Two-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion Doug Kalitta took the most meaningful of steps toward a third crown Monday at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, capturing the Regular Season title, the $150,000 bonus prize that goes with it, and most importantly, the top seed going into the points reset and the six-race Countdown to the Championship.
Kalitta was the No. 3 qualifier at the U.S. Nationals and reached the final round of the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge — the qualifying bonus event of which he sealed the season championship a race ago at Brainerd — losing to Leah Pruett. On race day, Kalitta defeated Will Smith and Tripp Tatum before facing Tony Stewart in the semifinals. With his semifinal berth, and on the heels of four wins, four No. 1 qualifiers, and a 36-10 round record, Kalitta clinched the regular season championship. Kalitta earned 22 bonus points in all for the Countdown through his success in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge this year.
Kalitta will head into the inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park in Michigan in two weeks with a 26-point advantage over Langdon and the other 11 drivers who qualified for the Countdown.
“It’s always been important,” Kalitta said of the bonus points added to his season total via the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. “Right down to the end, normally, it’s within single digits for the championship. We’re hoping it’s not that close this year, but when it is, this kind of stuff here really matters.”
Kalitta’s four wins, plus teammate Shawn Langdon’s five — including winning Monday at the U.S. Nationals — gives Kalitta Motorsports victories at nine of the 13 races in the regular season. More impressively, the Kalitta Top Fuel drivers have competed in 53 of the 55 rounds of racing contested this season.
Kalitta’s toughest championship challenge no doubt will come from within the Kalitta Motorsports compound; Langdon was the points leader for eight straight races — from Georgia in early May to Seattle in late July — and finished the regular season just eight points back of the reigning champion after he went on a three-race winning spree. The pair finished 249 points ahead of third-place Leah Pruett — a driver who’s also been surging, with four semifinal-round appearances in a row and six on the season, with a lone win.
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