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Kalitta Takes Toyota To Finals At NHRA SpringNationals

BAYTOWN, Tx – Doug Kalitta advanced to the final round in Top Fuel before falling to Steve Torrence in the rain delayed NHRA SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park, Monday.  It marked the second final round appearance of the season for Kalitta, who was sporting Mobil1/TRD sponsorship this weekend. With the strong showing, he jumps back up into fifth in the Top Fuel standings.

After struggling in Saturday’s qualifying, Kalitta opened the day with a victory over Brittany Force, setting up an all-Toyota second round against Antron Brown. Brown had a two one-thousandths advantage at the tree, but was up in smoke early, giving Kalitta an easy win. That sent him into the semifinals against teammate Shawn Langdon. Langdon had a slight advantage on the starting line, but then started to haze his tires. He pedaled it, but couldn’t get it to hook up. Kalitta started to mix up cylinders, slowing on the top end, but was able to hold on for the win.

In the finals, Kalitta had a slightly better reaction time, but was up in smoke at the hit, giving Torrence the overall win.

Langdon began his day against Josh Hart in round one. Langdon had a starting line advantage and never trailed for the win, despite dropping a cylinder in the lights. Round two saw another dominating performance at the tree, as Langdon registered an .046 reaction time and then held off Justin Ashley, winning on a holeshot. All three of his runs today featured reaction times of .049 or less.

Brown had defeated Lee Callaway in his opening run of the day. He continues to hold down the second spot in the Top Fuel point standings.

In Funny Car, both Alexis DeJoria and J.R. Todd advanced to the second round before being eliminated.

DeJoria qualified second – her fourth top-three qualifying performance in the season’s first five races – and faced Todd Simpson in round one. She led start to finish with a 3.931 to advance to the second round where she would matchup against Tim Wilkerson. The two would run side-by-side through the 330’ foot mark before DeJoria’s car went silent, giving the win to Wilkerson.

Todd began his day with John Force in round one, where the DHL Toyota Camry driver registered his quickest time of the weekend with a 3.916 pass, comfortably defeating Force. In round two, he would square off with Bob Tasca in a battle of the top two drivers in the Funny Car point standings. Todd had a sizable lead at the tree (.061 to .100) and led through the 330’ mark, but Tasca would eventually run him down by 660’ on the way to the victory. Todd remains second in the point standings.

The Camping World Drag Racing Series will return to the track, June 11-13 at the New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire.

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