KALITTA, TODD LEAD TOYOTA IN NHRA TOYOTA NATIONALS QUALIFYING

LAS VEGAS – Doug Kalitta qualified fifth in Top Fuel, while teammate J.R. Todd matched that feat in Funny Car to lead Toyota into Sunday’s NHRA Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Kalitta registered a 3.735-second pass at 323.19 miles per hour to jump up into the fifth spot in the final qualifying session of the weekend on Saturday night, while Todd ran his 3.884 at 330.23 mph in his Camry on Friday night.  The two Kalitta drivers will attempt to continue a streak that has seen a team driver reach the finals in each of the last seven Toyota-sponsored races dating back to 2014.

Shawn Langdon qualified seventh in Top Fuel and will match-up with fellow Toyota driver and reigning world champion Antron Brown in round one after Brown qualified tenth. Richie Crampton rounds out the Toyota Top Fuel drivers in 11th.  The Langdon-Brown match-up has huge championship implications with a potential second-round match-up with point leader Steve Torrence.

“We have control of our own destiny tomorrow, so we need to do what we’re capable of doing,” said Brown, who clinched the Top Fuel title in Las Vegas each of the past two seasons. “We just need to go out and focus on winning the first round and then we will take it from there and get lined up for round two. We’re just going to do what we do and run what we’re capable of and everything else will take care of itself.”

Kalitta also has a potential major pairing in round two as he could match-up with Brittany Force, who currently sits one spot ahead of Kalitta in second place heading into Sunday.

Cruz Pedregon qualified seventh this weekend and will face fellow Camry driver Alexis DeJoria in the opening round, while Todd squares off with Del Worsham in the second all-Camry match-up.

Saturday’s final qualifying can be seen on FS1 Sunday at 3:00 p.m., with the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series eliminations following immediately on FS1 live beginning at 4:00 p.m. (EDT).