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Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Tommy Johnson Jr. (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock), and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were victorious at the 24th and final event of the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. The Auto Club NHRA Finals marked the conclusion of the six-race NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship.

Kalitta powered to a holeshot victory with a 3.745-second pass at 326.63 mph in his Mac Tools dragster to defeat J.R. Todd’s 3.704 at 327.90 in his SealMaster dragster in the Top Fuel final. Kalitta claimed his fourth victory of the season and 42nd of his career. He sprinted past Shawn Reed, eight-time world champ Tony Schumacher, and Shawn Langdon in the earlier rounds. The win moved him to second in points, where he will finish for the fourth time in his career.  

Doug Kalitta

Tommy Johnson Jr.

“I’ve been trying to win this last race for a long time,” said Kalitta, nephew of drag racing legend Connie Kalitta. “The history here, for me, growing up watching Connie race over the years and to be able to win today was huge for me and for everybody on the team. It was very cool that [Todd] and I were both in the final and got to run for the money there. It will be good momentum for all of our teams, and we finished off the season with some good runs.”

Todd, appearing in a career-high sixth final round, knocked down Troy Buff, Richie Crampton, and world champion Antron Brown en route to the final round.

In Funny Car, Johnson notched a 3.918 at 320.51 in his Make-A-Wish Foundation Dodge Charger R/T to outlast John Force’s 3.918 at 321.81 on a holeshot in his Peak Antifreeze Chevy Camaro in the final. Johnson tallied his third win of the season and 15th of his career. Johnson, who posted a runner-up at this event one year ago, finished a career-high second in points. He beat Dave Richards, Robert Hight, and Courtney Force in the earlier rounds.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t win the championship,” said Johnson, who had not finished higher than third in points before this season. “It’s so important to do well. You have six races to really make no mistakes, and we had a bad race or two there towards the middle of the Countdown. It was a little frustrating because we knew we were better than that. We had fallen down to third, and we came here and knew we wanted to get back to second; we knew we could do that. You want to finish strong and show you are there to contend. You want to end on a high note because it kind of sets the tone for next season.”

Force, making his eighth final-round appearance at the Auto Club NHRA Finals, outlasted Cruz Pedregon, world champion Ron Capps, and No. 1 qualifier Jack Beckman before losing to Johnson in the final.

Greg Anderson

Anderson beat his Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro teammate and series champion Jason Line on a holeshot in the Pro Stock final round by powering to a 6.580 at 210.24, bettering Line’s 6.570 at 211.43. This is Anderson’s eighth win of the season, 86th of his career, and sixth at the Auto Club NHRA Finals. He finished the season second in points.

“Great day; I can’t cry,” said Anderson. “I did all I could do today; I did everything I could possibly do today. The only thing I can kick stones about is that I didn’t do a great job on qualifying on Friday. I lost three points to Jason, and those three points are a big three points. You do the best you can, and sometimes you make a mistake, and I did on Friday, and it cost me, and that was the decider. Still a great fight. Great fight all year. We had some great battles. During the last half of the year, the rest of the class got in, and we had some great battles with them. We overachieved this year, and we’re leaving here happy.”

Line raced past Alan Prusiensky, Chris McGaha, and two-time world champion Erica Enders before finding Anderson in the final.

Matt Smith

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Smith rode to an 8.044 at 117.34 on his Victory Gunner to beat Angelle Sampey, who left the line early to red-light on her Buell in the final. Smith claimed his first win since 2013 with the performance. The victory moved him to sixth in the points standings.

“We haven’t had the best season in the world,” said Smith, who claimed his second Finals victory. “We’ve had a fast bike, but we’ve had a lot of electrical problems and transmission issues. We finally solved that about four races ago, and it was good for us to run as good as we have. It struggled in qualifying, but it came around today. To give Victory their first win is huge. I’m so glad I was able to get it done for them. We have big plans for next year, and hopefully you’ll see us a lot more next year.”

Sampey, who won in Englishtown, beat Scotty Pollacheck, four-time world champion Andrew Hines, and Jerry Savoie in the earlier rounds.

The 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will begin at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona with the Circle K NHRA Winternationals, Feb. 9-12.