It was another successful weekend for Kalitta Motorsports after Doug Kalitta swept the weekend at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Kalitta was the No. 1 qualifier at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals. It was his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 54th of his career. His best qualifying attempt was during the first session Saturday afternoon when he made a 3.738-second pass at 336.82 mph.
Kalitta defeated his teammate, Shawn Langdon, and Steve Torrence in the first four-wide round, Brittany Force and Josh Hart in the semifinals followed by Justin Ashley, Steve Torrence and Tony Stewart in the final round of 4-Wide eliminations. Kalitta had the low elapsed time in each of the three eliminations rounds. His 3.715-second final round run was low elapsed time of the weekend, and his semifinal speed, 336.65 mph, was the fastest speed of race day.
It was Kalitta’s 53rd-career victory, and with Kalitta’s win, and Langdon’s wins in Gainesville and Phoenix, Kalitta Motorsports now has three Top Fuel wins in the season’s first four races.
When Kalitta advanced to the quarterfinals, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte in two weeks. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the quarterfinals in Las Vegas will re-run the quarterfinals in the 4-Wide format with the four winners advancing to the “finals” earning additional purse and championship bonus points.
Kalitta leaves Las Vegas in fourth place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails third-place Steve Torrence by 10 points and leads fifth-place Billy Torrence by 41 points.
“That was a helluva run (in the final), and I was really happy to see that win light come on,” Kalitta said. “Those other three teams are all hungry and all running pretty strong. That was about as exciting as it gets – it was a super-close race for all four cars. The fans got their money’s worth today, and we came out with the win.
“Getting my first four-wide win was real special for me, and it was great to have our friends from Mac Tools, Revchem, Safety-Kleen and Toyota here with us to enjoy it. I’ve been really hungry to try to pull off one of these. My Mac Tools guys really had my car running strong this week. We qualified low, and I think we were low of each session so it would have been quite a shame to miss this opportunity. Fortunately, we got it done. I just love being out here. Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) gives us great cars, and we’ve put together a helluva team with Chad (General Manager Chad Head) leading our charge. We’re real fortunate to have this early success with all of our cars winning this season so we’re just trying to keep all three teams running strong with everyone working together. We’re trying to make Connie proud of all of us. We were able to pull it off so it was a good day.”
J.R. Todd was the No. 3 qualifier at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals. His best qualifying attempt came in the final session Saturday afternoon when he made a 3.930-second run at 322.19 mph.
Todd and the DHL Toyota team defeated Dan Wilkerson and Doug Richards before losing to Ron Capps and Matt Hagan in the semifinals.
When Todd advanced to the quarterfinals, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte in two weeks. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the quarterfinals in Las Vegas will re-run the quarterfinals in the 4-Wide format with the four winners advancing to the “finals” earning additional purse and championship bonus points.
Todd leaves Las Vegas in second place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails first-place Austin Prock by 48 points and leads third-place Bob Tasca by 42 points.
“It was good to make it to the second round,” Todd said. “The DHL GR Supra team was just a little behind all weekend – we still have some work to do to be able to run with the front runners out here, but it was still a good weekend for our team, Revchem, Safety-Kleen and SealMaster. The DHL guys keep working their butts off; the consistency has come around – now we just have to fine tune it.”
Shawn Langdon was the No. 8 qualifier at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals. He recorded his quickest qualifying attempt in the final qualifying session Saturday afternoon when he ran a 3.798-second pass at 305.56 mph.
After winning two of the season’s first three races, Langdon lost to his teammate, Doug Kalitta, and Steve Torrence in the first round of eliminations. The first-round loss was his first of the season.
Langdon leaves Las Vegas in second place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails first-place Justin Ashley by 23 points and leads third-place Steve Torrence by 28 points.
“We were in a tough quad in the first round, and we smoked the tires down the track; it happens. When you run (Steve) Torrence and Doug (Kalitta), you have to make a good run to advance, and we smoked the tires down there. I’m not really worried about it; it’s just one race. All in all, everything still looks good. Everyone on our Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team is still excited about this season. Sometimes things don’t go your way, but we still have a great team and a great car. We’ll move on and be ready to go at Charlotte for Revchem, Safety-Kleen and everyone else that supports us.”
Team Kalitta will be back in action April 26-28, 2024 at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, N.C. For additional information, please visit www.nhra.com. For additional information on Kalitta Motorsports, please visit www.teamkalitta.com.
This story was originally published on April 16, 2024. 
