Participant movement in the National Hot Rod Association continues. Where, toward the close of last year the emphasis was on driver and team realignments, as the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series 22-contest season approaches, the emphasis is now on crew chief and tuner changes.
New teams? Yeah, we’ve got those. Antron Brown and Ron Capps, both Don Schumacher Racing expatriates are coming to the water boxes around this country as owners of their own self-branded squads in Top Fuel and Funny Car, respectively. Each team owner has managed to bring the entire team with which he worked during the 2021 season; for Capps, it’s a 2021 championship team led by Dean “Guido” Antonelli and John Medlen, while Brown continues with Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, who helped the New Jersey native to three NHRA Top Fuel titles.
Now, the man considered among the best in the business – and even the GOAT – has changed affiliations in the Top Fuel category. Alan Johnson, who helped Tony Schumacher to seven of his eight dragster titles, has departed Mike Salinas’ Scrappers team and alighted with Connie Kalitta’s Kalitta Motorsports, bringing with him the talents of Brian Husen and Jason McCulloch. This trio joins Kalitta and current crew chiefs Kurt Elliot and Ronnie Thompson to bring a potential title to drivers Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon. Todd Smith and Jon Oberhofer continue to tune the new DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car of J.R. Todd this year.
With this change Johnson and Husen lead tuning efforts, together with Ronnie Thompson for Doug Kalitta’s Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster, while McCulloch works alongside Elliot on the DHL/Kalitta Air rail of Langdon. Drag racing legend Connie Kalitta makes the final tuning decisions for Langdon’s car. Doug Kalitta, after finishing the 2020 campaign in second place, had an uncharacteristic tenth-place 2021 result; Shawn Langdon tied for ninth in the final standings.
“Our goal every year at Kalitta Motorsports is to win the NHRA world championship in Top Fuel and Funny Car,” said Chad Head, Kalitta Motorsports general manager. “Bringing Alan, Brian and Jason onto our Top Fuel teams, led by Connie with Kurt and Ronnie, puts us in an excellent position to do that. All three of these guys are world championship winning crew chiefs and we feel this gives us an amazing collection of talent in a very competitive Top Fuel category,” Head continued. “The stability of the DHL Funny Car team, led by Todd and Jon, is another big plus for our team.”
Since losing his brother Blaine in a 1996 racing accident, Alan Johnson has spent the past three decades as a successful crew chief and purveyor of parts to the drag racing trade. He is recognized as one of the most proficient Top Fuel crew chiefs in the history of the sport. “It is exciting to be able to come over and work with Connie Kalitta and his team,” Alan Johnson said. “He has an iconic Top Fuel team. We are looking forward to putting our experience together with their operation to go out and win the championship.”
Alan Johnson and Brian Husen’s most recent Top Fuel championship came with second-generation racer Brittany Force in 2017. Most recently, the duo tuned Mike Salinas to multiple wins and championship contention over the past three seasons. Husen, in particular is looking forward to working with perennial championship contender Doug Kalitta. “It was a great opportunity, since I am from Michigan and I could get closer to my family,” Husen admitted. “I have been fortunate to work with some pretty good drivers and I have success with all of them. It is exciting to come work with Doug, because he is such a good driver.”
Langdon, the 2013 Top Fuel champion on a different team led by Alan Johnson and Brian Husen, is gaining the knowledge of McCulloch, whose father Ed is a former champion. “The opportunity to come and work with Connie, who is an icon in the sport, is something I could not pass up,” McCulloch stated. “My dad worked at Connie’s [team] and he had nothing but good things to say about him. To work with a driver of the caliber of Shawn Langdon, and to be part of the organization that is working to get Doug Kalitta his first championship, is awesome. Working with Alan, Brian and Chad is familiar territory for me.”
In an apparent exchange of talent, Rob Flynn, a previous crew chief for Doug Kalitta, has gone to the Scrappers team to help Salinas achieve the consistency necessary to accomplish his own goal of moving up from his third-place result in the 2021 NHRA Camping World Top Fuel standings.
Nearly every full-time combatant in the NHRA’s Top Fuel and Funny Car nitro ranks and many Pro Stock competitors, are expected to alight next weekend for PRO pre-season testing at Wild Horse Motorsports Park outside Phoenix, AZ, where the second race of the 2022 campaign takes place in less than a month. The 2022 NHRA Camping World season begins at its ancestral home, Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, February 17-20.
I seriously doubt Alan will be able to work with Kallita for long. Fire and water!