TOYOTA’S CRAMPTON WINS 50th GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE, FL – Richie Crampton drove his DHL Toyota dragster to a holeshot victory over Clay Millican in the 
finals of Sunday’s 50th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway, becoming just the seventh Top Fuel driver in history to win back-to-back at the historic event.
Crampton knocked off fellow Toyota driver Antron Brown in the opening round and then defeated Leah Pritchett on a holeshot in round two. He then beat T.J. Zizzo in the semifinals to set up the match-up with Millican. In the finals, Crampton had a .016 advantage on the tree and then had the power to hold on for the holeshot win with a margin of victory of just 0.0032 seconds or approximately 18 inches.
“It was just a career day for me to win the 50th Gatornationals,” said Crampton, who earned his ninth career Top Fuel win. “We had a really good DHL Toyota dragster. Everyone had to work hard – from Connie (Kalitta) to the crew guys to myself. I feel like we earned it here today. We live and die on our reaction times. Coming into the race today, I knew I needed to be on it. The field we have in Top Fuel now is the cream of the crop. You’re winning and losing everything on the starting line and I’m focusing on that. I’m pretty proud of what we accomplished today.”
Crampton wasn’t the only Kalitta Motorsports Toyota Top Fuel driver to enjoy success on Sunday as Doug Kalitta advanced to the semifinals and took over the series point lead in the process. Kalitta outran Terry McMillen in the opening round and then dispatched 2018 series champion Steve Torrence in round two with a blistering 3.703-second pass. In the semifinals versus Millican, Kalitta had an .023 advantage at the starting line, then pulled away to a sizable .078 lead at 330’, before losing a belt and going up in smoke on the way to a 4.920-second effort in a losing cause.
“I was really hoping that we could have had this Mac Tools Toyota dragster in the finals with Richie,” relayed Kalitta. “It just wasn’t meant to be today. We’re really happy with how we’ve started off the season. (Crew chiefs) Rob Flynn and Troy Fasching and all of these guys have really been dialing it in. It’s been really fun to watch. We had a really good car today and I’m really proud of this team. Now we just have to take it to the next one.”
In Funny Car, both J.R. Todd and Shawn Langdon were eliminated in the opening round.
The 2019 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads west to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the second running of the DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, April 5-7.
