Fresh off a victory to open the Countdown to the Championship playoffs in Charlotte last weekend, Kalitta placed in the top two in three of the four qualifying sessions on the weekend to earn seven valuable bonus points and extend his Countdown lead.
“Great work by my entire Mac Tools Toyota team in qualifying,” said Kalitta, who will take an 18-point championship lead into Sunday’s race. “We didn’t rest after last week’s win and are going after another one this weekend. I’m confident we definitely have a shot at picking up another Wally.”
Joining Kalitta in the Top Fuel field are fellow Toyota drivers Antron Brown in eighth, Richie Crampton in ninth and Shawn Langdon in tenth. Brown, the two-time defending Maple Grove champion, will square off with Crampton in the first round of eliminations on Sunday.
In Funny Car, the Kalitta Motorsports Toyota Camrys continued their strong late-season run with both Alexis DeJoria and J.R. Todd qualifying in the top seven. Despite uncommonly warm weather, DeJoria ran a 3.946 or better in each of her first three runs of the weekend. Combined with her semi-final run at Charlotte, the Tequila Patrón Toyota Camry ran 10 consecutive runs in the 3.9s – the only driver in the field to do so.
Cruz Pedregon rounded out the Toyota Funny Car contingent with a 12th in qualifying.
Sunday’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series eliminations will be televised live on FS1 beginning at 2:00 p.m. (EDT).
Toyota Racing PR/Photo Gary Nastase Photography
