Todd and DHL Camry Race to Quarterfinals at Texas Motorplex

Ennis, TX – The DHL Toyota Camry and J.R. Todd rolled into the Texas Motorplex looking to add a Funny Car title to his Top Fuel win. The 35th annual AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals was a battle for Todd and his DHL-backed team. After two runs on Saturday his team entered race day as the No. 8 qualifier with a first round match-up against veteran Paul Lee.

Todd and most of the Funny Car class had to wait out two lengthy delays, a huge oil down in Top Fuel and then a massive fire by fellow Funny Car competitor Alexis DeJoria. Fortunately, DeJoria was unscathed from the fire but the ensuing clean up delayed the completion of the first round by almost 45 minutes. As the DHL team waited to get started track conditions evolved. Never the less Todd prevailed in the first round.

He took a significant starting line advantage with a superior reaction time and his DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car never trailed in the race lighting up the scoreboard with an impressive winning time of 3.881 seconds. It was his quickest run of the weekend and his speed, 331.36 mph would hold up as top speed of the event. He also secured lane choice against his quarterfinal opponent.

In the second round Todd’s day was cut short as he fell to eventual runner-up Matt Hagan in a close side by side race. Hagan’s winning elapsed time of 3.928 bested Todd’s 3.987 second pass.

“We just got outrun in the second round,” explained Todd. “We’ve got to figure out how to run hard against those DSR cars because they’re the ones stopping everyone right now. We’ll go on to Houston and figure it out.”

His first round win and performance numbers encouraged Todd but the 2018 Funny Car world champion know his team is capable of winning races and getting back into championship form.

“It was kind of bittersweet to do that and then slow down in the second round. It’s always good to win rounds, but we’re out here to win races. We’ve got two races to try to get two wins for DHL, Toyota and all of our great sponsors,” summed up Todd at the end of the day.

Quotable:
J.R. Todd on the final two races: “We have Houston and Las Vegas over the next two weeks. I like our chances. Hopefully conditions will be consistent in Houston and we can build on our performance numbers from this race. I have had a lot of success in Las Vegas. We have the opportunity to finish strong and that is what I want to do.”

Statistics:
Qualified: No. 8 (3.927 sec., 327.27 mph)
Bonus points:  0

Race Details:

First Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
J.R. Todd                     8          .088     3.881   331.36 (W)
Paul Lee                      9          .103     3.932   330.39

Second Round
Driver                          Qual    R/T      ET        MPH
J.R. Todd                     8          .078     3.987   326.00
Matt Hagan                 1          .055     3.928   326.63 (W)