Kalitta threw a ceremonial first pitch prior to the Washington Nationals vs. Detroit Tigers game on Wednesday, June 12. As a lifelong resident of the Detroit area, Kalitta was thrilled to have the opportunity. He sought assistance from a trusted source and took the advice of a new contact to prepare.
“My daughter (Avery) helped me practice a little bit,” Kalitta said. “One thing that really helped, the guy who met us and took us down to the field was adamant, ‘Do not hit the dirt with the ball.’ For whatever reason, that’s frowned upon. We managed not to do that, and the guy caught it so that was positive. It was a little wide to my left, but he caught it so that was a victory there. It was definitely cool. I grew up down the road from there, and my grandfather was a big Tigers fan so it was really special. I appreciate everyone that helped make that happen for me, and they put a nice sign up on the scoreboard out there so yeah, it was cool.”
With a win in two final rounds in the last two races, Kalitta moved to the top of the standings. In the season’s first eight races, he has a two wins in four final rounds. Reaching the final round in half of the races this season is performing at a very high level, and this team shows no signs of slowing down.
“It really feels like this Mac Tools Toyota team is just getting stronger,” Kalitta said. “It feels really good because everybody’s put a lot of hard work into this thing, and we’re all trying our best to make it happen so it’s really exciting to see it continue to build. Alan and Mac (Crew Chief Alan Johnson and Assistant crew chief Mac Savage) are really doing a great job, and all the Mac Tools guys are doing their part making it as consistent as possible putting it together like they do.”
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to Virginia Motorsports Park this weekend for the first time since 2022, and for the first time, the event will be a two-day show with three qualifying sessions on Saturday before racing on Sunday. Kalitta has a win in two final-round appearances at the Viriginia race track and plans to do his part to keep his team on the roll it’s enjoying.
“I’m certainly trying my best to do what I need to do so with any luck, we can head to Richmond and get the job done,” Kalitta added. “It’s kind of exciting to have this different format with the two-day deal – really looking forward to getting back out there after making it to the final at the last race.”
With extremely hot conditions in the forecast, crew chiefs will be challenged to get the cars down the race track despite one of the best racing surfaces on the circuit.
“Alan has so much experience tuning these things, I’m not sure how he keeps making it run better and making it work in all these different conditions, but it’s definitely fun to be part of it,” Kalitta said. “I think the track is all concrete there which does help with the heat. It’s nice and smooth so the track shouldn’t be too bad except for the temperature. It should be a good test for everybody to see how to figure out the heat. We’re making all three qualifying runs on Saturday – we hope to go into Sunday with a good handle on the track, make it to the final and have a shot at winning. I feel good about it. It’ll be an interesting format to have when it seems like the right thing to do so it’ll be good to kind of test it out and see how it works.”
When Kalitta advanced to the Bristol semifinals, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge next week. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions in Virginia, the drivers who reached the semifinals in Bristol will re-run the semifinals and final earning additional purse and championship bonus points.
Race Information:
PlayNHRA Virginia NHRA Nationals
Virginia Motorsports Park; Dinwiddie, Va.
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
- Qualifying Show 1: 1-2 p.m. Saturday, June 22 on FS1
- Qualifying Show 2: 1-2 p.m. Sunday, June 23 on FS1
- Finals: 5-8 p.m. Sunday, June 23 on FS1
2022 Virginia NHRA Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 7; beat Leah Pruett, lost to Austin Prock.
Doug Kalitta Career Stats: 595 events, 54 wins, 61 runner-up, 782 round wins, 56 No. 1 qualifiers.
2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Results To Date:
Gatornationals: Qualified No. 7; defeated Clay Millican; lost to Steve Torrence.
Pomona: Qualified No. 6; defeated Jasmine Salinas; lost to Billy Torrence.
Phoenix: Qualified No. 3; defeated Terry Totten; lost to Justin Ashley.
Las Vegas 4W: Qualified No. 1; defeated Shawn Langdon in the first round, Brittany Force and Josh Hart in the semifinals followed by Justin Ashley, Steve Torrence and Tony Stewart in the final round.
Charlotte 4W: Qualified No. 1; defeated Shawn Reed and Cody Krohn in the first round, Billy Torrence and Jasmine Salinas in the semifinals before beating Antron Brown but losing to Justin Ashley and Clay Millican in the final round.
Chicago: Qualified No. 3; lost to Justin Ashley.
Epping: Qualified No. 1; defeated Scott Farley, Tony Stewart, Shawn Langdon and Tony Schumacher.
Bristol: Qualified No. 14; defeated Antron Brown, Steve Torrence, Brittany Force; lost to Tony Schumacher.
CONFIDENT SHAWN LANGDON READY FOR RICHMOND RETURN, HEAT
Shawn Langdon enters the season’s ninth race in third place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings 48 points behind the points leader, his teammate Doug Kalitta, and confidence breeds confidence. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Season resumes June 22-23, 2024 at the PlayNHRA Virginia NHRA Nationals in Dinwiddie, Va.
Langdon has two wins in three final rounds this season and is clearly looking for more at each race. His complete confidence in his crew chief, Brian Husen, and the rest of the Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team, makes him feel he’s a threat to win at every race.
“We definitely get more and more confident when the car’s running like it is,” the 2013 Top Fuel champion said. “We’re looking forward to going to Richmond – the Franklin family does a great job with the facility; it’s probably the smoothest track we have on tour. It’ll be interesting going to a two-day event, and I’m all for it. For the last couple of years, I’ve felt that, potentially, it’s a move they’ve needed to look into. I’m excited to get there and try out the two-day weekend. Hopefully it goes well, and they’re able to get the fans there and pack the stands.
“My opinion is that our races are too long and drawn out. Most sports events are about three hours. At some point, you don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but sometimes, you just need to change things up a little bit to see if what you’re doing is still the right way to do it so I think the two-day event is good. It helps the teams cut down on some of the hotel costs and shortens the weekend. If you have X amount of people over three days, you hope all those people come to one of the two days. It’s one less day of working, one less day of overhead, one less night of hotels for the teams. It could be cheaper across the board as long as ticket sales stay where they are or increase.”
Along with the return to a track on which Langdon has never won but clearly likes, he and everyone else will be dealing with the hottest conditions of the season so far with temperatures in the mid-to-high 90s in the forecast.
“It’s gonna be tough,” Langdon said. “We’ll run slow, and it’ll be about managing the car to get it down the track. NHRA did a really good job over the last couple of races with some of the challenges at the tracks trying to accommodate the heat and tend to the tack, but there’s really only so much you can do. We’re going to a great facility with a great track, and there’s good air there, but when you have 130-140-degree track temperature, there’s only so much you can do. As a driver, you have to eat well and drink a lot of water to make sure you’re hydrated, but there’s really not any other adjustment the driver needs to make – the hard work is on all of the guys tuning the cars to make the adjustments.”
Race Information:
PlayNHRA Virginia NHRA Nationals
Virginia Motorsports Park; Dinwiddie, Va.
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
- Qualifying Show 1: 1-2 p.m. Saturday, June 22 on FS1
- Qualifying Show 2: 1-2 p.m. Sunday, June 23 on FS1
- Finals: 5-8 p.m. Sunday, June 23 on FS1
2022 Virginia NHRA Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 8; beat Doug Foley, lost to Brittany Force.
Shawn Langdon Career Stats: 338 events, 19 wins, 22 runner-up, 360 round wins, 20 No. 1 qualifiers.
2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Results To Date:
Gainesville: Qualified No. 1; defeated Cody Krohn, Justin Ashley, Antron Brown and Billy Torrence.
Pomona: Qualified No. 7; defeated Krista Baldwin; lost to Tony Schumacher.
Phoenix: Qualified No. 5; defeated Josh Hart, Antron Brown, Steve Torrence and Justin Ashley.
Las Vegas 4W: Qualified No. 8; lost to Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence in the first round.
Charlotte 4W: Qualified No. 7; lost to Antron Brown and Brittany Force in the first round.
Chicago: Qualified No. 4; defeated Cody Krohn, Shawn Reed and Dan Mercier before losing to Antron Brown.
Epping: Qualified No. 4; defeated Shawn Reed and Billy Torrence before losing to Doug Kalitta.
Bristol: Qualified No. 4; defeated Shawn Reed; lost to Tony Schumacher.
TODD SET FOR SMITHSONIAN VISIT BEFORE HOT VIRGINIA WEEKEND
The year was 2006, and J.R. Todd, then driving a Top Fuel car, made history. After that historic weekend, a new display was created at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Season resumes June 2-23, 2024 at the PlayNHRA Virginia NHRA Nationals in Dinwiddie, Va.
When Todd became the first African American driver to win a Top Fuel race in 2006, his fire suit was donated to Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. On Friday before the Virginia NHRA Nationals, Todd will visit the National Air and Space Museum and will see his fire suit on display for the first time.
“I think for any drag racer to have their gear in there is a pretty cool deal,” Todd added. “I’ve never been to the Smithsonian so I’m looking forward to going there to check that place out. I’ve been getting pictures from fans who have gone there and seen it over the years so that’s pretty neat.”
Also pretty neat is the season Todd and his DHL GR Supra team are enjoying. With the exception of the race at Route 66 Raceway near Chicago, Todd reached at least the semifinals at every race this season. The battle for added consistency continues, but for now, things are good but can always get better. Consistently going to the later rounds is always positive. With three final rounds and four semifinals in eight races, Todd finds himself third in points behind John Force and points leader Austin Prock.
“It’s good to be going to the later rounds,” Todd said. “I keep saying we need to work on our consistency especially in qualifying. It worked out in Bristol with the conditions changing from qualifying to race day. We still have work to do but it’s nice to be going to the later rounds and racking up those points. We have to keep working to find a little more performance to keep up with the Force cars and keep going to those later rounds.
“The JFR cars have definitely done a good job of kind of separating themselves from the rest of the field a little, but some guys are testing during the race weekends so you never know what teams are really doing. We know (Matt) Hagan can run well anytime; (Bob) Tasca, (Ron) Capps – they’ll all be right there in the thick of things. Really, I don’t think anyone’s separating themselves that much because there’s still a lot of racing before the countdown starts.”
This weekend’s race near Richmond, Va., is a two-day show with three qualifying rounds on Saturday followed by race day Sunday. “I don’t think it’s gonna be a problem,” Todd said. “We did it in the pre-season in Bradenton (Fla). Honestly, I think it’s better for the fans. I like it because it gives us three cracks at the track kind of under race day setup so I’m all for it.”
Setup for both qualifying and race day will be hindered by a weather forecast that includes temperatures in the mid and upper 90s. That’s a challenge for everyone – race teams and fans alike.
“It’s probably gonna be a matter of survival kind of like Bristol,” Todd added. “Looking at the forecast, it looks like it will be extremely hot there, and when that happens, the track temperature will be really high so it’ll be tricky track conditions. It’s probably the best surface we race on, but generally when we go there, it’s hot and nasty. Having the best surface is a good thing, but there’s not much you can do to yield quick and fast runs when the track temperature is 140 degrees or higher.”
When Todd advanced to the Bristol semifinals, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge next week. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions in Virginia, the drivers who reached the semifinals in Bristol will re-run the semifinals and final earning additional purse and championship bonus points.
Race Information:
PlayNHRA Virginia NHRA Nationals
Virginia Motorsports Park; Dinwiddie, Va.
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
- Qualifying Show 1: 1-2 p.m. Saturday, June 22 on FS1
- Qualifying Show 2: 1-2 p.m. Sunday, June 23 on FS1
- Finals: 5-8 p.m. Sunday, June 23 on FS1
2022 Viriginia NHRA Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 5; lost to John Force.
Funny Car Career Stats: 306 events, 21 wins, 26 runner-up, 341 round wins, 14 No. 1 qualifiers.
2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Results To Date:
Gainesville: Qualified No. 6; defeated Blake Alexander, Ron Capps, Bob Tasca and Austin Prock.
Pomona: Qualified No. 11; defeated Cruz Pedregon and Paul Lee; lost to Matt Hagan.
Phoenix: Qualified No. 5; defeated Cruz Pedregon and John Force before losing to Austin Prock.
Las Vegas 4W: Qualified No. 3; defeated D. Wilkerson, D. Richards before losing to M. Hagan and R. Capps
Charlotte 4W: Qualified No. 12; defeated Ron Capps and Buddy Hull in the first round, Cruz Pedregon and John Force in the semifinals before beating John Force but losing to Matt Hagan and Daniel Wilkerson in the final round.
Chicago: Qualified No. 12; lost to Alexis DeJoria.
Epping: Qualified No. 3; defeated Dave Richards and Bob Tasca before losing to John Force.
Bristol: Qualified No. 11; defeated Terry Haddock, Ron Capps, John Force; lost to Austin Prock.
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