J.R. Todd, DHL Toyota Funny Car

Norwalk, OH – Qualifying: J.R. Todd was the No. 7 qualifier at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. His quickest qualifying attempt came during the first session Saturday afternoon when the DHL driver reached the finish line in 3.918 seconds at 333.07 mph. Qualifying was shortened to three sessions due to Friday’s persistent rain showers.

Eliminations: Todd advanced to his second semifinal in the last three races. He defeated John Force and Ron Capps before losing to Matt Hagan by five thousandths of a second in the semifinals putting the DHL GR Supra team on the wrong end of a great drag race.

Unofficial Point Standings: Todd moves up one spot to ninth place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails eighth-place John Force by 65 points and leads 10th-place Cruz Pedregon by four points.

Todd on Norwalk: “It looks like we’re out here ‘G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time)’ hunting with our DHL Toyota Supra,” Todd said after beating Force and Capps to advance to the semifinals. It feels good to be going rounds at what is pretty much the Kalitta Motorsports home track.

“It was a good day, but I’m bummed to lose on a hole shot,” Todd said after the semifinal loss. “When you lose on a hole shot, that’s on the driver. I feel like I should have been better than I was that round. We ran 3.95 (3.954 seconds at 324.20 mph), but we were trying to run better than that. I feel like we missed a good opportunity to win, and those opportunities don’t come around that often. It would have been pretty cool to win that 200th race for Toyota, but at the end of the day, it was a good effort.

“The car is definitely getting more consistent going down the track, and when you get down the track you learn. We just need to pick things up on my end, and we’ll be ok. Two semifinals in the last three races means we’re getting better going down the track and not beating ourselves. You have to go down the track to give yourself a fighting chance, and that’s pretty much all I can ask for as a driver. We have a great group of guys on this DHL Toyota team, and I know all their hard work will pay off – hopefully soon.”