POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 10) – After a crazy week of drag racing at the CarQuest Auto Parts Winternationals for Torco/Lucas Oil driver, J.R. Todd, where he hit the wall on Thursday in qualifying, came back to enter the race in the No. 12 position and then found himself on race day in the unenviable position of losing traction at the starting line unfortunately kicked off his 2008 NHRA POWERade season with a first round loss against Hillary Will.
“It’s been quite an exciting week, to say the least, ” said Todd. “We had a great car coming into the race from our Phoenix testing with a stiffer chassis and it was working great. It was on another great run when we crashed on Thursday. It was just unfortunate with the A-Arm breaking and ever since we’ve switched over to this backup car you can feel the difference in the way car is working. I think that put us behind just because we had so much information starting off the year with the other car.
“To say the least, I’m just glad to be here. I can’t thank John Stewart, Forrest and Charlotte Lucas, Evan Knoll and everyone at Morgan Lucas Racing for sticking it out and getting the other car back together. Hopefully, we’ll get our primary car back in time for Phoenix and pick up where we left off in testing. Fortunately, it’s not the end of the world with our first round results. There are some big hitters that have already gone out today. I’ll just watch Morgan race his car next round and I think he can go the distance. “
Todd left the starting line first in his race (. 091-. 142) then suddenly lost traction erupting into tire smoke. He tried valiantly to catch Will as she also was spinning the tires further down the track, but could not recover in enough time to overcome the. 971-of a second margin of victory. He ran a time of 7.014 seconds, 175.73 mph to her quicker time of 5.992 seconds, 168.89 mph.
The Lawrenceburg, Indiana resident qualified in the No. 12 position with an elapsed time of 4.570 seconds at a speed of 327.74 mph.
He is tied in the 11th position with his good friend, Brandon Bernstein in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel points standings with 32 points after the season-opening event.
The next NHRA National event for Todd and the Torco/Lucas Oil crew will be in two weeks for the 24th annual Checker Schuck’s Kragen Nationals at Firebird Sports Park in nearby Phoenix.
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