YPSILANTI, MI – J.R. Todd’s pre-season goal, after a championship of course, was a top-five finish in points. That goal is definitely in reach entering the season’s final race. The 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series ends this weekend at the In ‘N Out Burger NHRA Finals on the In ‘N Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Pomona, Calif., the last of six races that make up the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs.

With 20 of 21 races now in the rear-view mirror, Todd and team are in position for a top-five finish in the season standings. Entering this week’s final race of the season, Todd is sixth in points just 14 points out of fifth place, but what is interesting about the In ‘N Out Burger NHRA Finals is that NHRA awards points and a half. Instead of earning 20 points for winning a round on Sunday, the winning driver is awarded 30 points. With that in mind, Todd could potentially make up the 117-point deficit and move up to a fourth-place finish.

Continue reading →

YPSILANTI, MI – Call it what you will for Doug Kalitta and his Mac Tools Toyota team: final round, medal round, game seven, championship heat, last race or, well, the NHRA Finals. Regardless, the entire season comes down to this one event and these four remaining rounds of 2023 racing. The 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series ends this weekend at the In ‘N Out Burger NHRA Finals on the In ‘N Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Pomona, Calif., the last of six races that make up the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs.

For Kalitta, it’s an opportunity to accomplish the one thing he’s never done in NHRA Top Fuel Drag Racing: win a season championship. He’s been close many times. In fact, he has six runner up finishes in the season standings with his most-recent second-place run coming in 2019.

Earlier this season in the first race of the Countdown in Reading, Pa., Kalitta ended a different drought claiming his 50th race win after a nearly two-year wait, and he followed it up the next weekend with win No. 51 winning the first and second of the six playoff races. Those wins put him where he is today – 15 markers behind points leader Steve Torrence entering the season’s final race.

Continue reading →

LAS VEGAS – Qualifying: Shawn Langdon was the No. 8 qualifier at the NHRA Nevada Nationals; Langdon’s best qualifying attempt came in the final qualifying session Saturday afternoon when he made a 3.711-second run at 327.51 mph.

Eliminations: Langdon and Tony Schumacher were the first pair of the first round. Langdon was on a solid run when the Future Energy Solutions dragster encountered an engine malfunction allowing Schumacher to take the win light 3.697 seconds to 3.744 seconds.

Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon leaves Las Vegas in 12th place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails 11th-place Josh Hart by two points and 10th place Clay Millican by 28 points with one race remaining in the season.

Langdon on Las Vegas: “The guys on our Future Energy Solutions Toyota team are working as hard as they can – they have a great work ethic. We just can’t seem to find the right combination. We all want to do well for everyone who supports us like Kalitta Air and Revchem, but we want to do well for ourselves, too. We have one more chance – we’ll do all we can to finish the season with a good race in Pomona.”

Continue reading →

LAS VEGAS – Qualifying: J.R. Todd was the No. 10 qualifier at the NHRA Nevada Nationals. Todd made a 3.909-second pass at 329.58 mph for his quickest qualifying run of the weekend.

Eliminations: Todd raced Cruz Pedregon in the first round. Todd left the starting line first, but both cars smoked the tires turning the round into battle to determine which driver could pedal his car best. Unfortunately, Pedregon reached the finish line first ending the day for the DHL Toyota team.

Unofficial Point Standings: Todd leaves Las Vegas in sixth place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails fifth-place John Force by 14 points and leads seventh-place Chad Green by eight points with one race remaining in the season.

Todd on Las Vegas: “This weekend definitely didn’t work out like we hoped. The first-round with Cruz (Pedregon) was exciting, but it obviously would have been a lot better for DHL, Toyota, Revchem and SealMaster if we’d gotten that win light. We can still get to up to fifth in points, but we need a good race in Pomona. We’ll give it another shot when we get there.”

LAS VEGAS – Qualifying: Doug Kalitta was the No. 4 qualifier at the NHRA Nevada Nationals. It was his 14th top-four qualifying effort of the season including each of the last eight races. His best qualifying attempt came in the final qualifying session Saturday afternoon when he posted a 3.696-second effort at 334.90 mph.

Eliminations: Kalitta defeated T.J. Zizzo before losing to Josh Hart in the second round when the DHL dragster’s engine malfunctioned at the finish line. Hart left the starting line before Kalitta and won the round by one thousandth of a second.

Unofficial Point Standings: Kalitta leaves Las Vegas in second place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails first-place Steve Torrence by 15 points and leads third-place Leah Pruett by 19 points.

Kalitta on Las Vegas: “Josh had a better light (reaction time) than I had; it’s unfortunate and obviously bad timing. We’ll lick our wounds for a couple of weeks and get back at it. That’s all we can do. We knew it was going down to Pomona – that’s for sure.”

YPSILANTI, MI – Shawn Langdon is sporting a new look this weekend – the 2013 Top Fuel champ is flying the Future Energy Solutions (FES) colors as he races into the season’s penultimate event in search of a positive ending to a challenging season. The 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Season resumes this weekend with the Nevada NHRA Nationals on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the fifth of six races making up the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs.

After a season of ups and downs, none of which resulted in a win, just what recipe could make that positive ending? Langdon and his FES Toyota team made some excellent runs in qualifying at the last race, including posting Landgon’s career-best speed, 335.87 mph, but that performance to did not translate to race day. The most obvious ingredients needed for late-season success are round wins and a race win – that would fix a lot, and it would put Langdon and team in excellent position to not only finish the season in the top 10, but also possibly take out some championship contenders to assist teammate Doug Kalitta in his battle to win his first Top Fuel title.

“We’d love to be a really good blocker for Doug,” Langdon said. “It would be incredible to see Doug win this championship, and if we can help, even a little bit, that would be great! We tested between St. Louis and Dallas and made some good progress with some really nice runs at the last race, but we weren’t able to carry that over to race day in Dallas. For us to finish strong, we have to get this Future Energy Solutions Toyota team qualified in the top half of the field and then make the same strong runs we made in qualifying on race day. If we can do that, the rest will take care of itself.”

Continue reading →

YPSILANTI, MI – Coming off one of his best races of the 2023 season, J.R. Todd hopes his DHL team’s “new combination” will combine with healthy desire to finish the season on a high note. The 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Season resumes this weekend with the Nevada NHRA Nationals on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the fifth of six races making up the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs.

One race ago in Texas, Todd qualified No. 6 and reached the semifinals for his best Countdown showing to date. With three good qualifying runs and a strong performance on race day, Todd and team have high hopes for the season’s remaining races, in which it will compete with the DHL #AsOneAgainstCancer livery.

“Our Dallas race was definitely the best race we’ve had in a long time,” Todd said. “We qualified really well and made our best run there in Q4 (fourth qualifying session – 3.857 secs. at 330.32 mph) – it was the best run we’d made in a really long time. That’s definitely showing some promise going into the last two races of the year.”

Continue reading →

YPSILANTI, MI – Doug Kalitta and his Mac Tools Toyota team are in the thick of the battle for the 2023 NHRA Top Fuel title – right where any competitor would want to be. The 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Season resumes this weekend with the Nevada NHRA Nationals on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the fifth of six races making up the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs.

The current top-three contenders for the 2023 Top Fuel title are separated by just 14 points. Kalitta trails points leader Leah Pruett by four points and leads third-place Steve Torrence by nine points with two races remaining in the season. Kalitta won the first two playoff races; Pruett won the last race. Torrence has two final rounds and a semifinal so each of the current top-three contenders is in good form.

Two weeks ago, Kalitta and his Mac Tools Toyota team set the Texas Motorplex track speed record reaching 336.73 mph during the opening qualifying session. That run eventually made the Michigan driver the No. 2 qualifier continuing the team’s excellent qualifying efforts this season; Kalitta has 13 top-four qualifying efforts this season including each of the last seven races. The Mac Tools team is running well, and Kalitta is enjoying being in the hunt for the 2023 Top Fuel title.

Continue reading →

ENNIS, TX – Qualifying: Shawn Langdon was the No. 10 qualifier at the Texas NHRA FallNationals; Langdon made his best qualifying attempt during the first session on Saturday needing just 3.683 seconds to reach the finish line at 335.87 mph – it was the fastest speed of his career. Langdon’s final three qualifying times were 3.684, 3.683 and 3.686 seconds. The top-12 qualifiers all posted elapsed times in the 3.60s.

Eliminations: Langdon’s Kalitta Air Careers car smoked the tires almost immediately after the run began allowing Leah Pruett to cruise to the win. Langdon tried to pedal the car, but Pruett was out of reach.

Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon leaves Dallas in 11th place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails the drivers tied for ninth place, Austin Prock and Tony Schumacher, by 29 points and leads 12th-place Josh Hart by 37 points.

Continue reading →

ENNIS, TX – Qualifying: J.R. Todd was the No. 6 qualifier at the Texas NHRA FallNationals. Todd saved his best for the final round of qualifying late Saturday afternoon when he posted a 3.857-second effort at 330.82 mph.

Eliminations: Todd defeated Blake Alexander and Terry Haddock before racing John Force in the semifinals. Both cars smoked the tires early in the run, and both drivers pedaled. Force’s car hooked back up to the race track first, and he went onto win the race.

Unofficial Point Standings: Todd leaves Dallas in sixth place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails fifth-place Ron Capps by 13 points and leads seventh-place Chad Green by nine points with two races remaining in the season.

Todd on Dallas: “It was a good day overall going rounds and getting to the later rounds – that’s always the key,” Todd said. “We were pretty tuned up there for the semifinals against Force because that car’s been really good all weekend. We figured we had to make a really strong run against them, and we both went up there and threw up. Continue reading →