By Richie Murray
Terre Haute, Indiana (May 12, 2026)………Thirty years after his 1996 Tony Hulman Classic victory, Doug Kalitta will serve as grand marshal for the 56th running of the event featuring the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track on Wednesday night, May 20.
Prior to becoming the 2023 and 2025 NHRA Top Fuel dragster champion, Kalitta rose to prominence in USAC competition, culminating in a National Sprint Car driving championship in 1994.
Across the USAC National Sprint Car and National Midget disciplines, Kalitta won 10 sprint features and seven in midgets. Twelve of his 17 career USAC national victories came at the paved high banks of Indiana’s Winchester Speedway with four more coming at Indianapolis Raceway Park’s paved oval.
However, there is one particular victory that stands out – his lone dirt USAC victory at the Terre Haute Action Track on May 12, 1996, where he passed Kevin Thomas with five laps remaining to win the 26th running of the Tony Hulman Classic.
“My car was blowing out smoke and I think my left rear tire was just about flat, but that thing held on. There was a lot going on at the end of that race,” Kalitta recalled of the final laps of his 1996 Hulman Classic triumph. “The Hulman Classic was always on the list to win, or anything at Terre Haute, because it’s one of the coolest places I’ve ever gotten to run. I always looked forward to racing there every year. To win there was a big moment for me. I didn’t win a lot on dirt, so to get a win at the Terre Haute Action Track and the Hulman Classic meant a lot.”
The crew chief on Kalitta’s sprint cars during those halcyon days of the mid-1990s was National Sprint Car Hall of Fame driver Rick Ferkel, who stood in victory lane alongside Kalitta while hoisting the rifle annually awarded to the Hulman Classic winner.
To this day, the rifle remains one of Kalitta’s most prized racing rewards, and retains a prominent position in his trophy case, despite his crew chief’s notion.
“Rick always used to give me a hard time because my dad was a big hunter, and said, ‘you should’ve given that to your dad,” Kalitta said with a laugh.
Kalitta was a marquee talent during the 1990s and was a featured player on ESPN’s Thunder series, becoming a fixture in USAC from his 1990 debut until his final run in the spring of 1998. That said, his foray into USAC was quite uncommon. The Kalitta family’s background was drag racing. His uncle is Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee Connie Kalitta, and his cousin was Scott Kalitta, an 18-time winner between NHRA’s Top Fuel and Funny Car divisions.
So, how did Doug get the itch to go a completely different route from straight lines to ovals? It began with four-time USAC National Midget feature winner Don Schilling, and indirectly, involved USAC’s all-time winningest driver, Rich Vogler.
“I probably have to thank Rich Vogler more than anybody,” Kalitta explained of how he got started in USAC. “He and Don used to have a lot of battles and Don always seemed to get the worst of it. So, he’d bring his car back to the shop and it would be all wrecked. Growing up, my dad had a welding supply business and I was all into welding. I worked at different machine shops welding, fabricating and whatever, then I started working for Connie on airplanes and that’s kind of the thing I was good at and what a lot of people needed. So, I ended up helping Don, and after a while, he was like, ‘man.’ I think he felt sorry for me. He said, ‘you spend all this time helping me put these cars back together; we ought to talk to Connie and see if we can have you start running this Volkswagen (midget) he had.”
“My first year, I ran the ARCA Midget series, then I ended up running Don’s car on the pavement,” Kalitta added. “Then, we decided to run the whole USAC series and figure out the dirt thing (with the help of Bob East).”
Through it all, Doug was a constant frontrunner in USAC racing, finishing fourth in 1993 USAC National Sprint Car points and 1st in 1994, and was the runner-up with the series in both 1995 and 1996. In 1991, he was the USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year after finishing a career best third in the standings.
Kalitta dabbled a bit in other forms of racing. However, by the late 1990s, drag racing beckoned, and Kalitta answered the call.
“I ran some ARCA Stock Cars for six or seven races, and I never pushed for the Indy Racing League too much. I just never had a good opportunity there,” Kalitta explained of the other possible avenues at the time. “But before I started running midgets, I worked on Connie’s (top fuel) car for about eight years. A seat in one was just impossible to open up between my cousin and Connie both driving. So, I was wanting to drive something once I got the opportunity. Drag racing was always very intriguing to me. So, I was always looking forward to the opportunity once a seat opened up, and it finally did. With the timing of what was going on at the business too, it kind of presented itself to go drag racing.”
To this day, Kalitta remains in touch with the USAC National Sprint Car scene. His business, Kalitta Charters, sponsors the Dooling/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 63 driven by Rookie point leader Cale Coons.
After all these years, Kalitta looks back on his USAC career with great fondness.
“We were all out there trying to whoop on each other,” Kalitta reminisced. “It was very competitive and it was the time of my life.”
The 56th annual Tony Hulman Classic featuring the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, plus Modifieds takes place on Wednesday night, May 20, at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track. Pits open at 3pm Eastern with the front gates opening at 5pm, the drivers meeting at 6pm, and cars on track at 6:30pm with qualifying and racing immediately following.
Grandstand tickets are $30. Infield admission is $15 and allows for access to the grass infield of the Action Track through the tunnel at the far right (turn one side) of main grandstand. Kids age 12 and under are free. Pit passes are $40.