KALITTA MAKES FINAL QUAD AT ZMAX FOUR-WIDE

Charlotte, NC – Qualifying: Doug Kalitta was the No. 1 qualifier at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals. It was his second-consecutive No. 1 qualifier, his second of the season and the 55th of his career. During the second round of qualifying on Friday, Kalitta posted a 3.691-second effort at 337.92 mph. It was Kalitta’s career-best speed.

Eliminations: Kalitta defeated Shawn Reed and Cody Krohn in the first round before beating Billy Torrence and Jasmine Salinas in the semifinals despite not having any lane choice. In the final, again without lane choice, Kalitta ran a 3.725-second pass, but it wasn’t enough. He defeated Antron Brown, but Justin Ashley won the race; Clay Millican finished second.

When Kalitta advanced to the four-wide final round, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge in Chicago in three weeks. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the four-wide final round in Charlotte will re-run the semifinals and finals in the two-wide format earning additional purse and championship bonus points.

Unofficial Point Standings: Kalitta leaves Charlotte in second place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails points leader Justin Ashley by 96 points and leads his teammate, Shawn Langdon, by 10 points.

Kalitta on Charlotte: “Making it to the final and putting the Mac Tools team in a position to win is what it’s all about out here. It was really close racing out there, and we ended up third. It’s always good running the four-wide, but we’ll drag it to Chicago after this and get back to the normal two-wide racing for Revchem, SealMaster, Safety-Kleen and Toyota. I don’t think not having lane choice was a factor, but it’s hard to tell. The lanes seemed pretty even to me so we didn’t have any issues there.”