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AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Race One of 20 Gainesville Raceway, Gainesville, Fla.; March 6-8, 2026
2025 NHRA Gatornationals Recap: Qualified No. 4.; defeated Ida Zetterstrom; lost to Steve Torrence. Doug Kalitta Career Stats: 626 events, 59 wins, 67 runners-up, 839 round wins, 66 No. 1 qualifiers. Current Points Position: N/A Pre-Race Notes: - Doug Kalitta enters the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing season as the defending champion having won his second title in three years last season. Kalitta won four races in seven final rounds and captured eight No. 1 qualifiers last season. - Kalitta's teammate, Shawn Langdon, finished second in points giving Team Kalitta its first one-two finish in Top Fuel. It was just the second time drivers from the same team finished first and second in the Top Fuel final season standing. - Kalitta has three wins and two No. 1 qualifiers at Gainesville Raceway. - Kalitta is the defending champion and top seed for this weekend's Right Trailers NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout, a special event among eight drivers who accrued the most qualifying bonus points last season. Kalitta will "call out" his first-round opponent. - Kalitta's 59 race wins place him fourth all-time in Top Fuel wins and 12th overall. His 66 career No. 1 qualifiers place him tied with Kenny Bernstein for seventh all-time. He is seventh all-time in round wins - Kalitta is a two-time NHRA Top Fuel Champion (2023, '25) and a member of the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Pre-Race Quotes: "Testing went very well. The car performed well; all the things you hope to find at a test session - we were able to work through a lot of issues, and I think we're hopefully in good shape. The car ran really well, but we always win testing. It's good to get everybody working again and doing our thing. We'll be ready to hit the ground running. "To pick our callout opponent, I think it's just see how everybody does on Friday and then pick from there. Everybody will have a couple of runs before you have to make a decision, but they're all tough. I can tell you the one guy we're not gonna pick is Shawn (teammate Shawn Langdon). That car of his was really running in testing so hopefully we'll save running Shawn for the final round - that'll be our goal for the call out this year. "It was a good event (Call Out) last year, and we ended up winning it so definitely hoping we can pull it off again this year. Anytime you get an opportunity to have those specialty races, they usually are just a lot of fun. It's the first race of the year, too, and Gainesville really packs in the people. It's always good to have an extra race on Saturday and just kinda have some fun with it. Our Mac Tools team is definitely looking forward to another opportunity this year; we hope to have some fun with it for sure and pick up right where we left off last season.
2025 NHRA Gatornationals Recap: Qualified No. 3; defeated Justin Ashley, Tony Stewart and Jasmine Salinas; lost to Antron Brown. Shawn Langdon Career Stats: 369 events, 22 wins, 29 runners-up, 414 round wins, 22 No. 1 qualifiers.
Pre-Race Notes: - The Kalitta Air Careers team enjoyed an excellent pre-season test session with spectacular racing conditions during the PRO Warmup at Gainesville Raceway two weeks ago. On Wednesday, Feb. 19, Langdon made a 3.621-second pass - the unofficial quickest of all time. The next day, Langdon's Kalitta Air Careers dragster reached 345.62 mph at the finish line - the unofficial fastest of all time. The Wednesday elapsed time and the Thursday speed were unofficial because neither was recorded during a national event. - The 2026 season is Langdon's third with Crew Chief Brian Husen. The duo finished fourth in 2024 and second in 2025. - Langdon is the second seed for the Right Trailers NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout, a special event among eight drivers who accrued the most qualifying bonus points last season. After the top seed, Langdon's teammate, Doug Kalitta, "calls out" or selects his first-round opponent, Langdon will have next pick of the eight-driver field. - Langdon has one win (2024) in four final-round appearances at Gainesville Raceway. He also has three No. 1 qualifiers at the suburban Gainesville racetrack. In 2024, Langdon and his teammate, J.R. Todd, captured the first double-up win in Team Kalitta history when Langdon took Top Fuel and Todd won Funny car. - Langdon owns 22-career race wins and is the 2013 NHRA Top Fuel Champion.
Pre-Race Quotes: "I'm certainly not disappointed in last season's second-place finish, but I know we have a championship-level team. Connie Kalitta (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) gives us all that we need to win, and when we have it all together as we have shown the last couple of seasons, we can be and have been the car to beat. I have very high expectations for 2026. "We made some really strong runs during testing, but at the end of the day, it was a test session on a good track with really good conditions, so you kinda have to take that with a grain of salt. It was definitely nice to be able to make good runs like that and start the season off on the right foot. "Making the quickest run in the history of sport in the fastest run in the history of the sport was pretty neat so hopefully, we can continue to do that throughout the year or maybe try to better it. A lot of hard work goes into the off-season in preparation for the year, and it's just very rewarding that Brian (Crew Chief Brian Husen) and the Kalitta Air crew were able to show all their hard work and preparation in testing. "It's always fun to race on Saturday, and the Call Out is chance to race a little bit and a chance to make a little bit of extra cash. We have someone in mind to call out, but Doug (teammate Doug Kalitta) picks first so we have to make our call after he picks. We kinda think he will choose our person. It's the process of elimination that you go into it; who Doug picks will dictate who we pick so we have an idea of the direction that we're gonna go. It's a little bit of wait and see what the weather will be, how the track looks and kind of a little bit of strategy behind it."
2025 NHRA Gatornationals Recap: Qualified No. 11; lost to Bobby Bode. J.R. Todd Career Stats: 337 events, 22 wins, 27 runners-up, 364 round wins, 14 No. 1 qualifiers.
Pre-Race Notes: - Last season, Todd won the New England Nationals, reached the final round at Brainerd, Minn., and added wins in the #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at Bristol, Tenn., and Indianapolis. - Todd has two wins (2021 and '24) in three final-round appearances at Gainesville Raceway. His runner-up finish came in 2023 giving him three final rounds in the last five Gainesville races. - Two years ago at this event, Todd and his teammate, Shawn Langdon, achieved the first "double-up" win in Kalitta Motorsports history. It was the team's 18th attempt to win the Top Fuel and Funny Car titles at the same event. - Todd is the 2018 NHRA Funny Car Champion
Pre-Race Quotes: "Pre-season testing went really well; that's probably the most successful preseason test I've been a part of; the guys had a lot of work this season in preparing two brand new cars. For us to unload both of them in a span of three days and have them pretty much run identical down to a few thousands of a second speaks a lot to the preparation. That shows what those guys did at the race shop over the winter - those guys are awesome! "I hope we can get the results they deserve because that's the best way to pay them back for all their hard work. Conditions during testing were good, track conditions were good and the air conditions were good so it yielded some really good runs - some of my career-best speeds, but none of that really means a whole lot in preseason testing. Hopefully, it's a good indicator of things to come during the season. "Gainesville is a race that's always one you want to check off the list. Running one of our "majors" to begin the season is always at the top list; it brings in big crowds and a lot of legends. We'll have even more legends there this year with the 75th anniversary. You always wanna start the season strong, and I've been lucky enough to win the Gatornationals a couple times now. I'd love to add another one."
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