DOUG KALITTA – Kalitta Motorsports Photo
Doug Kalitta saved his best for the last qualifying session when the Mac Tools Toyota team won the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge. At the same time, the 2023 Top Fuel champ grabbed the No. 1 qualifier for tomorrow’s NHRA Four-Wide Nationals on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The drivers who advanced to the quarterfinals in Pomona, Calif., two weeks ago raced in today’s Mission Foods Challenge in a four-wide rematch of the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals from the last race. Kalitta raced Tony Stewart, his teammate, Shawn Langdon and Josh Hart in the semifinals. Kalitta and Stewart advanced to the final round.
In the final, Kalitta made a brilliant 3.730-second pass at 331.04 mph to win the Mission Foods Challenge over Stewart, Brittany Force and Clay Millican. With Shawn Langdon’s wins in the Phoenix and Pomona Mission Foods Challenges, Team Kalitta is 3-0 in this season in the special Saturday races. With the final run, Kalitta claimed the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals No. 1 qualifier. It was Kalitta’s second No. 1 qualifier of the season, his sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the 60th of his career. One year ago, Kalitta was the No. 1 qualifier for this race and went on to win it the next day.
“We have a great team that Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) put together. Brian (Husen, Shawn Langdon’s crew chief), Alan (Johnson, crew chief) and all of the guys are doing a really great job. We’re trying, it’s tough out here! Tony (Stewart) had a great reaction time against us on that one; they’re all hungry to knock us off, but we’re just super excited. Mission Foods does a great job out here with the NHRA and we appreciate them along with Mac Tools, SealMaster, Toyota, Revchem and Dayco. They sure help us a lot on our car. Hats off to everyone that helps us, and we’ll see what happens for tomorrow. We won last year, so might as well get after it again tomorrow.”
Kalitta will race No. 7 Shawn Reed and No. 8 Justin Ashley in Sunday’s first round of eliminations. Langdon is the No. 11 qualifier and faces No. 4 Tony Stewart, No. 5 Jasmine Salinas and No. 10 Josh Hart. In Funny Car, J.R. Todd and his DHL GR Supra team qualified No. 4 in their best qualifying effort of the season. Todd will race No. 13 Bobby Bode, No. 5 Jack Beckman and No. 12 Matt Hagan in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations.