Information By: ROB GOODMAN / KALITTA MOTORSPORTS – BRAINERD, MN
Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series
Brainerd International Raceway; Brainerd, Minn.
Post-Event Wrap-Up
TOP FUEL RUNNER-UP: Shawn Langdon, Kalitta Air Careers Top Fuel Dragster
Qualifying: Shawn Langdon was the No. 5 qualifier at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. Langdon’s best qualifying run happened in the first session Friday afternoon when his Kalitta Air Careers car reached the finish line in 3.705 seconds at 330.07 mph.
Eliminations: Langdon advanced to his sixth final round of the season and the 44th of his career. He defeated Shawn Reed, Doug Kalitta and Ida Zetterstrom before losing to Justin Ashley in the final round when the Kalitta Air Careers car dropped a cylinder almost immediately after the run began.
Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon leaves Brainerd in second place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails his teammate, Doug Kalitta, by 84 points and leads third-place Justin Ashley by 21 points entering the season’s final regular-season race at Indianapolis in two weeks.
Langdon on Brainerd: “Points-wise and results-wise, it was definitely a good weekend for the Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the win. It was kind of a tough weekend with a lot of craziness going on. We had some fuel-delivery issues dropping cylinders so we’re staying tomorrow to test and hopefully get everything resolved before we get to Indy.”
J.R. Todd, DHL Funny Car
Qualifying: J.R. Todd was the No. 8 qualifier at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. His best qualifying attempt came during the first session Friday afternoon when he made a 3.938-second run at 325.22 mph. In the Friday-night session, the DHL GR Supra broke a connecting rod and suffered a large explosion causing the team to go to the backup car and body for the rest of the weekend.
Eliminations: Todd and the DHL team defeated Paul Lee in the first round and faced points leader Austin Prock in the second round. Todd left the starting line first and won the round, but just after winning the race, the DHL car suffered an explosion damaging the DHL GR Supra body, which was the team’s backup. With both bodies damaged, Todd did not expect to make the semifinal race against Matt Hagan. Toyota team owner Ron Capps had other ideas and loaned the team his backup NAPA GR Supra body.
In a miraculous hour and 15 minutes, the DHL “Yella Fellas” crew along with crew members from the DC Motorsports Toyota GR Supra team, of which Del Worsham is the crew chief, the Capps NAPA team and the Team Kalitta Mac Tools team all worked together to fit the NAPA body onto the DHL chassis in a strong display of Toyota teamwork. Todd made the call for the semifinals, but Hagan got the round win and advanced to the final round.
Unofficial Point Standings: Todd leaves Brainerd in fourth place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails third-place Matt Hagan by 64 points and leads fifth-place John Force/Jack Beckman by 147 points.
Todd on Brainerd: “I can’t thank everybody involved enough; first off, Ron Capps. It’s great being part of Toyota – one big family. These GR Supras are not interchangeable between the two chassis so they had to hustle with that NAPA body to make it fit on our chassis. Del Worsham and his guys were over there helping us out, and there were some other teams in there, too. The Yella Fellas: I always give them props for busting their ‘butt,’ but they had one hell of a weekend, and they definitely deserve to go out in the zoo (Brainerd International Raceway campground) and ‘have some fun’ tonight, but after that, we have a lot of work to do to get ready for Indy.
“I thought we were dead after that semifinal – that’s why I was throwing my gloves. I was upset because I saw the win light come on but thought we were screwed losing two bodies this weekend and didn’t know if there was any chassis damage. Those (DHL crew) guys don’t quit till it’s over with, and it was awesome to drag it back up there (to the starting line). That’s almost like a victory in itself. Once I saw Hagan out there driving away from us, I just shut it off. Don’t want to blow up another body. Hopefully we can go to Indy, redeem ourselves and start making a move when it counts.”
Ron Capps on Loaning Team Kalitta a GR Supra Body: “It wasn’t even a decision; we’re all Toyotas. We were looking to see, if they had a damaged chassis, could we bring our backup from the trailer. Del Worsham helped us so much, the Kalittas helped us so much as we were becoming part of Team Toyota. Del said it best: we all got into the thrash, and he said, ‘This is like old school “stuff” – this is like Kenny Bernstein, the Blue Max, taping it all together to get up to the final round type of stuff.’ Great job by those guys. We were just happy to help. It (the NAPA body) didn’t fit real well. It was so much fun to watch the guys – the Kalittas, Worshams and our guys jump in there. We just wanted to get up there and put a show on for the fans. J.R., man, he’s the consummate professional. He ran it down there, and I felt like a proud owner watching that car go down there. That was for the fans.”
Doug Kalitta, Mac Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Qualifying: Doug Kalitta was the No. 4 qualifier at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. Kalitta’s best qualifying attempt came in the Friday evening session when he made a 3.703-second pass at 326 mph.
Eliminations: In his 600th-career race, Kalitta defeated Antron Brown in the first round before losing to his teammate, Shawn Langdon, in the second round. Neither Kalitta Motorsports car made a good run, but Langdon won the round with a 3.970-second run at 284.87 mph to Kalitta’s 4.378-second effort at 250.92 mph. Kalitta is the first Top Fuel driver in NHRA history to race in 600 national events.
Unofficial Point Standings: Kalitta remains in first place NHRA Top Fuel point standings leaving Brainerd. He leads his teammate, Shawn Langdon, by 84 points with one race remaining in the regular season.
Kalitta on Brainerd: “It was just one of those deals for the Mac Tools team in the second round with both cars trying to pedal it, and Shawn got the better of me unfortunately. He must have gotten out on me a little bit before that before his car started smoking the tires. We’re gonna stick around here and test tomorrow, and hopefully be ready for Indy.
Next Race: Team Kalitta will be back in action Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2024 at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.