The Lucas Oil Fuel Treatment dragster with up and coming driver, J.R. Todd behind the wheel produced a great qualifying effort in Friday’s first round of qualifying at the Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals at Pacific Raceways, but suffered a rare mechanical breakage in the evening session.
“The fuel shut-off cable broke when we went to start it,” said a dejected Todd with good reason. “When I turn that on, that’s what turns the motor on and without that, it can’t run. We seem to find more ways than humanly possible to find bad luck on our team.
Earlier, in his first pass of the day, Todd rocketed down the Pacific Raceways track recording a time of 3.860 seconds, 312.86 mph placing his Lucas Oil bunch into the provisional No. 6 position after the completion of Friday’s qualifying.
“Yeah, that was a good run for us right out of the box,” said Todd. “It’s just unfortunate to miss that last run because Morgan’s car (Todd’s teammate) ran a 3.84 ET and I know ours could have run better than that. That was one of the better runs our car has made all year long. In a quarter-mile time that could have easily been a mid 4.50. That’s right where we need to be. It’s just depressing missing a Friday night run because that’s the most pivotal run of the weekend, in my book. It’ll be all right and we’ll come back tomorrow and make some good solid runs to get ready for race day since we’re solidly in the show.”
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