Doug Kalitta opened Sunday eliminations with a narrow win over Billy Torrence, posting a 3.745-second run to Torrence's 3.804 at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. The opening race set the tone for a day that was already running under completely different weather than Friday and Saturday.
That mattered because Sunday was the day the field started getting trimmed, and the first pair out of the gate had to make clean runs while the track and conditions had changed. Kalitta did it even as crew chief Alan Johnson kept adjusting the Mac Tools dragster right up until Kalitta was ready to stage, the kind of late work that can decide whether a run is quick or a mess.
The opening pass was only the start of a round that kept turning on small mistakes and fast reactions. Justin Ashley left with a couple hundredths on Tony Stewart, but Ashley smoked the tires and Stewart stayed in it long enough to win with a 3.758. Josh Hart moved on with a 3.962 after Scott Farley shut off early. Shawn Langdon advanced on a round-one bye with a 3.736 at 337.07 mph, then picked up lane choice against Kalitta for round two.
Other matchups were just as tight. Antron Brown, the No. 14 qualifier, edged Leah Pruett 3.763 to 3.781. Maddi Gordon advanced with a 3.854 after her team spent a couple of extra minutes dealing with an apparent air leak before she went up against Spencer Massey, who waited to fire until NHRA officials told him to do so. Tony Schumacher beat Will Smith 4.350 to 4.648 after a pedal-fest, with Smith on the Blue Bird Turf entry forced to lift when it got sideways. Clay Millican closed out the round by beating Shawn Reed with a 3.842 after Reed got loose and collected a couple of timing blocks at the finish line.
It was the kind of Sunday that rewarded drivers who could survive a mess and punished anyone who could not. Even with the weather shift from Friday and Saturday, the opening race still came down to a close, fast win for Kalitta, and the next round now puts him opposite Langdon with lane choice on the line. For a day built on small margins, that is the one pairing that could matter most.
