Team Kalitta Finishes Second, Fourth in NHRA Top Fuel Championship Battle and Eighth in NHRA Funny Car Final Standings
Doug Kalitta was the No. 3 qualifier at the In ‘n Out NHRA Finals. After rain forced cancelation of both Friday qualifying sessions, the Mac Tools Toyota team made two excellent qualifying runs. Kalitta was second after his first pass Saturday afternoon. In his second and final qualifying attempt, the 2023 Top Fuel champion made a 3.650-second pass at 335.98 mph to claim the No. 3 starting position.
In that final qualifying attempt, Kalitta reached 300.53 mph at the eighth mile becoming just the second driver in NHRA history to reach this milestone. Mike Salinas was the first to accomplish the feat last season; Kalitta earned the $13,000 Phillips Connect 300 at the 1/8 Bonus.
Kalitta defeated Ida Zetterstrom, Jasmine Salinas and Tony Stewart on his way to the final round. When Antron Brown defeated Brittany Force in the other semifinal, Kalitta was eliminated from championship contention. In the final round, Kalitta raced Brown in a battle of the outgoing champion vs. the incoming champion. The Mac Tools Toyota team made an excellent run, but it wasn’t enough. Brown’s 3.687-second pass beat Kalitta’s 3.710-second effort. The final round was Kalitta’s 15th at In ‘n Out Burger Pomina Drag Strip.
Kalitta finished the season in second place in the NHRA Mission Foods Top Fuel point standings falling just short of successfully defending his 2023 NHRA Top Fuel Title. It was Kalitta’s seventh-career runner-up finish in the season standings.
NHRA photo
“Mike Salinas led the charge being the first guy, but we’re pretty proud to be the second. The Mac Tools car was really running – I tell you it was a cool ride, and it was pretty exciting for me,” said Kalitta. “Alan, Mac (Crew Chief Alan Johnson and Assistant Crew Chief Mac Savage) and the whole Mac Tools Toyota team worked super hard on this car – everything about what we do is a team effort so I’m real proud of my guys. I didn’t realize there was some money behind the deal but really appreciate Phillips Connect for putting the bonus out there.”
“It all came down to the wire, which is all you can hope for – having a shot at it at the last race of the year. We struggled a little bit throughout the countdown, so we saved it pretty well, I thought. Antron had a really good day; his car’s running well, and they pulled it off so hats off to those guys. This Mac Tools Toyota team will kind of regroup here and see what see what we have. Making it to the final at these last two races in the countdown was really good – it’s all about those last six races. It’s a crazy format, but it’s what we do. Winning the three races earlier this year was good, but everybody’s gelling really well on this team so I hope everybody’s gonna stick around and stay with it. I’m really proud of all my guys,” added Kalitta.
Shawn Langdon was the No. 4 qualifier at the In ‘n Out Burger NHRA Finals. After entering the season’s final race 45 points behind first-place Justin Ashley. With 30 points available through each round of qualifying, Langdon hoped to earn at least 16 points in qualifying to move within one round of Ashley entering Sunday. Unfortunately, rain caused cancelation of both Friday sessions leaving only Saturday’s two sessions to set the field.
Langdon smoked the tires in the first session and was not in the field entering the final qualifying session of the season. No problem for the Kalitta Air Careers team. Langdon made the quickest run of his career with a 3.653-second pass at 331.45 mph. That run put Langdon atop the field, but three drivers made quicker runs moving him to the No. 4 position. Despite losing the first two sessions, Landon picked up 12 points on Ashley, moved to second in points and entered eliminations 33 points out of first place.
Langdon defeated Josh Hart in the first round setting up a second-round matchup with Antron Brown who defeated points leader Justin Ashley in the first round and entered race day trailing Langdon by three points. Langdon’s Kalitta Air Careers dragster smoked the tires almost immediately when the run began, but Brown also smoked the tires. Langdon pedaled the car, but Brown’s car hooked up first. He won the round, advanced to the semifinals, took the points lead and went on to win the 2024 NHRA Top Fuel Championship.
Langdon finished the season in fourth place in the NHRA Mission Foods Top Fuel point standings.
“I had a good car and a good shot to win the championship. We just came up a little short,” said Langdon. “Brian did such a great job in his first year as a crew chief. I’m very proud of Brian and very proud of the team for what they did this year. Brian’s a championship-caliber crew chief. We’ve known it for years, and after he got the opportunity, he almost won a championship in his first season.
“I’m so thankful (Team Owner) Connie Kalitta believed in me and gave me an opportunity to drive his race car. Then they gave Brian Husen a chance to be a crew chief and gave everybody on this Kalitta Air Careers team an opportunity to be a part of the team. After these last couple of weeks, we’re more than a team, we’re a band of brothers. We may have finished fourth this season, but in my mind, Brian and this Kalitta Air Careers team are champions. We came up a little bit short, but this team is a great group of guys. We had a good year – a lot of hard work went into it, but we’ll come back next year and fight for a championship,” added Langdon.
J.R. Todd was the No. 9 qualifier at the In ‘n Out Burger NHRA Finals. The Funny Car class was able to complete one qualifying session Friday afternoon before rain washed out the second session. Todd made his best qualifying attempt in the first session Saturday afternoon when his DHL GR Supra reached the finish line in 3.878 seconds at 331.45 mph.
Todd raced Cruz Pedregon in the first round for the third-consecutive race. Todd got the win and advanced to the second round with an excellent 3.858-seocnd effort at 330.07 mph. Unfortunately, he raced newly crowned NHRA Funny Car champion Austin Prock in the second round. Todd left the starting line first, but the DHL GR Supra didn’t have enough. Todd ran 3.900 secs. at 332.84 to Prock’s 3.850-second effort.
Todd finished the season in eighth place in the NHRA Mission Foods Funny Car point standings.
Todd on Pomona: “It was refreshing to see a 3.85 come on the board in the first round; that was a great run for this DHL GR Supra team – I don’t know if we’d run that well all year,” said Todd. “We definitely felt like we had a chance second round, but we were lined up against (Austin) Prock and slowed down. If we run 3.85 again (against Prock), we win that round, but that’s kind of the way our season’s gone this year. At the end of the day, we just wanted to be able to reward the DHL guys for how hard they work. They deserve it; and DHL, Revchem, SealMaster, Dayco and everyone else that supports us deserve it, too. They’ve been supporting us all season long. We’ll use all of it as motivation going into 2025.”
Team Kalitta will be back in action March 7-9, 2025, at the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., the opening race of the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. For additional information, please visit www.nhra.com. For additional information on Kalitta Motorsports, please visit www.teamkalitta.com.
This story was originally published on November 18, 2024.
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