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J.R. Todd Wheels DHL Toyota Camry to Final Round in Indianapolis

Indianapolis – The DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car and driver J.R. Todd took full advantage of a fast race car today at the third NHRA National event in a row outside of Indianapolis. In the final round of qualifying Todd posted the second quickest time of the session and the 2018 Funny Car champion took that momentum into race day as the No. 5 qualifier.

In the first round Todd took out upstart Funny Car driver Mike McIntire with a blistering 3.962 second run at 322.65 mph. The support of team sponsors Mobil1, NGK Spark Plugs and Toyota Racing Development all came together over the weekend to propel Todd to victory. The two-time U.S. Nationals winner never trailed in the race and took his win light into the quarterfinals with lane choice over veteran Cruz Pedregon.

Another three second run advanced Todd to the semifinals. The third round race pitted Todd versus Paul Lee and another tough match-up. Lee smoked the tires at the hit of the throttle and Todd took advantage of the mishap. His 4.329 second pass was enough to advance him to his fourteenth Funny Car final round.


Todd was giving up lane choice to Ron Capps in the final round and the DHL Toyota was loaded up for a strong finish to race day. As the tree flashed Todd hit the throttle and his DHL Camry jumped off the starting line and into immediate tire smoke. There was no chance for Todd to recover and he was forced to watch Capps race to the victory.

“It was nice to go to the final round today but you go that far you want to win the race,” said Todd. “All in all a good day and a good weekend for this DHL Toyota Camry team. Hopefully we’ll get some good momentum going into the U.S. Nationals.”

Quotable:
J.R. Todd on preparing for the U.S. Nationals: “We have had three races in a row in Indy and the next one Labor Day weekend is the big one. I have no doubt that the U.S. Nationals will feel different.”

Statistics:
Qualified: No. 5 (4.004 sec., 322.65 mph)
Bonus points: +2 (2nd quickest of Q2)

Race Details:

First Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
J.R. Todd                     5          .085     3.962   322.65 (W)
Mike McIntire                12        .092     4.608   187.83

Second Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
J.R. Todd                     5          .080     3.991   321.19 (W)
Cruz Pedregon             4          .078     4.079   315.27

Semifinal Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
J.R. Todd                     5          .074     4.329   216.06 (W)
Paul Lee                       9          .094     10.253 76.49

Final Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
J.R. Todd                     5          .074     10.318 80.06
Ron Capps                   3          .065     4.110   294.63 (W)

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