KALITTA CLAIMS NO. 1 QUALIFIER AT NORWALK; HIS FOURTH THIS SEASON
Toyota earns seventh No. 1 qualifying position of 2024
NORWALK, Ohio (June 29, 2024) – For the fourth time this season and the 57th time in his career, Doug Kalitta earned the No. 1 qualifier and will begin Sunday’s eliminations at Summit Motorsports Park at the top spot. The defending Top Fuel world champion posted a blistering 3.692 elapsed time in Friday night’s qualifying session as he goes for his fourth win of the season and second straight after his triumph in Bristol last weekend.
In addition to his No. 1 qualifier, Kalitta defeated Antron Brown to win the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty challenge, his first challenge win of the season. Kalitta also set the Summit Motorsports Park speed record at 337.16 mph with that run Saturday afternoon.
Justin Ashley is right behind Kalitta going into Sunday after posting a 3.702 elapsed time also in the final session on Saturday. Brown earned the No. 3 spot; Steve Torrence is fourth and Shawn Langdon is sixth as Toyota claimed the five of the top six seeds in Top Fuel.
In Funny Car, J.R. Todd was the lead GR Supra Funny Car, earning the second overall seed for tomorrow’s eliminations. With a 3.865 elapsed time Friday night, Todd was just 0.002 seconds off claiming his 15th career No. 1 qualifier. Alexis DeJoria will begin tomorrow as the No. 8 seed and Ron Capp begins tomorrow 10th.
Tomorrow’s eliminations at Summit Motorsports Park begin at 11 a.m. EST with live TV coverage beginning at 5 p.m. EST on FOX.
Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series
Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals
Summit Motorsports Park
Race 10 of 20
TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Doug Kalitta | Applied Innovation Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 1st | K. Wurtzel |
| Justin Ashley | SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 2nd | T. Schumacher |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 3rd | D. Mercier |
| Steve Torrence | CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 4th | S. Reed |
| Shawn Langdon | Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 6th | C. Millican |
| Billy Torrence | CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 9th | D. Foley |
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| A. Prock | Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Funny Car | 1st* | J. Morrisson |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 2nd | C. King |
| Alexis DeJoria | Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 8th | C. Green |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 10th | D. Wilkerson |
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
DOUG KALITTA, Applied Innovation Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports
TF Qualifying Result: 1st
Describe your day for us and how it helps you for tomorrow.
“I was actually looking at the schedule of events we have and was amazed how close we are to the Countdown (to the Championship), right? It’ll be here before you know it. Yeah, definitely going to be important to stay consistent and run up front as we can and get into the Countdown. Definitely looking forward to it. But yeah, have to give it to the fans here with all the weather. The track really turned out to be in great shape. The conditions were perfect for putting down good numbers. We have the Applied Innovation’s president here, so it’s kind of a one-off. They did the first race with us and this one, a great partner. Really great to celebrate the win with them.”
J.R. TODD, DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Kalitta Motorsports
FC Qualifying Result: 2nd
How did your qualifying runs feel?
“It’s our best qualifying effort of the season, and it feels good. Conditions were right last night, and it was a good run for our DHL GR Supra. Hats off to Todd, Jon-O (Todd Smith and Jon Oberhofer, co-crew chiefs) and the Yella Fellas. We definitely want to qualify in the top three; we still need to work on our consistency so hopefully that comes around on race day when it counts.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for more than 65 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our nearly 1,500 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs more than 49,000 people in the U.S. who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of more than 34 million cars and trucks at our nine manufacturing plants. By 2025, Toyota’s 10th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 28 electrified options.
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