Doug Kalitta, Mac Tools Top Fuel Dragster​


2025 NHRA Brainerd Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 1; defeated Terry Totten, Bye, Billy Torrence, Clay Millican.

Doug Kalitta Career Stats: 638 events, 62 wins, 70 runners-up, 869 round wins, 69 No. 1 qualifiers.

Current Points Position: 2

Pre-Race Notes:

  • Doug Kalitta enters the NHRA Brainerd Nationals in second place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings; he trails his teammate, Shawn Langdon, by five points and leads third-place Leah Pruett by 204 points with two races remaining in the regular season. Team Kalitta has been one-two in points since the second race of the season. With wins in the last two races, Kalitta moved from 150 points out of first place to just five markers behind Langdon.
  • Kalitta joined his teammate, J.R. Todd, in the winner’s circle in Seattle on July 26. It was the second double win in Kalitta Motorsports history and the first since March 2024 at Gainesville, Fla. The win was Kalitta’s third of the season and his second straight; he swept the two-race western swing.
  • Kalitta is the defending champion of NHRA Brainerd Nationals. He has three wins in five-career Brainerd final rounds along with four No. 1 qualifiers at the Minnesota track.
  • Kalitta’s Seattle win was the 62nd of his career; he is now tied with Larry Dixon for third place on NHRA’s all-time Top Fuel wins list and 11th place in overall Mission Foods Drag Racing Series wins.
  • The two-time and defending NHRA Top Fuel champion has three wins (Charlotte, Sonoma, Seattle), four runners-up, three semifinals and three No. 1 qualifiers this season. With Kalitta’s wins and Langdon’s four wins, the Team Kalitta dragsters won seven of the season’s first 12 races and competed in 45 of the 47 rounds of racing.
  • Kalitta is a two-time NHRA Top Fuel Champion (2023, ’25) and a member of the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Pre-Race Quotes:

“It was cool to double up with JR (Team Kalitta Funny Car driver J.R. Todd) in Seattle. I was proud of our whole effort. It’s an incredible team effort with all three of our cars. We’re trying to help one another; we just want to keep collecting these points and try to get to the end.

“When you have Alan (Crew Chief Alan Johnson) up there doing his thing, you know your car has a really good opportunity – particularly when we get to the final round. Alan’s usually dialed in pretty good when it gets to the end of the day, and he really had it dialed in for the western swing; I’m very fortunate. Alan is really all about getting down towards the end of the year. He has a lot of championships (14 Top Fuel titles), and this is the time of the year he really focuses on making it happen more than any other time. He always seems to pull it off. It’s gonna be exciting.

“Our Mac Tools team is on a pretty good run – we just need to keep doing what we’re doing as a team. All my guys are doing an incredible job. It really takes everybody putting that thing together exactly the same for the consistency. If you don’t have that, you aren’t gonna get it done so hats off to all my guys. They’re clicking; I just try to keep feeding them water or whatever I can do to help.

“Brainerd’s always been good track for us over the years. The Mac Tools guys had a few weeks off, so I know they’re raring to go. We’re all looking forward to getting there, getting this thing in the show and seeing what we can do. The car’s running great, and it’s a lot of fun right now; we’re hoping to have a great event up there at Brainerd this weekend. It’s always a great place to go – I look forward to it every year. Hopefully, it’ll be a great weekend for us; we’re looking forward to getting back at it for sure.”

Kalitta Photo Courtesy: Kalitta Motorsports

For Doug Kalitta’s 2026 race-by-race results, please click here.

TV Schedule (All times eastern):

  • Qualifying Show 1: 7-8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21 on FS1
  • Qualifying Show 2: 10:30-Midnight Saturday, Aug. 22 on FS1
  • Finals: 6:30-9:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23 on FS1

The post Doug Kalitta Looks for Three-Straight Wins first appeared on Team Kalitta Motorsports.

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