As the second winningest Top Fuel driver at World Wide Technology Raceway, Doug Kalitta, was looking to pick up his fifth win at the NHRA Midwest Nationals. The Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster came off the trailer with a solid run on Friday night. Kalitta posted a 3.747 to end the first day of qualifying as the No. 5 driver. On Saturday with two qualifying runs Kalitta stepped up with an even quicker run to end the day with a solid 3.743 second pass and went into race day as the No. 9 Top Fuel dragster.
In the opening round Kalitta lined up beside Tripp Tatum and the pair of pros put on one of the quickest and cleanest races of the first round. Kalitta got a slight jump off the starting line and both 11,000 horsepower land rockets powered down the track. As the finish line closed in Tatum’s race car was able to get in front of the Mac Tools dragster to turn on the win light. Kalitta’s elapsed time of 3.724 second was his quickest of the weekend but not enough to outpace Tatum’s 3.714 second run. The race cars hit the finish line at over 325 mph.
“Our Mac Tools made some big improvements this weekend and I felt really good going into the first round,” said Kalitta. “We have four more races and I like the direction we are going. This Mac Tools team is digging. The fans this weekend were great and we have won a lot of races here.”
Statistics:
Qualified: No. 9 (3.743 sec, 325.92 mph)
Bonus points: 0
Race Details:
First Round
Driver Qual R/T ET MPH
Doug Kalitta 9 .062 3.724 325.30
Tripp Tatum 8 .067 3.714 331.36 (W)
Kalitta Motorsports PR
