Doug Kalitta Career Stats: 645 events, 64 wins, 71 runners-up, 885 round wins, 72 No. 1 qualifiers.
Current Points Position: 2
Pre-Race Notes:
- Doug Kalitta enters the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals in second place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails his teammate, Shawn Langdon, by 107 points and leads third-place Antron Brown by 129 points entering the season’s final race.
- Kalitta remains in mathematical contention to win his second-straight NHRA Top Fuel title and his third overall. The reigning champion must cut Langdon’s points lead to less than 90 points entering eliminations to have a chance. Then, he must advance three rounds further than Langdon. In that scenario, if Langdon reaches the semifinals, Kalitta will be eliminated from championship contention.
- When the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series concludes this weekend, Kalitta will post his 29th-consecutive top-10 finish in the final Top Fuel point standings. Antron Brown will also post his 29th-consecutive top-10 finish, but his are split between Top Fuel (18) and Pro Stock Motorcycle (11).
- Kalitta has five wins, four runners-up, six semifinals and six No. 1 qualifiers this season. With Kalitta’s wins and Langdon’s eight wins, the Team Kalitta dragsters won 13 of the season’s first 19 races and competed in 71 of the 74 rounds of racing. Neither driver reached the final round at Pomona, Calif., Norwalk, Ohio or Ennis, Texas.
- The 2026 season has been one for the Kalitta Motorsports record book. The team has 15 race wins this year (Langdon 8, Kalitta 5 and Todd 2), more than any other season in team history. In addition, the team enters the last race of the season having won either the Top Fuel or Funny Car title at each of the last nine races. The last time a Team Kalitta car did not win one of the classes was in Norwalk, Ohio on June 28.
- In-N-Out Burger Dragstrip has been extremely good to Kalitta throughout his career. After making his first-career start at the Pomona, Calif., track, the two-time Top Fuel champion has seven wins in 15 final-round appearances and six No. 1 qualifiers at the suburban Los Angeles track.
- With 64 race wins, Kalitta is third on NHRA’s all-time Top Fuel wins list and trails second-place Antron Brown by three wins. He is 11th in overall Mission Foods Drag Racing Series wins and trails 10th-place Robert Hight by one win.
- Kalitta is a two-time NHRA Top Fuel Champion (2023, ’25) and a member of the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Pre-Race Quotes:
“Alan Johnson (Crew Chief) is the creator of all this stuff, and even having him on my team, I have to admit, it (the championship) feels like a long shot for us; it’s hard, but anything can happen with points and a half at Pomona. That’s really one of my favorite places to race so we’ll be definitely up on a wheel and hoping that it doesn’t rain like it did last year – that would be bad for sure. Rain or no rain, having this opportunity is all you can hope for.
“We all work together (at Kalitta Motorsports) to chip in on whatever needs to happen to try to make it happen as a team. It would be one hell of an opportunity; it’s between those two teams (the Mac Tools and Kalitta Air Careers teams), and the guys have a rivalry for sure. They share the same shop, so it’s bragging rights. To me, having a chance (at another championship) is just an incredible opportunity to even be able to have this conversation. We’ll just have to let it play out and see what happens.
“Alan Johnson and Mac Savage (Crew Chiefs) and all my guys are doing an incredible job keeping the consistency of putting the car together so Alan and Mac can do their magic tuning this thing. Alan has been out here for years, and Mac was on my team when I first started so these guys have a ton of experience in these situations. Shawn’s car has been incredible all season, so we know we have a lot of work to do at Pomona, but my guys are hungry. We’ve been here before.”
Kalitta Photo Courtesy: Kalitta Motorsports
For Doug Kalitta’s 2026 race-by-race results, please click here.
TV Schedule (All times eastern):
- Qualifying Show: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 on FS1
- Finals: 5-8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 on FS1
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