Post-Qualifying Report
Event 03: NHRA Gatornationals
Gainesville Raceway
Gainesville, Fla.
March 16-18
Doug Kalitta, driver of the Mac Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Q1: 4.736 sec. at 162.22 MPH
Q2: No run; mechanical malfunction
Q3: 3.832 sec. at 325.92 MPH
Q4: 3.827 sec. at 327.19 MPH
Bonus Points: 5 pts. (Second best of the third session, best of the fourth session)
Starting Position: 7th
First Round Matchup: Richie Crampton
Quotable: “Solid recovery for the Mac Tools team after a tough first day of qualifying on Friday here at the Gatornationals. Not happy to draw our teammate in the first round tomorrow, but we will get ready and make a great race out of it."
Richie Crampton, driver of the Kalitta Air Top Fuel Dragster
Q1: 6.983 sec. at 89.47 MPH
Q2: 4.228 sec. at 198.64 MPH
Q3: 13.029 sec. at 94.88 MPH
Q4: 3.942 sec. at 305.49 MPH
Starting Position: 10th
First Round Matchup: Doug Kalitta
Quotable: "It has been a challenging qualifying session out here for all of the teams. It is not the ideal situation to be racing Doug in the first round tomorrow, but big picture, one of these Kalitta Toyota dragsters will be in the second round. That is the important part."
Shawn Langdon, driver of the Global Electronic Technology Toyota Camry Funny Car
Q1: 4.068 sec. at 310.34 MPH
Q2: 3.926 sec. at 327.03 MPH
Q3: 6.346 sec. at 107.33 MPH
Q4: 4.632 sec. at 164.27 MPH
Starting Position: 4th
First Round Matchup: Gary Densham
Quotable: "We have just been doing good. Today, we were testing the track in Q3 and then dropped a cylinder in Q4, but we were able to use the run from Friday to qualify fourth. We feel confident with the Global Electronic Technology Toyota that we have a good tune-up for the warm conditions. We are ready for raceday. I feel good in the car; we are just ready to win a race."
Notes: The 3.926 second pass reset Langdon's career-best elapsed time.
J.R. Todd, driver of the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car
Q1: 3.998 sec. at 324.28 MPH
Q2: 3.962 sec. at 326.40 MPH
Q3: 4.841 sec. at 164.23 MPH
Q4: 5.956 sec. at 113.94 MPH
Bonus Points: 1 pt. (Third-best run of the first session)
Starting Position: 8th
First Round Matchup: Del Worsham
Quotable: "I am still trying to get comfortable with the new car. It drives different than what I have been used to. It is good; I just need to do a better job driving. Today, we just struggled to get down the track and didn't qualify where we wanted to. We have to race our buddy Del tomorrow, but hopefully we can get out of here with four win lights for Toyota, DHL, WIX Filters and all of our great sponsors that are here this weekend."
#NHRAonFOX
NHRA Qualifying Coverage - Saturday, March 17th - 11pm - 12am EST - FS1
Final Eliminations Coverage - Sunday, March 18th - 7:00pm - 10:00pm EST - FS1
All photos are courtesy of Gary Nastase Photography.
#NHRAonFOX
NHRA Qualifying Coverage - Saturday, March 17th - 11pm - 12am EST - FS1
Final Eliminations Coverage - Sunday, March 18th - 7:00pm - 10:00pm EST - FS1
