Doug Kalitta opened Sunday’s NHRA action at Summit Motorsports Park with a 3.745-to-3.804 win over Billy Torrence. The run sent Kalitta forward and set up the round-two lane-choice shuffle that followed the first session.
Kalitta Opens With 3.745
Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster held the edge to the stripe, and the margin showed up in the numbers before the field had settled into the day. Alan Johnson kept working on the car up until Kalitta was preparing to stage, and the result was the first clean statement of Sunday round one.
That opening race mattered because it was the kind of round one that rearranges the rest of the day. Sunday’s weather at Summit Motorsports Park was drastically different from Friday and Saturday, and the opening pairings reflected it with runs that were not all built the same way.
Langdon, Stewart, and Hart Advance
Shawn Langdon’s 3.736 at 337.07 mph came on a round-one bye, the quickest straight-line number in the opening set. With that pass, he also earned lane choice against Kalitta in round two, which immediately turned the opening win into a later matchup.
Tony Stewart beat Justin Ashley with a 3.758 after Ashley put a couple hundredths on him off the starting line but smoked the tires. Josh Hart moved on with a 3.962 after Scott Farley shut off early, and Antron Brown also advanced, taking Leah Pruett on a 3.763-to-3.781 run as the No. 14 qualifier.
Maddi Gordon’s Extra Minutes
Maddi Gordon kept her place in the round by working through an apparent air leak that cost her team a couple of extra minutes before the run went forward. She advanced with a 3.854, while Spencer Massey waited to fire until told by NHRA officials to do so.
Tony Schumacher beat Will Smith with a 4.350 to 4.648 run after Smith began to get sideways and was forced to lift. Clay Millican closed the session with a 3.842 win over Shawn Reed, who got loosed and collected a couple of timing blocks at the finish line.
The pairings were already taking shape by the end of round one, with Shawn Langdon set against Doug Kalitta and Tony Stewart listed to face Mad. For anyone tracking the ladder, the first Sunday runs did more than advance cars; they sorted out who had the better lane and who had to run the harder side next.
