Doug Kalitta continues to remind everyone why he’s still one of the most feared drivers in Top Fuel.
On Friday night at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals, Kalitta unleashed a 3.671-second pass at 335.90 mph under the lights at Pacific Raceways, grabbing the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot and the $4,000 Deecell Power Systems “After Dark Low Qualifier” award.
In a poetic twist, the run missed the track record – one Kalitta himself set a year ago – by just one-thousandth of a second.
“The conditions were good, and I was really hopeful that my car would go out there and run a good number,” Kalitta said. “We were making a lot of changes back in the staging lanes because people were smoking the tires. I wasn’t sure if they backed the thing down or what, but when the thing left, I could tell it was really running.”
If the run holds, it would be Kalitta’s sixth No. 1 qualifier of the season. But the real prize is still elusive: his first win of 2025.
“I’m just real fortunate Alan [Johnson] and Mac [Savage] and my whole team because they can throw down with the best of them,” Kalitta added.
Kalitta’s Kalitta Motorsports teammate Shawn Langdon is right behind in second with a 3.689, while Brittany Force wowed with a booming 340.47 mph pass that landed her third with a 3.703.
This story was originally published on July 19, 2025.
The post Kalitta Lights It Up in Seattle, Narrowly Misses Track Record first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
