NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Hello, hello! I thought I had a lot to catch you all up on with my last blog about Phoenix test, Pomona, and Phoenix. This time I really have a lot to say! Hold on to you your hats, because we’re about to start a whirlwind recap of Gainesville and Las Vegas.

We headed to Gainesville with a couple chassis changes from the previous race in Phoenix. J.R.’s SealMaster team had just switched over to their brand-new Bounty Hunter TF 002 chassis, and its maiden voyage would be down the strip at Gainesville Raceway. Alexis DeJoria and the Patron team would also be running a new chassis in Florida, but for different reasons. After Phoenix, my dad, Jon O, Nicky (Boninfante), Tommy D, and Glen (Huszar) had a meeting and came to the conclusion that Alexis’ chassis (which had won the U.S. Nationals in 2014) had some sort of an issue with it. The original plan was for Alexis to debut a chassis from our brand new Funny Car jig in Charlotte. However, they all agreed that they didn’t want Alexis to go to Gainesville and Las Vegas with a car that they didn’t feel had a chance of winning.

Being that we are one team with four cars, Nicky and Jon O offered Tommy, Glen, and Alexis their spare chassis because they felt it would give them a better chance at winning. After this meeting, my dad made the executive decision that the Patron team would switch over to Del’s spare chassis for the Gainesville race because he wanted her in the safest, most competitive car possible.

You may be wondering why he would want to put her in a “spare” car if he wanted to see positive results. I’m here to explain! The “spare car” we’re speaking of is actually a brand-new chassis that had just been built in 2015. Del and the DHL team actually ran this particular car during Phoenix test in February with positive results, but the “Yella Fellas” wanted to keep running the chassis they had won the championship with when the season started. So after the decision was made to switch cars, the Patron team put in some long hours and a lot of hard work to get the “spare” chassis ready to rock and roll in Gainesville!

Unfortunately, our trip to Florida wasn’t all that successful this year. Doug, Del, and Alexis all saw first-round exits, and J.R. advanced to the second round before Clay Millican sent him packing. The Gatornats may not have been our most successful showing, but I believe the teams gained some valuable information while we were in the sunshine state. Connie and Rob (Flynn) learned that they can be more aggressive with their tuning decisions with the new chassis, and after a bit of “test and tune” I expect that we’ll be seeing some stellar passes from J.R. and the SealMaster boys! Tommy, Glen, and the Patron team also learned a lot when we were in Gainesville. They saw immediate improvement after switching their chassis, and the positive results made them confident to head to Las Vegas.

Gainesville is one of those races where the Wally seems to be just a bit more special in my opinion, and that’s because of one very special person: Eric Medlen. Eric became my favorite Funny Car driver shortly after he started driving for John Force, and this caused a bit of turmoil for my 10-year-old self because Scott Kalitta was racing against Eric in the Funny Car class at the time! Thankfully, my dad gave his blessing and basically said that if I was going to root for anyone outside of the Kalitta camp, Eric was a good choice. I think it’s pretty cool to see that my dad still has a couple pictures with Eric hanging up in his office, and I think it’s just awesome that J.R. still keeps a picture of himself, Eric, and Brandon Bernstein (the “three brothers” as they would say) in the cockpit of his dragster. Going to Gainesville is kind of tough since that’s where Eric’s accident took place, but knowing that his friends and family still hold his memory close makes it a little bit easier. Miss you, Eric!

Moving on to more recent news, did you hear what happened when Team Kalitta went to Las Vegas? Basically, we struck the jackpot! All four of our Team Kalitta Toyota Racing cars made a solid qualifying effort with Doug’s Mac Tools ride qualifying second, J.R. qualifying ninth in the SealMaster machine, Alexis and the Patron team qualifying sixth , and Del’s DHL Camry qualifying fifth. We were four-for-four in first round on Sunday with all of our cars advancing to second round. That’s a pretty good way to start the day if you ask me! Doug’s Mac Tools dragster fell victim to tire smoke in second round against Connolly, but we still had one dragster heading to the semi-finals after J.R. defeated Steve Chrisman. Del had a nice pass to get the win over Jim Campbell in second round, and Alexis scored the win for the Patron team with a holeshot win over Robert Hight! I don’t think anyone really mentioned the possibility of Alexis and Del ending up in the final round together for fear of jinxing it. It also could be because everyone was crazy busy before the semis because of the quick turnaround times for the live show on FS1, but us racing folk are a superstitious bunch so you never know.

During the turnaround for the semi's, there were quite a few of the Mac Tools crew members in J.R.’s pit to help them get ready to race Troy Buff. The SealMaster team is basically a brand new crew of guys, so they’re still finding their groove and getting the hang of doing things in the fastest, most efficient way possible. Seeing the Mac Tools guys in there helping the SealMaster team definitely makes me proud to be a part of this team because even though they were bummed that they wouldn’t be in the semis, they still wanted to help J.R. as much as they could. That just proves the point that we are one team with four cars, not four separate teams. Unfortunately, the SealMaster dragster went up in smoke pretty quick in the semis and Buff got the win, but it was still a good day for that whole team!

When Del defeated Chad Head in the semi’s, we were all super excited! Having even one car go to the final round is a pretty big accomplishment. When Alexis came up next it was totally nerve-racking because we had never had an all Kalitta funny car final before, but it’s something we’ve been hoping to achieve for so long. After Alexis made her 4.012 pass to get the win over John Force, it was crazy! I don’t think anyone knew what to do except for smile and hug each other and bask in the awesomeness that was an all-Kalitta Funny Car final.

It was business as usual for the Patron and DHL teams as they prepared their Camrys for the final round; Alexis wanted to get her first Wally in over 30 races, and Del wanted to get his first win of 2016 as the reigning Funny Car champ. I had a feeling it was going to be a great race in the final, and both of the teams definitely delivered. A 3.968 from Alexis and a 3.988 from Del made for one stout race that ended in Alexis breaking her winless streak! It was a great end to a great day.

On Monday, the DHL team stayed to test a few things with their clutch and fuel system. They only made three passes, but I think the “Yella Fellas” learned a lot!

Since we were in Las Vegas, I got to see my friend Rachel and she got to be there to celebrate Alexis’ win with us! (Photo credit to Gary Nastase for the picture of us in the winner’s circle with my dad, Alexis, and Jesse!) A Team Kalitta car has now won four of the five races she has ever been to, so we’re thinking about bringing her on the road as a good luck charm. It was great to see her again and hit up my two favorite food joints in Vegas—In ‘n’ Out and Popularity. I also got to see Rachel’s new condo and meet her new cat, Alton! It was a great visit, and I can’t wait to head back in October to see her again.

I’m excited to have a little break before we have our first back-to-back races of 2016 in Charlotte and Houston, but I’m even more excited that my semester is finally coming to a close! I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that I have some more happy news to blog about after Charlotte and Houston! As always, you can follow along with all things Team Kalitta by following us @teamkalitta on Twitter, Instagram, and Periscope, and by “liking” Kalitta Motorsports on Facebook!

P.S.: The DHL guys let me push the rods and pistons into the motor when we got back to the shop after Vegas! Thanks for getting a picture, Mikey!