OLD BRIDGE, N.J. -- Drag racer Scott Kalitta died Saturday after his Funny Car crashed and exploded in flames during a National Hot Rod Association event at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Scott Kalitta

Kalitta, 46, was the son of 70-year-old drag racing legend Connie (The Bounty Hunter) Kalitta, a former driver and current owner of Kalitta Motorsports, based in Ypsilanti. Connie Kalitta's nephew, Doug Kalitta, 43, of Ann Arbor, drives for the team in Top Fuel, as do Dave Grubnic and 27-year-old Hillary Will.

Scott Kalitta, the 1994 and 1995 Top Fuel series champion, had 18 career victories -- 17 in Top Fuel and one in Funny Car.

After Saturday's crash, Kalitta was extricated from the car and transported to Raritan Bay Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead from multiple injuries.

The parachute in Kalitta's Toyota Solara failed to deploy, and the car cruised off the quarter-mile strip at a speed estimated more than 300 m.p.h. during qualifying for the 39th annual Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals.

Don Prudhomme, a legendary figure in drag racing, witnessed the crash and said Kalitta's car "went into a million pieces."

"I haven't witnessed anything like that in a number of years," Prudhomme said. "The car didn't slow up enough, got airborne, and he happened to hit a post that's virtually impossible to do. ... I would've never thought that you could get airborne and hit that guardrail and hit that post."

The concrete post, Prudhomme said, serves as support for the safety net that's designed to catch cars veering off the strip. Because Kalitta's parachute never deployed, Prudhomme said the car "never had a chance" once it hit the post at such high speed.

Kalitta was racing side-by-side against Tony Bartrone in the final round of qualifying. Bartrone's parachute deployed after crossing the quarter-mile line in 6.06 seconds, but Kalitta's failed to open.

In 1982, with his father serving as crew chief, Scott Kalitta made his first professional race -- at the very same Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Scott scored his first NHRA victory in 1989 in Funny Car. In 1994, he became the first Top Fuel driver to win four consecutive races -- at Columbus, Topeka, Denver and Sonoma. He retired several times in the 1990s but found it tough to stay away, and returned to the cockpit in 2003. NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Brad Keselowski -- a native of Rochester Hills -- learned the news from a television report.

"That really hits close to home," Keselowski said after winning the pole position for Saturday night's race at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis. "(He was) a friend of my family's, and I send my thoughts and prayers out to him. That's tough to hear."

Kalitta, a resident of Snead Island, Fla., is survived by his father, his wife, Kathy, and sons Corey, 14, and Colin, 8.

Kalitta Motorsports spokesman Todd Myers said Saturday that Connie Kalitta was devastated by his son's death and would make no further statement. The team issued a statement saying that Doug Kalitta, Grubnic and Will would not race today.