster for the six-races that comprise the Countdown.\u00a0 When the 2015 season is complete, Langdon will resume his duties with Alan Johnson Racing. Terms of the agreement will not be disclosed.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that Alan Johnson Racing cannot compete for the Mello Yello championship this year,\u201d team owner Alan Johnson said.\u00a0 \u201cOur arrangement with DSR is the best for NHRA drag racing, the best for the fans, the best for Shawn, and it helps out a fellow competitor \u2013 it really should work out well for everyone involved.\u00a0 Sometimes, it\u2019s good to put \u2018what\u2019s best for the sport\u2019 ahead of everything else.\u00a0 I think this circumstance is one of those times.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cTo start the season with Alan Johnson Racing and finish it at Don Schumacher Racing is definitely a unique situation,\u201d Langdon said.\u00a0 \u201cEveryone at AJR gave it 110 percent all season to try to contend for the championship.\u00a0Thanks to Toyota for stepping up for our team in a time of need and giving us that opportunity.\u00a0 We can\u2019t thank them enough, and we can\u2019t thank the AJR crew guys enough for sticking with us.\u00a0 It was just unfortunate that we couldn\u2019t find enough funding; it\u2019s disappointing not to be able to finish the season.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter everything happened, there was an opportunity to race with Don Schumacher Racing to finish the season.\u00a0 It\u2019s a unique opportunity, but I think it\u2019s a good fit for everyone at DSR as well as for Alan and me.\u00a0 I am still under contract with Alan Johnson Racing, and we are still working towards getting our team back together in 2016.\u00a0 But for the next six races, I\u2019ll be driving for Don Schumacher Racing and competing for a championship.\u00a0 It\u2019s great for the fans to be able to have 10 cars competing for the Mello Yello championship, it\u2019s good for NHRA, and at this point, I think it\u2019s good for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shawn Langdon, on loan from Alan Johnson Racing, will drive the Top Fuel dragster for Don Schumacher Racing in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":18346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,3399],"tags":[1461,1749,574,3402,7,81,483,73],"class_list":["post-18341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-nhra","tag-2015-nhra-mello-yello-drag-racing-series","tag-alan-johnson-racing","tag-don-schumacher-racing","tag-khalid-al","tag-nhra","tag-shawn-langdon","tag-spencer-massey","tag-top-fuel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015_Khalid_alBalooshi_Sandvik_Action_Feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-4LP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18351,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18341\/revisions\/18351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}