This weekend’s historic 1,000th Top Fuel race winner will accept a special NHRA “Wally” trophy as the 1,000th Top Fuel winner in NHRA history, and the 2023 Top Fuel champion wants to hoist that trophy. The 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series continues April 25-27 at the American Rebel Light NHRA Four-Wide Nationals near Charlotte.
A Top Fuel driver won in NHRA competition at 999 different races. Don Garlits won the inaugural Top Fuel race at the 1963 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. Four hundred ninety-nine races later, Doug Kalitta won NHRA’s 500th Top Fuel title at the 2002 NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex near Dallas. The Kalitta family represents a significant portion of NHRA history, and Kalitta milestones are sprinkled throughout. A Kalitta win in the 1,000th Top Fuel race would be a fitting chapter in the rich history of both the Kalitta family and the NHRA.
“Winning the 1,000th Top Fuel race would be pretty exciting – especially with my family history,” Kalitta said. “With Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) being out here as long as he’s been doing this and all he’s done in this sport, that would be really cool. We’re all trying hard to win these things. We try not to have too many distractions on different things so we can stay focused and work as a team to get it done. We definitely have a good shot at it, too, so our Mac Tools team is definitely looking forward to the opportunity.”
Kalitta won his first four-wide event last spring in Las Vegas, and he had visions of two straight on The Strip. It was not to be, but not getting the win two weeks ago has the 2023 champion laser-focused on this weekend’s race.
“We have a real good shot at winning these races; Charlotte’s facility is just beautiful, like all of Marcus and Bruton Smith’s tracks. It will be our last regular-season four-wide of the year, so we’d like to win this one and then come back and win the Playoff four-wide in the fall. Getting the four-wide in Charlotte would be one more thing we can say we’ve managed to accomplish out here. I feel good about the weekend.”
When Kalitta advanced to the Las Vegas semifinals, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge this weekend. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the semifinals in Las Vegas will re-run the semifinals in the four-wide format, with the four winners advancing to the “finals,” earning additional purse and championship bonus points.
This story was originally published on April 22, 2025. 
