TODD’S CAMRY ADVANCES TO DALLAS NHRA FINALS

ENNIS, TX – J.R. Todd drove his DHL Toyota Camry to the Funny Car finals before falling to Robert Hight in a showdown of the two championship leaders in the finals of the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex.

Todd ran seven consecutive three second passes to close out the weekend and now has a 9-2 win-loss record during the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

He opened up Sunday’s action with a victory over John Hale before dispatching Jack Beckman in round two. In the semi-finals, Todd squared off with pole-sitter Tommy Johnson Jr., where he had a immediately moved to the lead with an .033 reaction time at the light and then pulled away with his quickest pass of the weekend (3.952 seconds) to take the win and advance to his fifth final round of the season. In the finals, Hight had the advantage off the line and started to pull away before Todd started to make up ground past the 330 foot mark, but Hight was able to hang on to take the win.

“No rounds are easy out here,” said Todd, who remains second in the title chase. “We had a very consistent DHL/Wix Filters Toyota all day long. We’re just going out and racing smart, that’s what it takes to contend for a title. We didn’t exactly run what I was hoping to in the final. I didn’t have the reaction time I was hoping to in the final, either. We lost some ground to the point leader, but we distanced ourselves from the cars behind us. So we’ll battle it out over the last three races with Robert. We still have a long ways to go, but we need to keep pace with him. It would have been nice to take some points away from him in the final, but we’re still within striking distance.”

In an all-Camry Funny Car first round run, Cruz Pedregon defeated Shawn Langdon. It marked the third consecutive race that Pedregon has earned a round win over a Countdown driver. In round two, Pedregon started strong, but was unable to keep up with eventual race winner Johnson.

In Top Fuel, Antron Brown advanced to the second round with a victory over fellow Toyota driver Doug Kalitta before falling to Tony Schumacher.

Richie Crampton ran a strong pass in his first-round match-up, but lost when Clay Millican ran the quickest pass of the day.

The Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is back in action next weekend with the NHRA Carolina Nationals, October 12-14, at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, N.C.