Story By: ROB GOODMAN / KALITTA MOTORSPORTS – YPSILANTI, MI – What started with Doug Kalitta’s 2023 NHRA Top Fuel title continued in the season’s first four races with the latest chapter of the Kalitta Motorsports resurgence coming two weeks ago in Las Vegas. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Season resumes April 26-28, 2024 at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.
After some challenging years, Kalitta Motorsports is in quite an impressive stretch. Kalitta won three of the six Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoff races at the end of last season. After Kalitta won a special event in February, his teammates, Shawn Langdon and J.R. Todd earned the first double victory in team history at the season’s opening race in Gainesville, Fla. Those Top Fuel and Funny Car wins came on the day Kalitta received his 2023 championship ring on the weekend the late Scott Kalitta was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
Two weeks later, Langdon took the Top Fuel title in Phoenix, and then Kalitta earned his first four-wide victory in Las Vegas the following weekend. Entering the fifth race of the season, the Kalitta teams are second, second and fourth in points. Not terrible. When asked how this Team Kalitta resurgence came to life, Kalitta credited not only his uncle and team owner but also the entire three-car operation.
“There’s a hell of an effort going on, and we’re definitely proud of everyone that’s a part of it,” Kalitta said. “Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) just turned 86; he keeps a very close eye on Shawn’s car because he’s tuned that thing forever. So it was great to get a couple wins with that car; he couldn’t be happier. It’s all about putting these teams together – Connie’s given us everything we could need with parts and people. Chad Head (Team Kalitta General Manager)– you gotta love that guy. He pours his soul into our three cars and the people with a passion for everything that goes on from the starting line to the parts to everything else. He’s a really big part of what we have going on.”
After last season, the team made some personnel changes, the most significant of which was separating tuner/crew chief Alan Johnson and his longtime assistant Brian Husen who was named crew chief of Langdon’s Kalitta Air Careers team. Mac Savage returned to the team as Johnson’s assistant, and the team hasn’t looked back.
“We’ve won a lot of races with Mac Savage, and it’s real special to get a win with Mac back on my car working with Alan,” Kalitta said. “We separated Alan and Brian – I think after 20 years they have maybe 10 championships and more than 100 race wins – so that was a little bit of a change for our team this year. Brian’s doing an incredible job on Shawn’s car; he’s working real close with Alan, and that was the goal. Try to get two good, solid-running cars that are exactly the same with two guys who communicate real well together. We’re trying to build on that; so far, I think it’s working. Mac had some big shoes to fill replacing Brian working with Alan. It’ll be a good dynamic with our two dragsters and J.R. with that Funny Car.”
Perhaps the final piece of the puzzle was switching Kalitta’s Mac Tools team to a new car that’s the same as the car Langdon debuted at the beginning of the season. It’s tough to get cars “exactly the same” when the cars themselves are different. Kalitta’s Las Vegas win was his first of the season, the 54th of his career and the fourth for Team Kalitta this season.
“We just switched to a different car in Phoenix,” Kalitta added. “It was just a matter of time getting more runs and letting Alan and the guys figure out what we have with that thing. I’m pretty excited second race in with this car, and we’ll just try to build on it. I’m hoping if we can get both of these cars synced together, we can really try to take advantage of a two-car team. That’s the goal. We definitely have the best in the business with Alan and Brian tuning these things.”
With three Top Fuel wins in four races, Team Kalitta will look for four out of five in Charlotte this weekend. After winning his first four-wide race ever two weeks ago, Kalitta is the only driver who could sweep the season’s four-wide races this year.
“We’re gonna try,” Kalitta said. “I have some hungry guys tuning my car, and I’m just as hungry as they are so we’ll see what happens. Charlotte is another incredible facility, and we’re looking forward to going there like we always do. Marcus and Bruton (Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith and his late father, Speedway Motorsports Founder Bruton Smith) put some great facilities together, and we’re fortunate they’ve done that for us. We’re looking forward to it.”
When Kalitta advanced to the semifinals in Las Vegas, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at this week’s race. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the semifinals in Las Vegas will re-run the semifinals in the 4-Wide format with the four winners advancing to the “finals” earning additional purse and championship bonus points.
Race Information:
NHRA 4-Wide Nationals
zMAX Dragway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, N.C.
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
Qualifying Show: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday, April 28 on FS1
Finals: 6-9 p.m. Sunday, April 28 on FS1
2023 NHRA 4-Wide Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 10; lost to Josh Hart and Steve Torrence in the first round.
Doug Kalitta Career Stats: 590 events, 53 wins, 60 runner-up, 773 round wins, 54 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: defeated Shawn Langdon, Brittany Force and Josh Hart followed by Justin Ashley, Steve Torrence and Tony Stewart in the final round.
CONFIDENT SHAWN LANGDON, AUTODESK TEAM APPLY JOHN WOODEN MANTRA TO NHRA
Legendary college basketball coach John Wooden once said, “Winning breeds winning.” After winning two of the season’s first four races, Shawn Langdon and his Autodesk team enter the fifth race hungry and hoping the comment from the late UCLA coach, who won 885 games in his career, also applies to motorsports. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Season resumes April 26-28, 2024 at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.
Langdon joined his teammate, DHL Funny Car driver J.R. Todd, in the winner’s circle at the season-opening race in Gainesville, Fla., last month for the team’s first-ever double victory, and then the 2013 NHRA Top Fuel champion won in Phoenix two weeks later. Flying the Autodesk colors this weekend, the team will look to make it three out of five with what would be Langdon’s third win at zMAX Dragway.
Autodesk is no stranger to Team Kalitta having adorned the sides of either Langdon’s or Doug Kalitta’s Top Fueler once in each of the last three seasons in addition to nearly a decade of partnership with the race team and Kalitta Air. Autodesk solutions help Team Kalitta design and make engine components that create 11,000 horsepower to power Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars.
Kalitta Motorsports manufacturers some 2,000 parts and pieces at its CNC, chassis and Fabrication shop using Autodesk solutions. Add the nearly 1,000 parts designed and produced at the Kalitta Air maintenance facility, and Autodesk has a hand in creating some 3,000 different products manufactured by the two companies.
“We use Autodesk solutions from design to finish, and when you are designing and manufacturing your own parts, it’s really nice having all that in one package,” Team Kalitta CNC shop manager Scott Finnis said. “It makes thing way more efficient and simplifies things especially when we need to make changes, which we do constantly in Motorsports. The Autodesk solutions we use every day and the support we receive help us get even our most-challenging jobs done quickly and correctly. Autodesk goes that extra mile for us so we can do the same on and off the track; they make our jobs look easy, and we are fortunate to work with such a great partner.”
With the season’s fast start, Langdon, first-year crew chief Brian Husen and the Autodesk Toyota team are second in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. It’s certainly a lofty location, but the overwhelming majority of the season remains.
“It’s great to be near the top in points, but where we are in points doesn’t really matter this early in the season,” Langdon said. “We’ll take each race as it comes. We’re making good laps in the car, and Brian (Husen) is four races into his crew chief career. We’re making laps and gaining confidence. I’m regaining confidence in the car. Everything is gelling well and working well. At this point in the season, we just want to make as many good laps as we can and get everything prepared for the Countdown at the end of the year.
“If you have confidence your car is going to go down the track, it gives you more drive to be better for yourself. You don’t want to be the weak link on the team. With the car making great runs, I’m gonna give all I have. Part of making good runs is building confidence in myself as a driver. I’m not worried about how the car will run; I’m not worrying about smoking the tires, shaking the tires or where the car will go on the next run. When I’m confident in the car, I can focus 100 percent on the tree.
“They call zMAX Dragway the ‘Bellagio of Drag Strips’ for a reason. It’s a race track with a beautiful atmosphere and great Motorsports fans. It’s a place where we really enjoy putting on a great show for the fans. The Four-Wides in Las Vegas and Charlotte are a little unique, but we’re ready to get in there and get it done this weekend.”
Race Information:
NHRA 4-Wide Nationals
zMAX Dragway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, N.C.
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
Qualifying Show: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday, April 28 on FS1
Finals: 6-9 p.m. Sunday, April 28 on FS1
2023 NHRA 4-Wide Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 6; defeated Clay Millican, Krista Baldwin before losing to Josh Hart and Steve Torrence in the semifinals.
Shawn Langdon Career Stats: 333 events, 19 wins, 21 runner-up, 353 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: Qualified No. 8; lost to Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence in the first round.
LONGTIME BATTLE FOR CONSISTENCY ENTERS NEW PHASE FOR TODD, DHL TEAM
It’s a familiar storyline – “we just need to be more consistent.” But what happens when consistency is within reach? That’s something J.R. Todd and his DHL GR Supra team are working on entering the season’s fifth race. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Season resumes April 26-28, 2024 at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.
Todd won the season’s opening race in Gainesville, Fla., and has three semifinal showings in the races since winning the Gatornationals when he “doubled up” with teammate Shawn Langdon who won the Top Fuel race the same day. Reaching at least the semifinals in each of the four races so far this season is consistent, but the 2018 Funny Car champ says now the goal is fine-tuning the consistency the team is achieving.
“Consistency comes with going down the track, and we are” Todd said. “You have to make clean runs to learn from them and kind of pick away at it as we work to fine tune it. We still have room to be a little more aggressive, but we’ll get it. It’s hard to fine tune the consistency and be more aggressive when you’re not going down the track. You have to have the runs to pull data. That’s how you give yourself opportunities to fine tune the tune-up. We’re doing that. It’s a matter of making small adjustments here and there, and I think we’ll be in the hunt.”
Todd enters the season’s fifth race in second place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings after leaving the first three races as the points leader. The DHL team has been solid this year, and the second of two 2024 four-wide races this weekend would be a great time for him to get his first zMAX Dragway win.
“We get to go race four wide again this weekend, and hopefully we can have a good race – I’ve never really done that well in this event so it would be cool to turn that around this weekend,” Todd added. “It seems like, for whatever reason, we haven’t done as well in this four-wide event as we’ve done in Vegas so hopefully, this one is our year.
“I don’t really change my driving style (for four-wide racing); you have to pay a little more attention with three other drivers on the starting line as opposed to one. You just have to be focused on your lane and your light. There’s definitely a lot more going on, but at the end of the day, it’s just focus on the mission at hand. I don’t want to say it’s harder or you have to be more focused, but you have to remind yourself what lane you’re in because it can get confusing on the stage lights. You’re looking at a different side of the tree so you have to focus on the right stage lights depending on what lane you’re in. It’s still drag racing. The yellow light comes on – you have to hit the gas on time.”
When Todd advanced to the semifinals in Las Vegas, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at this week’s race. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the semifinals in Las Vegas will re-run the semifinals in the 4-Wide format with the four winners advancing to the “finals” earning additional purse and championship bonus points.
Race Information:
NHRA 4-Wide Nationals
zMAX Dragway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, N.C.
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
Qualifying Show: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday, April 28 on FS1
Finals: 6-9 p.m. Sunday, April 28 on FS1
2023 NHRA 4-Wide Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 6; lost to Robert Hight, Mike McIntire
Funny Car Career Stats: 301 events, 21 wins, 25 runner-up, 332 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