NHRA Top Fuel championship points leader Doug Kalitta to run special paint at Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., (Aug. 29, 2006) – This Labor Day weekend’s, Aug. 30-Sept. 4, 52nd annual running of the world’s most biggest and most prestigious drag racing event, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, will be even more special than usual for Top Fuel ace Doug Kalitta and his Mac Tools dragster team.

Kalitta’s normally bright red decorated 8,000-horsepower, 330-mph dragster will have a special edition paint scheme for the world’s predominant drag racing event. Chip Foose, world-renowned custom auto builder and TV celebrity, and Mac Tools are teaming up once again with Kalitta Motorsports with a new and exclusive Chip Foose-designed paint scheme at the “Big Go”. Kalitta, the current POWERade Top Fuel championship points leader, is excited to race with the special decorations on his race car in Indianapolis . His dragster was adorned with a special Foose/Mac Card scheme in Chicago earlier this year and that race car along with two other specially-themed cars he drove in 2005 made trips to NHRA winner’s circles.

“We love running the special paint schemes, especially ones for Chip Foose,” Kalitta said. “We always seem to have good luck with them. Indy is certainly a race that every driver wants to win, so maybe our special scheme there this year will give us a bit of luck and will guide us to our first win there.”

Foose will be in attendance at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals and will serve as Grand Marshall of the event.

Kalitta is also hoping to build on momentum from winning the previous NHRA national event in Memphis , Aug. 21. He holds a 136-point lead in POWERade Top Fuel championship points with six races remaining on the 2006 schedule.

Earlier this season, Kalitta won back-to-back events in Bristol , Tenn. , and Atlanta and then consecutively won again at events in Topeka , Kans. , and Chicago . Kalitta leads Top Fuel, the NHRA’s quickest and fastest racing class, with five wins in 2006. His five wins this season ties a career-high mark for victories in a season that he set last year.

Kalitta, a 41-year old resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., is a two-time Top Fuel championship points runner-up (2003-2004) and the 1998 Auto Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award winner for rookie excellence. He is now in his ninth season in NHRA Top Fuel drag racing and has 29 career Top Fuel victories in 52 final-round appearances. Before joining the quarter-mile set, Kalitta raced in open-wheel competition and won the 1994 USAC National Sprint Car Championship. He is also the owner and president of Kalitta Charters, a charter airline service based at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti , Mich. , alongside Kalitta Air, an airline freight service owned by his uncle, race team owner, and drag racing legend Connie Kalitta.

The Mac Tools U.S. Nationals begins Friday, Sept. 1, for the Top Fuel class with one qualifying session at 7:30 p.m. (ET). Two more qualifying sessions follow on Saturday at 2:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and then two more qualifying sessions on Sunday at 12:45 p.m. and 4:10 p.m.

The top sixteen qualified cars will race Labor Day Monday in final eliminations beginning at 11:00 a.m.

All times and dates subject to change.

The Mac Tools U.S. Nationals is the 18th of 23 national events in the 2006 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.