Yahoo Autos NHRA 4-Wide Friday Qualifying: Top Fuel champ Doug Kalitta Grabs Provisional Top Spot
Reigning world champion Doug Kalitta made the quickest Top Fuel run on Friday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, powering to the provisional No. 1 spot at the 24th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.
Bob Tasca III (Funny Car) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the fourth of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
Top Fuel
Kalitta went to the top position with a run of 3.779-seconds at 332.02 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Mac Tools dragster, putting the defending champ in line for his first No. 1 qualifier this season and the 54th in his career. He also looks to add to Kalitta Motorsports’ success this season, after teammate Shawn Langdon has won two of the first three races in Top Fuel, while J.R. Todd also sits in the points lead.
“That was a really nice run for us,” Kalitta said. “We just switched to that car (last week) in Phoenix, so we're just kind of trying to figure out a new car, which is much different than what we've been running. The conditions are probably going to be a little warm tomorrow, so we'll have the same opportunity tomorrow to see if we can run those numbers again, and we’re looking forward to it.
“We've been qualifying well, and for whatever reason we got beat early in the rounds on Sunday, so we’re definitely looking for a good long day here (on Sunday).”
Steve Torrence took the second spot thanks to his 3.800 at 332.75 and defending event winner Antron Brown is right behind with his 3.803 at 329.99.
Funny Car
Bob Tasca III impressed in both Funny Car sessions on Friday, making the quickest run of both sessions, including his 3.931 at 332.02 to close out the day in his 11,000-horsepower BG Products Ford Mustang. If that run holds, Tasca would earn his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and 17th in his career. Making a pair of strong runs on a warm day also meant a lot to Tasca, who is searching for his first victory of the season after a strong 2023 campaign. Tasca is also after his second 4-Wide Nationals win in Las Vegas following his victory at the track in 2021.
“This morning, I told my crew chiefs [Aaron Brooks and Todd Okuhara] that I didn't want to be going quicker than 3.95 and do not want to break 330 mph,” Tasca said. “I wanted them to prove to me that they can go slow when the weather's hot. In the first round, and they were everything was good, they listened to me, we ran 3.96. Everything's beautiful.
“I told them the exact same thing, not to change anything for the second run, then Austin [Prock] goes 3.94 right in front of us. Aaron goes in the [tuning] box, he looks at me and says, 'I'm really sorry, but we're going to break out,' and it left and felt good and ran a huge speed. The number that impressed me the most was the 332. It was exactly what we needed to do after two very tough races for us."
Austin Prock, who won last weekend in Phoenix, is second with a strong run of 3.947 at 321.42, while his team owner, John Force, sits third thanks to his run of 3.962 at 313.73. Force won the Winternationals last weekend in Phoenix as well.
