Joliet: Doug Kalitta final report

Doug Kalitta -- Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster qualified No. 7 (4.574 seconds, 319.52 mph), advanced to round one Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools team upset in close race in Joliet JOLIET, Ill., (June 8, 2008) --Doug Kalitta, driver of the "Big Red" ...

Doug Kalitta -- Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster qualified No. 7 (4.574 seconds, 319.52 mph), advanced to round one

Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools team upset in close race in Joliet

JOLIET, Ill., (June 8, 2008) --Doug Kalitta, driver of the "Big Red" Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster, had his hopes of winning his fourth Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals title dashed at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., just a few miles south of the Chicago city limits, Sunday after being defeated in round one by a scant .02 seconds.

Kalitta, the No. 7 qualifier (4.574 seconds, 319.52 mph), raced against the No. 10 qualifier, Rod Fuller, in their opening lap down the quarter-mile. The two race cars were side by side all the way down the 1320-ft. track, but it was Fuller's mount that barely got to the finish line first, 4.560 sec., 327.59 mph to 4.540 sec., 309.34 mph.