All season, the Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel drivers Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta have been the ones to beat.
Now, Kalitta is flexing his muscles.
The 2023 and ’25 NHRA Top Fuel corld Champion won his second race in a row, and third this season, when he took the title at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals on Sunday in Seattle.
It was a true day of celebration for Kalitta Motorsports as the team’s nitro Funny Car driver, J.R. Todd, also won to claim the rare double victory for the legendary team.
The only other double win happened in March 2024, at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., when Todd joined Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon in the winner’s circle.
“Hats off to J.R., getting this double, I’m just so happy for Connie [team owner Kalitta],” Doug said. “He’s given us everything we need, and obviously all the crew chiefs, everybody’s pulling together trying to help one another, and today’s a good result of that. I’m just really proud of our whole effort and can’t thank Mac Tools, Revchem, Gerber, Mobil1 and SealMaster – everybody that supports Kalitta Motorsports – we couldn’t do it without them. Winning two in a row is a dream come true, but to be able to double up with J.R., it doesn’t get any better than that for Team Kalitta. Never give up on your dreams – I’m living proof.
“Alan and Mac [crew chiefs Alan Johnson and Mac Savage] and everybody that works on my car really have it dialed in. I feel very fortunate Alan is working on my car. It took us a little bit to get it going this season. We obviously made a lot of changes and it’s coming together. When you get down towards the end of the year, Alan’s got a lot of championships. This is really the time of the year he really focuses on, and he always seems to be able to pull it off, so it’s going to be exciting.”
Kalitta, piloting the Mac Tools dragster, swept the two-race western swing as he won in Sonoma, Calif., on July 19. He qualified No. 3 and defeated Shawn Reed, Jasmine Salinas, Antron Brown and Leah Pruett for the 62nd win of his career.
This was Kalitta’s second career win in Seattle, and his first there since 2014. With the victory, he tied Larry Dixon for third place on the all-time Top Fuel wins list and 11th all-time in overall Mission Foods Drag Racing Series wins.
“It’s cool. I kind of half keep an eye on it, just hoping that one day you guys will mention something that’s cool about it,” said Kalitta about tying Dixon with 62 wins. “Connie has had my back for years. I mean, it’s just incredible to have somebody like him who has supported me even with my sprint car days. And actually in, I guess, Brainerd, we’re going to run Randy Meyer’s alcohol car, and Connie has agreed to put Kalitta Air on the side of that baby for my son, Mitch. So that’ll be cool.
“Connie is just an incredible drag racer and just been out here forever. And it’s just truly a dream come true really for me. Then obviously my son is really excited to get going, and just having Connie’s support is huge.”
Kalitta leaves Seattle second in the points standings, and he now trails his teammate, points leader Langdon, by just five points. Kalitta is 204 points ahead of third-place Leah Pruett with two races remaining in the regular season. Kalitta has been able to cut the deficit from 150 to five by winning the last two races. Langdon, meanwhile, lost in the second round at Sonoma and the first round Sunday at Pacific Raceways.
“Any of these races out here, you’re only as good as your last race, it seems like sometimes, but we definitely have to cherish these things because they don’t come easy,” Kalitta said.
Team Kalitta has been one-two in points since the second race of the season. In 12 races this season, Langdon has four wins and Kalitta three.
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