Another Final Round for Points Leader Doug Kalitta and Mac Tools in Phoenix

Chandler, AZ – The Mac Tools team and Doug Kalitta advanced to their third consecutive final round in a row extending back to last season’s win at the Auto Club Finals. Two weeks ago Kalitta claimed his third consecutive win at the historic Winternationals in impressive fashion defeating the No.1 and No. 2 qualifiers on the road to victory. Today at the NHRA Arizona Nationals Kalitta blazed his way to another final round in the desert and came up just short of claiming his second Top Fuel win at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.

“We had a great day today ever if we didn’t get our second win of the season,” said Kalitta. “Our performance all day just kept getting better and better. I have to thank everyone at TRD, NGK and Mobil 1 along with Mac Tools for all the support. We had some tough competitors and just about every round we were racing a championship caliber team. We got three win lights and we’ll head to the Gatornationals with some momentum.”

Kalitta entered race day as the No. 8 qualifier but he made solid and quick runs to defeat Shawn Reed, Brittany Force and Antron Brown before falling to two-time world champion Steve Torrence in his 103rd career final round. Kalitta picked up three round wins today giving him a career total of 697 round wins.

In the final round Kalitta left beside Torrence and both Top Fuel dragsters were roaring down the track when his Mac Tools dragster hazed the tires for the first time on race day. That was just enough of an opening for his opponent to shoot past him for the win. Kalitta will leave Phoenix as the Mello Yello Top Fuel point leader with 212 points and a commanding 59 point lead over second place.

The veteran driver’s day started with a strong performance win over Reed. He laid down his quickest and fastest run of the weekend lighting up the scoreboard with a winning time and speed of 3.711 seconds at 330.07 mph. The speed was Kalitta’s fastest speed of the young 2020 season.

In the second round he faced the No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force. For the second race in a row Kalitta was too much for Force to handle. His Mac Tools dragster stormed down the track with 3.695 second run. The race was decided on the starting line when Kalitta grabbed a reaction time advantage and it paid off at the finish line. He took the win by eleven feet at over 325 mph.

Kalitta took lane choice and momentum into the semifinals against Antron Brown. It was another dominant win by the Mac Tools team. The strength of their performance partners in NGK spark plugs and Mobil 1 gave Kalitta and his team confidence to continue to press for quicker elapsed times. The 2019 Top Fuel championship runner-up made a monster run against Brown crossing the finish line in 3.672 seconds at 330.55 mph. The run gave Kalitta lane choice headed into the final round.

“That semifinal round win was impressive. We knew we could step it up and that run was just about perfect. We went right on down there and got a win. Running 3.67 is pretty impressive and just shows how much confidence Rob Flynn has in this race car. I couldn’t be more proud of this whole Mac Tools team,” added Kalitta.

The final featured the top two teams from 2019 and gave the sellout crowd a preview of a battle that many believe will rage all season. Both drivers left with .066 reactions times and Kalitta’s dragster lost traction for a millisecond and that cost his team today.

Quotable:
Doug Kalitta on start of 2020 season: “Man, we are off to a great start. I would have loved to have gotten another win today but you look at our performance and we got stronger every run. It looks like we might have given it a  little too much in the final but we can correct that. We have the points lead and we are giving the fans and our sponsors like Mac Tools, Toyota, Mobil 1, NGK, Sealmaster and WIX Filters a great show.”

Statistics:
Qualified: No. 8 (3.740 sec., 323.50 mph)
Bonus points: +2 (2nd quickest of Q1)

Race Details:
First Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
Doug Kalitta               8          .051     3.711   330.07 (W)
Shawn Reed                9          No Time

Second Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
Doug Kalitta               8          .074     3.695   325.69 (W)
Brittany Force             1          .106     3.685   334.15

Semifinal Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
Doug Kalitta               8          .073     3.672   330.55 (W)
Antron Brown              13        .068     4.360   183.74

Final Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
Doug Kalitta               8          .066     4.052   218.90
Steve Torrence            2          .066     3.679   321.27 (W)