NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Doug Kalitta clinched his second NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel world championship in the last three years on Saturday of the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals.

Kalitta, who won his breakthrough first title in a winner-take-all final round at the 2023 Finals, officially locked up the title when NHRA announced that, due to weather, qualifying for the event had been canceled.

"Yeah, this is definitely a lot easier [than 2023]," said Kalitta. "It's always seemed to come down to the last race, last day, but we had a nice string of runs throughout the Countdown. Alan [Johnson] and my whole team have had my car going down the track. It's been real nice, and just not doing something stupid on the track and getting good, solid runs.

“Alan is always throwing down and always has something up his sleeve. So, I'm just really proud of him and my whole team; it's a huge relief to be able to win the championship before the last round at the last race, and just super happy.

“It's hard to pinpoint exactly what the secret sauce is with what we've done here, but Alan has spent hours building these parts, and he's just got it figured out. You also have to have guys putting that car together exactly the same each and every run to get the consistency for any of these guys to be able to tune the car, so it's just huge."

Much as was the case in his 2023 championship season, Kalitta and his Alan Johnson-led Mac Tools team didn’t catch fire until well into the regular season with back-to-back wins in Sonoma and Brainerd, and entered the Countdown to the Championship playoffs in fourth place.

The Mac Tools team ratcheted up their game with four straight final-round appearances to begin the six-race playoffs, with runner-ups in Reading and Charlotte followed by huge wins in St. Louis and Dallas.

The team’s moxie was tested at the Reading event, where, after taking a first-round win over Tony Stewart, Kalitta’s mount suffered an apparent front-tire issue just past the finish line. His car swerved across the centerline and collided with Stewart’s entry.

Neither driver was injured, and Kalitta’s team continued on with a backup car, reaching the final round, where he fell to Shawn Reed, but nonetheless took the points lead he would never relinquish.

“I have to admit, Shawn Reed winning that race, that was pretty cool," Kalitta admitted. "To race against somebody to get their first win after everything that he had gone through with that wreck that he had, I'm glad we didn't need that particular round to win the championship, because it was definitely cool to see him win.”

After a runner-up at the four-wide event at zMAX Dragway, Kalitta defeated Ida Zetterström in the final round in St. Louis and four-time world champ Steve Torrence in the final round in Dallas.

A semifinal finish at the season’s penultimate event in Las Vegas gave Kalitta enough of a points lead to make it virtually impossible for any of his closest rivals, which included his own teammate, Shawn Langdon, and Justin Ashley, to catch him in Pomona.

The championship is the sixth for team owner Connie Kalitta and Kalitta Motorsports, and its fourth in Top Fuel. Scott Kalitta won back-to-back Top Fuel crowns in 1994 and ’95 to precede his cousin Doug’s two titles. Del Worsham won Kalitta’s first Funny Car championship in 2015 and J.R. Todd won another in 2018.