ST LOUIS – There was a lot on the line at Lucas Oil Raceway Park during the final round of the postponed NHRA Summernationals in July. Veteran Top Fuel driver TJ Zizzo in his Rust-Oleum Top Fuel dragster was squaring off with rookie driver Justin Ashley in his Strutmasters.com powered by MANSCAPED™ dragster. Both drivers were looking for their first NHRA national event win and in addition to the golden hardware there was a critical side bet between the racers. During a pre-race joint interview on Joe Castello’s WFO Radio Happy Hour Show the Friday before the U.S. Nationals a pizza bet was proposed with the loser delivering pizza to the victor the next time they raced together. Had Zizzo prevailed he and his team would have been the recipient of New York style pizza courtesy of Justin Ashley. As it turned out Zizzo delivered Chicago style pizza to Ashley’s team at the end of the day today of the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway.

“Everyone out here is very competitive but at the end of the day we also want to have a little fun,” said Zizzo. “Justin and I made a little pizza bet and now we are paying off. There is nothing better than Chicago style pizza in my opinion and next time Justin and I meet in a final I hope he is delivering me some pies at the next race.”

Justin Ashley’s team was thrilled to be on the receiving end of the free pizza and he knew he very easily could have been the one delivering. Both drivers have a mutual respect for each other that goes beyond their affinity for pizzas.

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MADISON, IL –  There are times in our sport when life gets in the way of racing.  This was the case for Zizzo Racing after the NHRA US Nationals in September. Team owner Tony Zizzo was scheduled for brain surgery to remove a longtime tumor. Any plans to resume racing the Rust-Oleum Rocket were put on immediate hold. And then, last Sunday…

“We’re going to St. Louis. I want to go and we’re going.”

“And that’s all we had to hear,” said TJ Zizzo, pilot of the team’s Top Fuel dragster and Tony’s son. “When you hear that from your team owner and patriarch and the guy everyone looks up to around here, you go.”

The team is now entered for the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis, coming to the Gateway City 10th in class points.

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CLERMONT, IN – After a record-tying 48 days, the final round of the Lucas Oil NHRA SummerNationals was run at last Saturday at Lucas Oil Raceway. Unfortunately for TJ Zizzo and the Rust-Oleum Rocket crew, they ran runner-up to fellow first-time NHRA Mello Yello Series Top Fuel finalist Justin Ashley. Both cars had issues during their respective passes, but Ashley was able to move past Zizzo’s 4.056-second lap at 276.75 mph with a run of 3.958 seconds at 267.96 mph.

While appreciating and enjoying the ride to his first-ever final round, Zizzo was to the point after returning to the Rust-Oleum pit.

“We’re going to find out what broke, I’m sure something broke to cause this thing to go ka-boom, it’s just disheartening,” he said.

Despite a schedule of only three or four races per season, Zizzo Racing meets twice a week every week to work on the race car. Adding in almost full-time hours for himself and the team just on the car and all holding down full-time “day jobs,” the volunteer squad works as hard as their NHRA peers for far fewer races.

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CLERMONT, IN – After earning his way into the final round at the NHRA SummerNationals six weeks ago, TJ Zizzo and the Rust-Oleum Rocket team are ready to finally race that round Saturday against fellow first-time Top Fuel finals participant, Justin Ashley. The original date was scrapped due to inclement weather and the best date for both teams to wrap up their business was the prestigious DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA US Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway.

With both the SummerNats and Big Go Wallys on the line, Zizzo’s stress level also doubled up prior to arriving here.

“My heart rate is usually up before Indy, my dad’s heart rate is usually up, and that usually counts as a lot of stress before this event,” said the second-generation racer. “Our team members feel it, our significant others feel it, our employees feel it, everyone feels our stress before this event and has for the last almost 40 years! This is no different. It’s ten times worse because we’ve got a final round to race from the SummerNationals!

“I was up on the tire Sunday. Thankfully, I’ve learned in my elder age (TJ celebrated a birthday Aug. 19) to just kinda take a deep breath. My mom taught me that when I start to get up on the tire, I should just breathe and focus on something else, other than the stress I’m dealing with at the time. I did that on Sunday and guess what, everything fell together.”

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CLERMONT, IN – Earlier this week, TJ Zizzo called his shot. The second-generation drag racer said he felt this weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway here was the best opportunity the Rust-Oleum Rocket crew has ever had of making the NHRA Mello Yello Series Top Fuel finals.

He was right.

Zizzo turned on three win lights en route to the finals of the Lucas Oil NHRA Summernationals Sunday. Unfortunately, the race for the team’s first-ever competition Wally against rookie Justin Ashley will have to wait until Labor Day weekend. Due to scheduling issues and the fact Zizzo Racing is not competing at the third NHRA race in Indy in August, it was agreed upon by both teams to race the final round during the US Nationals.

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CLERMONT, IN – For the second-straight week, TJ Zizzo has put the Rust-Oleum Rocket in the top half of NHRA Mello Yello Series field at Lucas Oil Raceway here for the Lucas Oil NHRA Summernationals. After a P5 start last week that took him to the quarterfinals, the second-generation racer qualified eighth on Saturday with an abbreviated pass of 3.937-seconds at 253.75 mph. Zizzo faces No. 9 qualifier Terry Totten E1 Sunday morning.

The team’s first pass of the day was promising, especially with the ETs being far from record-setting due to the heat and humidity.

“First pass, it was truckin’ to be No. 1 or No. 2 qualifier and out of nowhere, we burned a head gasket,” Zizzo said in the Rust-Oleum pit after qualifying. “We haven’t done that in years.”

The second and final qualifying pass of the weekend was problematic from the start, thanks to a blown cylinder. Crew chief Mike Kern immediately gave the order to cut the motor and end the run.

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CLERMONT, IN – Last weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway here and at the team’s first NHRA Mello Yello Series event in 10 months, TJ Zizzo notched a round win against Cory McClenathan and a close quarterfinals loss to the eventual Top Fuel winner, Billy Torrence. This weekend, the Chicagoland native is planning racing the Rust-Oleum Rocket to Zizzo Racing’s first-ever final-round appearance.

For the second weekend in a row and for the second of four scheduled points events, the NHRA’s top series is racing in Indy. While last weekend was the sanction, teams, and fans dipping their respective toes in the water, testing the ability to host live sporting events again in the post-COVID-19 world, this weekend sees racers preparing in familiar territory.

“Truthfully, I’ll be disappointed this weekend if we don’t go to the final round,” Zizzo said. “I’m not going to say we’re going to win the event, but that would be ideal. Of course, that’s always the goal. It would be nice to go to the finals, it would be nice to qualify a little better so we’re not racing the best cars until the final round. But that’s hard to do because there are so many good cars out there.

“The team’s excited. We’ll continue to be successful on and off the race track. I’m really happy with what NHRA did last weekend; I don’t know what this weekend entails as far as fans go, but last weekend (NHRA) did great. They contained everything, I felt safe. I felt safer at the race track then I feel at our body shop, our thirteen thousand square foot body shop where we have plenty of room to roam around and not have to intermingle with a lot of people.”

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CLERMONT, IN – Any round win earned during NHRA Mello Yello Series competition is a good thing, but sometimes, it’s not as good a thing as it should’ve been. TJ Zizzo went 1-1 Sunday at Lucas Oil Raceway in the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals, the team’s first race of the year and the series’ first event since most of the nation was shut down in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zizzo earned the E1 victory against Cory McClenathan with a 3.778-second pass at 326.40 mph, one of the quickest Top Fuel passes of the weekend. Unfortunately, the Chicagoland native fell to Billy Torrence in Rd. 2, Zizzo’s 3.822-second lap at 319.14 mph unable to top Torrence’s 3.768-second run.

In the first round of eliminations, Zizzo, the fifth-place qualifier, faced McClenathan, who entered the day starting from the 12th position. Zizzo commenced his burnout in the Rust-Oleum Rocket and began backing up. However, when MacClenathan tried to back up, nothing happened.

“Cory Mac couldn’t get it in reverse,” Zizzo said. “Absolutely spotted that right away when I was backing up from my burnout. They tried vigorously to get it worked out, it didn’t happen. The team ran out to push them back and at this point, we’re ready to stage the car. It took them a long time to push the car back, which is understandable, everyone has troubles.”

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CLERMONT, IN – After an extended period of off-track time and then, only two rounds of qualifying, TJ Zizzo and the crew of the Rust-Oleum Rocket gave the team its best-ever qualifying position in NHRA Mello Yello Series competition Saturday. Zizzo’s Q2 pass of 3.862 seconds at 310.41 mph gave the Chicagoland native a No 5. starting position for the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals here at Lucas Oil Raceway. Zizzo faces returning veteran and fan favorite Cory McClenathan, qualifying 12th, in the first round of eliminations Sunday.

“I believe this is our best qualifying position of all time, I think I can say that with some confidence that I’m correct,” he said through his custom-designed Rust-Oleum face mask. “Since we rolled in here, we’ve been working out some things, but truthfully, all the work we did through the COVID break is truly paying dividends.”

Zizzo was full of praise for his longtime crew chief, second-generation racer Mike Kern.

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CLERMONT, IN – It has been nine long, interesting months since TJ Zizzo piloted the Rust-Oleum Rocket down an NHRA Mello Yello Series drag strap, doing so at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis last September. His most recent official pass was a lap of 3.769 seconds at 329.75 mph, that speed being a personal best. Friday, the Chicagoland-based Top Fuel team rolled through the waterbox at Lucas Oil Raceway to drop the hammer for Zizzo Racing’s first run of the year in preparation for this weekend’s E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals. This weekend’s event is the first of three total NHRA points races here with the second coming next weekend, and the third being the US Nationals on its traditional Labor Day weekend date.

“It’s official! We’re in Indy!” said a visibly-excited Zizzo. “It’s been a long time. It’s been almost 10 months since we’ve been on the race track. We’re good at it, though. We’re certainly good at missing time and doing well and performing at our highest level. The only little downside is that we’ve changed everything that makes this car go. We’ll have to sort through that at Friday’s testing. For example, we’ve changed ignition due to rule changes. We have changed fuel pumps, we have changed clutch management systems, we have changed a plethora of things. So we’ll test on Friday and hopefully be ready for Saturday.”

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