TODD PUTS CAMRY ON FUNNY CAR POLE IN TOPEKA

TOPEKA, KS – J.R. Todd ran a 3.924-second pass at 318.99 mph in his DHL Toyota Camry to earn number one qualifier honors for Sunday’s Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals presented by Minties at the Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka.

The pole is the 11th for Todd in NHRA Nitro competition and his second since moving over to the Funny Car ranks in 2017. He previously was the number one qualifier at last year’s U.S. Nationals where he went on to victory.

“It was a good run,” said Todd, who earned five bonus points in qualifying on the weekend. “I came back afterwards and Todd (Smith, crew chief) and John O. (Oberhofer, crew chief) said it ran better than they expected it to. We knew Q2 was going to be the best round of the weekend because the sun wasn’t going to be on the track and the conditions would be cooler. I feel like the last couple of races we have had a really good DHL Toyota Camry. We just haven’t broken through for another win, but I think we have a really good car going into race day tomorrow.”

Todd will have a bye in the opening round of Sunday eliminations.

Todd’s Kalitta Motorsports teammate Shawn Langdon qualified eighth and will match up with Robert Hight in round one. The winner will face Todd in round two.

Antron Brown was the top qualifier among the three Toyota Top Fuel entries as he placed fourth with a 3.798 on Friday night and will face Scott Palmer in the first round on Sunday.

Doug Kalitta qualified fifth, the fifth consecutive race he’s qualified in the top five. He enters Sunday’s race second in points and matches up with Leah Pritchett.

Richie Crampton led Saturday’s first qualifying session to earn three bonus points on the way to qualifying seventh. Crampton will race Terry McMillen in eliminations.

NHRA Sunday Live will air tomorrow on FS1 at 12 noon, while Sunday’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series eliminations will be televised on FS1 beginning at 5:30 p.m. (EDT).