CONCORD, N.C. (April 26, 2025) – – Doug Kalitta battled through the final qualifying session as the Mac Tools Toyota team won its second-straight Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge in a wild tire-smoking show. At the same time, the 2023 Top Fuel champ held onto the No. 1 qualifier for tomorrow’s American Rebel Light NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway just outside Charlotte.
Kalitta kept Team Kalitta undefeated in this season’s Mission Foods Challenges. His teammate, Shawn Langdon, won the Challenge at both Phoenix and Pomona, while Kalitta won the challenge two weeks ago in Las Vegas and today. The drivers who advanced to the semifinals in Las Vegas raced in today’s Mission Foods Challenge in a four-wide rematch of the Las Vegas semifinals and finals.
Kalitta raced Justin Ashley, Tony Stewart and Steve Torrence in the first semifinal rematch. Kalitta’s 3.728-second effort at 327.98 mph was the quickest pass of the semifinal quad putting the 2023 Top Fuel champion into the final round with Steve Torrence, who was second in Kalitta’s quad, along with Antron Brown and Josh Hart, who advanced from the other semifinal. The final-round quad was a tire-smoking affair among all four teams, but Kalitta deftly eased in and out of the throttle allowing the Mac Tools dragster to hook back up to the race track and cruise to the win by .7584 seconds.
“When it gets later in the day, you kind of expect maybe something like that’s gonna happen,” Kalitta said. “At about half track, the thing obviously decided it wasn’t gonna make it without smoking the tires, so I just kind of ran it half throttle the rest of the way, and it worked out. Antron (Brown) went by and the next thing you know, I kind of went around him at the end. That was my interesting story that I figured out that round, but we have a lot of guys out there that can peddle very well so you gotta just kind of do what you can and get it into the finish without blowing the thing up. We’ve been pretty fortunate with Shawn and me winning these things this year. We gotta to keep this streak going. That makes it fun on Saturdays and we definitely appreciate everything Mission Foods does for our sport.”
Kalitta also claimed his third No. 1 qualifier of the season, the 61st of his career and his third at zMAX Dragway. He was eighth after the first round of qualifying, but in the second round Friday night, Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster was brilliant posting a 3.646-second pass at 333.74 mph. It was the quickest Top Fuel elapsed time in zMAX Dragway history, and it gave Kalitta the No. 1 qualifier at the mid-point of qualifying.
With the warm afternoon conditions, Kalitta’s provisional No. 1 qualifier from Friday night held up through the Saturday sessions. It was the second-straight race at which Kalitta earned No.1 qualifier and a Mission Foods Challenge win, but he went out in the semifinals in Las Vegas.
“We had a low qualifier and won the Mission Foods Challenge for the second race in a row,” Kalitta said. “We just gotta keep our heads down, be patient, try to go rounds and try to get to the final round so we have a shot at it. They’ve got this huge incentive – the first trophy that (Don) Garlits won back in ’63. We’re all going for that and the opportunity to meet Garlits down at the end of the track if we can be so lucky.”
Kalitta will race No. 16 qualifier Lex Joon, No. 8 Tony Stewart and No. 9 Steve Torrence in tomorrow’s first round. Langdon qualified No. 2 and will race No. 15 qualifier Scott Farley, No. 7 Josh Hart and No. 10 Ida Zetterstrom. In Funny Car, J.R. Todd qualified No. 11 and will race No. 6 Bob Tasca, No. 3 Dan Wilkerson and No. 14 Hunter Green.
Photos Courtesy: Kalitta Motorsports
The post DOUG KALITTA WINS CHARLOTTE MISSION FOODS CHALLENGE AND THIRD NO. 1 QUALIFIER first appeared on Team Kalitta Motorsports.
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Kalitta kept Team Kalitta undefeated in this season’s Mission Foods Challenges. His teammate, Shawn Langdon, won the Challenge at both Phoenix and Pomona, while Kalitta won the challenge two weeks ago in Las Vegas and today. The drivers who advanced to the semifinals in Las Vegas raced in today’s Mission Foods Challenge in a four-wide rematch of the Las Vegas semifinals and finals.
Kalitta raced Justin Ashley, Tony Stewart and Steve Torrence in the first semifinal rematch. Kalitta’s 3.728-second effort at 327.98 mph was the quickest pass of the semifinal quad putting the 2023 Top Fuel champion into the final round with Steve Torrence, who was second in Kalitta’s quad, along with Antron Brown and Josh Hart, who advanced from the other semifinal. The final-round quad was a tire-smoking affair among all four teams, but Kalitta deftly eased in and out of the throttle allowing the Mac Tools dragster to hook back up to the race track and cruise to the win by .7584 seconds.
“When it gets later in the day, you kind of expect maybe something like that’s gonna happen,” Kalitta said. “At about half track, the thing obviously decided it wasn’t gonna make it without smoking the tires, so I just kind of ran it half throttle the rest of the way, and it worked out. Antron (Brown) went by and the next thing you know, I kind of went around him at the end. That was my interesting story that I figured out that round, but we have a lot of guys out there that can peddle very well so you gotta just kind of do what you can and get it into the finish without blowing the thing up. We’ve been pretty fortunate with Shawn and me winning these things this year. We gotta to keep this streak going. That makes it fun on Saturdays and we definitely appreciate everything Mission Foods does for our sport.”
Kalitta also claimed his third No. 1 qualifier of the season, the 61st of his career and his third at zMAX Dragway. He was eighth after the first round of qualifying, but in the second round Friday night, Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster was brilliant posting a 3.646-second pass at 333.74 mph. It was the quickest Top Fuel elapsed time in zMAX Dragway history, and it gave Kalitta the No. 1 qualifier at the mid-point of qualifying.
With the warm afternoon conditions, Kalitta’s provisional No. 1 qualifier from Friday night held up through the Saturday sessions. It was the second-straight race at which Kalitta earned No.1 qualifier and a Mission Foods Challenge win, but he went out in the semifinals in Las Vegas.
“We had a low qualifier and won the Mission Foods Challenge for the second race in a row,” Kalitta said. “We just gotta keep our heads down, be patient, try to go rounds and try to get to the final round so we have a shot at it. They’ve got this huge incentive – the first trophy that (Don) Garlits won back in ’63. We’re all going for that and the opportunity to meet Garlits down at the end of the track if we can be so lucky.”
Kalitta will race No. 16 qualifier Lex Joon, No. 8 Tony Stewart and No. 9 Steve Torrence in tomorrow’s first round. Langdon qualified No. 2 and will race No. 15 qualifier Scott Farley, No. 7 Josh Hart and No. 10 Ida Zetterstrom. In Funny Car, J.R. Todd qualified No. 11 and will race No. 6 Bob Tasca, No. 3 Dan Wilkerson and No. 14 Hunter Green.
Photos Courtesy: Kalitta Motorsports
The post DOUG KALITTA WINS CHARLOTTE MISSION FOODS CHALLENGE AND THIRD NO. 1 QUALIFIER first appeared on Team Kalitta Motorsports.
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