Forget the talk about Doug Kalitta’s NHRA Top Fuel rivalry with Tony Schumacher.

The Mac Tools Dragster driver is building a new one with his own Kalitta Motorsports / Toyota teammate JR Todd.

They have met only twice in a final round. But the first meeting, in May at Atlanta, produced the closest finish in NHRA history, with Kalitta winning by an incomprehensible margin of 0.0000 seconds. That 10-thousandths-of-a-second edge amounts to about one half of an inch on the racetrack and a much wider latitude of letdown.

In Sunday’s closing pass of the 2106 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, at the Auto Club Finals at Pomona, Calif., the Compulink timing system didn’t take center stage in deciding the victor. But once again, Kalitta nicked Todd and his SealMaster Dragster.

This time Kalitta’s advantage at the 1,000-foot stripe was 0.0087 seconds, or about four feet. Kalitta used a reaction time of .063 of a second to run a 3.745-second elapsed time at 326.63 mph for the $50,000 holeshot victory. He took advantage of Todd’s late (0.112-second) launch, and top-qualifier Todd’s outstanding 3.708-second, 327.90-mph pass – quickest of race day – couldn’t stop Kalitta.

By the time the gates opened at Pomona’s Fairplex for this 52nd version of the finale, a championship was off the table and Kalitta, Todd, and a handful of other drivers were eyeing second place. Kalitta grabbed it with his 42nd overall victory and fourth of the season. It was his first victory since he won three in a row this spring.

Steve Torrence finished third in the final standings, and Todd was fourth. Shawn Langdon and Brittany Force, who had chances to finish as runner-up, were fifth and sixth.

“I’ve been trying to win this thing for a long time,” first-time Pomona Finals winner Kalitta, who was runner-up in 1999 and 2013, said.

“The history for me, growing up watching Connie [uncle and team owner Kalitta] over the years, this was the first and last . . . This was huge for me and the team. It was cool that both of our cars got to run for the money. It’ll be good momentum for all of our teams, not with any championships but definitely some good runs.”

They include the soon-to-roll-out T.J. Coughlin dragster, as well as the Funny Cars of Del Worsham, Alexis De Joria, and Paul Lee.

The only real casualty of the showdown might have been the team’s trademark moshpit. With a double dose of gut-punching and pig-piling in store, the crew members, perhaps weary from their physical celebrations since February, didn’t stage one this time. Kalitta joked, “They probably were just confused because they were in both lanes and just weren’t sure where to do it. It’s a crazy tradition. Nobody’s gotten hurt so far, so that’s good.”

Kalitta led the standings for much of the season and never was any farther down in the order than third, said, “Any of these races, round by round, it’s tough. Anytime you can get a win, it’s a great accomplishment. Just to be able to win at the final race, to run the guys and beat ‘em like we did, I’m just real proud of Jim [crew chief Oberhofer] and all the guys.”

He said he congratulated Todd for defeating Brown following the semifinals and wished him a sfae race in the finals.

“That’s my typical deal,” the low-key Kalitta said. Then with a laugh, he said, “I’ll have to find a more intimidating way of approqching these guys that you run. Maybe that’ll help, too.

“It was a close race, for sure,” he said of the final round. “Their car has been running incredible. Connie did a heck of a job with that thing. He’s amazing, after all these years out here, tuning these cars.”

Kalitta said they had a 1964 Top Fuel car that’s a Cacklefest showcase car in their pits Saturday night and said his legendary uncle “was able to get some good stories out about what was going on with that thing. Just a beautiful car. So he’s had a good weekend.”

With Funny Car’s Ron Capps finally shaking the mantle of the NHRA’s most successful racer without a title the night before, Kalitta has inherited the dubious distinction.

“Yeah, I’m still on that list,” Kalitta said. “I’m sure I’ll hear about it all year again. I’m real proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

Todd was disappointed at not closing the Countdown with another Wally statue for the team that reached 10  semifinals or better in the final 13 races and the driver who advanced to a career-best six final rounds this year. But he found the positives in his situation.

“I believe we definitely had the car to beat all weekend. We just screwed up in the final on the starting line and let one get away,” he said. “It was a mistake [in lane choice because of the sun], but we can’t make any excuses.  You’ve got go up there and be a pro and hit the gas on time.  

“All in all, a good weekend for Kalitta Motorsports having both Toyota dragsters in the final, and that got us both in the top five in points,” Todd said. “We just wanted to come out of here with a trophy.”

What will have to sustain him through the winter is his though that “hopefully this is a sign of things to come for next year. The performance of the car over the last three races has really come around. It’s a shame we didn’t start off the Countdown the way we finished. I think we’ve definitely got a championship-caliber team here. And hopefully we’ll go out and win a handful of races before the Countdown next year and set ourselves up in a better position. We’ve been to a lot of semis and a quite a few final rounds.”

Todd seemed to measure his progress against that of three-time and reigning champion Antron Brown, who happened to be his semifinal victim Sunday.

“I don’t think our overall point position reflects the kind of season we had,” Todd said. “We stumbled at the beginning of the Countdown, and Antron got rolling like he did. It just makes it harder on the rest of us. You’ve got to stop him early. The way we finished the year, I like the direction we’re going for 2017.”

Kalitta marched to the final past Shawn Reed, Schumacher, and Shawn Langdon. Todd eliminated Troy Buff, Richie Crampton, and Brown.