Doug Kalitta needed every opportunity he could get Friday at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals. He got one qualifying run, made the most of it and then watched the rain take away his chance to collect more points in his pursuit of a third Top Fuel world championship.
The reigning champion powered his Mac Tools dragster to a 3.677-second run at 340.39 mph over the 1,000-foot course at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, earning the provisional No. 1 qualifying position. Unfortunately for Kalitta, the weather canceled the second session, leaving him with just four bonus points gained on championship-leading teammate Shawn Langdon.
“I’m glad we got one round of qualifying in today because at this last race, you never know,” Kalitta said. “Alan [Johnson], Mac [Savage], and all of my guys were real hungry to have a good qualifying effort, and we went out there and did good today.”
Kalitta knew catching Langdon was going to be a tall order before he ever unloaded at Pomona. Between them, the Team Kalitta teammates had won 13 of the season’s first 19 races, but Langdon had enough of a points lead that Kalitta couldn’t afford to give away much of anything.
Friday offered a glimpse of that possibility when Langdon smoked the tires and finished the session 14th. Kalitta took advantage, but the cancellation of the second session eliminated another opportunity to chip away at the deficit before eliminations.
“Yeah, with this place you never can tell at this last race, definitely had the opportunity to be a part of a bunch of close ones,” Kalitta said. “So I’m hoping that we can pull it off.”
Kalitta knows better than most how quickly a championship can change hands at Pomona. For years, he carried the disappointment of losing the 2006 Top Fuel championship to Tony Schumacher on the final run of the season, a comeback engineered by the same Alan Johnson who now tunes his dragster.
The circumstances are different this time, and Kalitta isn’t pretending otherwise. But having lived through one of drag racing’s most improbable championship reversals, he’s not particularly interested in surrendering while the mathematics still give him a chance.
Kalitta doesn’t have to explain to Johnson how quickly a championship can slip away at Pomona. Johnson was the crew chief who helped Tony Schumacher steal the 2006 title from Kalitta, and now he’s the guy trying to help him pull off a similar comeback.
“Alan has the same spirit,” Kalitta said. “He is infectious with all of us.”
Johnson’s approach has remained consistent throughout the Countdown to the Championship. Win rounds, collect whatever points are available and leave the calculations for somebody else.
“Yeah, he’s just intense and it’s all about whatever it takes to go rounds and collect these points,” Kalitta said. “And obviously just the biggest focus obviously is just getting a win and just letting the points happen how they do.”
Kalitta admits there was a time when he wondered whether he and Johnson would ever get to the winner’s circle together. Their first season was rough enough that, about two-thirds of the way through, he was beginning to question whether he’d ever win a race with Johnson calling the shots.
“When I first started out here, my first year, we had a rough year kind of, and I was about two thirds of the way into the season,” Kalitta said. “I was like, ‘Man, I’d hate to be a guy that never even won a race with him as my crew chief.’”
Those concerns have long since disappeared. Kalitta is chasing his third championship in four seasons, and Johnson remains one of the primary reasons the veteran driver believes another title is possible.
Rookie Maddi Gordon nearly knocked Kalitta off the top spot with a 3.679-second run at a track-record 342.11 mph, putting her second after Friday’s lone session. Leah Pruett wasn’t far behind at 3.698 and 334.65 mph, with just 0.021 seconds separating the top three qualifiers.
Kalitta’s 340-mph performance carried some personal satisfaction beyond the qualifying position. Pomona has been part of his racing life since childhood, when he heard stories about uncle Connie Kalitta making the trip west to compete at one of drag racing’s most recognizable venues.
“Yeah, no, this place is just amazing,” Kalitta said. “I guess the thing that I always remember the most about this place is just the stories of Connie driving his station wagon out to Pomona.”
Those stories stuck with Kalitta long before he became a professional driver. He remembers seeing the preparation at Connie’s shop and understanding that a trip to Pomona was something special.
“And growing up, his shop was closed, so we would kind of see this effort before it left,” Kalitta said. “But no, it’s just one of those places that everybody made a big deal of when I was growing up. And to this day, it’s just the coolest place for me.”
Connie Kalitta elected to remain home this weekend, although his racing operation is assured of another Top Fuel championship regardless of which driver wins it. For Doug, the accomplishment reflects the work Connie and Chad Head have put into keeping the organization competitive across its three-car operation.
There’s another interesting wrinkle to the Kalitta-Langdon championship fight, and it’s happening between their respective crew chiefs. Alan Johnson spent years working with and mentoring Brian Husen, who now has Langdon in position to beat Johnson and Kalitta for the championship.
“I’m sure it’s a proud moment too for Alan to be able to compete against this guy that he’s coached and mentored and they still work real close together,” Kalitta said. “But no, it’s going to be a dog fight in the cockpit and in the trailers between Brian and Alan.”
Friday wasn’t all about elapsed times and championship points for Team Kalitta. The organization also celebrated a milestone in its partnership with DHL and Feeding America, by presenting a check representing 2 million meals for families in need.
Kalitta wasn’t interested in taking much credit for the accomplishment. As far as he was concerned, his team was doing the heavy lifting, and the race team’s job was to keep turning on win lights.
“But the real enchilada here is the DHL focus and the push and the complexity of what that company, which is obviously a huge company, that is just an incredible effort that they put together,” Kalitta said. “And we’re just obviously a small part, probably play a small part to that, but that’s a lot of meals and we’re real proud of it.”
Kalitta would have preferred another shot in qualifying at the Pomona track Friday, especially with Langdon struggling in the opening session. Rain threw a monkey wrench in that scenario.
“Yeah, no, we’re definitely going to be throwing down every run,” Kalitta said. “And we’re going to just try to get every point we can every round and just see… Sean, he smoked the tires against us, so that was an opportunity. So yeah, we’re not sure how many of those we’re going to get, but we’ll take as many as we can get.”
