For the fourth consecutive NHRA national event Josh Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster team raced to the quarterfinals. Today at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 Nationals Hart, who qualified No. 8, ousted veteran driver Clay Millican in the first round before bowing out to Doug Kalitta in the quarterfinals. After two days of qualifying Hart was confident his team was moving in the right direction, earning qualifying bonus points and positive quick runs throughout the weekend.
“You want to come off the trailer and make quick runs so you don’t get behind the eightball,” said Hart, a multi-time Top Fuel national event winner. “The weather conditions have been all over the place at Route 66 Raceway. On Friday we were one of only a couple teams to make back-to-back runs in the 3.80s and we started building on that.”
On Saturday the temperatures dropped and Hart’s team stepped up the performance and posted their quickest run of qualifying – 3.735 seconds at 329.02 mph. In the final session the team smoked the tires looking for an aggressive tune-up to head into race day. In the opening round running against Millican Hart knew he would need to be at the top of his game.
Hart and Millican were the first two race cars on the track in a tough No. 8 versus No. 9 race.
Millican was off the starting line first, but Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster quickly closed the gap and never trailed in the race. Hart with his quickest pass of the weekend for the win, 3.733 seconds to 3.746 seconds.
“That was a big win for this R+L Carriers team,” said Hart. “Clay is a tough competitor and that was a great race. Every run we can get gets us closer to winning.”
In the second round Hart squared off with No. 1 qualifier Doug Kalitta. Hart grabbed a starting line advantage with a solid .058 second reaction time in front of Kalitta’s .078 second hit. Unfortunately Hart’s Top Fuel dragster went up in smoke as the Goodyear slicks overpowered a tricky Route 66 Raceway track. Hart had to sit and watch as Kalitta got to the stripe with a 3.723 second run.
“Conditions were constantly changing and a lot of teams were battling every run,” said Hart. “We just got a little aggressive but every run we get data and we are about to get into a good racing groove. We will have a lot of races in hot conditions which gives us the chance to build on some of the data we got this weekend.”
Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel team will be back on track at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., June 6-8.
This story was originally published on May 19, 2025. 
