Doug Kalitta admitted after Friday’s provisional No. 1 qualifying effort that he’s not nearly as interested in the small qualifying bonus points as he is in the 20-point swings race day provides.
Then again, watch the way the defending NHRA Top Fuel champion does business and one thing becomes obvious: Kalitta isn’t throwing any points back.
Kalitta grabbed everything available Friday at Rockingham Dragway, powering his Mac Tools dragster to a 3.682-second pass at 338.09 mph to take the provisional No. 1 position at the NHRA Nationals at The Rock.
More importantly for the championship math, Kalitta came into Rockingham second in points behind Kalitta Motorsports teammate Shawn Langdon. With five races remaining, the scraps that seem insignificant in April can become awfully expensive by November.
“Yeah, it’s really all about, in my opinion, just Sunday, the 20 point swings are the real thing there,” Kalitta said. “But no, like you say, every point counts. We’ve all lost on close point race things and yeah, it’s super important.
“I hate to try to focus too much on it, but I mean you’re down to five races, so you have to. It’s definitely not something that I’m personally too racked around the axle about. I’ve got a great car, great group behind me. We have a lot of momentum, so we’ve just got to keep carrying that and just everybody pull together and see what we can do with Allen leading our charge, Allen and Mac.”
If Kalitta’s 3.682 holds through Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions, it will give him his sixth No. 1 qualifier of the season. It also would make consecutive No. 1 starts to open his Countdown, following his qualifying performance at Martin, Michigan.
Friday’s run was more than good enough to make a statement. Kalitta was the only Top Fuel driver into the 3.60s, moving around Tony Stewart’s 3.720 at 336.32 and Leah Pruett’s 3.734 at 323.74.
Langdon, winner of the previous two races, ended Friday seventh.
That makes for an interesting situation inside the Kalitta Motorsports camp. Langdon and Kalitta are chasing the same championship for the same team owner, Connie Kalitta, with Brian Husen calling the shots on Langdon’s car and Alan Johnson and Mac Savage directing Kalitta’s dragster.
Nobody is pretending the two cars aren’t racing each other.
“Yeah, that’s definitely a dynamic there,” Kalitta said. “Brian, he’s definitely going to be a tough character for Alan through the end of the year. But yeah, there’s just so many good cars here and anything can happen.
“So it’s like just keep your head down one round at a time. Just try to get through the field and just get close to the final, the semis, get to there, get a shot at the win. I mean, that’s kind of where my mindset is. And just try to get every last point we can to have a shot at what we’re trying to do here.”
There was a time when Kalitta carried the distinction nobody wants — arguably the sport’s most accomplished active driver without a Top Fuel championship. He erased that in 2023, and the burden is different now.
Kalitta isn’t trying to prove he can win one anymore. He knows he can.
“Yeah, it’s huge,” Kalitta said. “Obviously with Alan and Mike Savage and Brian, those guys, to be able to pull off the championship after the career that I had out here and whatnot, I just can’t thank those guys enough. It was a huge relief obviously, especially with 23.
“These things are just tough to win obviously because… That’s what Alan made today was we’re probably going to battle this thing down to the wire with Brian and those guys and hopefully that’ll be the case. But at the end of the day, Connie owns both these cars. Obviously I’m hoping that my car’s going to win, but we’ll just let the best team win here and hopefully keep everybody else behind us because again, I mean, the competition is so tough out here.”
Rockingham also comes with some Kalitta family history, although Doug’s most vivid memory isn’t exactly suitable for a family scrapbook.
He recalled being at The Rock in the 1980s working on his uncle Connie Kalitta’s car when cousin Scott Kalitta crashed near the finish line.
“Well, I was here one time back in the 80s working on Connie’s car and the only thing I remember is standing on the starting line, Scott’s up there running and I don’t know what happened, but he wrecked his car down there close to the finish line,” Kalitta said. “So we all run down there and he was fine.
“But other than that, I’m not even sure how we did that day when we were here running aside withConnie’s car, but a lot of history here. It’s pretty cool actually to be back here.”
There was another prize Friday besides qualifying points.
The Last Driver Standing Laptop Giveaway presented by IGTG and Perimeter.One awarded the top qualifier from the second session an ASUS ROG Flow Z13 Nebula laptop, along with a $1,000 bonus for the low qualifiers in Top Fuel and Funny Car.
Kalitta won the computer.
Keeping it apparently isn’t part of the plan.
“No, I mean, we’re obviously very appreciative of the gifts that these guys are coming up with,” Kalitta said. “And the watch, it seems like when I won that, I gave that to Alan. I’ll end up giving this laptop to somebody because that’s just kind of the way I roll here.”
The laptop can go to somebody else.
Kalitta will keep the points.
