Doug Kalitta reached his second semifinal of the season at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals two weeks ago – it was just part of the “good progress” Team Kalitta made in Bristol with two semifinal appearances. With an energized team and Applied Innovation on the car this weekend, Kalitta’s Toyota team is poised to make more progress at one of the most fan-friendly stops on the tour. The NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series resumes this weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals June 23-25, 2023, in Norwalk, Ohio.
The other part of that positive from the double-race weekend featuring the Thunder Valley Nationals and rain-delayed eliminations for the New England Nationals was six runs down the race track resulting in a solid speed and elapsed time showing the Applied Innovations car is becoming a consistently quick race car. Consistent runs lead to round wins, which lead to race wins. In addition, the Team Kalitta DHL Toyota Funny Car, driven by J.R. Todd, made the New England Nationals semifinals on Saturday.
“We made a lot of good runs down the track and reached the Bristol semifinals – it feels good to see our guys starting to have a little success after all the hard work they’ve been putting into this team,” said Doug Kalitta. “I think we’re making some good progress. It’s all about going rounds on Sunday, so we just have to keep our heads down and keep working.”
Kalitta has one Norwalk win in three final rounds, and he’ll look to take Applied Innovation to the winner’s circle this weekend. Applied is a family-owned company founded as printer, copier and fax company in 1987. Since that time, it has evolved into a complete office technology provider.
“Our relationship with Kalitta Motorsports stems from a number of similarities,” Applied Innovation president, CEO and owner John Lowery said. “We are both family-owned, Michigan-based companies with the same culture and values. But most importantly, they understand the true meaning of a partnership. And don’t forget there’s Doug’s 330mph nitro-burning, ground-shaking top fuel dragster with Applied’s name on it!”
“Applied Innovation is a vital partner at Kalitta Motorsports and Kalitta Air,” Team Kalitta general manager Chad Head said. “They manage all our printing needs, but they also cover everything on the networking and IT fronts for us, so the services they provide keep us up and running. The same goes for both Kalitta Air and Kalitta Charters but on a much larger scale. We rely on them literally every day, and we’re proud to showcase them on Doug’s car this weekend.”
Races in Norwalk are always special because of the incredible fan base, but for Team Kalitta, it’s also the race closest to Ypsilanti, Michigan, the home base for both the race team and Kalitta Air.
“The Bader family does a great job with that facility, and we all like racing at Norwalk,” Kalitta added. “It’s close to Ypsilanti, where our home base is, so we’ll get a few extra people there from the local area down there so it’ll be fun. We just want to keep the momentum going, keep our heads down and get after it there. With it being so close to our home base, it’s the best time for our employees and some of their families to get to a race, so we’ll definitely encourage people to come out, support our teams and have some fun with it.”
This story was originally published on June 20, 2023. 
