Todd, Brown Advance To 2nd Round At NHRA Midwest Nationals
MADISON, IL – J.R. Todd and Antron Brown each advanced to the second round as the top placing Toyotas in Sunday’s NHRA Midwest 
Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway in suburban St. Louis.
In Funny Car, Todd opened his day up with Charlotte winner Tim Wilkerson and took the early lead and never relinquished it. The DHL Toyota driver went straight down the groove with his quickest pass of the weekend (3.895) to take the win. That set up a round two match-up with Matt Hagan. Hagan got out in front, but Todd was staying with him for the first 400 feet before striking the tires, which resulted in the car making a move to the left, forcing Todd to get off the throttle. It was the eighth consecutive race that Todd has earned at least one round win.
Alexis DeJoria also appeared to be headed to round two today, as she got out of the gate first against Bob Tasca with an outstanding .058 light and stayed in front for about 400 feet before her car made a move toward the centerline, resulting in her having to back off and giving Tasca the win. Chris King also fell in the Funny Car opening round against Ron Capps.
In Top Fuel, Brown registered his quickest pass of the weekend with a 3.708 in a first-round win over Spencer Massey to move on to round two against Steve Torrence. Brown had the starting line advantage with an 0.040, but drove into tire smoke early as his rival went on to the victory.
Both Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon made impressive runs in first-round losses.
Kalitta had a slight starting line advantage over Tripp Tatum and held the lead until the top end when Tatum chased him down to win by 0.005 seconds (approximately three feet). Kalitta ran a 3.724, his best pass of the weekend. The Mac Tools Toyota driver ran a 3.74 or better in three of the four runs on the weekend.
Langdon had a great 0.33 light and went on to run a strong 3.762, but it wasn’t enough to hold off eventual race winner Torrence.
The NHRA is off next weekend before returning to the track for round four of the Countdown to the Championship playoffs at Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex, Oct. 8-10.
