SCOTT KALITTA:

The 38-year-old son of Connie has been his dad's superior in NHRA wins, having netted back-to-back Winston Top Fuel championships in 1994 and 1995. He may not have dad's legend, but he still rates as one of the genuine first-rate talents to ever drive a nitro car.

Scott started out in Alcohol Dragster in 1981 and graduated to Top Fuel the following year. In 1984, he jumped to the Funny Car class and stayed there for seven years, winning the 1989 NHRA Supernationals in Houston, Texas.

In the 1991 and 1992 seasons, Scott finished out of the Winston Top Fuel Top 10, a step down for a guy who'd been in the Funny Car top 10 in 1989 and 1990. However, in 1993, he finshed second and then won the world titles the next two years.

During the championship years, he won nine events, six coming in a record-setting win total in 1995. A year earlier, he won four national events in a row, just missing a fifth at the NHRA Northwest Nationals where he lost to Joe Amato in the final. That's also an unprecedented accomplishment.

After the 1997 season, Scott retired to run his own airline company, but came back to race intermittantly at the 1999 NHRA O'Reilly Fallnationals, taking runner-up at that event.

All in all, Scott has 15 NHRA national event wins to his credit, one being the aforementioned Houston win.

DOUG KALITTA:

The 35-year-old nephew established himself in the 1990s as one of the country's premier sprint car racers, winning the 1994 USAC championship. He scored 14 midget and seven sprint car victories during his oval racing career.

In 1998, Doug, who had also served as a Connie Kalitta crew member from 1982 through 1989, made his Top Fuel debut at the 1998 NHRA Winternationals, making his first final a few months later in a runner-up effort to Joe Amato at the Castrol Nationals in Ennis, Texas.

A natural race driver like his cousin and uncle, Kalitta won his first national event by taking the 1998 Autolite Nationals at Sears Point in northern California and netted $100,000 when he took that season's Big Bud Shootout at the NHRA Winston Finals. Last year, he finished fifth in the Winston points, netting another Autolite Nationals title in the process.

Doug, a vice president at Kitty Hawk Airlines, will be driving the flagship for his MGM Grand sponsors.

Drag racing ain't easy and there are hardly any guarantees, but given this kind of talent and the backing, the Kalittas figure to be a huge factor in determining who will be the 2000 NHRA Winston Top Fuel champ.

page 2 of 2