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NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Brainerd International Raceway; Brainerd, Minn. Post-Event Wrap-Up
Finals Broadcast Replay (eastern time): 9 a.m.-Noon Tuesday, Aug. 25 on FS2 Qualifying: Doug Kalitta was the No. 1 qualifier at the NHRA Brainerd Nationals. Kalitta made his best run of the weekend during the third round of qualifying early Saturday afternoon when the Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster reached the finish line in 3.673 seconds at 332.30 mph. It was Kalitta's fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 70th of his career. Kalitta made the quickest run in each of the four qualifying sessions and earned 12 qualifying bonus points moving him past his teammate, Shawn Langdon, into the points lead entering race day. During the Saturday qualifying sessions, Kalitta captured his fifth Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge of the season. He defeated Antron Brown and Josh Hart on his way to the win. Although the Mission Foods Challenge will be run one more time in Indianapolis, Kalitta clinched his second-straight Top Fuel season title in the Saturday race. Eliminations: Kalitta defeated Cameron Ferre, Antron Brown, Justin Ashley and Maddie Gordon to win his third-consecutive race and his fourth of the season. With the win, Kalitta:
- Has four wins in six-career Brainerd final rounds, second-most all time. Unofficial Point Standings: Kalitta leaves Brainerd in first place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings; it is the first time he's led the standings since the second race of the season. He leads his teammate, Shawn Langdon, by 67 points with one race remaining in the regular season. Kalitta on Brainerd: "It's just tough; it's very competitive and we'll take this (trophy) back to Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta). He's definitely happy. We got him hooked up with NHRA.tv today so he could watch the race. The car left and it just stayed hooked up all the way. For Alan and Mac (Crew Chiefs Alan Johnson and Mac Savage) and my whole Mac Tools team, I'm just really, really proud of the effort. Thanks to Gerber, PJH, SealMaster and SoundGear for making all of this happen. "It was a great day - Maddie's doing a great job and obviously, we're real happy to get by them in the final; they're gonna be real tough, like everybody else, to the end of the season. The place was packed with a lot of great fans here, and this place has been great for my family. What can I say about Alan Johnson, Mac Savage and all my guys on this team? They just keep giving me the great car, and it's going down the track every time so hats off to them for sure. "We're all hungry to race for that regular-season championship; we appreciate everything, Mission and NHRA do for what we're doing out here. It (racing for the regular season title) will be a big deal. It's points and a half in Indy so we're just definitely going to have to go there and plan on trying to win that thing. "This Mac Tools car is probably the best I've ever had; everybody's doing their job, and everybody's gelling. Alan is a master with all this stuff and what he does making these parts and tuning this thing; it's just incredible to watch him do his thing. I just appreciate everybody that's making it happen."
Finals Broadcast Replay (eastern time): 9 a.m.-Noon Tuesday, Aug. 25 on FS2 Qualifying: J.R. Todd was the No. 5 qualifier at the NHRA Brainerd Nationals. His best qualifying attempt came in third round of qualifying early Saturday afternoon when he made a 3.903-second pass at 327.66 mph to claim the No. 5 spot. During the Saturday qualifying sessions, Todd won his second Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge of the season. He defeated both Matt Hagan and Austin Prock on hole shots to take the win. Eliminations: Todd made impressive runs in the first and second rounds dispatching Spencer Hyde and Bobby Bode to win six-straight rounds going back to his Seattle win at the last race. In the semifinals, the DHL GR Supra smoked the tires almost immediately allowing Jordan Vandergriff to cruise to the easy win. Unofficial Point Standings: Todd leaves Brainerd in fourth place in in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails third-place Ron Capps by 10 points and leads fifth-place Jack Beckman by 52 points with one race remaining in the regular season. Todd is 22 points behind points leader Matt Hagan, and with points and a half available at the final race of the regular season in Indianapolis, the top four are separated by less than one round of racing. Todd on Brainerd: "Obviously, it's disappointing to go out in the semifinals, especially when the DHL GR Supra was really good this weekend. We just had an issue early in the (semifinal) run that took us out of contention, and that's tough to swallow. We can take a lot of positives from this weekend. The guys have been working really hard, and we're continuing to put ourselves in position to win rounds and compete for this championship. We'll go back to work and come out swinging at the final race of the regular season."
Finals Broadcast Replay (eastern time): 9 a.m.-Noon Tuesday, Aug. 25 on FS2 Qualifying: Shawn Langdon was the No. 3 qualifier at the NHRA Brainerd Nationals. His best qualifying attempt came in the third qualifying session early Saturday afternoon when he needed just 3.730 seconds to reach the finish line at 334.57 mph. Eliminations: Langdon defeated Keith Murt and raced Leah Pruett in the second round. Pruett was off the starting line first, but the cars were even at the mid-point of the race. Langdon's Kalitta Air Careers car smoked the tires at half-track, but Pruett had problems late. Langdon pedaled and nearly caught Pruett but lost the round by .1288 seconds. Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon leaves Brainerd in second place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails the points leader, his teammate Doug Kalitta, by 67 points with one race remaining in the regular season. Langdon on Brainerd: "We were trying to make a good run - Doug's car made a good run in front of us, so we swapped lanes from earlier this morning. The tires just came loose. I felt like I did a decent drop pedaling; I was trying to track her down, but it just wasn't enough to get the win, unfortunately. We'll go to Indianapolis and bounce back there." Next Race: Team Kalitta will be back in action Sept. 4-7, 2026, at the 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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