Kalitta Takes Qualifying for Second Time in a Row; Ashley Gets 2Fast2Tasty Challenge

Justin Ashley in Victory Lane after winning the 2Fast2Tasty Challenge at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina (Photo: NHRA Media)

CONCORD, N.C. — For the second time in 2024, the NHRA competed in a four-wide race: the highly anticipated 4-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, North Carolina.

QUALIFYING SESSION 1

During the first session, Justin Ashley, Shawn Langdon, Steve Torrence and Doug Kalitta faced off to get the event started. Kalitta had the best elapsed time and Langdon had the best final speed. This run placed Ashley in the seventh-place position, Langdon in second, Torrence in 13th and Kalitta in first.

QUALIFYING SESSION 2

The first round for session two saw Brittany Force, Torrence, Tony Stewart and Antron Brown take to the strip. Both Torrence and Force had issues early on, not getting far enough down the track to have their times scored. This placed Force in 12th, Torrence 15th, Stewart third and Brown in first. Brown completed the best round out of the four in both elapsed time and final speed.

The next four racers to go down the 1,000-ft. racetrack were Kalitta, Clay Millican, Langdon and Jasmine Salinas. Salinas suffered the same fate as her fellow female competitor, Force, when she did not make it far enough down the track to be scored. The men were successful, though, and Kalitta did so well that he took both the elapsed time and final speed records, seizing the number one qualifying spot away from Brown. Millican got sixth and Langdon a spot above.

After this round, it was determined that Kalitta had achieved a career-best run for his time.

QUALIFYING SESSION 3

For the first time during qualifying, some new faces went out to race at over 330 miles an hour. Cody Krohn, Shawn Reed, Billy Torrence and Langdon lined up and prepared to challenge Kalitta’s best time and speed. Langdon and Torrence had the two best runs of the group, as Langdon took the elapsed time and Torrence with the final speed. The slotted Langdon in fifth, Torrence in third, Reed in eighth and Krohn in 15th.

Doug Kalitta competing in the 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina (Photo: NHRA Media)

FINAL QUALIFYING

Doug Foley, Salinas, Dan Mercier and Krohn went head-to-head to start the final qualifying round off. Salinas took the round for elapsed time while Mercier had the best final speed. This round put Krohn in 14th, Mercier one spot ahead of him, Salinas in seventh and Foley in tenth.

A solo round took place after that race. Mike Bucher drove the 1,000 feet by himself to qualify 17th with an elapsed time of 4.554 seconds and a final speed of 171.29 miles per hour.

In a 3-versus-1 match-up of males versus females, Millican, B. Torrence and Tony Schumacher went up against Force. Millican had the best elapsed time of the round while Torrence had the best final speed. Because of his earlier performances, or lack thereof, Schumacher was bumped out of the running to compete in final eliminations. 

Langdon, Kalitta, Reed and Stewart all raced each other next. Kalitta had the best round out of them all, taking both the elapsed time and final speed. This reinforced his first-place qualifying position and gave him that win.

“Everybody’s working their tails off and we’re hungry,” Kalitta said on getting the number one qualifying position for the second time in a row. “It’s a big team effort and we’re riding the wave right now.”

2FAST2TASTY CHALLENGE SEMIFINALS

The first of two semifinal rounds for the 2Fast2Tasty Challenge saw Stewart, Brown, Millican and Ashley race down the strip. Ashley was the winner of the round with the best reaction and elapsed times, but Brown advanced to the final round as well due to his blistering final speed. Stewart had cylinders go out on his car, preventing him from performing his best.

Kalitta, Force, Josh Hart and S. Torrence were the next four to race down zMAX Dragway. On a holeshot, Hart won the round and Torrence advanced to the finals along with him. Kalitta had the best reaction time of the bunch, though.

2FAST2TASTY CHALLENGE FINAL

It all came down to S. Torrence, Ashley, Brown and Hart for the final round of the 2Fast2Tasty Challenge. In an absolutely dominating fashion, Ashley won the round by sweeping the reaction time, elapsed time and final speed.

“[This win] came from a lot of hard work,” said Ashley on his win. “I’m so proud to be out here and representing all the companies that sponsor us. Happy to win.”