A back-up car has never looked so appealing. 

At least, that is how Doug Kalitta could see it. After crashing his primary dragster at last weekend's Pep Boys NHRA Nationals, when a slick inexplicably exploded, taking the Mac Tools dragster out of competition, Kalitta returned to his backup dragster and went on to win the first round of the Countdown. 

Last weekend, he won career race No. 50. Friday at the Betway NHRA Nationals hosted by zMAX Dragway, he scored the No. 1 qualifying spot, at least provisionally, with a standout performance of 3.665 at 331.61 miles per hour.

"What better place than the zMAX for sure," Kalitta said. "This is probably one of the nicest places we run as far as I'm concerned. But yeah, it's the same tough cars, and obviously, the competition, everybody's running good. Just fortunate enough to get the provisional here for tonight, and hopefully, it'll hold up through tomorrow."

Kalitta is finally able to deliver the performances anticipated when it was announced he would be partnered with iconic nitro tuner Alan Johnson. 

"They're really starting to gel, and everybody's doing their jobs and settling in real nice," Kalitta said. "Obviously, the conditions, hopefully as we go on, if these are the conditions that my effort is liking, hopefully, it's kind of trending with the fall, so that will be a good thing."

While Kalitta could easily feel like he's been riding a rollercoaster instead of driving a fuel dragster, recent personal victories, such as five consecutive 3.6 elapsed times, has him cinching his belts for a run at an elusive championship.  

"There's a lot of good with everything about running strong, and same with my guys working on this thing," Kalitta said. "It's pretty exciting. Carry the momentum and just take advantage of what we got going on here and see what we can do.

"The runs have been nice and smooth, so the thing, it's not just on the verge of shaking or smoking; it's hooked up and going. So pretty exciting for sure for me.

It makes one wonder if Kalitta and the team have had second thoughts about not bringing the proven race car out sooner. 

"We ran that car all through the end of last year, so yeah, that was our primary car, and we switched to that canopy car this year, and the cars are exactly the same," Kalitta said. "They're built on the same jig, so it's just the only difference is that we're 30 pounds lighter. Whatever it takes. I'll wear the same socks all year if that's what it takes. But no, we're pretty excited, and we'll just keep it rolling here."