3 Drivers on Cusp of NHRA Drag Racing Milestones at Brainerd

• Top Fuel’s Doug Kalitta, Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Eddie Krawiec set to add to their victories that already are among class leaders.

• Erica Enders’ Pro Stock victory at Topeka put her on brink of drag-racing history.

• Leah Pruett grateful to all the teams she’s been part of as she reaches significant moment.

Greg Anderson, Pro Stock’s 101-time winner, said, “it’s really important to peak at the right time.” And Justin Ashley and Matt Hagan, the respective Top Fuel and Funny Car points leaders, want to do the same as the NHRA’s “regular season” dashes toward a close with this weekend’s Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd, Minn., and Labor Day weekend’s U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.

Fields for the 17th Countdown to the Championship will be set at Indianapolis, making the Brainerd International Raceway event even more critical for challengers. Gathering qualifying bonus points and, for some, playoff points from Saturday’s Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenges across the pro classes will be critical to Countdown seeding.

Steve Torrence, Brittany Force, and Antron Brown will jockey for the best position in the Top Fuel standings after six-time victor Ashley, who has an 83-point advantage.

In Funny Car, it’s Ron Capps, Robert Hight, Chad Green, and most recent winner Bob Tasca III chasing Hagan, whose 61-point edge isn’t all that safe.

Dallas Glenn leads the Pro Stock class, trying to hold off Matt Hartford, Troy Coughlin Jr., Deric Kramer, and Anderson. Gaige Herrera knows much of his commanding Pro Stock Motorcycle lead (359 markers over No. 2 Hector Arana Jr.) will vanish when the NHRA manipulates the points and bunches up the line-ups for the start of the six-race playoff.

Through all that drama, four contenders—Doug Kalitta and Leah Pruett (Top Fuel), Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle), and Erica Enders (Pro Stock)—are approaching milestones in their careers.

Doug Kalitta's Elusive Next Victory Will Be His 50th in Top Fuel

Currently sixth among the leaders in Top Fuel history, Mac Tools Dragster driver Doug Kalitta needs that 50th and two more to tie retired five-time champion Joe Amato for fifth place.

He trails Tony Schumacher (86), Larry Dixon (62), Antron Brown (56), Steve Torrence (54), and Amato.

Kalitta simply would like a victory. His most recent came in the fall of 2020, at St. Louis.

“We’ve definitely had our highs and lows this season,” Kalitta said. “We’ve had some really good races that made everyone at Mac Tools, Toyota, Revchem and all our partners proud, and we’ve had some that weren’t as good. I know Alan, Brian (co-crew chiefs Alan Johnson and Brian Husen) and all my guys are doing everything they can every day to keep us moving in the right direction, and I’m super proud of them.

"We just need to get back to winning rounds so the race wins can follow. This Mac Tools team is an awesome group of guys with a great work ethic. That 50th win is out there—we just have to go get it.”

Bike Racer Eddie Krawiec Also on Verge of No. 50

The four-time Pro Stock Motorcycle series champion has waited since the 2021 U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis to reach that 50-victory plateau.

He’s second only in bike-class victories to Vance & Hines teammate Andrew Hines, and a 50th would move him to within six of tying the all-time leader.

Krawiec’s attitude is the same as it was in the 2021 Countdown, when he said, “Honestly, I don’t even keep track” but “of course, it’s something special to say you’ve won 50 races. There’s people who haven’t even won one that dream for it. That was me. I dreamed for one. To be at 49 right now, it’s a special deal. It’s really cool. It’s a lot harder to come by a win nowadays. You’ve got to be on your game all the time.”

If he and Kalitta were to pull off the double victory at Brainerd, they would become the 16th and 17th pros in the sport’s history to win 50 or more races.

Enders Poised to Become Sport’s Most Successful Woman

Idle Pro Stock Motorcycle star Angelle Sampey, the three-time champion, has more national-event pro victories than any woman, with 46. Pro Stock’s Erica Enders, a five-time champion, earned her 45th last Sunday at Topeka. Counting her 2004 sportsman-level Super Gas victory, Enders could be considered tied with Sampey.

Enders, already a two-time winner at Brainerd (2012, 2015), would tie Sampey for the distinction if she scored back-to-back victories in her Melling/Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Camaro.

Passing Sampey with two more victories would make Enders the leader among women not just in drag racing but in all of motorsports.

“I don’t care about it, but in the same sense, I think that would be really cool,” Enders told Competition Plus. “Angelle is a woman that I’ve looked up to my entire life, even starting as a Jr. Drag Racer, so to even have my name mentioned in the same sentence as hers is pretty spectacular. We haven’t had the best season, but I feel like we have a much better hot rod now, and I definitely have something to work with. So, got two more races before the Countdown starts, and then it’s balls to the wall, So I think we can get ’er done.”

Motivated at missing out in 2022 on three final rounds in a sparkling championship season with 13 of them, Enders said, “Again, whatever, we’ll just do our best, and we’re going to have fun.”

She said, “I don’t feel like I’m close to being done yet, so it’s not just a goal to get to that number. It’s to surpass it by a lot and just keep rolling. If we can secure our sixth world championship in the future, the only person that would have more than us would be Bob Glidden, so we’d be tied with Warren Johnson. So it’s a really cool place to be in as just a little girl who had big dreams.”

Fifth-ranked Leah Pruett Celebrates 200th Start

Right now, what No. 5-ranked Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett is concentrating on is the Lucas Oil Nationals, one of four NHRA events she has won twice. She's the current track record-holder for elapsed time (3.640 seconds at 1,000 feet).

But not even her 200th start has distracted her from her immediate goal. She said, “I’ve had great history at Brainerd, but right now, our focus is on swinging the power pendulum the opposite direction than we did last year at this race. This race is huge, because last year was the beginning of us.74-ing them to death [in elapsed times], no matter what we did, while the rest of the field picked up. We’ve shown we can pick up and be a top-tier qualifying car, and that’s what we intend to do this weekend.”

The 200-race plateau is something the Dodge Direct Connection Dragster driver is proud of, nevertheless.

“It is wild to think I’m making my 200th start,” Pruett said. “I’m thankful to every team and crew chief I’ve gotten to drive for. It all started with just wanting to go fast and compete at national events with the big dogs.

"From my start with Dote Racing, brief stint but win with BVR (Bob Vandergriff Racing), Lagana’s Nitro Ninja, DSR’s (Don Schumacher Racing’s) professional presence delivering wins with driver and personal growth, to being fully immersed in a team co-built from the inside out, every dynamic of my Top Fuel start has changed from 199 races ago, except my gratitude and will to win. Those things remain the same, but the enjoyment factor of who and how I do it with continues to skyrocket.”