Revchem Backed Team Kalitta Races To Charlotte Four-Wide Runner-Up Finish
Kalitta Motorsports wrapped up the 11th NGK NTK NHRA Four-Wide Nationals with J.R. Todd and the DHL Toyota Camry grabbing a runner-up finish in front of a packed crowd at zMAX Dragway. The dominance of the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car once again made its presence known as Todd took advantage of two days of qualifying to power his Funny Car into the race as the No. 4 Funny Car after posting the quickest run of the final qualifying session.
Today in the opening session Todd squared off against veterans Tim Wilkerson, Terry Haddock and Jim Campbell. The DHL Toyota Camry never trailed in the race as Todd was first off of the line and his Funny Car hit the finish line stripe 3.952 seconds later. The run was almost a carbon copy of his best qualifying effort and showed the consistency of the DHL team.
In the second quad Todd and the DHL Funny car team had their hands full racing against John Force, Mike McIntire and Terry Haddock. Once again Todd grabbed a starting line advantage and the Gatornationals winner advanced to the final quad along with Force who was the event’s No. 1 qualifier. It took the quickest run of the event to get around Todd for the round win.
In the final quad of the event Todd and Force squared off against Toyota teammate Alexis DeJoria and former world champion Cruz Pedregon. Todd, Force and DeJoria left the starting line together and as Todd crossed half-track it was obvious this would be a race between Todd and the 16-time champion. At the finish line Todd came up just 13 feet short at over 327 mph to Force. The DHL Toyota Camry team will head to Houston No. 2 in the Funny Car standings less than a round behind the point leader.
Todd’s teammates Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon battled it out in the Top Fuel ranks representing Revchem Composites on every pass. Doug Kalitta was looking for his first four-wide win at the 11th NGK NTK NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. The perennial championship contender won at zMAX Dragway’s fall race in 2017 and he was looking to capture his 50th career Top Fuel victory.
The first quad of racing for Kalitta included the Mac Tools dragster, along with rookie Josh Hart, veteran Billy Torrence and Kyle Wurtzel. It was an impressive first round victory for the Mac Tools dragster as it got to the finish line first with a strong 3.726 second run at 326.08 mph.
The second round quad saw Kalitta joined by Brittany Force, Hart and veteran Clay Millican. Prior to the run Millican bowed out of the quad due to a starting line issue and a trio of dragsters rolled to the starting line. When the tree fired Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster leapt off the line and was welded beside Hart’s race car. As the pair approached half-track Kalitta’s dragster fell back and slowed to 4.468 seconds. The quarterfinal finished capped his day at the race track.
The DHL Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster and driver Shawn Langdon will leave zMAX Dragway right in the middle of the Top Fuel championship hunt. The Gatornationals finalist and Southern Nationals semifinalist maintained his position as the No. 4 driver in Top Fuel at the conclusion of the 11th NGK NTK NHRA Four-Wide Nationals.
The team battled through three rounds of qualifying entering the race as the No. 11 dragster and starting the day in a quad that included Antron Brown, Leah Pruett and rookie Krista Baldwin. Langdon was first off the line and was beginning to pull away when his dragster overpowered the track. The loss of traction opened the door for Brown and Baldwin to advance to the second quad.
Kalitta Motorsports three race cars will be back on track at Houston Raceway Park next weekend representing Revchem Composites.
