Doug Kalitta, Applied Innovation Top Fuel Dragster

Norwalk, OH – Qualifying: Doug Kalitta was the No. 4 qualifier at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. Kalitta’s best effort came in Saturday’s first qualifying session when he posted a 3.707-second run at 330.07 mph. It was seven thousandths of a second off his Friday-night elapsed time of 3.700 seconds. Qualifying was shortened to three sessions due to Friday’s persistent rain showers.

Kalitta raced in his second Mission Foods#2Fast2Tasty Challenge of the season which paired the semifinalists from the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals two weeks ago. Kalitta defeated Antron Brown in the semifinal rematch but lost to Justin Ashley in the special-event final.

Eliminations: Kalitta raced Canadian driver Dan Mercier in the first round. The tires on the Applied Innovation dragster lost traction immediately, and Mercier got the win with a 3.892-second run,

Unofficial Point Standings: Kalitta leaves Norwalk in ninth place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails 8th-place Josh Hart by 45 points and leads his teammate, Shawn Langdon, by nine points.

“Kalitta on Norwalk: “What happened in the first round was unfortunate,” Kalitta said. “The air changed quite a bit. We tried to make enough adjustments for it but didn’t quite get there. I’m super stoked with how our Applied Innovation Toyota team is running right now. We’re really close – we’ll just go to the next one and keep moving on.”