KALITTA’S SECOND LEADS TOYOTA IN NHRA BRISTOL QUALIFYING

BRISTOL, TN – Doug Kalitta qualified second in Top Fuel with a 3.781-second pass to lead Toyota in qualifying for Sunday’s NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at the Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn.

Kalitta was the quickest qualifier on Friday in his Mac Tools/Toyota dragster, earning three bonus points. He fell just short of becoming the only active Top Fuel driver to register a number one qualifier at every track on the circuit – falling to second on the final Top Fuel qualifying run of the weekend.

Antron Brown notched the quickest pass in Saturday’s first qualifying session and placed seventh overall. The series’ point leader will match up with Pat Dakin in Sunday’s first round.

Both Troy Coughlin Jr. and Shawn Langdon struggled with the difficult conditions in qualifying. Coughlin placed 14th and Langdon was 15th.  Langdon will square off against teammate Kalitta in the opening round of eliminations, while Coughlin will race Leah Pritchett.

Alexis DeJoria was the top qualifying Camry Funny Car, placing seventh after registering the third quickest time in the final session to earn one bonus point in her Tequila Patron Toyota. She was one of just three drivers to run in the 3.9s on Saturday. DeJoria will face Funny Car point leader Ron Capps in round one.

Del Worsham placed 11th, while Cruz Pedregon was12th and J.R. Todd finished 13th.

Today’s qualifying can be seen tonight at 11 p.m. on FS1, with Sunday’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series eliminations being televised on FS1 at 6:30 p.m.