"You feel bigger than life sometimes and that's the moments that I think I cherish the most," said McClenathan. "You're going down through there and you want that win light to come on so bad, you're almost willing your car to the other end, and when it did today, I was just overcome with Oh, my God, it’s been so long.

"Going a year and a half without winning a race, that's a long time. My teammate (six-time world champion Tony Schumacher) wins all the time, so it's easy for him to say, but for me it is that very moment, right then. It's unbelievable.”

Rookie of the Year candidate Shawn Langdon raced to the first final round of his professional career Sunday, taking runner-up honors to veteran Cory McClenathan in a thrilling finale of the second annual Carolina NHRA Nationals.

The strong finish lifted the 27-year-old driver of the Lucas Oil/Dixie Chopper dragster into the top five of the Full Throttle standings and places him just 49 points off new leader McClenathan.

Just as he has all season, Langdon was a beast on the starting line, leaving ahead of all four men he raced. He even managed to post low elapsed time of the meet when he blistered the racetrack with a 3.826 at 315.78 mph in the semifinals.

The only thing keeping Langdon out of the winner's circle was a dropped cylinder in the final, which sucked enough power out of his car to allow McClenathan by for the win. The final numbers showed McClenathan crossing with a 3.857 at 312.64 mph to Langdon's 3.980 at 280.49 mph.

"I've said all year that I'd be happy just getting to a final to see how it felt," Langdon said. "But now I know that to get this close to my first win and come up a little short is really tough to take. Once you get so close that you can taste it you want to go ahead and finish it off.

"It would have been a dream come true to beat a guy the caliber of Cory McClenathan. Hopefully, we'll have another chance very soon.”

Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, aboard his U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster, dropped a semifinal round race here Sunday to Shawn Langdon in the second annual Carolinas Nationals at zMax Dragway.

Schumacher, who was the defending event champion, laid down a respectable 3.865-second pass at 314.31 mph against Langdon, but the latter banked a quicker 3.826-second run at 315.78 mph to gain the victory.

“You have to give them all the credit – they really stepped it up,” said Schumacher.