Todd, DeJoria Top Funny Car Field As Camrys Run 1-2 in Menards NHRA Nationals Qualifying
TOPEKA, KS – J.R. Todd ran a 3.884 at 332.67 mph, with Alexis DeJoria just behind him at 3.894 as the two Toyota Camry drivers captured 
the top two spots in Funny Car qualifying in preparation for Sunday’s Menards NHRA Nationals at the Heartland Motorsports Park. Both drivers have officially clinched their berths in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
It is the second number one qualifier for Todd this season and the 14th of his career. He will enter Sunday’s first round of eliminations just 49 points out of the Funny Car point lead and will have a bye in the opening round.
DeJoria continued her outstanding qualifying run, placing in the top two for the sixth time in the season’s first 11 races. She will face fellow Camry driver Chris King to open eliminations as she pursues her first win this season after advancing to the semifinals or finals in three of the last four events.
In Top Fuel, Toyota drivers Shawn Langdon, Antron Brown and Doug Kalitta were separated by just .010 seconds as they qualified seventh, eighth and ninth.
Langdon (3.805) and Brown (3.808) were just three one-thousandths of a second apart in qualifying and will square off in a first-round match-up, with Brown having officially clinched his berth in the Top Fuel Countdown.
Kalitta will be trying to earn his third Topeka victory on Sunday. After making a 3.815-second pass on Friday, he will begin his day racing Clay Millican.
Sunday’s Camping World Drag Racing Series eliminations will be televised live on FOX at 3:00 p.m. (ET).
Quotes:
J.R. Todd, DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car: “We’ve been struggling to capitalize on the Friday night run that is usually pretty crucial for qualifying. We haven’t run that well (3.884) in a long time. It’s a testament to all the DHL Toyota guys for digging deep and not giving up. I feel like we’ve got some momentum coming from Pomona where we gained a lot of points on the cars in front of us. It was nice to get the three points Friday and, hopefully, we can keep pace with those guys heading into the Countdown. It’s a good time to start building momentum.”
Alexis DeJoria, Bandero Toyota Camry Funny Car: “In the past here in Topeka, I haven’t done that well. But with everything we’ve accomplished so far this year I knew coming into this race we were going to do something and right out of the box we ran an .89. We weren’t expecting it. We thought we were going to run a .92. We’re number two right now. It’s our sixth number two qualifier of the season. I’ll take that. Hopefully, we can carry it all the way into the finals on Sunday.”
