Epping, NH – The DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car and driver J.R. Todd were pursuing their second victory of the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season as the rolled into the NHRA New England Nationals. Their season opening win at the Gatornationals was also bolstered by a runner-up finish at the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals had Todd sitting in the No. 2 position in the Funny Car point standings.

Over two days of qualifying Todd moved into race day as the No. 9 qualifier even though he started the qualifying sessions with one of the strongest runs of Friday. The DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car blasted to the No. 2 position on Friday and picked up two qualifying bonus points. Conditions changed on Saturday and the DHL team worked to find a solid race day tune-up.

When racing commenced today Todd and the DHL team were facing a tough first round race against veteran Cruz Pedregon. It was a great race for Todd as he chased down Pedregon for the round win in an incredibly close race. Todd used every inch of the race track to get the victory grabbing the win light by two inches at over 320 mph.

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Epping, NH – Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools Top Fuel team roll into the NHRA New England Nationals with a recent runner-up finish and a very dominant race car. Two weeks ago Kalitta blasted through a tough field of Top Fuel teams at the rain delayed NHRA SpringNationals in Houston to race to his second final round of the season. The Mac Tools team will be heading to New England Dragway looking to capture some of the success they had early in the event’s history.

In 2014, the second year the NHRA was racing at the track just north of Boston, Kalitta drove to the final round. The previous year at the inaugural race the Mac Tools Top Fuel team was the No. 1 qualifier.

“We had some pretty good races the first couple of years we started coming up to New England,” said Kalitta. “We have run pretty well here we just need to get some more win lights on Sunday. This Mac Tools team has been really strong all season and we have a couple runner-up finishes and some low qualifiers. I have a lot of confidence coming into this race.”

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Epping, NH – The last time Shawn Langdon was racing at the NHRA New England Nationals he was sitting behind the 11,000 horsepower motor of his Toyota Camry Funny Car. It was 2019 and Langdon raced to the final round beating Jim Campbell, Robert Hight and Tim Wilkerson before getting edged out by Matt Hagan. This year Langdon will be back in in New England racing the DHL Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster with Connie Kalitta calling the tuning shots.

“When you are racing with Connie Kalitta as your crew chief you have a lot of confidence every time you go out on the track,” said Langdon, the 2020 U.S. Nationals champion. “We have been running really well most of the season and we are going round every race.”

Langdon started the season with a runner-up finish at the historic Gatornationals and has since collected two more semifinal finishes and a quarterfinal finish. Two weeks ago in Houston it was an all-Kalitta Motorsports semifinal with Langdon squaring off against teammate Doug Kalitta.

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Epping, NH – When J.R. Todd and the DHL Toyota Camry rolled into New England Dragway in 2019 they established themselves as the quickest Funny Car on the property running to the No. 1 qualifier position. This year, almost two years later Todd will be looking to add New England Nationals event winner to his resume. The 2018 NHRA Funny Car world champion, who is currently No. 2 in the Camping World Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings, is looking to add his second win of the season this weekend.

“We have gotten off to a great start with this DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car,” said Todd, following a quarterfinal finish at the SpringNationals in Houston. “We won the first race of the season at the Gatornationals and followed that up with a semifinal finish in Atlanta and a runner-up in Charlotte at the Four-Wide Nationals. I feel really good about how well the team is working together and the kind of performance we are bringing to the races.”

Todd has only started one race from outside the top half of the field this season when he was the No. 9 qualifier in Las Vegas. He still managed to make a run to the second round of that event. So far he has collected three top six qualifiers including the No. 1 qualifier at the final Southern Nationals in Atlanta.

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Baytown, TX – The DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car and J.R. Todd continued their hot start to the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season racing to the quarterfinals at the NHRA SpringNationals outside of Houston today. Todd has advanced to at least the quarterfinals at every NHRA national event this season. Last weekend the DHL team grabbed a runner-up finish at the Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals and today as the No. 8 qualifier they came up just short of another semifinal finish.

Todd was one of the fortunate Funny Cars to have two qualifying runs on Saturday before the rains moved in and halted qualifying action. The DHL Toyota Camry team jumped up into the top half of the field with a 3.994 second run to close out the session. Racing action was postponed from Sunday to Monday after persistent rain showers covered Houston Raceway Park with only one pair of Top Fuel dragsters remaining in the first round on Sunday.

On Monday morning under overcast skies Todd pulled up beside John Force who was the only driver quicker than him last weekend in the final quad in North Carolina. Today it was Todd getting the win with a strong 3.916 second elapsed time and 327.43 mph run. Todd and the DHL Toyota Funny Car never trailed in the race. The win moved Todd to the quarterfinals and also solidified his position as the No. 2 Funny Car in the NHRA Camping World point standings.

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Baytown, TX – Shawn Langdon and the DHL Kalitta Air Top Fuel team made the most of every round of racing during the NHRA SpringNationals. The 2013 NHRA Top Fuel world champion and reigning U. S. Nationals champion qualified No. 7 and grabbed a first round win on Sunday morning before the rains moved in and forced all the teams to wait an extra day to complete the race at Houston Raceway Park.

The first round race was a rematch of the Gatornationals final round where Langdon came up just short against rookie Josh Hart. It was all Langdon yesterday as Hart grenaded his engine as soon as he hit the throttle and Langdon cruised to an easy first round win. Langdon got the jump off the starting line with a .048 reaction time. The win moved Langdon to the quarterfinals and a race against No. 13 qualifier Justin Ashley.

Today under cloudy but dry conditions Langdon rolled to the starting line against Ashley almost 20 hours after they were originally schedule to square off. Both of these drivers are tops in the Top Fuel category when it comes to average reaction time and Langdon was off the line first with another .040 light, more precisely a .046 reaction time, to give the DHL Kalitta Air dragster enough of a jump to win the race on a hole shot. Langdon lit up the scoreboard with a slower 3.797 second elapsed time against Ashley’s 3.781 second run but his starting line advantage proved to be the difference for the round win.

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Baytown, TX – Doug Kalitta and the Mobil 1 TRD team raced to their second runner-up finish of the 2021 NHRA Camping World season and it was the fourth race out of five Kalitta Motorsports had a race car in either the Top Fuel or Funny Car final round. The team opened the season with dual finalist at the Gatornationals with Kalitta’s teammate Shawn Langdon posting a runner-up and J.R. Todd winning the Funny Car title. Kalitta raced to his first runner-up at the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals earlier this season. Last weekend Todd was the runner-up at the Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals.

On race day yesterday Kalitta was in the last pair of Top Fuel dragsters as the No. 9 qualifier facing No. 6 qualifier Brittany Force. He watched has his teammate Langdon advanced to the second round and moments before his Mobil 1 TRD dragster was set to fire up rain moved in and never left the Houston Raceway Park property forcing the NHRA to postpone the completion of the first round and the race to Monday.

Kalitta and Force were the first pair of race cars to go down the track and it was all Kalitta for the win.  His Mobil 1 TRD dragster made an impressive 3.765 second run even though it lost power just before the finish line. In the quarterfinals facing another former world champion, Antron Brown, Kalitta’s team put their Mac Tools to good use setting his race car up to post another stellar run in the 3.7s. This time a 3.77 8 second pass, to easily outrun a tire-smoking Brown. The second round win set up a race against teammate Shawn Langdon in the semifinals.

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YPSILANTI, MI – At the beginning of the 2021 NHRA season Revchem Composites announced it was extending its relationship with Kalitta Motorsports starting at the 52nd annual NHRA Gatornationals. As the season advances to its fifth race of the season Revchem Composites, one of the leading composite distribution companies in the United States, is increasing their branding presence on Shawn Langdon’s DHL Kalitta Air Top Fuel Dragster to include branding on the highly visible rear wing.

“Revchem Composites wanted to use our race cars as an even bigger platform to promote their brand so we are excited to help them with higher visibility on-car branding with the rear wing of the DHL Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster,” said Chad Head, General Manager Kalitta Motorsports. “As I said last year when this relationship started, the biggest advantage we see is how well our core values align. Both our organizations are built on increased productivity and excellence. Raising their profile on these two race cars is another big step forward.”

Revchem Composites, which is celebrated its 46th anniversary this month, has a wide range of applications and business interests that stretch from aerospace and military applications to movies, marine, surf, and the sports industries. As a family-owned and operated business, Revchem Composites has been an active exhibitor at SEMA and PRI for many years, so the affiliation with Kalitta Motorsports was a natural extension of that history.

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Ferguson Facilities Supply Starts Four Race Branding, Entertainment Program in Houston

YPSILANTI, MI – Multi-time drag racing world championship winning team Kalitta Motorsports will kick-off a four-race entertainment and hospitality partnership with Ferguson Facilities Supply, a division of Ferguson, the largest U.S. distributor of plumbing supplies, PVF, waterworks and fire and fabrication products, this weekend at the NHRA SpringNationals in Houston. The partnership will include activation as well as Purell and ECOLAB branding at three additional national events, the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis and the NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas which are all key markets for Ferguson.

“We announced this marketing partnership last year and we are excited to begin hosting guests from Ferguson Facilities Supply this weekend in Houston,” said Chad Head, Kalitta Motorsports General Manager. “In addition to the hospitality, we are branding J.R. Todd’s Funny Car and Shawn Langdon’s Top Fuel dragster with their partners Purell and ECOLAB. Our goal is to put all our partners in the best position to grow their businesses. Ferguson Facilities Supply is a great addition, and we are looking forward to expanding their customer base in 2021.”

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Baytown, TX – The DHL Toyota Funny Car team led by J.R. Todd is cruising into the NHRA Spring Nationals with a dominant nitro Funny Car and the confidence of a team on the move up the point standings. Last weekend Todd and his team raced to a runner-up finish at the NGK NTK NHRA Four-Wide Nationals after starting the event at the No. 4 qualifier. They posted some of the quickest times in qualifying and then backed it up on race day racing to the final quad before just being edged out for Todd’s first four-wide win in North Carolina to go with his two four-wide wins in Las Vegas.

“We were right there in the final round in Charlotte,” said Todd, who is currently No. 2 in the point standings. “It was a tough final four with John Force, Cruz Pedregon and my Toyota and Mobil 1 teammate Alexis DeJoria. There was a lot of horsepower on the starting line for sure. I was happy to get as far as we did and I think we are off to a great start this season so far.”

Todd and the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car team opened the season with a win at the historic Gatornationals. The win added Todd’s name to an exclusive club of Funny Car drivers that have won all four NHRA “Majors” (Winternationals, Gatornationals, U.S. Nationals and World Finals) and won a Funny Car world championship. While Todd isn’t chasing history he can appreciate what that accomplishment means to get the season started.

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