Top Fuel veteran Doug Kalitta sure does love those champion-chips titles.
Kalitta ensured Kalitta Motorsports remained undefeated this year in the Top Fuel portion of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge with a victory over Tony Stewart. Jack Beckman (Funny Car) and Matt Hartford (Pro Stock) also won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, as well.
Kalitta Motorsports’ Top Fuel duo of Kalitta and Shawn Langdon have won all six Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus races in 2025, with Kalitta taking his fourth victory of the year after going 3.670 seconds at 337.24 mph in his 12,000-horsepower Mac Tools dragster.
“This Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge is a great idea,” Kalitta said. “It gives fans something exciting to watch, and it’s fun for us too. It’s a little like sprint car racing, where you’re racing every day. I’m definitely having fun with all of this. Let’s keep it up.”
Beckman is working on a streak of his own, claiming the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory over Matt Hagan, who won the event in Chicago two weeks ago at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals.
Beckman, who took over driving for drag racing icon John Force last August, won the event Saturday. He now has six consecutive round wins. Beckman went 3.913 at 316.52 to get the win. He was impressed with the job his team did on Saturday in Epping.
“This was one of the wildest Saturdays I’ve ever been part of. We had to do a full engine change before (the final) round, no warm-up, just bolt it in and go,” Beckman said. “The crew thrashed. I had to hang out by the car to make up time for Matt, and we got it fired. I didn’t even know if we’d get it done today, but it looks cool as hell now. The Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge gives us a race within qualifying, and that adds so much more meaning.
“This place is as cool as it gets. Austin’s team makes it look easy. What both our crews did today it’s awe inspiring. I’m a huge historian of this sport, and it means the world to be part of it like this.”
Pro Stock’s Hartford also has an impressive streak in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, winning for the third time in four races in the specialty event with a 6.557, 207.88 to defeat Dave Connolly Saturday. Connolly is filling in for Eric Latino, who is recovering from knee surgery following the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte.
Hartford now has a Pro Stock-leading 13 championship bonus points, which will be added to his reset total once the Countdown to the Championship playoffs begins. He’s still looking for his first win of the season.
“Anytime you’re racing Dave Connolly, you know you’re lining up against one of the best Pro Stock drivers ever. He’s proved it over and over again,” Hartford said. “We were both running KB (Titan Racing) power, so it came down to who did a better job on the track. I’m proud to say that today, our team did. It’s a testament to our crew, our prep, and our execution.
“We’ve got 13 Mission points now — that’s over half a round heading into the Countdown. Every point counts. We know Greg (Anderson) and Dallas (Glenn) are out front right now in regular season points, but once they reset in Indy, we want to be right there with them.”
Eliminations for the New England Nationals begin at 11 a.m. EDT on Sunday at New England Dragway.
