Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools Top Fuel team will leave Indianapolis with the Mello Yello point lead for the fifth race in a row of the 2020 NHRA season. Yesterday the team battled through two frustrating qualifying sessions and rolled into race day as the No. 12 qualifier. The veteran team was not deterred and focused their attention on the first round match-up with Cory McClenathan.
“We started out 12th and we kind of missed it in qualifying,” said Kalitta. “The cooler conditions definitely helped us in the first and second round.”
Race day showed a whole new Mac Tools team as Kalitta and his Rob Flynn tuned Top Fuel dragster roared to a first round win with a stout 3.767 second run. It was a flawless run to start the day and add another round win to Kalitta’s season stat total. Kalitta never trailed in the race and took the win light as well as lane choice to the second round against Clay Millican.
The quarterfinal race was another dominating performance by Kalitta and the Mac Tools team. The support of Toyota Racing Development, Mobil1 and NGK Spark Plugs once again rose up as Kalitta’s scoreboard lit up 3.775 seconds after he launched off the starting line. It was the quickest run of the session and propelled Kalitta to his fourth semifinal of the season.
Racing one of the toughest independent teams on the tour in Terry McMillen Kalitta was striving to race to his fourth final round of the season. In one of the closest races of the day that was decided by inches at the finish line the Mac Tools dragster narrowly missed another win light.
“We got beat in the third round which was disappointing on a day like today,” said Kalitta. “We were doing well the first two rounds. We had a little thrash before the third round with the rear end. Usually a little thrash helps everything. That didn’t work out today. We just got out there and smoked the tires. Terry did the same thing. A little better light I probably could have had him. It was a missed opportunity really.”
Quotable:
Doug Kalitta on heading to U.S. Nationals to defend his title: “There is no doubt we want to be ready for the U.S. Nationals. These three races in Indy have given us a lot of data and we will be looking that over plus the info from the DHL team. We will have two strong race cars for that race.”
Statistics:
Qualified: No. 12 (4.007 sec., 275.96 mph)
Bonus points: 0
Race Details:
First Round
Driver Qual R/T ET MPH
Doug Kalitta 12 .070 3.767 325.85 (W)
Cory McClenathan 5 .096 5.473 108.18
Second Round
Driver Qual R/T ET MPH
Doug Kalitta 12 .062 3.775 312.28 (W)
Clay Millican 4 .036 4.008 253.85
Semifinal Round
Driver Qual R/T ET MPH
Doug Kalitta 12 .089 4.059 260.41
Terry McMillen 1 .071 4.043 283.85 (W)
Kalitta Motorsports PR
