DOUG KALITTA

“ That definitely has a nice ring to it ,” Kalitta said . “ It ’ s gonna take a little while for that to settle in , but I ’ ll be grinning here for quite a while . It was definitely a great day . With the top four cars still in the semis , I was feeling the intensity . You just hope for the best . [ Pomona ] is one of the coolest places to run with the museum and the history of the NHRA . I heard all the stories back in the day with Connie [ Kalitta ’ s uncle and team owner , Connie Kalitta ] and Don Garlits . This is the pinnacle for me , really . Connie was pretty happy , and I definitely appreciate what he ’ s done for me .”

Kalitta is now the seventh driver to win a Top Fuel title with legendary tuner Alan Johnson making the calls . He joins Gary Scelzi , Tony Schumacher , Larry Dixon , Del Worsham , his teammate , Shawn Langdon , and Brittany Force as drivers winning with Johnson .

“ What a blessing to have him on our team ,” Kalitta added . “ Throughout the year , we kind of struggled and changed a lot of stuff with our car . I think after Reading when we blew that tire , for some reason , our luck kind of changed after that . The car was responding , and everything seemed to be a lot happier with our tune-up . To be one of the guys who won a championship with Alan as the crew chief is what I ’ ve dreamt of , and obviously , winning it with Connie here is extra special as well .

“ At the end of the run , I was so relieved ,” Kalitta said . “ I ’ ve been trying to win this thing for years , and it ’ s really hard to believe . I ’ m speechless at the moment , but it ’ ll settle in here after the banquet . We ’ ve had a great run being out

here , and this championship has definitely been on my ‘ things to do list .’ My cousin , Scott , won this thing a couple of times so I ’ ve always grown up in his shadow trying to accomplish what he accomplished so it was definitely on my bucket list to get a Top Fuel title . It ’ s definitely a big relief .” DI

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