One look at Mitch Kalitta’s driving talent and it’s clear the second-generation drag racer comes from good stock.
The last name provides another clue.
Mitch is the 25-year-old son of two-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion Doug Kalitta, which makes speculation about where his racing career eventually could lead almost unavoidable. Put a Kalitta in a Top Alcohol Dragster and sooner or later somebody is going to start connecting the dots to Top Fuel.
Mitch isn’t one of them.
He has enough to think about without wondering whether he might someday replace his father, become his teammate or continue a family tradition that began long before he was born.
“I don’t know. I’m really not thinking about that at all because to be honest with you, with this opportunity, this one came so quickly,” Mitch said. “I really wasn’t even planning on running the full season with Top Alcohol. So this is my first race. I mean, I’m hoping to run this car next year even.
“So yeah, that’s a ways down the road. But it would be cool. I don’t want to let it enter my mind quite yet. I’ve got to stay focused on this car for now and just be consistent, trying to do what Randy wants me to do. And keep ripping down the track.”
For somebody carrying one of drag racing’s most recognizable surnames, that might be the best approach available. The temptation from the outside is to write the ending before Mitch has finished the opening chapter.
Doug has raced Top Fuel since 1998 and finally captured his first NHRA world championship in 2023 after years of close calls. He followed with another championship in 2025, further strengthening the Kalitta racing legacy established by his uncle, team owner and drag-racing legend Connie Kalitta.
Mitch was born into all of it.
He grew up around Kalitta Motorsports and eventually joined his father’s crew, working with the team that won those two championships. Racing surrounded him, but Doug never handed his son a helmet and told him what came next.
Mitch might have been born into a racing family, but the decision to become a racer had to be his.
“I’ve always loved racing,” Mitch said. “Yeah, I grew up racing dirt bikes, quarter midgets, go-karts, and then I just played soccer the rest of my life until college. I retired in college. I started coming out just helping on the car the last three years, or I guess four years, and we won the two championships. I was a big part of that team. I just got the opportunity to finally drive and I’m taking it and just trying to manage doing both right now.”
There was no carefully scripted Kalitta Motorsports driver-development program waiting for Mitch. The progression came through opportunity and, maybe more importantly, discovering that actually racing was considerably more addictive than watching somebody else do it.
He got seat time in Super Comp and started making test runs. Eventually, making laps without another car in the opposite lane wasn’t enough. Competition changed the equation.
“I got the opportunity with Shawn [Langdon] to run a Super Comp, and then that was a lot of fun just making test laps,” Mitch said. “We’re like, ‘All right, let’s put someone in the other lane. Let’s go do a race.’ And then you kind of get the bug after doing one race, losing the first round. We’re like, ‘Oh, that’s frustrating. I really want to get a win.’ And it took me a while to get a first round win.
“It wasn’t until Bradenton that actually win a round of racing. So then that started getting bad and I was like, ‘Well, now I got to do more races.’ And then I was just like, ‘Well, we’re already at all the NHRA races. I’m helping on the cart. Might as well take advantage of this Randy Meyer opportunity here.’”
That’s exactly how racers get trapped by drag racing.
The first-round loss bothers the new drag racer. Then winning a round isn’t enough. Before long, another class starts to look appealing, and going considerably quicker suddenly sounds like a perfectly reasonable idea.
That led Mitch to Randy Meyer Racing and Top Alcohol Dragster.
Before his debut, Mitch made licensing runs with Meyer’s team, gradually working his way into the car instead of trying to prove something on the first hit. Meyer described Kalitta as one of the more coachable drivers his team had licensed, a compliment that carries some weight considering the number of successful drivers who have come through the operation.
Brainerd became the next step in a quickly advancing career.
It also gave Doug an unfamiliar weekend assignment. He has spent decades controlling what he can control inside a Top Fuel dragster. Watching his son strap into a car capable of running deep into the five-second zone required a different kind of composure.
“That was another Brainerd first. So, that’s cool,” Doug said. “Yeah. So my son’s out here. He’s got a great car with Randy Meyer and the family, that they’ve embraced him and me. We’re just hanging out trying to not screw anything up over there, and Mitch is having a good time driving it. Randy, he’s a great coach. I think Mitch will gain a lot of experience, and had a lot of fun there with that family.”
Racing Super Comp helped make the transition easier. Doug credited Bo Butner with giving Mitch an education in sportsman racing, where the cars might be slower than Top Fuel but winning can be every bit as difficult.
“Brainerd was the first race that he’s run in the alcohol car. He’s been running Bo Butner’s Super Comp car,” Doug said. “And Bo has been super great to us as well. Really has taught Mitch a lot of what it’s like to run in the sportsman class. And it’s incredibly competitive. The Super Comp class, but it’s tough. There were 100 cars, it ended a couple weeks ago when Mitch was running.
“He got down to the top 10, I think, and got beat in the fourth round. We’re just seeing if he likes doing this. I’ve never really told him that this is something that you have to do or anything, but I was very happy that he got through college and decided that he wanted to do this and go. We’ll support him and see what we can do with it.”
As Doug says over and over, they are just seeing if he likes it which removes him at this time of being groomed as Doug’s replacement. Nor is it announcing the next Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel driver. Not plotting when one generation climbs out so another can climb in.
Besides, Doug isn’t exactly racing like somebody looking for a retirement party.
He entered Brainerd fighting for the regular-season Top Fuel points lead and riding one of the strongest stretches of his career. At an age when drivers occasionally begin answering questions about how much longer they intend to race, Kalitta remains a championship contender with little outward indication that he is ready to surrender the cockpit.
There is also another part of Mitch’s life that probably makes 280-plus mph in a Top Alcohol Dragster seem a little less outrageous.
He flies airplanes just like his father.
“I got a pilot’s license three years ago,” Mitch said. “So I’m out there ripping around as well.”
Driving a dragster and flying an airplane require different disciplines, something Mitch learned quickly.
“They’re different. I mean, procedurally this is a little more simple; you only have to do a few things,” Mitch said. “In an airplane you always got to have the checklist, got to make sure everything’s done right or else if you miss a couple things, could be a bad day.”
Doug understands the comparison from the other side.
A Top Alcohol Dragster is plenty fast enough to make any father pay attention, but Mitch recently earned his multi-engine instrument rating. Knowing his son is alone in an airplane can produce considerably more concern than watching him drive a race car surrounded by an experienced team.
“I’m proud of him. He’s smart enough and I feel comfortable enough with him that if anything stupid’s going on, he knows let’s just shut that thing off,” Doug said. “He’s been flying this twin-engine bear and he just got his multi-engine instrument rating. So he’s out there by himself, cruising around in that thing, trying to figure that thing out as well.
“So that’s probably more nerve wracking. We’ve got all these flight tracking things that you can do when he’s out there running. So, that’s probably more nerve wracking than driving this alcoholic car. But he’s learning and having fun doing it. Proud of him.”
Doug knows Mitch has a keen sense of knowing when to say when. Mitch has been around racing long enough to understand when a run needs to be aborted, and Doug appears content to let Meyer and his team handle the coaching.
It might be difficult for a champion father to resist trying to become crew chief, driving instructor and career manager at the same time.
Doug seems determined not to do it.
Doug seems content to stay the course with his kid.
“We just take him race by race,” Doug said. “There’s not a lot of pressure for him to… If he wants to continue to do this and pursue it, it would be awesome. But it’s definitely not something that he has to do. It’s his passion. It’s got to be his passion, not mine. And I think we’re making headway.”
For now, that is enough.
Mitch Kalitta doesn’t need to become the next Doug Kalitta. He needs to find out how good Mitch Kalitta can be.
