DHL and J.R. Todd Race to Semifinals in NHRA Return

Indianapolis – The DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car team came out of the gate at the rebooted NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series like a team on a mission to erase a frustrating start over four months ago. Driver J.R. Todd drove his Camry Funny Car to the No. 4 qualifying spot during two hot sessions yesterday and then used all his driving skill and some luck to race to a semifinal finish today. When racing concluded Todd was in the Top Ten in Funny Car points and has momentum heading to next week’s second event at Lucas Oil Raceway.

“I’ve missed being around these guys (DHL teammates),” said Todd. “They are a lot of fun to be around. It’s like old times. February was a long time ago. This made up for all that down time sitting at home. I’m glad to be back out here with these guys and, hopefully, we can keep that going for weeks and months to come.

Heading into the first round against No. 13 qualifier Alex Miladinovich Todd knew he could not take the young driver lightly. He got the jump on the starting line and was pulling away when his tires broke loose from the track forcing him to lift off the throttle. He immediately jumped back on the gas and was able to get the win as Miladinovich lost traction further down track.

“That’s what you’ve got to do on race day,” said Todd, in reference to his pedaling job. “You don’t expect those things to happen, so it’s got to be instinct and driving by the seat of your pants and react to it. You never want it to happen, but we were pretty fortunate that Alex didn’t make a full pull in the lane next to us and we were able to take advantage of that. Any time you turn on the win light is a great day. It’s nice to get back into a rhythm, with however runs we made from Thursday to now, I still wasn’t into my routine. You just forget a lot of things and it takes time for it all to come back to you.”

In the quarterfinals against former teammate Alexis DeJoria Todd had lady luck on his side. Both Toyota Camry Funny Cars launched aggressively and were side by side at half-track when DeJoria’s parachute deployed slowing her dramatically and giving Todd the victory with a winning time of 4.128 seconds, the slowest winning elapsed time of the second round.

“We definitely didn’t out-perform everybody today, but we’ll take them anyway we can get them. We reached the semis and gained some points on guys in front of us to get back in the swing of things. We definitely have a lot of potential with the new chassis. We’re still learning with that and we had to change some things inside the car as the weekend went on. I think once we get going in the swing of things we’ll be in good shape.”

Todd was matched up with No. 1 qualifier Tommy Johnson Jr in the semifinals and he knew his DHL team would have to get aggressive to get to another final. The DHL Funny Car left the starting line first but immediately lost traction as Johnson cruised to a smooth pass and a win. The team was unsure what derailed their efforts but they were working to investigate the issue throughout the rest of the day.

“I am not sure what happened in the semis. The guys are going to look at the data and also the car. It wasn’t how we wanted to end the day. I am looking forward to getting back here in a couple days,” added Todd.

Quotable:
J.R. Todd on being back at the track: “It is definitely different but I am glad we are racing again. I hope a lot of people are tuning into FOX today to watch. I think the racing has never been more competitive and after these two races we will be in the championship hunt. We closed the gap on some people and I think this race car has a lot of potential.”

Statistics:
Qualified: No. 4 (4.056 sec., 306.12 mph)
Bonus points: +1 (3rd quickest of Q1)

Race Details:

First Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
J.R. Todd                     4          .071     4.391   275.11 (W)
Alex Miladinovich       13        .146     5.067   160.98

Second Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
J.R. Todd                     4          .084     4.128   278.86 (W)
Alexis DeJoria             5          .097     4.697   162.12

Semifinal Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
J.R. Todd                     4          .059     9.211   77.50
Tommy Johnson Jr      1          .070     3.958   319.29 (W)