Toyota keeps Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge streak alive
BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 16, 2025) – Posting a 3.655 elapsed time in Saturday qualifying, Doug Kalitta earned the No. 1 qualifier for tomorrow’s NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway. The result is Kalitta’s seventh No. 1 qualifier this season and the 65th in his career. Joining Kalitta towards the top of the Top Fuel field is Billy Torrence, who earned the No. 4 seed for his first race of the 2025 season.
Kalitta’s teammate and Top Fuel points leader, Shawn Langdon, captured another win in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, defeating Kalitta in the finals Saturday afternoon. The win is Langdon’s fifth Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge triumph this season, which also continued Toyota’s streak of victories in all challenge events in either Top Fuel or Funny Car.
In Funny Car, Ron Capps earned the No. 4 seed for tomorrow’s eliminations with J.R. Todd as the fifth seed. Capps looks to capture his eighth Brainerd International Raceway win tomorrow and increase his track-best mark, while Todd looks to go rounds and improve his points position with just two race days before the Countdown to the Championship.
Eliminations of the NHRA Nationals from Brainerd International Raceway begin tomorrow at 11 a.m. EST with live TV coverage beginning at 3 p.m. EST on FOX.
Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series
Brainerd International Raceway
NHRA Nationals
Race 13 of 20
TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Doug Kalitta | Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 1st | T. Totten |
| Billy Torrence | CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 4th | I. Zetterstrom |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 7th | S. Langdon |
| Shawn Langdon | Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 8th | A. Brown |
| Justin Ashley | SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 9th | C. Millican |
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Jack Beckman* | Peak Chevrolet Funny Car | 1st* | D. Richards |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 4th | B. Bode |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 5th | P. Lee |
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DOUG KALITTA, Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports
TF Qualifying Result: 1st
How nice is it to have a car that performs at this level?
“Yeah, it’s been quite a ride! Alan (Johnson, crew chief), Mac (Savage, crew chief) and all these Mac Tools Toyota guys have our car running well. I’m just trying to do my best and on occasion, I guess I’m human. It (Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge) wasn’t what we were hoping for obviously, but real proud of my guys and will go into tomorrow and see if we can get the win.”
SHAWN LANGDON, Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports
TF Qualifying Result: 8th
How well does another challenge win position your team?
“The No. 1 spot is a pretty good spot to be in, so good job to Doug (Kalitta) and his team for that. Brian (Husen, crew chief) and I were talking earlier, and we still wanted to try to get win the #2Fast2Tasty challenge, so that’s pretty cool. It’s a pretty neat program Mission Foods put out there for us, so we’re really appreciative of it. We want to put forth our best effort, and that’s what we did right there.The Kalitta Air Toyota Top Fuel Dragster didn’t run exactly what we were trying to run (there). I was off a little bit on the tree, but the bulb was blanking up there. We were trying to go for the No. 1 spot, really. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it, but we got the win so that’s good. We still have a shot, still got a shot at the regular-season championship going into Indianapolis (U.S. Nationals). All in all, great year, but we have to get it done tomorrow. Tomorrow’s a big day!”
RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports
FC Qualifying Result: 4th
Describe your weekend so far.
“Yeah, the forecast was not looking good when we rolled in here (Brainerd), but you wouldn’t know that by looking at the fans and in ‘The Zoo.’ And then, we go out and get in four qualifying runs! As always, our NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car was great, and we ended qualifying on a good note. The track conditions are always tricky here. You have a lot of water in the air. Track reading and getting all the information we get from our Toyota engineers on the starting line was key to go up there in that last session and move up a position into fourth, and a really good tune up for tomorrow. It’s going to be overcast tomorrow, and we’ll probably see even quicker runs than we have so far this weekend. Great job by everyone and we’ll see if we can go get win number eight here at Brainerd!”
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