Brainerd: Doug Kalitta final notes

Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools team make early exit in Brainerd eliminations

BRAINERD, Minn., (Aug. 12, 2007) -- During the first round of Top Fuel final eliminations at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd Int'l Raceway in Brainerd, Minn., Doug Kalitta, driver of the Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster, saw his hopes of winning his third title at BIR disappear at the end of a very close drag race.

Kalitta, the No. 9 qualifier, faced No. 8 qualifier Larry Dixon in Sunday's opener. The two Top Fuel veterans darted toward the quarter-mile finish line as soon as the "tree" went green, but the "Big Red" Mac Tools car ended up on the short side of victory as Dixon barely got by Kalitta to pick up the win, 4.726 seconds, 300.93 mph to 4.704 sec., 320.05 mph.

"Well, that was certainly not what we wanted," Kalitta, a 42-year old resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., said. "The car moved out of the groove, and I couldn't get it completely back in. It started spinning the tires a little then and that was what did us in. We'll go to Reading (Penn., - next event) and try again. There's going to be no room for error next week."

This season the NHRA instituted the new Countdown to the Championship points system. Only the top eight in POWERade points after the first 17 national events will be allowed to vie for the season championship. This weekend's event was the 16th of the season.

Kalitta is in 12th place in POWERade championship points. He is 63 points shy of 8th place.

-credit: km