Team Kalitta Endures Difficult Toyota U.S. Nationals
J.R. Todd was the No. 10 qualifier at the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals. Todd’s best qualifying effort came in the first Saturday afternoon session when he reached the finish line in 3.918 seconds at 323.12 mph. That qualifying round was also the first round of the Mission Foods NHRA Challenge, a rematch of the semifinals and finals from two weeks ago in Brainerd, Minn. Todd won that special event on Saturday – it was his third Mission Foods Challenge win this season.
Todd raced Ron Capps in the first round; Todd’s DHL GR Supra was leading the race when it smoked the tires giving the round win to Capps.
Todd finished the regular season in fourth place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings, and he’ll be the fourth seed when the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs begin in two weeks.
“We made some solid runs this weekend – we won the Mission Foods deal Saturday so that was good, but we didn’t get it done on race day – that’s really unfortunate for DHL, Revchem, SealMaster, Toyota and everyone that supports us,” said Todd. “I said before the race you want to be top five going into Reading to give yourself a better shot running for the championship. We’ll be the fourth seed so we’re where I hoped we’d be, but we have to hit the ground running when we start the Countdown in two weeks. This DHL GR Supra team will be ready.”
Shawn Langdon was the No. 16 qualifier at the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals. He qualified for the race in the fifth and final qualifying session Sunday afternoon when he made a 3.784-second run at 320.30 mph. Unfortunately, his best pass of the weekend bumped his teammate, Doug Kalitta, out of the field.
Langdon made his best pass of the weekend again – a 3.726-second run at 332.51 mph – but it was not enough. Although Langdon left the starting line first, No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force won the round with her 3.700-second effort. Force won by five-thousandths of a second.
Langdon finishes the regular season in fourth place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings and will be the fourth seed in the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs.
“What happened this weekend was really unfortunate because we have a great group behind us – Applied Innovation, Kalitta Air, Revchem, Future Energy Solutions – this whole team is really strong, and we have a car capable of winning,” said Langdon. “We just got behind in qualifying Friday night and had to play catchup all weekend; it happens. We’re in a strong position for the Countdown, and we’ll be ready to go when we get to Reading; I have all the faith in the world in this team.”
Doug Kalitta did not qualify for the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals. It was the first time he failed to qualify for a race since the 2010 fall race in Las Vegas, 301 races ago.
Despite missing the last race of the regular season, Kalitta finished the regular season in first place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings and will start the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs as the top seed.
“I was reminded earlier that Antron (Brown) qualified (for the U.S. Nationals) in the fifth session and went on to win the race (last year),” Kalitta said after the last qualifying session Sunday afternoon. “That’s the kind of mojo we needed. Obviously, that theory didn’t quite come true. It’s just one of those deals; there’s a lot of good-running cars out here this week – we’ll just have to get ‘em at the next one.”
This story was originally published on September 3, 2024.
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