because you want to SEE it

Toyota NHRA Arizona Nationals Preview

KALITTA LOOKS TO MAKE IT TWO IN A ROW – Coming off a season-opening win at the Winternationals in Pomona, Doug Kalitta will be looking to make it two in a row this weekend in Phoenix. Kalitta now has registered at least one Top Fuel victory in each of the last six seasons and in 18 of 21 overall. The Mac Tools Toyota driver has 44 career Top Fuel victories – good for fifth all-time.  He has one Phoenix win to his credit (2001) and has earned three runner-up finishes (2015, 2010, 2004) at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.

Doug Kalitta: “To get the first win of the season and get that monkey off our back was huge. My guys have had a lot of work to do to prepare for Phoenix. We blew up a lot of stuff in Pomona. But we’ll be ready. We’ll go there and see if we can qualify upfront and try to get another win.”


BROWN EYES FOURTH PHOENIX WIN – Antron Brown, the most dominant Top Fuel driver of the decade, will be looking to secure his fourth Arizona Nationals title this weekend. Brown took top honors at the Phoenix track in 2014, 2012 and 2009 and also was the runner-up there in 2011.  Since 2012, the three-time world champion has won more than twice the number of races (34) than the next highest Top Fuel driver (16) in that time period.

Antron Brown: “We had a great performance at Pomona (semi-finals) and I couldn’t be more proud of what our Matco/Toyota guys did. Now we are going to Phoenix where we’ve won three times and we’ll just try to hit it hard and get a fourth.”

PEDREGON TRENDING UPWARD – After a rebuilding season in 2017, Cruz Pedregon is trending upward early in his Snap-on Toyota Camry Funny Car.  After qualifying in the top half of the field at Pomona, Pedregon knocked off Tommy Johnson Jr. in the first round and appeared to have Matt Hagan beaten in the second round before losing a cylinder and still lost by just five one-thousandths of a second.  Hagan would go on to win the event.  This week, Pedregon’s young team will return to Wild Horse Pass where they were third-quickest on the final day of testing in early February.

LANGDON CONTINUES FUNNY CAR TRANSITION – After being one of the most successful Top Fuel drivers over the past five years, including a 2013 world championship, Shawn Langdon will continue his transition to Funny Car this weekend in the Global Electronic Technology Camry.  Langdon lost in the first round to Ron Capps in his first-ever Funny Car race at Pomona.  Now, after shedding the first-race jitters, he should be much more comfortable at this weekend’s Arizona Nationals where Langdon registered a Funny Car-high 13 runs at the Phoenix track in the NHRA Spring Training session held just three weeks ago.

Share
  • MBE Button 290x
Team/Series News
Follow Us On Facebook
Facebook Pagelike Widget