Doug Kalitta to Run Mobil 1 50th Anniversary Livery in Texas, Strives for Lone Star State Countdown Win

Doug Kalitta will run special Mobil 1 50th anniversary livery at this week’s Texas NHRA FallNationals – a fitting tribute to a Texas-based company at an event set for the heart of the Lone Star state. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs resumes Oct. 11-13, 2024 at the Texas NHRA FallNationals in Ennis, Texas, the fourth of six playoff races.

Kalitta is a veteran racer. He’s been in just about every racing situation one could imagine, and he fully understands that for his Mobil 1 Toyota team, the time is now. One year ago, Kalitta entered the second half of the Countdown with the points lead. This week, he enters the Texas NHRA Fall Nationals in fourth place in points. He trails his teammate, third-place Shawn Langdon, by 27 points, leads fifth-place Steve Torrence by one point and trails points leader Antron Brown by 87 points with three races remaining in the season. This race team is hungry and prepared for battle.

“I was just talking with Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) and commented that we probably needed to win the last three races, and he brought up a good point,” the reigning Top Fuel champion said. “He said, ‘We have the people and the parts. We just need a little bit of luck for things to go well, but we definitely have the team behind us and the cars and the parts and everything else.’ That was pretty good coming from Connie. He has a lot of confidence in what he’s put together with my team, and J.R., Shawn and their teams, so I think we should be looking good.”

Notching his 56th-career win this weekend would be monumental in its timing. The Mobil 1 team has three wins in six final rounds this season, but Kalitta’s last winner’s circle celebration was late June in Richmond, Va., in extremely hot conditions – somewhat similar to those expected in central Texas this weekend. Like the other teams in the hunt for the championship, Kalitta wants to win the last three races.

“That’s definitely the goal so we’ll start with that and see how it shakes out, but there’s no reason why we shouldn’t,” Kalitta said. “We’ve won at all three of those tracks so we’ll set our goals for that and see what happens. With any luck, the other guys will get beat early and make it a little easier for us.”

To win the last three, Kalitta must win this weekend’s race that completes the Stampede of Speed, also billed as the fastest 10 days in Texas. Hosted by Texas Motorplex, site of this weekend’s race, the Stampede of Speed is a 10-day festival of concerts, autographs and racing building to its culmination with the final round Sunday afternoon. 

“It’s definitely pretty exciting what Billy and his daughter (track owners Billy Meyer and Christie Meyer Johnson) are doing with the whole Stampede of Speed weeklong promotion for the race,” the two-time Texas Motorplex winner said. “It’s pretty impressive if you look at the schedule of what they’re doing. There’s a lot of excitement going into that race, and I’m sure it’ll be a huge success with all the activities they’re doing to promote the event. It’s kind of a ‘Billy Myers program’ for sure. When he came out with that track, it was all concrete and really something special. Now he’s doing this Stampede of Speed thing leading by example in how to promote a race, and he has the state of Texas behind him – it’s a great business model.”

Just like winning the season’s final three races. 

This story was originally published on October 8, 2024.

The post Doug Kalitta to Run Mobil 1 50th Anniversary Livery in Texas, Strives for Lone Star State Countdown Win first appeared on Drag Illustrated.