Doug Kalitta has never won an NHRA world championship, and heading into the 2014 Countdown to the Championship he appeared to be in great position to claim his first.

Kalitta led the Top Fuel points standings heading into the six-race Countdown, but after first-round losses in Charlotte and Dallas, Kalitta entered the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals third in the points standings, 107 behind front-running Tony Schumacher.

Doug Kalitta has never won an NHRA world championship, and heading into the 2014 Countdown to the Championship he appeared to be in great position to claim his first.

Kalitta led the Top Fuel points standings heading into the six-race Countdown, but after first-round losses in Charlotte and Dallas, Kalitta entered the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals third in the points standings, 107 behind front-running Tony Schumacher.

First, in Charlotte, he lost to Morgan Lucas by about five feet. Lucas’ margin of victory was a mere .0108 of a second. Then, in Dallas, Kalitta smoked his tires in his first round match-up with Troy Buff…a driver he had been a perfect 7-0 in his career against prior to that race.

For the weekend the news got worse as two crew members, both cylinder head technicians, could not make the trip due to illness.

No problem.

Kalitta swung for the fences and connected during Saturday evening qualifying, clocking a 3.758 at 325.45 miles per hour to vault to the top of the qualifying sheet for Sunday’s rounds of eliminations.

“All weekend the thing’s been running good, responding good,” Kalitta said. “The guys are doing a good job on it. Both our cylinder head guys got sick on us and they’re both actually not here. We’ve got people filling in, so there’s a little bit of drama there.”

Kalitta claimed the top qualifying spot for the sixth time this season and for the 42nd time in his career. He’s looking forward to getting back on the track.

“We’re real excited for tomorrow,” he said. “The car is running good and the track is holding up real good. The lanes are both pretty even and the weather conditions are really good for what we’re doing out here.”

Kalitta is looking forward to putting Charlotte and Dallas behind him. He knows his team has the ability to go rounds and realizes that is what it will take if he hopes to win his first-career world title.

“I’m just real focused on trying to do good tomorrow,” Kalitta said. “It is what it is…you’ve got to go up there each round and hope for the best. We’ve kind of struggled in the first couple races of the Countdown and we know we can go rounds, so we’re real confident about that. We’ve just got to go out there and prove it.”

One thing for certain, after the losses in Charlotte and Dallas Kalitta is not taking anyone for granted. He knows he has to be ready for anything every time he stages the car, starting when he locks horns with Chris Karamesines, the No. 16 qualifier, in the first round.

“I can’t wait to get out and get this thing started,” Kalitta said. “I’m looking forward to it because it should be fun. With this group that’s running in Top Fuel I don’t think you can relax, regardless of who you’re running against. You definitely can’t take anybody lightly out here.

“I run The Greek (Chris Karamesines, in the first round) and you can’t take him lightly. You never can tell. We plan on going to the final and getting the win tomorrow, but we’ll see how that goes.”

Richie Crampton finished second after final qualifying with a 3.764/322.73 pass while the current points leader, Tony Schumacher, placed third on the sheet at 3.768/324.44. Crampton will face Kyle Wurtzel in the first round while Schumacher will square off with Terry McMillen.

In other first-round match-ups No. 4 J.R. Todd will face No. 13 Troy Buff, No. 5 Shawn Langdon will race No. 12 Pat Dakin, No. 6 Antron Brown will go against No. 11 Brittany Force, No. 7 Steve Torrence will tussle No. 10 Khalid alBalooshi and No. 8 Bob Vandergriff will face No. 9 Spencer Massey.

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