It was another winning weekend for Kalitta Motorsports at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park.
Shawn Langdon was the No. 5 qualifier at the NHRA Arizona Nationals. His best qualifying attempt came during the final qualifying round Saturday afternoon when he posted a 3.750-second elapsed time at 327.74 mph.
Langdon defeated Josh Hart, Antron Brown, Steve Torrence and Justin Ashley on the way to his second winner’s circle celebration in the season’s first three races. Langdon was off the starting line first in the final and never looked back racing to the win light with a 3.760-second run at 318.69 mph to Ashley’s 3.849-second effort. It was Langdon’s 19th-career victory in a rematch of the Phoenix final-round matchup, which Ashley won, last season.
When Langdon advanced to the quarterfinals, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at next week’s NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the quarterfinals in Phoenix 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.
Langdon leaves Phoenix in first place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He leads second-place Justin Ashley by 36 points.
“You know, it really was a picture-perfect day,” said Langdon. “This whole Kalitta Air team, from Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta), Chad Head (Kalitta Motorsports General Manager), to Brian Husen (crew-chief) coming over this year. Brian’s done such a fantastic job making some crew changes and the crew has been absolutely flawless. They’ve given me a picture-perfect car all year long. There were a lot of variables out there today; the track was tricky on that transfer spot onto the asphalt. The guys gave me a flawless car, and Brian did an excellent job.
“First round, we had a little bit of a weird hiccup but the rest of the runs went a lot smoother. I knew in the final, Justin (Ashley) and that whole SCAG group over there with Tommy (DeLago, crew chief) and Mike Green (co-crew chief), they’re a tough bunch. I was thinking in my head, ‘I just got to leave with Justin and let Brian do his work.’ When I hit the gas, I said, ‘well, we got a shot.’ So, congrats to Brian, the whole Kalitta Air team, everyone at Toyota, DHL, Revchem and Mac Tools. Two out of three is not bad, but we’re ready for more.”
J.R. Todd was the No. 5 qualifier at the NHRA Arizona Nationals. During the first round of qualifying Friday afternoon, Todd made his best qualifying run – a 3.923-second effort at 320.58 mph. It was his best qualifying effort of the season.
Todd defeated Cruz Pedregon and John Force before losing to Austin Prock in the semifinals – it was a rematch of the Gainesville final round Todd won. In the Phoenix semifinal, Todd left the starting line first, but Prock won the race by two thousandths of a second. Todd now has a win and two semifinals in the season’s first three races.
When Todd advanced to the quarterfinals, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at next week’s NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the quarterfinals in Phoenix 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 Phoenix in first place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He leads second-place Austin Prock by two points.
“All in all, it was a good weekend for the DHL Toyota team,” said Todd. “We qualified well and put ourselves in a good position for race day. We went down the race track every time so clearly the consistency is coming around which is good. We got some bonus points which is good, and we’re in the Mission Foods deal again at Las Vegas. In the semis, I’m mad at myself for not being better on the starting line. When you lose by two thousandths and then see the reaction time, you definitely know you can make that up, but all in all, it was a good day for DHL, Revchem, SealMaster and our crew guys who busted their butts all weekend – I’m really proud of those guys.”
Doug Kalitta was the No. 3 qualifier at the NHRA Arizona Nationals; it was his best qualifying position of the season. Late Friday afternoon, Kalitta made a 3.697-second pass at 323.66 mph to claim the No. 3 position.
Kalitta defeated Terry Totten before losing to Justin Ashley in the quarterfinals.
When Kalitta advanced to the quarterfinals, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at next week’s NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the quarterfinals in Phoenix 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 Phoenix in sixth place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails fifth-place Antron Brown by one point and leads seventh-place Tony Schumacher by one point.
“That run there in the second round was gonna be really tight,” said Kalitta. “The SealMaster car shot a spark plug out so that kinda messed us up. Justin (Ashley) is on a little bit of a run here, but I hope to get another crack at him soon. All my guys are working hard to get this SealMaster car running the way we all want; thanks to Revchem and Toyota for helping us make this all happen.”
This story was originally published on April 8, 2024. 
