![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\")
<\/p>\nDoug Kalitta continued the torrid first half of the season for Kalitta Motorsports, defeating Jasmine Salinas in the Top Fuel final round and taking home his second consecutive NHRA Sonoma Nationals Wally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kalitta\u2019s Aflac dragster was strong from start to finish in the finals; the reigning Top Fuel champion won the race with a 3.731-second pass at 339.96 mph. It was Kalitta\u2019s second win of the season, his seventh at Sonoma Raceway \u2013 more than any other Top Fuel driver \u2013 and the 61st\u00a0of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cSonoma has been a special place for us; we had a little dry spell through the years, but I\u2019m glad that we managed to get the last two wins here,\u201d said Kalitta. \u201cHats off to my team; the Aflac car was running strong all day, and we had all the Aflac guys on the starting line. We smoked \u2018em (the tires) in the semifinals against Antron, but hats off to Alan, Mac (Crew Chiefs Alan Johnson and Mac Savage), all my guys and everybody that supports us \u2013 Mac Tools, Gerber, SealMaster, Revchem and PJH. We\u2019ll take this (trophy) home to Connie (Team Owner Connie Kalitta) \u2013 I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalitta defeated Clay Millican in the first round and had a second-round bye. In the semifinals against Antron Brown, the Aflac dragster smoked the tires during the run, but Brown did the same. Despite engine issues, Kalitta stayed in the throttle, won the round and advanced to the final round against Salinas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can I say about Alan Johnson? This is his hometown track; he was hungry for this win just like I was,\u201d Kalitta said. \u201cWhatever it takes \u2013 Alan is the man when it comes to tuning this car. I\u2019m just very fortunate to have this opportunity. It\u2019s been fun, and this win is a good way to finish the day.<\/p>\n
Kalitta was also the No. 1 qualifier. During the opening qualifying session on Friday, Kalitta needed just 3.714 seconds to reach the finish line at 337.04 mph. His teammate, Shawn Langdon, posted an identical elapsed time, but Kalitta\u2019s faster speed gave him the No. 1 qualifier. It was Kalitta\u2019s third No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 69th\u00a0of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thirty years ago, Blaine Johnson, Kalitta Crew Chief Alan Johnson\u2019s late brother, won the NHRA Sonoma Nationals; it would be his final win. He was killed in a 1996 racing accident in Indianapolis a short time after Sonoma. After Sunday\u2019s winner\u2019s circle pictures and post-race media interviews, Kalitta presented the Sonoma Nationals trophy to Johnson, in Blaine\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been 30 years since, unfortunately, we lost Blaine Johnson, and I\u2019m going to have the honor of giving this trophy to Alan this evening,\u201d said Kalitta. \u201cIt\u2019s very deserving with everything he\u2019s put into this sport. Blaine was a hell of a driver, so this is going to be an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalitta leaves Sonoma in second place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails teammate Shawn Langdon by 85 points and leads third-place Leah Pruett by 181 points.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on July 20, 2026. <\/p>\n
The post Doug Kalitta Wins Second Consecutive NHRA Sonoma Nationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Doug Kalitta continued the torrid first half of the season for Kalitta Motorsports, defeating Jasmine Salinas in the Top Fuel final round and taking home his second consecutive NHRA Sonoma Nationals Wally.\u00a0 Kalitta\u2019s Aflac dragster was strong from start to finish in the finals; the reigning Top Fuel champion won the race with a 3.731-second […]<\/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-104389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104389","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=104389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}