Doug Kalitta earned the Top Fuel victory Sunday at the seventh annual Sears Craftsman NHRA Nationals at Gateway International Raceway.
Del Worsham, Ron Krisher and Geno Scali won their respective categories at the $1.8 million race, the 12th of 23 events in the $50 million NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
Kalitta beat first-time finalist Scott Weis to earn his third victory of the season and 14th of his career. Kalitta drove his Mac Tools dragster to a 4.602-second pass at 312.35 mph to beat Weis' 4.805 at 298.27 in the Race Girl dragster. Kalitta is in second place in the standings, 207 points behind leader Larry Dixon, who lost in the second round.
"The team did a great job giving me a competitive car that could adapt with the conditions throughout the day," Kalitta said. "I don't want to watch points, I just want to go rounds and go after the race wins."
Worsham earned his second victory of the season and 13th of his career by taking the Funny Car win over John Force. Worsham went 4.884 at 313.00 in his Checker Schuck's Kragen Pontiac Firebird to beat Force's 4.936 run at 314.09 in his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang.
Worsham earned the No. 16 spot in qualifying and beat the No. 10 car in the finals.
"This was a great win for us, especially coming from the No. 16 spot," Worsham said. "But when it comes down to it, all that matters is that we qualified, not where we qualified. The team did an outstanding job and we are always up for racing Force."
Krisher took the Pro Stock victory with a 6.843 pass at 201.64 in his Valvoline Chevy Cavalier for his first win of the season and fifth of his career. Krisher beat Allen Johnson's 6.840 at 201.73 in his Mopar Parts Dodge Stratus R/T.
Scali claimed his second win of the season and third of his career. Scali rode his Craftsman Suzuki to a 7.139 at 187.99 to beat GT Tonglet's 7.177 at 185.46 on his Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson.
With the win, Scali moved back into the points lead, moving past Angelle Savoie. Scali leads Savoie by 68 points after the seventh of 15 Pro Stock Bike events.
"To come here with the race sponsor on the side of the bike and run as consistent as we did is just pretty cool," Scali said. "With the team we have, it looks like we can be a championship contender. I don't think it is going to be easy, but this could be a dream-come-true season."
The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event is the Mopar NHRA Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, July 18-20.
