It’s been five years since Kalitta Motorsports won an NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series title.
The last one was in 2018, and Funny Car driver J.R. Todd was the protagonist. The Indiana native topped six national events that season en route to bringing Kalitta Motorsports the title.
It was Todd’s first Funny Car championship and the fourth for the team.
It’s been 29 years since the Kalitta operation earned its first NHRA crown in 1994. Scott Kalitta, the late son of team owner Connie Kalitta, visited the Top Fuel winner’s circle five times that year. He added a second championship in 1995.
It took another 20 years for Kalitta Motorsports to hoist the season trophy again — this time with Del Worsham, who won four Funny Car finals en route to top honors in 2015. Since then, the team has struggled to add a fifth championship to its drag racing legacy.
They’ve come tantalizingly close with Doug Kalitta, Connie Kalitta’s nephew, who finished runner-up in the 2019 and ’20 Top Fuel standings. However, Doug Kalitta has yet to win an NHRA title during his 25-year career.
The 59-year-old racer admits that, in recent years, his mind hasn’t been as focused on the championship, or even earning a milestone 50th career victory.
“As far as I’m concerned, I just want to be competitive and contending for wins,” Doug Kalitta said. “It’s been a hell of an accomplishment getting to 49. But I’m probably not as focused on 50 as one might think.”
The series veteran has been a frontrunner in Top Fuel many times in his career. He’s finished runner-up in the standings six times — 2003, ’04, ’06, ’16, ’19 and ’20 — and is fifth on the list of all-time winners in his respective category.
But the number that’s most pressing to the Michigan native is three, as it’s been nearly three years since his last victory.
Teammate Todd endured a similar drought with his DHL Funny Car, but the 41-year-old ended a 52-race winless streak at California’s Sonoma Raceway in July.
The ongoing dry spell, as Kalitta calls it, has prompted him to refocus on the “smaller” details of drag racing — such as simply going rounds during eliminations.
“Just trying to run up front and be competitive more than anything,” Kalitta said. “Fortunately, J.R. (Todd) won a couple races ago in the Funny Car, so we’ve got some winning mojo again in our camp here.”
If Kalitta were to finally write off his 50th career win, he believes it would be, in part, due to the efforts of crew chief Alan Johnson.
Along with co-crew chief Brian Husen, Johnson was hired by Kalitta Motorsports at the beginning of last season to tune Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster.
“Alan Johnson is a guy I raced against my whole career. I’ve just dreamt of having him on my side,” Kalitta noted. “He’s over here now and it just seems like such a great opportunity to really breakthrough.”
Though his first-round losses have outweighed his success this season, the number of semifinal and final rounds Kalitta has reached in the last two months indicate Kalitta Motorsports is on the right path.
TRD President David Wilson is among those paying close attention to the team’s recent surge, particularly as he evaluates Toyota’s standing in NHRA.
“They’ve been struggling the past couple years,” Wilson said straightforwardly. “We’re delighted that the Kalittas are finding their speed again. Love seeing Dougy make it deep into the rounds now and we believe that they’re starting to turn around their performance.”
Kalitta Motorsports has been partnered with Toyota since 2006, and Wilson refers to the team as “early adopters” of Toyota’s venture into drag racing.
But until recently, Kalitta Motorsports was one of a select few flagship NHRA teams for Toyota, meaning the ability to compare data was significantly limited, compared to what multi-team manufacturers like Chevrolet had to offer.
As Toyota has brought more and more drivers and teams under its banner —Funny Car’s Ron Capps and Top Fuel’s Steve Torrence both joined in 2022 — it has allowed teams such as Kalitta Motorsports to better benchmark their performance.
“Sometimes you lose sight of where the goal line is,” Wilson said. “Ron (Capps) and Steve (Torrence) and his dad, they’ve indirectly helped the Kalittas by their participation and partnership.”
Kalitta Motorsports’ secondary Top Fuel team, belonging to 2013 NHRA Top Fuel champion Shawn Langdon, is still striving to kick the Kalitta Air Careers dragster into high gear.
“We’re still in the batter’s box and we’ll keep swinging until as long as the pitches keep coming,” Langdon said. “I know the crew chiefs and the team have been working hard to get us where we need to be, and it’s nice for everyone to have a little success. Consistency and win lights just help everything and motivate all of us to keep getting better.”
The 40-year-old Langdon snuck into one final round and a few semifinals during the early season, nudging the door open for a potential win before year’s end.
But the Kalitta Motorsports driver who’s had the widest smile as of late is Todd, and it’s not just because he’s the only driver of the three to hoist a Wally since the season.
It’s primarily due to the fact he was able to stand in the Sonoma winner’s circle with Connie Kalitta.
“Connie Kalitta saved my drag racing career,” Todd said. “If he didn’t call me in 2014, I’m not sure that I would be drag racing today.”
Prior to his fateful call from the elder Kalitta, Todd was dipping in and out of the NHRA scene, racing part time and hadn’t done much with his career, other than win six national events over six seasons.
“All I had to do was show up there in Las Vegas in 2014 with my driving gear and my seat insert and I’ve been here ever since. It’s the longest place I’ve worked — it’s more like a family than a race team,” Todd explained. “It’s like, once you’re in, they don’t let you go. And I don’t want to leave.”
While Todd originally piloted a Top Fuel entry for Kalitta from 2014 to ’16, he jumped into the Funny Car as a replacement for Worsham in 2017.
It only took one year for Todd to find his footing in his new category, as he and Kalitta Motorsports rocketed to the championship the following season.
Five years later, the duo is desperate for another title run.
With the win and a slew of runner-up and semifinal finishes this season, Todd is intent to continue building with Kalitta and, hopefully, climb up the ranks during the six-race Countdown to the Championship.
“I’m not the most easygoing person in the pit area, but that’s because I’m so focused on winning for Connie and representing Scott Kalitta, driving his Funny Car,” Todd said. “Connie can be hard on everybody, but at the end of the day, he gives us all the parts and pieces and he expects us to win, and that’s what I love about being there.”
Compared to Todd, Doug Kalitta ventured down a similarly unpredictable pathway to arrive at Kalitta Motorsports.
Kalitta was involved in straight-line racing from a young age and worked as a crew member during the early ’80s. He then took a break to hit the open-wheel circuit, picking up the 1994 USAC National Sprint Car Series championship.
His next trip to the drag racing world was a permanent one, taking over the team’s Top Fuel car from Scott Kalitta in 1998.
While the 25 consecutive seasons of racing that followed could arguably wear any athlete down, Doug Kalitta remains grateful for the opportunity to continue the Kalitta family legacy and continues to find his inspiration in the man who began it all.
“Connie’s still out here and has passion for what we’re doing. He’s been out here since he was a kid, so it’s inspiring really to see somebody at 85 years old still have the passion that he has,” Doug Kalitta said. “It’s kind of infectious.”
With the tides slowly turning for Kalitta Motorsports, Doug Kalitta and Todd are both focused on delivering Connie Kalitta his fifth NHRA championship as a team owner, come the season finale in Pomona, Calif.
This story appeared in the Sept. 6, 2023, edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
