Information By: ROB GOODMAN / KALITTA MOTORSPORTS – SONOMA, CA
J.R. Todd, DHL Funny Car
Qualifying: J.R. Todd was the No. 6 qualifier at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals. His best qualifying attempt came in the opening round Friday afternoon when the DHL GR Supra Funny Car posted a 3.904-second effort at 327.66 mph. Todd was No. 1 after the first session but did not improve on his initial effort and dropped to sixth.
Eliminations: Todd and the DHL Toyota team defeated Jason Rupert before losing to Ron Capps in the second round.
Unofficial Point Standings: Todd leaves Sonoma in fourth place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails third place Matt Hagan by 46 points and leads fifth-place Ron Capps by 122 points.
Todd on Sonoma: “That was not the weekend we had in mind for the DHL GR Supra team. We have some time before the next race so we’ll get back to the shop, regroup and be ready to go when we get to Brainerd.”
Doug Kalitta, Mac Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Qualifying: Doug Kalitta was the No. 1 qualifier at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals. During the Friday-night session, Kalitta blistered the Sonoma Raceway track with a track record 3.649-second run at 336.40 mph. It was Kalitta’s fifth No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 58th of his career.
Eliminations: Kalitta raced Ron August, Jr. in the first round. Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster was on a strong run when it smoked the tires; Kalitta pedaled allowing the Mac Tools car to rocket down the track in an attempt to catch August, but Kalitta ran out of race track and lost to August by four hundredths of a second. It was Kalitta’s second first-round loss of the season.
Unofficial Point Standings: Kalitta leaves Sonoma in first place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He leads his teammate, second-place Shawn Langdon, by 125 points.
Kalitta on Sonoma: “I guess it’s just one of those days – just need to learn from our mistakes and these situations. I’m just relieved to get something like this hopefully out of the way before the Countdown so we’ll learn what we need to learn and move on. The guys on this team are doing one hell of a job for Mac Tools, Toyota, Revchem, SealMaster and everyone else that supports us. We’ll just take it to the next one and look forward to getting back on track.”
Shawn Langdon, Kalitta Air Careers Top Fuel Dragster
Qualifying: Shawn Langdon was the No. 4 qualifier at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals. Langdon’s best qualifying attempt was during the first round of qualifying Saturday afternoon when the Kalitta Air Careers dragster needed just 3.677 seconds to reach the finish line at 334.22 mph.
During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, Langdon won the Mission Foods NHRA Challenge in a rematch of the semifinals near Seattle, Wash., last week. Langdon defeated Clay Millican and his teammate, Doug Kalitta, to take his first Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge win of the season.
Eliminations: Langdon raced Tony Stewart in the first round. Langdon left the starting line first and was on an excellent run, but the Kalitta Air Careers car had problems during the run giving the round win to Stewart.
Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon leaves Sonoma in second place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails his teammate, points leader Doug Kalitta, by 125 points and leads third-place Steve Torrence by 25 points.
Langdon on Sonoma: “We didn’t do well today and smoked the tires, but the Kalitta Air Careers team is looking forward to Brainerd.”
Next Race: Team Kalitta will be back in action Aug. 15-18, 2024 at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.