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“I said to him, we’re on and that we needed to remove Kalitta Motorsports from the new car and get MGM Grand on. In addition, crew shirts with the company logo and hero cards needed to be manufactured in two days’ time. Not only that, but we wanted to get one of the Kalitta spare cars and dress it up and display it in the promenade mall of the hotel.
“As for testing, that was a little tougher deal. Because we had little time to dial in the new combinations, it was decided that Doug would run the flagship and to increase our learning we had Scott drive a second car at Pomona.” The 2000 battle plan calls for Doug Kalitta to drive the main car in a quest for the NHRA Winston title. However, former two-time NHRA Winston Top Fuel World Champ Scott Kalitta will run a limited dozen times with what Davenport calls the “Theme Car.” What this entails is that Scott will run six different themes painted on the car, two times a year. For instance, there is the seemingly odd pairing with cartoon heroine, “Betty Boop,” and another two-race stint for “Paws,” a new MGM cartoon figure. No one could be anymore pleased about the deal than Connie Kalitta, the 62-year-old driving force behind the race cars. “Well, this is really going to be a great deal,” he said. “I’ve had to foot the bills a lot over the years, and to get MGM Grand…well, that’s the best I’ve had in my career. I’ll still call all the tuning shots. I don’t plan on hiring a number two crew chief, not unless another full-time car is brought in. Given all that I have to do, I might consider another tuner if something like that occurs. Right now, I’m just trying to do the very best I can for MGM Grand, and I’ll bend every effort to get that job done.” Asked if he ever thought about driving again, Kalitta said, “I might drive if I get in the mood. If I see a particular track that I’d like to run and things allow me to drive a car, sure. I still keep my license updated.” Of course, a lot of attention now is focused on Doug Kalitta. The easy going 35-year-old nephew of Connie is now in his third year of Top Fuel competition after establishing himself as one of the nation’s best sprint car drivers. In 1994, he was the USAC sprint champ, and since going in a straight line has won the NHRA Autolite Nationals twice and the prestigious $100,000 Big Bud Shootout in 1998.
Naturally, it’s excusable if he felt a little pressure now that Kalitta Motorsports has netted the support of the MGM Grand, but that’s not the case. “No,” he quipped. “Running for Connie has provided some pressure, too, but kidding aside, our racing fortunes obviously got a boost. When someone chooses to back you like MGM has us, you really want to go out and give it all you got. “In the last month, we really stepped up in that regard. Jim Oberhoffer and those guys did a great job of getting our car ready for Pomona in a short time, and Doug Davenport was really good in setting up displays. Most racers just rope off the back of the pits and park along some barrier. Doug was able to put in a walkway on the side of our pit area that led to another walkway that allowed people to walk right between both cars and look them over. There were tables with racing items at the end of the walkway and we got a lot of foot traffic because of that. “We’ve got the stuff this year, we’ve got a great backer, and we want to win the Winston championship. Since I’ve been with the drag racing team, I can’t remember us ever being in better shape at this time of year than we are now.”
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