YPSILANTI, MI – When 2013 NHRA Top Fuel champion Shawn Langdon eases the Kalitta Air Careers dragster to the starting line for his first qualifying attempt of the 2024 season, he’ll do so with a new crew chief, a revamped race team and a car that’s similar to the one his teammate drives. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing season begins with the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals set for historic Gainesville Raceway March 8-10, 2024 in Gainesville, Fla.

Brian Husen joins Langdon’s team as crew chief for the first time in his career, and it’s a reunion of sorts from when the two worked together at Alan Johnson Racing where Langdon won the 2013 NHRA Top Fuel championship. Husen comes to the Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team following two seasons as Crew Chief Alan Johnson’s assistant on Doug Kalitta’s Mac Tools team that won the 2023 NHRA Top Fuel title. The changes to his team have Langdon energized, to say the least, entering the new season.

“I’m definitely looking forward to this new year,” Langdon said. “We had a couple really trying years so going into this year and bringing in a couple new guys and having Brian Husen lead the way on our Kalitta Air Careers team changes everything. I’m really excited for Brian to have the opportunity to get his shot at being crew chief. He’s very, very talented, and I’ve had a lot of respect for him since I worked with him at Alan Johnson Racing 10 years ago. I’m just really excited for him to get the opportunity to show what he can do.”

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YPSILANTI, MI – Doug Kalitta, defending champion. That has a nice ring to it. The veteran racer, for the first time in his career, enters the season with the No. 1 on his car as the defending NHRA Top Fuel champion. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing season opens this weekend at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals set for March 8-10, 2024.

Kalitta won the 2024 title when he won the In ‘n Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., last November. It was his third win of the six-race Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs, and the entire season came down to the final round of the final race. When it was all over, Kalitta was the champion.

“It’s kinda nice,” the three-time Gatornationals winner said. “Obviously, a lot of people are proud we pulled this (championship) off, and it’ll be fun to see the fans at all the places we go and have some fun being the champ coming in. After our (pre-season) testing, I think our Mac Tools car is running well so we’re feeling confident coming into the season.

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YPSILANTI, MI – In one of the longest-running and most-successful sports marketing partnerships, DHL and Kalitta Motorsports signed a multi-year contract extension for J.R. Todd’s DHL GR Supra Funny Car, the team announced today. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series begins Friday at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

The 2024 NHRA season is the 17th of the DHL-Kalitta Motorsports partnership. What started in 2007 as an agreement to sponsor race cars is now a relationship that enjoys success on and off the race track, including charitable efforts, business-to-business networking and track-side experiences for DHL customers.

In addition to winning NHRA Funny Car championships with Del Worsham (2015) and current driver J.R. Todd (2018), DHL and Team Kalitta partner in the fight against cancer as well as the fight against food insecurity. Through “The Race to End Hunger,” DHL, Kalitta Motorsports and Kalitta Air worked together last season to raise funds equivalent to one million meals through Feeding America, the largest charity working to end hunger in the United States.

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YPSILANTI, MI – Kalitta Motorsports, home of 2023 NHRA Top Fuel Champion Doug Kalitta, will field teams for the same three drivers in 2024, but the team made significant changes in its Top Fuel crew chief positions promoting Brian Husen to crew chief and hiring Mac Savage to replace him, the team announced today. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series begins March 8-10, 2024 at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Husen, 50, was named crew chief of Shawn Langdon’s Kalitta Air Careers team and will now lead the 2013 NHRA Top Fuel champion’s tuning efforts. The Grand Rapids, Mich., native comes to Langdon’s team after two seasons assisting crew chief Alan Johnson on Kalitta’s Mac Tools team.

Prior to joining Team Kalitta, Husen assisted Johnson at John Force Racing, Scrappers Racing and Alan Johnson Racing. Justin Groat, who came to Team Kalitta after working on Top Fuel teams at John Force Racing and with Clay Millican, is Husen’s assistant crew chief. With more than a decade as Johnson’s assistant crew chief and another decade working as a crew member on his teams, Husen is more than ready to lead his own team.

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YPSILANTI, MI – When a partnership is successful, the natural inclination is to enhance it, and that’s exactly what Applied Innovation and Kalitta Motorsports did when they agreed to extend and expand their agreement for the upcoming NHRA season, the team announced today. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series begins March 8-10, 2024 at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Applied Innovation, with its “Power of One” 2024 theme, will be the primary partner for 2023 NHRA Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta’s dragster for the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series events in Joliet, Ill. May 17-19, 2024 and Norwalk, Ohio June 28-30, 2024. In addition, Applied Innovation will be an associate partner on Kalitta’s Mac Tools entry for the remaining 2024 races.

“What this team accomplished last season was amazing,” Applied Innovation owner John Lowery said. “We watched them work, improve and grow all season until it all came together, and we joined Team Kalitta on the road to the championship that culminated with the No. 1 on Doug’s car for 2024. If that’s not the perfect example of “the power of one,” I don’t know what is. That championship season was the power of one team working as a cohesive unit, and we are so proud to increase our partnership with Team Kalitta this year and look forward to our continued success together.”

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YPSILANTI, MI – Dayco is the newest member of the Kalitta Motorsports family of corporate partners, and Kalitta Motorsports is the newest distributor of Dayco belts, the team announced today. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series begins March 8-10, 2024 at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Through this new partnership, Dayco will have branding on J.R. Todd’s DHL GR Supra Funny Car, and Kalitta Motorsports is now the exclusive at-track distributor of Dayco 11 mm racing blower belts for nitro engines. Dayco and Team Kalitta will work together to expand the available Dayco blower belt offerings in the near future.

The Dayco 11mm blower belt is specially engineered for Top Fuel and Funny Cars with nitromethane engines. Featuring a hybrid carbon cord encapsulated in custom rubber compounds and patented low friction PTFE tooth fabric, the belt offers one of the highest load ratings in racing and has helped numerous teams cross the finish line first. That success is due in large part to the Dayco team’s utilization of real-world track data to enhance its belt designs. Additional information about Dayco’s commitment to motorsports is available here.

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YPSILANTI, MI – Doug Kalitta picked up right where he left off in November when he won both the In ‘n Out Burger NHRA Finals and the 2023 NHRA Top Fuel championship. After qualifying second at the inaugural SCAG Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout in his Applied Innovation dragster, Kalitta blasted through the eight-car field to win the special event and its $250,000 winner’s prize Saturday night in Bradenton, Fla.

Following pre-season testing at Bradenton Motorsports Park, the PRO Superstar Shootout was a special event with an eight-car field hosted, planned and implemented by the Professional Racers Organization (PRO), a trade consortium comprised of NHRA team owners and drivers. Kalitta will begin defense of his championship when the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series begins March 8-10, 2024 at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Kalitta defeated Justin Ashley in the first round after both cars lost traction. In a rematch of the November final round in Pomona, Calif., the 2023 champion defeated Leah Pruett with a 3.709-second effort at 330.63 mph. In the final round, Kalitta left the starting line before No. 1 qualifier Clay Millican and never looked back blasting to the finish line with a 3.706-second pass at 325.14 mph to turn on the win light and claim the $250,000 prize.

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YPSILANTI, MI – Applied Innovation, a longtime Kalitta Motorsports partner, will be the primary partner for 2023 NHRA Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta’s Kalitta Motorsports Toyota entry at this weekend’s PRO Superstar Shootout Feb. 8-10 in Bradenton, Fla., the team announced today. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series begins March 8-10, 2024 at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Applied Innovation’s theme for 2024 is “The Power of One.” The company strives to harness the power of one moment in a positive, replicable way, which seems eerily similar to Kalitta’s 2023 NHRA Top Fuel championship season. The team worked to replicate its successful runs down the racetrack in drag racing’s never-ending search for consistency. The more consistent the team became, the more successful it was. The power of one successful run started a championship drive that ended with Kalitta’s first-career NHRA Top Fuel championship and the No. 1 on the car this season.

“It’s the power of one great driver, the power of one great crew and the power of one great partner,” Applied Innovation owner John Lowery said. “Everything has to start somewhere. What Kalitta Motorsports accomplished last year replicating its on-track success time and time again is exactly what ‘The Power of One’ is all about, and now Doug Kalitta has the power of the No. 1 on his car. We are thrilled to bring our 2024 theme to Team Kalitta and hope we can celebrate together in the winner’s circle this weekend.”

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YPSILANTI, MI – A partnership that started more than two decades ago yielded Doug Kalitta’s first NHRA Top Fuel championship in 2023, and Mac Tools returns to the Kalitta Motorsports dragster in 2024 for its 23rd-consecutive season as its primary corporate partner, the team announced today. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series begins March 8-10, 2024 at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Kalitta will once again pilot the familiar red and white Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster in which he won last year’s NHRA Top Fuel championship after six grueling runner-up finishes in the final season standings throughout his career. With three race wins in 2024, Kalitta is tied with the legendary Joe Amato for fifth place on the NHRA all-time wins list with 52 victories.

Team Kalitta’s Mac Tools primary partnership, which began in 2001, is one of the world’s longest-running and most-successful sports marketing relationships. Mac Tools is far more than a Team Kalitta corporate partner; the company is a significant part of the long-term success Kalitta Motorsports enjoys in NHRA Drag Racing.

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POMONA, CA – Six times. He was runner up six times. Doug Kalitta is a runner up no more – he is the 2023 NHRA Top Fuel Champion. And for good measure, he’s also the In ‘N Out Burger NHRA Finals race winner taking his third win of the season.

Kalitta entered the weekend in second place in points just 15 markers behind Steve Torrence and four points ahead of third-place Leah Pruett. Chances were excellent this battle for the championship would go down to the final round, and that’s exactly what happened.

“It’s incredible the way the points thing worked out to come down to that last run,” the 2023 champion said. “I just stayed focused. It was obviously a big round, and it played out just perfectly. I got to the end of the track and was like, ‘I cannot believe these guys are still looking at me and high fiving’ because unfortunately, I missed the win light. Everybody was down there, and it was something I looked forward to all my life. It was a hell of a drag race, and it was nice to get the win.”

Kalitta qualified No. 5 and defeated Dan Mercier, Josh Hart, Justin Ashley and Leah Pruett on his way to the winner’s circle and the Top Fuel championship. After Mike Salinas lost in the first round, Justin Ashley moved to fourth in points, and the top-four drivers in points advanced to the semifinals.

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