The Top Fuel operation owned by Connie Kalitta and driven by his nephew Doug Kalitta was dealt a body blow last Monday with the announcement that the car would no longer be sponsored by Mac Tools. Mac said that it would continue to sponsor events on the NHRA tour, but not competitors.
This announcement comes on the heels of an earlier statement that the team was to be on a reduced schedule for 2009. That schedule may be reduced to zero races now that this has happened.
The growing log pile of professional drag racing teams that have no sponsor or have lost sponsors in the last weeks and months is starting to paint a bleak picture for the 2009 season where fields well short of 16 cars in the Nitro ranks will be a semi-regular, or even regular occurrence.
Perhaps Mac felt that, after Snap-On dropped Doug Herbert in November, that there was less need for racing presence once their main competitor was out of the picture.
While this is horrible news for the mega teams out there, we’re not mega-team type guys. Nope, we’re greasy t-shirt, volunteer help from the stands, “I-think-we-can-use-that-rod-again” guys. That being said, the stage is set for some small independent racers to show up and compete at races that they otherwise stood no chance of qualifying for in the past.
In a morbid sort of way, it’s going to be an interesting season.
