J.R. Todd felt very relaxed after completing all four of his qualifying passes in the O’Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex on Saturday. In addition to placing his Lucas Oil Fuel Treatment dragster solidly in the field with his run from Friday night of 3.874 seconds, 307.72 mph, which placed him in the No. 6 position, he’s even more motivated and should feel pretty confident since his team led by veteran John Stewart went down the track on all of his four runs.
His qualifying blasts of 3.94, 3.87, 3.96, and 3.92 on his final four assaults in the oppressive heat gives them enough encouragement to feel that Sunday shows a great deal of promise for them. It’s the best they’ve run all year with the consistency that has been evading them of recent late.
“This is by far the best race car we’ve had all year qualifying-wise,” grinned Todd. “The car made four good, clean passes down the track and hopefully it can repeat with four more rounds on Sunday. Going down the track in the heat like that is what we have to do tomorrow and we’re looking forward to it.”
Todd will race the No. 11 qualifier, Spencer Massey in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. It will be Massey first NHRA Top Fuel event.
With the Texas Motorplex being the original all-concrete dragstrip, the competitors love coming to Dallas and Todd has a chance to prove the potential of his Lucas Oil operation on race day with the great surface.
“I think it’s better because there’s no transition; it’s just concrete the whole way down there,” said Todd. “You don’t have to fight the half-track change from concrete to asphalt and you can throw
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