At the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday, Scott Kalitta, driver of the new DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car, made his best showing of the young 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season with a strong qualifying effort and a consistent nitro-fueled race car in final eliminations.
Scott, the No. 9 qualifier, used a 4.841-second, 320.43-mph lap to easily defeat his first round opponent Tony Bartone (9.882 sec., 79.92 mph) when final eliminations began Sunday morning. In the quarterfinals, Scott rolled to the starting line to race Jack Beckman. Scott and the DHL crew again posted another consistent pass with a 4.847-sec., 314.75-mph run, but Beckman made an outstanding 4.767-sec., 325.77-mph lap to get the win over Scott.
Team Kalitta nitro pilot Dave Grubnic, driver of the Zantrex-3 Top Fuel dragster and No. 7 qualifier, matched up with No. 10 qualifier Joe Hartley in round one. Grubnic and his Zantrex-3 team made a clean and straight run down the quarter-mile at “The Strip”, but unfortunately for them, so did Hartley to get the win light in a great side-by-side race, 4.686 sec., 318.39 mph to 4.618 sec., 328.70 mph.
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