KALITTA EARNS NUMBER ONE QUALIFER IN TOP FUEL AT BRISTOL

LANGDON SETS PERSONAL BEST WITH SECOND IN FUNNY CAR

BRISTOL, TN – Doug Kalitta captured number one qualifier honors in Top Fuel with a 3.755-second pass at 324.67 mph, while Shawn Langdon set a new personal best as the number two qualifier in Funny Car to lead Toyota in preparation for Sunday’s NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at the Bristol Dragway.
The pole is the first of the season for Kalitta and the 50th of his Top Fuel career, coming in his 500th career NHRA event.

“We are always excited to come here,” said Kalitta, who will face Cameron Ferre in the first round on Sunday. “I remember coming here when I was working on Connie’s (Kalitta, team owner) cars back in the ‘80s so it’s a lot of cool history coming here just for me. It was a nice run though. It’s been awhile since we were low qualifier any of the days. I’m real proud of my guys though. We’re working our tails off to try and make it happen.”

Rounding out the Toyota Top Fuel ranks, Antron Brown qualified fourth and will meet Audrey Worm in round one, while Richie Crampton placed ninth and will square off with Terry McMillen in eliminations.

In Funny Car, Langdon set a new personal-best of second in the category with a 3.944 at 324.51 mph.  Langdon, the 2013 Top Fuel world champion, drove his Global Electronic Technology Toyota Camry to his first career Funny Car win in April at Charlotte. He’s now qualified in the top six in five of the last six races. He will race Jeff Diehl in Sunday’s first round.

Not far behind Langdon was Kalitta Motorsports teammate J.R. Todd, who placed fifth in his DHL Camry to set up a first-round match-up with Terry Haddock.

For the weekend, four of the five Toyota drivers earned bonus points for running in the top three of a session with Kalitta (3), Langdon (3), Brown (2) and Todd (1) earning points.

Sunday’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series eliminations will be televised on FS1 beginning at 2:00 p.m. (EDT).