Top Fuel points leader Doug Kalitta made the fastest run in track history on Saturday at Summit Motorsports Park, picking up the win in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and cementing his No. 1 qualifier position at the 18th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.<\/p>\n
Austin Prock (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Richard Gadson (Pro Stock Motorcycle) all won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, while Prock, Anderson and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) qualified No. 1 at the 10th of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.<\/p>\n
Kalitta stayed red-hot in the loaded Top Fuel ranks, picking up his first specialty race win of the year, going 3.703-seconds at a track-record 337.16 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Applied Innovation\/Toyota dragster to defeat Antron Brown\u2019s 3.755. It was an impressive performance in a stretch that has been filled with them for the defending world champion.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s track-record run of 3.692 held up as well at the home track for Kalitta Motorsports, handing the veteran his fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season and 57th in his career. He opens eliminations against Kyle Wurtzel, looking for his second straight win and third in the past four races.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis just gets you ready on Saturday to go racing, and we\u2019re having fun. I think all the drivers \u2013 and definitely me \u2013 we enjoy\u00a0having the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty race and the format,\u201d Kalitta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe track turned out to be in great shape and the conditions were perfect to put down good numbers. The way my car is running, I\u2019m just trying to get into a good routine. I\u2019m certainly working at that and trying my best to be consistent. So far this weekend, I\u2019ve been pretty steady and I\u2019m looking forward to tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justin Ashley jumped to the second spot during the final session, going 3.702 at 330.47, while Brown\u2019s 3.717 at 333.33 gave him the third spot. In all, 15 of the 16 qualified dragsters went 3.791 or quicker.<\/p>\n
Funny Car\u2019s Austin Prock enjoyed another spectacular Saturday in a year filled with terrific moments, winning his third straight Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, this time over Bob Tasca III with a stellar, track-record pass of 3.853 at 330.55 in his 11,000-horsepower AAA Chevrolet Camaro SS. Tasca left the starting line first and delivered a strong 3.882, but Prock tracked him down to stay on an impressive pace in the Funny Car ranks.<\/p>\n
The pass was also an improvement from Friday\u2019s provisional No. 1 qualifying run, as the Funny Car points leader earned an incredible seventh No. 1 spot in the first 10 races of the season. After winning the past two races, Prock will also look to make it three in a row, opening eliminations against Joe Morrison. Earlier this month in Bristol, Prock also qualified No. 1, won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and picked up the event win the next day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis feels really good, and we\u2019re very blessed to be in this situation,\u201d Prock said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of hard work that goes into\u00a0making these race cars run like this one has this year. I\u2019ve said it all year, hats off to my guys, they\u2019re making it easy on\u00a0me. I can go up there and I believe\u00a0in my car, and they\u2019re giving me opportunities every\u00a0weekend. It\u2019s definitely helped my learning curve.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a great year; the hard work is showing. Growing up, there was always a saying, \u2018races are won in the shop.\u2019 We get to the racetrack and we\u2019re prepared, our ducks\u00a0are in a row and we\u2019ve got a good notebook. We\u2019re just executing that and trying to race smart and make smart\u00a0decisions, then leave it up to me to let the pedal out and stomp the gas. It\u2019s all been working out.\u201d<\/p>\n
J.R. Todd qualified second with a 3.865 at 332.02, while defending event winner Blake Alexander jumped to third after going 3.874 at 328.14 in the final session.<\/p>\n
Anderson also made it a clean sweep through two days in Pro Stock, winning his second straight Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge after going 6.595 at 204.94 in his Summit Racing Equipment\/HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro to defeat longtime rival Erica Enders in the finals of the specialty race. After missing out on any bonus race wins since last year, the veteran has now won two in a row.<\/p>\n
He also qualified No. 1 for the third time this year on the strength of Friday\u2019s 6.592 at 207.69, putting him in a prime position to sweep the weekend. That would mean a great deal for Anderson, who has 105 career wins and is sporting a special Summit Racing Equipment wrap this weekend. He opens eliminations against Ohio native Larry Morgan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been a great week. I got here on Wednesday morning, spent all day at Summit and got to chat with all the great employees again. It was great to see them all and it fires you up, it makes you feel good,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo come over here to Summit Motorsports Park with the wrap I have on my car, it\u2019s just a proud weekend for me. We\u2019re off to a great start and we had another great day today. The car ran great, and we found our way to another Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win. I guess we\u2019re figuring that deal out. It\u2019s all good and a great tune-up for tomorrow. The Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking forward to, that\u2019s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for me. I just really, really hope that I can come out tomorrow feeling as well as I did today. I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enders, the defending world champion, stayed second, but improved to a 6.601 at 207.15, making that run in the specialty race final. Deric Kramer\u2019s 6.605 at 208.17 from Friday handed him the third spot.<\/p>\n
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Richard Gadson enjoyed a special moment, picking up his first win in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty after going 6.819 at 196.87 on his RevZilla\/Mission Foods\/Vance & Hines Suzuki against John Hall, who beat Gaige Herrera in the opening round. Gadson took down Hector Arana Jr. earlier in the day, getting past Hall\u2019s 6.857 in the finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat round right there, that was big for me, to avenge my teammate. That was big. Before I walked out of\u00a0the trailer, Gaige said to me, \u2018Go do what I couldn\u2019t do.\u2019 That was a little booster,\u201d Gadson said. \u201cI\u2019m having a blast and I just want to thank Mission Foods and NHRA for having this. It gets the juices flowing before Sunday. I love it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gets you into race mode and you start to find your spot, you start to learn how your bike is reacting and how you\u2019re reacting. Typically, you might not be worried about that stuff in qualifying, but it gets you amped up and into race mode. I love the format.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Smith earned his third No. 1 qualifier in the past four races, as his track-record run of 6.748 at 201.31 from Friday on his Denso Auto Parts\/Matt Smith Racing Buell easily held up. The six-time world champion enjoyed another strong effort in qualifying and will now to look to pick up his first win since September of last year. Since then, Herrera has won the past 10 races, but Smith has plenty of momentum heading into Sunday\u2019s eliminations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been No. 1 two other times before this, but we have to get it done on Sunday. We have not done that this year like we need to,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHopefully we can do that tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be a totally different day from what it looks like. It\u2019s going to be cooler and a lot drier. We\u2019re just trying to get an MSR bike in the final and see if we can win this thing tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angie Smith qualified second with a 6.798 at 200.26, while Herrera took third with a 6.799 at 198.88.<\/p>\n
Eliminations for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals begin at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday at Summit Motorsports Park.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on June 29, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post Kalitta, Prock & Anderson Sweep Qualifying and Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge at Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Top Fuel points leader Doug Kalitta made the fastest run in track history on Saturday at Summit Motorsports Park, picking up the win in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and cementing his No. 1 qualifier position at the 18th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. Austin Prock (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Richard Gadson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94435","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"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}