Kalitta Motorsports adds Boninfante as co-crew chief

Nick Boninfante joins Kalitta Motorsports as co-crew chief on Doug Kalitta's Mac Tools dragster team

YPSILANTI, Mich., (Aug. 4, 2008) -- Beginning at the next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event in Brainerd, Minn., Aug. 7-9, veteran nitro tuner Nick Boninfante will assume the duties of co-crew chief on the "Big Red", 8,000-horsepower Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster driven by 30-time NHRA national event champion Doug Kalitta for Kalitta Motorsports.

Boninfante begins his second stint at Kalitta Motorsports. He first worked for the team as a clutch specialist on team owner and drag racing legend Connie Kalitta's Top Fuel team in 1991 and 1992. From 1993 until 1996, Boninfante served as clutch specialist on Scott Kalitta's Top Fuel machine and won back-to-back world championships (1994-1995) with Scott and fellow crewmen Jim Oberhofer, currently the crew chief on the KB Racing, LLC Top Fueler driven by Hillary Will, Jim's brother Jon Oberhofer, who will work alongside Nick as co-crew chief on the Mac Tools rail, and Donnie Bender, current crew chief on the Larry Dixon-driven Top Fuel dragster.

Boninfante has worked with several NHRA contenders including Ron Capps, Doug Herbert, Bob Gilbertson, and Bruce Litton. Before joining Kalitta Motorsports again, Boninfante most recently worked as the crew chief on Litton's Top Fuel team that competes in both the NHRA and IHRA series and won the IHRA Top Fuel championship in 2007.

"I'm very excited about returning to Kalitta Motorsports," Boninfante, a 42-year old resident of Chadds Ford, Penn., said. "I've always considered the Kalitta team as my family. Jim and Jon and Scott [Kalitta] are like brothers to me. I'm really excited about the opportunity to work on the Mac Tools car, but I'm just as excited to rejoin my family."

Richard Hogan, who was serving as co-crew chief with Jon, and the team mutually agreed to part ways at the conclusion of the previous event in Sonoma, Calif.

"Richard is a great guy, and we wish him the best of luck," Kalitta Motorsports general manager Jim Oberhofer said. "Richard will make a great addition to another team, but we just wanted to go in a different direction."

"Right now we are making some major changes to how we are running our cars. We think these changes will give us better performing and much more consistent race cars. To that end, we feel Nick will be a great fit for the changes we are making."

-credit: km