Racing for his seventh Top Fuel title at Auto Club Raceway Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster came into race day at the No. 6 qualifier. Through two days of qualifying Kalitta made his quickest run a strong 3.693 second pass and was looking to close out his season at one of his favorite race tracks. Throughout his career Kalitta has won the Auto Club Finals twice and the season opening Winternationals four times. As the No. 6 qualifier Kalitta took advantage of the 3.693 second qualifying run to secure lane choice over Josh Hart
Today Kalitta was matched up with Hart who he had a 2-1 head-to-head record against. As the higher seeded team the Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel team selected the right lane. Both cars took off and as they approached half track Hart was able to get out in front of Kalitta who lost traction but executed a near perfect pedal effort to keep his Mac Tools dragster accelerating down track. Hart also had his hands full, but he was able to hold off a charging Kalitta to advance to the quarterfinals.
“I think a lot of teams were fooled by the track conditions this morning,” said Kalitta. “I was ready for a long day and when I had to give my Mac Tools dragster a pedal, I was just hoping it would hook back up. This Mac Tools team battled all weekend and I am very proud of all my guys.”
For the 25th consecutive year Kalitta will finish in the Top Fuel Top Ten. The Mac Tools team will spend the off-season working on improvements and will be ready for the start of the 2023 NHRA season at the Gatornationals in March.
Statistics:
Qualified: No. 6 (3.693 sec, 329.42 mph)
Bonus points: 0
Race Details:
First Round
Qual Driver RT ET MPH
6 Doug Kalitta .078 4.113 255.92
11 Josh Hart .068 3.801 320.28 (W)
Kalitta Motorsports PR
