Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster raced to the No. 1 qualifier at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park today. The No. 1 qualifier was the 51st of Kalitta’s career and his first since 2019 at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee. Kalitta secured the top spot with a career best 3.657 second pass on Friday night. Through two sessions of qualifying today Kalitta held off charges from his fellow Top Fuel competitors, but the strength of his Friday effort held fast.
“It was nice getting the No. 1 at the Arizona Nationals for sure. These Mac Tools guys have been thrashing for months to get us into this position,” said Kalitta. “That last session the conditions were perfect so I knew everyone would be going for it. We were trying to improve too, and we weren’t going to be bashful. We held everybody off and we are looking forward to tomorrow. The guys are working their tails off on my car and we are seeing some major strides on the performance side.”
“It has been a while since we have had a low qualifier, but the bottom line is we just have to take it round by round tomorrow,” said Kalitta. “I am super happy to have (crew chiefs) Alan (Johnson) and Brian (Husen) tuning my race car and that is a good thing for us. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a good day for us. The confidence and momentum are continuing to build for us over here with this Mac Tools Toyota team.”
With the No. 1 qualifier effort Kalitta earned enough points to move into the final spot for the Pep Boys Allstar Callout event which will be contested as part of the NHRA Gatornationals in two weeks. The specialty race will have a total purse of $130,000 with $80,000 going to the Top Fuel winner.
“We have been keeping an eye on the Pep Boys NHRA Allstar Callout for a couple of weeks now,” said Kalitta. “I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to pull it off, but we did thanks to this effort this weekend. That is going to be a fun event. I am really happy Pep Boys and the NHRA are putting this specialty race on for us and hopefully we can come out with a win in Gainesville.”
Kalitta will face No. 16 qualifier Rob Passey first round tomorrow. Kalitta earned his first career win from the No. 1 spot winning the Sonoma Nationals in 1998. He has won from the No. 1 spot seven times in his career and he will be looking for his 50thcareer Top Fuel title tomorrow when final eliminations begin at 11 a.m.
Kalitta Motorsports PR
