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<\/p>\nTwo-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta is feeling confident heading into Phoenix this weekend for the FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals presented by NGK Spark Plugs, the second stop in the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. Kalitta was the runner up at the NHRA Gatornationals two weeks ago missing the race win when the Mac Tools dragster dropped a cylinder almost immediately. It was Kalitta\u2019s fourth final round in Gainesville, Fla., but the first time he did not win the race after reaching the final.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely feel confident going into Phoenix after the first race of the year,\u201d said Kalitta. \u201cThe Mac Tools car was running really well all day. For some crazy reason, it dropped that cylinder in the final, but that was a good start for us; obviously, any time you can go rounds, it\u2019s a good thing. My guys are looking pretty good; we should be in good shape for Phoenix this weekend.<\/p>\n
When Kalitta advanced to the semifinals two weeks ago in Gainesville, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge this weekend. During Saturday\u2019s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the semifinals in Gainesville will re-run the semifinals and final earning additional purse and championship bonus points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be back in the Mission Foods event,\u201d Kalitta said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun racing on Saturday; it kind of gets you a little more ready for Sunday. I think it\u2019s something the fans enjoy, and I think the racers do as well. When Mission Foods started this thing, I have to admit, I thought it was a great idea and certainly appreciated by our team and anybody else I\u2019ve ever talked to about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalitta has one win and five runner-up finishes along with seven No. 1 qualifiers at Firebird Motorsports Park. One year ago, he was the No. 1 qualifier and lost to his teammate, Shawn Langdon in the final round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With this weekend\u2019s Phoenix weather forecast featuring record-high temperatures, the race weekend schedule moved earlier in anticipation of the extreme desert heat. Qualifying will begin at 10 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and Sunday\u2019s elimination rounds will also begin at 10 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be interesting with the heat this weekend; it supposed to be in the 70s in the morning, so it\u2019ll be a big temperature swing during the day,\u201d said Kalitta. \u201cWith the new times we\u2019re running, the conditions might not be too bad. Maybe on Sunday, it might be a little different, but everybody will have\u00a0a couple days on the track to see what we need to do to keep the thing hooked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to it. It\u2019s just another element to what we\u2019re doing. Really, I think, between the guys that work on my car and Alan and Mac (Crew Chief Alan Johnson and Assistant Crew Chief Mac Savage), the guys that tune the thing, are just incredible. I think they\u2019re more than capable of having a very competitive car under any conditions. I\u2019m very fortunate that when I look up, Alan is the guy adjusting my clutch controller \u2013 it doesn\u2019t get much better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalitta\u2019s 59 race wins place him fourth all-time in Top Fuel wins and 12th\u00a0overall. His 66 career No. 1 qualifiers place him tied with Kenny Bernstein for seventh all-time. He is also seventh all-time in round wins.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on March 17, 2026. <\/p>\n
The post Doug Kalitta Primed for Desert Heat at Second Race of NHRA Season<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta is feeling confident heading into Phoenix this weekend for the FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals presented by NGK Spark Plugs, the second stop in the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. Kalitta was the runner up at the NHRA Gatornationals two weeks ago missing the race win when the Mac […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}