Doug Kalitta capitalized at the NHRA Carolina Nationals on a day when the top four in points failed to advance to the semis.

But the reality is, Kalitta could very easily have joined them in making an early exit.

“Everything was going normal in [our between round preparation for the semifinal] and then we started the car and it sounded terrible,” Kalitta recalled. “Come to find out we had some nozzles that were plugged. Then we fixed that, and started it again and the same thing, sounded like crap. We changed the cylinder heads and manifold in 30 minutes which was a feat in itself. It was a helluva team effort. We didn’t start it again, and barely made it up here for the semifinal round. We made it up here, just in time. I’m real proud of our guys who chipped in to make it possible.”

The win broke several winless streaks for Doug Kalitta and the Kalitta Motorsports team. For both, it was their first Top Fuel win since the 2016 World Finals at Pomona. Additionally, it was the first win for Doug Kalitta and the team’s Top Fuel operation at the zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.

“It’s nice to come up here to get our first win, and we’ve been coming here for a long time, to win in the land of NASCAR. I’m a big NASCAR fan so that makes it great for sure,” said Kalitta.

The day of upsets in Top Fuel started early when Wayne Newby eliminated Leah Pritchett in Round 1, while Kalitta held off Chris Karamesines. Round 2 then saw Tony Schumacher fall to Kalitta, Antron Brown fall to Clay Millican and Steve Torrence fall to Richie Crampton.

Crampton then went off to defeat Brittany Force in the semis while Kalitta defeated Clay Millican, making it an all-Kalitta Motorsport final between Crampton and the 53-year-old Michigan native.

“[Crampton] was killing it with the Countdown cars!” exclaimed Kalitta following his win. Indeed, Crampton had put an end to the days of Scott Palmer in Round 1 as well as Torrence in Round 2 and Force in the Semis.

Kalitta got the win with a 3.775 at 318.39 mph against Crampton’s 3.876 in the final. It was Crampton’s first final since racing J.R. Todd - behind the wheel of the SealMaster car - last year at Sonoma.

“It’s a great day for Connie Kalitta having two of his dragsters in the final round,” said Doug Kalitta. “Richie did a great job stepping into that dragster, making it into the finals. Now we have a dragster win, after the Kalitta Funny Cars had been showing us what to do.

“With the Funny Cars winning the previous two races, that started it really for us. The pedal job J.R. [Todd] did to win at Indy marked the breakthrough for all of our teams. He pulled off an incredible win, and it seems like this has started the momentum building throughout the organization. Everyone is working hard on these teams. And it’s important at 79 years old, Connie Kalitta is out here having fun.

“There’s a lot to be said about getting hot at the right time. We’ve gotten hot at the wrong time. Certainly this is the first race and it great momentum. It’s definitely the right time to make it happen. We have a lot of momentum leaving here, and we will keep our heads down and moving forward.”

Epping and Indianapolis are now the only tracks where Doug Kalitta has yet to take home the win.

Kalitta not only leaves Charlotte with a win there checked off of his list, but also with the points lead. Torrence is just 14 points behind.