Maybe it’s because Doug Kalitta has won 34 National Hot Rod Association races and, 20 years ago this season, the USAC national sprint car championship.

Maybe it’s because he has led the Top Fuel standings on five previous occasions – for 10 consecutive races in 2006 and for a stretch of 10 times in 12 events in 2005.

Maybe it’s because he and wife Josie have preteen children, Mitchell and Avery, at home in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Maybe it’s because Doug Kalitta has won 34 National Hot Rod Association races and, 20 years ago this season, the USAC national sprint car championship.

Maybe it’s because he has led the Top Fuel standings on five previous occasions – for 10 consecutive races in 2006 and for a stretch of 10 times in 12 events in 2005.

Maybe it’s because he and wife Josie have preteen children, Mitchell and Avery, at home in Ann Arbor, Mich.

But after winning the Amalie Oil Gatornationals in his Mac Tools Dragster, Kalitta posed for his winners circle pictures, chatted with the media, then dashed to the nearby Gainesville, Fla., airport and flew himself home.

And he made it back to his house in time to sit down in front of the TV with his family and watch the ESPN2 broadcast of his final-round victory over Antron Brown.

Then, he said, he sent the kids off to bed for their fresh week at school and before he knew it, he was back at his job running Kalitta Charters at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti at 8 o'clock the next morning.

It seemed all in a weekend's work, or play, for Kalitta.

He was top qualifier in each of the first two Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events this year and has two final rounds and a semifinal finish for a sparkling 9-2 elimination-round record so far.

Starting the schedule with such a consistently strong performance "is going to be huge for me and my team," Kalitta said in this week's "NHRA Nitro" program on WFO Radio, which is available through Competition Plus. "We had a good-running car toward the end of last year and [his team owner uncle, Connie Kalitta] decided to skip testing. Glad the guys still have that thing running strong without the testing. We found something that's been working, and we'll just stay with it.

"It's definitely a cool opportunity and [we're] definitely going to make the best of it," he said.

"We'll try to keep the momentum going. Two races in a row, with Alexis [DeJoria] getting the Funny Car win at Phoenix . . . Kalitta Motorsports teams are off to a good start," he said.

Kalitta said the Jim Oberhofer- and Troy Fasching-led team haven’t sworn off testing.

"I'm sure we'll do a little bit throughout the year," the points leader said.

For several years, the NHRA Top Fuel class had the so-called "Beer Wars," when Larry Dixon in the Miller Lite Dragster battled it out on the dragstrip with Budweiser King Kenny Bernstein. Today's action pits the "Tool Cars."

Gauging by the first three races this season, Kalitta and Brown, in the Matco Tools Dragster, are ratcheting up the stakes on each other each week.

Brown won at Phoenix, defeating Kalitta in the semifinals. At Gainesville, Kalitta returned the punishment in the final round.

"Antron, he is just one of those competitors who's hard to get around. He's a great driver. They're a great team. I was just happy to get around those guys. There's a lot of folks out there with different tool brands," Kalitta said, "and it was good we were able to get the Mac Tools car by him this time."

He gave his crew the credit for his advancing to the final, at Steve Torrence's expense.

"That was probably my lucky round, because I just didn’t have a good light. I was fortunate my guys gave me a good tune-up and the thing had a good run," Kalitta said.

He's counting on the magic to continue as the tour heads to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, then to Charlotte's zMAX Dragway for the non-traditional Four-Wide race. Kalitta indicated he loves those tracks because they're Bruton Smith-designed products.

"We're definitely looking forward to getting to Las Vegas," Kalitta said. “Bruton Smith tracks are state-of-the-art." The Strip, he said, "is probably one of the nicest facilities on the tour.”

And unlike some other racers, the four-wide situation at Charlotte doesn't faze him, not that much else does, either.

"There's a lot of opinions on that particular event," Kalitta said. "My things is that Bruton has built us some beautiful facilities to race at, and this was an idea that he had and wanted. I'll back that guy 100 percent.

"He has done so much for the Mello Yello Series that we definitely appreciate everything he does. If he wants to have a four-wide race at one of his facilities, I'm on board with it 100 percent – and would love to bring home the trophy from that," Kalitta said.

"We've been close, made it to the finals," he said. "Hopefully maybe this year we'll have a shot at it."

From what NHRA Top Fuel racers and fans have seen so far, nobody could dispute that.

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