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NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Brainerd International Raceway; Brainerd, Minn. Post-Event Wrap-Up
Qualifying: Doug Kalitta was the No. 1 qualifier at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals; it was his seventh No. 1 qualifier of the season's 13 races and the 65th of his career. Kalitta's best qualifying attempt came during the first session Saturday afternoon when the 2023 Top Fuel champion reached the finish line in 3.655 seconds at 339.36 mph.
Eliminations: Kalitta captured the 100th Top Fuel win in Kalitta Motorsports history and the
130th overall. He defeated Terry Totten, had a bye run in the second round, Billy Torrence and Clay
Millican. Also: Unofficial Point Standings: Kalitta leaves Brainerd in third place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails second-place Tony Stewart by six points and leads fourth-place Justin Ashley by 82 points. He trails points leader Shawn Langdon by 51 points with one race remaining in the regular season. Kalitta on Brainerd: "I'm just really proud of this effort that we've got going on, especially with the timing. Alan, Mac (Crew Chief Alan Johnson, Assistant Crew Chief Mac Savage) and this whole Mac Tools group are putting it together, and it's going down the track. I'm just real thankful. It's just great to win here, and going to Indy (for the U.S. Nationals) next, so hopefully we can just keep it rolling. "This car has been a pleasure to drive. AJ (crew chief Alan Johnson) had it dialed in. It's just a matter of putting it together the same way every time. We're getting close to the Countdown and it's also been a while since I've won here in Brainerd. I have a lot of history here when Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta)was driving, and I was working on his car. This has always been a special place to race. Consistency is definitely the name of the game. We have a great shot at another championship."
Qualifying: J.R. Todd was the No. 5 qualifier at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. His best qualifying attempt was his first run of the weekend Friday afternoon. The DHL GR Supra reached the finish line in 3.944 seconds at 326.95 mph. It was the quickest run of the session, but four drivers made better runs in the subsequent qualifying sessions. Eliminations: Todd advanced to his second final round of the season. He defeated Paul Lee, Ron Capps and Jack Beckman before losing to points leader Austin Prock in the final round when the DHL GR Supra smoked the tires early in the run. Todd made the quickest Funny Car run of the entire weekend in his second-round win. His 3.852-second elapsed time was also his career best. With his semifinal win, Todd qualified for the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge in two weeks at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis giving him an opportunity to win three trophies that weekend: the Mission Foods Challenge, the NHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout and the U.S. Nationals. Unofficial Point Standings: Todd leaves Brainerd in sixth place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails fifth-place Paul Lee by 47 points and leads seventh-place Dan Wilkerson by 56 points. Todd on Brainerd: "The DHL GR Supra ran really well today - the best it's run all year which is encouraging going into the most-important time of the year. We kept tuning it up every run, and it took everything we gave it except the final round where we found the limit. We definitely expected those guys to run better than they did, and we didn't want to get outrun. Hindsight being 20/20, if we had just dragged it up there the way it was in the semifinals, we'd probably have gotten the win. I'm proud of my guys, bouncing back after Q4 (fourth qualifying session) yesterday; we had a little fire there. It was a good day for Dickie and Jon-O (Crew Chief Dickie Venables and Assistant Crew Chief Jon Oberhofer) and all the Yella Fellas. Thanks to DHL, SoundGear, SealMaster, Dayco and PJH. We're making progress."
Qualifying: Shawn Langdon was the No. 8 qualifier at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. His best attempt came in the final qualifying session Saturday afternoon when he recorded a 3.742-second effort at 334.32 mph. During the final round of qualifying Saturday afternoon, Langdon defeated his teammate, Doug Kalittta, in the final round of the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge. It was Langdon's fifth win in the Saturday race this season - one better than Kalitta. Team Kalitta has dominated the Saturday race this season winning nine of the 12 Top Fuel Mission Foods Challenge races this season. Eliminations: Langdon defeated reigning Top Fuel champion Antron Brown in the first round but lost to Brittany Force in the second. Langdon was leading the race when the Kalitta Air 25th Anniversary dragster smoked the tires at half-track giving the win to Force. Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon remains first in the Top Fuel point standings leaving Brainerd. He leads second-place Tony Stewart by 45 points and third-place Doug Kalitta by 51 points with one race remaining in the regular season. Langdon on Brainerd: "Brian, Aaron (Crew Chief Brian Husen, Co-Crew Chief Aaron Cave) and everyone on this Kalitta Air 25th Anniversary Toyota team continued to give me a great car in Brainerd. We knew we were going to have to step up against Brittany (Force) in the second round and just missed it. A 45-point lead entering the last race of the regular season is nice, but a lot can happen at Indy, especially with points and a half. All of these Team Kalitta cars are staying in Brainerd to do some testing tomorrow to make sure we are at our best for Kalitta Air, SoundGear, SealMaster, Dayco and all the other great people that support us. We're looking forward to Indy." Next Race: Team Kalitta will be back in action Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2025 at the Cornwell Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. For additional information, please visit www.NHRA.com. For additional information on Kalitta Motorsports, please visit www.teamkalitta.com.
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