By Lee Elder
Tommy DeLago, the co-crew chief for driver Shawn Langdon’s NHRA Funny Car team, has been released by Kalitta Motorsports, according to news reports.
DeLago had been with the Kalitta team since 2013, notably as crew chief for driver Alexis DeJoria when she captured the 2014 Funny Car victory at the U.S. Nationals. DeLago served a previous stint with the Kalitta team from 1996 through 1999. DeLago bossed the 2011 championship effort for Funny Car driver Matt Hagan and wrenched the car that turned the NHRA’s first-ever sub-four second pass of the 1,000-foot era in 2011.
Nicky Boninfante, who had worked with DeLago as co-crew chief on Langdon’s car, is expected to continue as crew chief.
Through the first seven races of the season, Langdon has advanced beyond the first round of eliminations just twice, in the second and third events of the NHRA’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. He has qualified for the elimination rounds in each event but has only reached the top half of the starting lineup once, when he was fourth at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. He is ninth in the Funny Car standings with 301 points.
