Story By: ROB GOODMAN / KALITTA MOTORSPORTS – YPSILANTI, MI – It’s been a great season for Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools team – ending the regular season with a second U.S. Nationals win would be the perfect way to cap off a strong performance. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Season resumes Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2024 at the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
Kalitta won the U.S. Nationals in 2019 and has three runner-up finishes in the event known as the largest and most prestigious in the sport. He enters the final regular- season race as the points leader on the strength of three wins in six final-round appearances. The reigning Top Fuel champ feels good about the race and a certain crew chief who’s had a touch of U.S. Nationals success over the years.
“It’s always a cool race; obviously, it’s our biggest race of the year and one we’re all shooting to win,” Kalitta said. “We’ve been fortunate to win it, and we should be in a really good position to try to win it this year with Alan (Crew Chief Alan Johnson) tuning my car with his success at Indy. It’s pretty exciting for me so we’ll definitely hit the ground running. It’s probably one of my better opportunities to win this race so we’ll definitely do everything we can to take advantage of it. Really, it should be a good opportunity for all three of our cars. I think we’re in a great position to hopefully come out of there with the win.”
Johnson led the Mac Tools team’s return to form over the last three seasons, and his Top Fuel success is no secret – especially at the U.S. Nationals. Johnson has eight U.S. Nationals wins with four different drivers. His most-recent triumph came in 2013 with none other than Kalitta Air Careers driver Shawn Langdon in the car. The team is fresh off a Brainerd, Minn., test session and appears poised for great things this weekend.
“We did well testing, and we should be good,” Kalitta said. “We’ll see, but we’re all super excited with what we have going on with our Mac Tools car and everybody doing what they do on the car. I think our team is ready for sure to have a good run at Indy and then be ready for the Countdown. If we could be first in points after the regular season, it would definitely look good on the resume, that’s for sure. But as the year goes on, it comes down to a point here or a point there. If we can hold onto the No. 1 spot, that would be very cool in my book, and then obviously any additional points we get as a result of that will be positive. We’re gonna be counting points for the rest of the year for sure.”
Race Information:
Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals
Indianapolis Raceway Park; Indianapolis
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
Qualifying Show 1: 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 on FS1
Funny Car All-Star Callout: 5-6:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 on FOX
Qualifying Show 2: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 on FS1
Finals: Noon-2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2 on FS1
Finals: 2-5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2 on FOX
2023 Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 4; defeated Spencer Masey and Mike Salinas; lost to Steve Torrence.
Doug Kalitta Career Stats: 600 events, 55 wins, 62 runner-up, 792 round wins, 58 No. 1 qualifiers.
2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Results To Date (wins in italics):
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.
Richmond: Qualified No. 2: after first-round bye, defeated Josh Hart, Tony Stewart and Shawn Langdon.
Norwalk: Qualified No. 1; defeated Kyle Wurtzel, Billy Torrence and Steve Torrence; lost to Antron Brown.
Seattle: Qualified No. 4; defeated Billy Torrence and Jasmine Salinas; lost to Steve Torrence.
Sonoma: Qualified No. 1; lost to Ron August, Jr.
Brainerd: Qualified No. 4; defeated Antron Brown; lost to Shawn Langdon.
SHAWN LANGDON SEEKS THIRD U.S. NATIONALS TITLE WITH APPLIED INNOVATION ALONG FOR THE RIDE
Shawn Langdon won the U.S. Nationals Top Fuel title in 2013 and 2020, and with a fantastic 2024 regular season coming to a close this weekend, he seeks his third win at the prestigious race with a new yet familiar partner onboard. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Season resumes Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2024 at the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
Applied Innovation is a longtime Kalitta Motorsports and Kalitta Air partner, and this weekend, Langdon will drive the Applied Innovation/Kalitta Air Careers Top Fuel dragster. Applied was Doug Kalitta’s primary sponsor for three races earlier this year, including the pre-season special event, but this weekend’s race is the company’s first time on Langdon’s car.
Applied Innovation serves customers in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Florida with managed and co-managed IT and Help Desk services. Applied was founded as a printer, copier and fax company in 1987. Today, the company is a growing, full-fledged office-technology provider. Applied’s technology services and solutions are designed not only to improve its clients’ business but also the lives of the people working within them.
“We value our partnership with Kalitta and have greatly appreciated the opportunity to delve deeper into the dynamic world of NHRA Drag Racing,” Applied Innovation Director of Business Development Scott Grinwis said. “Over the past few years, we’ve been introduced to the sport and its vibrant community of fans and business partners. The Kalitta team has demonstrated remarkable success this season, and we extend our best wishes to them. We are very excited to be onboard with Shawn Langdon and the Kalitta Air Careers Top Fuel dragster at the U.S. Nationals.”
Applied Innovation is also joining the “Race to End Hunger” this season. The Toyota U.S. Nationals is the first event of the 2024 “Race to End Hunger,” the program through which Kalitta Motorsports, DHL Express and Kalitta Air, along with five new partners, are joining Feeding America in the fight against food insecurity. For every Kalitta Motorsports round win this weekend through the NHRA Nevada Nationals in Las Vegas, Nov. 1-3, 2024, the team will donate $1,000 to Feeding America, and it will be matched by DHL Express, Kalitta Air and the five “double down partners.” Applied Innovation is the “double-down partner” this weekend meaning each Kalitta Motorsports round win will be worth $4,000 or 40,000 Feeding America meals.
Langdon enters the regular season’s final race with a car that’s done just about everything but win in the last several races. The Applied Innovation/Kalitta Air Careers car was the No. 1 qualifier at Richmond, but Langdon lost to his teammate, Doug Kalitta, in the final round. That race was the first of Langdon’s three final-round appearances in the last five races.
His most-recent final-round showing came just one race ago when the 2013 Top Fuel champion raced to a runner-up finish losing to Justin Ashley in the final round at Brainerd, Minn. On the season, Langdon is second in points on the strength of two wins among six final-round appearances. One year ago, Langdon entered the Toyota U.S. Nationals mired at 11th place in points – it was a very different time, and Langdon has a pretty good idea about the reason for the turn-a-round.
“Brian Husen is something special, man,” Langdon said about first-year Crew Chief. “He’s done such a great job this year in his first year out giving me a great race car, bringing in Justin (Assistant Crew Chief Justin Groat) and a couple of other new guys. The team chemistry is just awesome, and everybody’s having a great time. Winning helps a lot of that, but we have a great group over here with the Applied Innovation/Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team. We’ve just been missing the little things, but it looks like we may have put it all together so we’re almost Countdown ready now.”
And now the race many consider the biggest in the sport is on the horizon, and the Mira Loma, Calif., driver wants to make it three U.S. Nationals wins, but throw in his 2010 Super Comp win, and a victory this weekend would be his fourth at this event. But perhaps more important is maintaining the team’s second place points position. He trails his teammate, Doug Kalitta, by 84 points, leads third-place Justin Ashley by 21 points, fourth-place Steve Torrence by 89 points and fifth-place Antron Brown by 103 points. With “points and a half” on the line this weekend, Langdon definitely needs a strong weekend to hold his position.
“We’re looking forward to the weekend,” Langdon said. “We’re second in points, and the car’s been really good. We’ll try to continue to do what we’ve been doing. We’d really like to keep the Kalitta cars one-two in points, but we probably need both cars to go at least two rounds and keep going the direction we’ve been going. Winning the U.S. Nationals is always good – always a good one to win, but I try to treat it like any other race.”
But it isn’t any other race. It’s considered by most the biggest of the season, it determines starting positions for the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs, and that matters because after the U.S. Nationals, the points will be reset to tighten the field entering the six-race playoffs. So is it more important to win the race or make sure the Applied Innovation/Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team is in good form?
“It’s kinda both,” Langdon added, “You want to have a good car and be running well, but you also need to finish well because when they reset the points, you want to be in a good position.”
Race Information:
Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals
Indianapolis Raceway Park; Indianapolis
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
Qualifying Show 1: 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 on FS1
Funny Car All-Star Callout: 5-6:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 on FOX
Qualifying Show 2: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 on FS1
Finals: Noon-2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2 on FS1
Finals: 2-5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2 on FOX
2023 Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 9; defeated Josh Hart; lost to Steve Torrence.
Shawn Langdon Career Stats: 343 events, 19 wins, 25 runner-up, 369 round wins, 21 No. 1 qualifiers.
2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Results To Date (wins in italics):
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.
Richmond: Qualified No. 1; defeated Lex Joon, Steve Torrence & Antron Brown before losing to Doug Kalitta.
Norwalk: Qualified No. 6; lost to Clay Millican.
Seattle: Qualified No. 13; defeated Justin Ashley, Josh Hart and Clay Millican; lost to Steve Torrence.
Sonoma: Qualified No. 4; lost to Tony Stewart in the first round.
Brainerd: Qualified No. 5; defeated Shawn Reed, Doug Kalitta and Ida Zetterstrom; lost to Justin Ashley.
J.R. TODD, DHL TEAM READY TO BOUNCE BACK FROM BRAINERD
J.R. Todd and his DHL GR Supra team had a rough outing in Minnesota two weeks ago, but now, the team is poised to redeem itself at the largest and most-prestigious drag race in the world. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Season resumes Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2024 at the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
Despite making the semifinals and qualifying for this week’s Mission Foods Challenge, the last outing was a different kind of challenge. The DHL Toyota team suffered an explosion in qualifying that damaged its primary car and ruined the body. Then in the second round on Sunday, another explosion damaged a second body forcing the team to borrow a GR Supra body from Ron Capps Motorsports just to be able to race in the semifinals. Todd lost that race but said just getting back up to the starting line was a victory in itself. Now, two weeks later, the team is ready to go for the Toyota U.S. Nationals.
“It looks like we’ll have our primary car that we hurt in Friday qualifying back in action when we get to Indy,” Todd said. “Joe and Dan at PBRC (Precision Built Race Cars) got it front halved and back at the shop late last week so the guys could get it put back together and have it ready for Friday qualifying at Indy so that’s encouraging. It was just a matter of going through all the parts and pieces to figure out what happened in Brainerd and make sure it doesn’t happen again. We got our new body ready to go and got one of our old bodies updated and ready to go. I feel bad that the guys had to do so much work on what would have been some time off, but it’s just the hand we were dealt.”
Now the team is ready for the Toyota U.S. Nationals and hopes to win what would be Todd’s third at the prestigious event after a final-round showing last year. It’s one most consider a “must win” in a successful NHRA career.
“I always say Sonoma (Calif.) is my favorite track, but Indy is probably everybody’s favorite race,” Todd added. “It’s a high-stakes event, and there’s definitely a lot of pressure. You can tell by looking at pretty much everybody’s face at the track. It’s a different atmosphere from most of the races during the season. Everybody stays over to test in Brainerd (Minn.) to get ready for the U.S. Nationals and the playoffs. We’ve won it twice and have been to a couple of finals in the past, and it’s my favorite race – I’ve been going to this one since I was 10 years old. I’ve seen a lot happen there and would love to be able to win it again.
“Winning this one is definitely a different feeling. A lot of the greats in our sport won that race, and there’s definitely a lot of history at that track. To be able to add your name to that list is a totally different feeling. It feels like you’ve been there a week by the time you’re done there on Monday. It’s a long event with five qualifying sessions – it just has a different feeling. Anytime all the legends show up at one event, it shows you the importance of one race.”
In addition to competing for the U.S. Nationals win, Todd is the No. 5 qualifier in the Pep Boys All-Star Callout, a standout Funny Car showdown for which the field is determined by qualifying points in the season’s first 13 races and the last seven races of the previous season. In this event, the top-four seeds “call out” or pick their opponent for the first round of the eight-car event. First round winners then “call out” their opponents for the semifinals. The special event is set for Sunday, Sept. 1.
“It starts Friday night,” Todd said. “We need to make a really good run in the first round of qualifying to get that out of the way so we’re not tip-toeing around the rest of the weekend worrying about qualifying so we can focus on the Pep Boys race on Sunday and get focused for the big race on Monday. Being the fifth seed, I don’t have any say in the call out so we’ll see who picks us. Honestly, it doesn’t matter because everybody who’s in the deal is tough to beat so we’ll have our work cut out for us. We just have to go out there and run as hard as possible every run of the weekend.”
And as if Todd and team needed more to think about, the U.S. Nationals is the final race of the regular season and sets the field for the six-race Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs. After this weekend, the points will be reset to tighten the standings, and bonus points accrued during the season are applied prior to the first playoff race at Reading, Pa., Sept. 13-15, 2024.
“I always say you want to be top five going into Reading to give yourself a better shot running for the championship,” Todd said. “Now with all the bonus points (points leader) Austin Prock has accumulated, he’s going to have possibly over a round lead over the second-place car entering Reading. Ideally, it would be nice to rack up as many qualifying points, Mission Foods points and round points there on Monday to close up the gap. Right now, we’re fourth. I think it’s possible for us to get to second with some help from the cars in front of us. Either way, I feel confident we can maintain our top-five spot going into Reading – ideally, that’s where you want to be.”
After, of course, you hoist the U.S. Nationals trophy on Monday.
Race Information:
Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals
Indianapolis Raceway Park; Indianapolis
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
Qualifying Show 1: 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 on FS1
Funny Car All-Star Callout: 5-6:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 on FOX
Qualifying Show 2: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1 on FS1
Finals: Noon-2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2 on FS1
Finals: 2-5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2 on FOX
2023 Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals Recap: Qualified No. 10; defeated Blake Alexander, Bob Tasca, Cruz Pedregon; lost to Ron Capps.
Funny Car Career Stats: 311 events, 21 wins, 26 runner-up, 347 round wins, 14 No. 1 qualifiers.
2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Results To Date (wins in italics):
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.
Richmond: Qualified No. 7; lost to Matt Hagan.
Norwalk: Qualified No. 2; defeated Chris King; lost to Ron Capps.
Seattle: Qualified No. 4; defeated Buddy Hull and Bob Tasca; lost to Austin Prock.
Sonoma: Qualified No. 6 defeated Jason Rupert, lost to Ron Capps.
Brainerd: Qualified No. 8; defeated Paul Lee, Austin Prock; lost to Matt Hagan,