TODD DRIVES CAMRY TO THIRD STRAIGHT FUNNY CAR SEMI-FINAL AT NORWALK

NORWALK, OH – J.R. Todd continued his strong recent run, driving his DHL Toyota Camry to the Funny Car semi-finals as the top Toyota at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at the Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park, Sunday. It’s the third consecutive week that he has advanced to the semi-finals and the sixth time in the last nine races, including a pair of victories.

Todd opened his day with a victory over Bob Tasca and then knocked off Jack Beckman in the second round to advance to the semi-finals. He ran a strong 4.031-second pass, but it wasn’t enough to move past eventual race winner Matt Hagan.

“It’s not the end result we wanted for this DHL/WIX Filters Toyota team, but it was a good day for points,” said Todd, who closed to within 21 points of second-place. “We are making up ground on the cars in front of us, and hopefully we can keep moving forward.”

Todd was one of three Kalitta Motorsports drivers to register at least one round win on Sunday as Shawn Langdon advanced to the second round in his Camry Funny Car, while Richie Crampton advanced in Top Fuel.

Langdon defeated fellow Camry driver Del Worsham in the opening round and then registered his best pass of the weekend with a 4.025-second lap, only to get passed late in the run by series point leader Courtney Force.

In Top Fuel, Crampton advanced to the second round today with a victory over Pat Dakin before eventually falling to Terry McMillen.

Both Antron Brown and Doug Kalitta were eliminated in the first round by the narrowest of margins.

Brown lost in his opening run to overall race winner Blake Alexander, who had a margin of victory of just three one-thousandths of a second, while Kalitta lost later in the round by just eight one-thousandths to Leah Pritchett.

The Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will take next weekend off before heading to the New England Dragway in Epping, N.H., for the NHRA New England Nationals, July 6-8.