Post-Race Report
Event 07: NHRA Southern Nationals
Atlanta Dragway
Commerce, Ga.
May 5-7

Kalitta earns milestone round win
Race Recap: Doug Kalitta came back to the site of one of his most exciting wins, last season’s near tie with his teammate J.R. Todd, which was the closest finish in NHRA history. The Mac Tools team were looking for a repeat.

Kalitta and the Mac Tools team were solid again in qualifying earning another top five start with their 3.764 second effort in the afternoon qualifying session on Saturday. That gave him the fifth starting spot and a first round pairing with Chris Karamesines.

The next-to-last Top Fuel pair to see the track, Kalitta was prepared as he left first and steadily extended his advantage down Atlanta Dragway, clinching the round win with a 3.760 second effort.

The second round saw Kalitta come up to the line with lane choice over Clay Millican. Kalitta again moved first, and drove straight down the track to a milestone: his 600th career round win. He is just the ninth driver in NHRA history to hit such a mark, and first since Antron Brown one season ago.

Unfortunately, a repeat win was not in the cards. Kalitta left on his semi-final opponent, Tony Schumacher, and was pulling away before encountering issues giving up the round win to Schumacher.

Statistics:
Qualified: No. 5 (3.764 sec., 324.67 mph)

E1: Kalitta defeated Karamesines – 3.760 sec., 325.45 mph to 4.073 sec., 263.00 mph

E2: Kalitta defeated Millican – 3.779 sec., 321.81 mph to 4.744 sec., 158.63 mph

E3: Kalitta defeated by Schumacher – 4.089 sec., 251.67 mph to 3.758 sec., 320.13 mph

Quotable: “Very cool to hit such a big number of round wins with this Mac Tools team. I would have loved to take the win today, but it was not meant to be. We are running strong and I look forward to Topeka in a couple weeks.”