J.R. Todd Has Wild Race Day

JR-in-the-Napa-Body

J.R. Todd, DHL Funny Car

Finals Broadcast Replay: 7-10 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024 on FS1

Qualifying: J.R. Todd was the No. 8 qualifier at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. His best qualifying attempt came during the first session Friday afternoon when he made a 3.938-second run at 325.22 mph. In the Friday-night session, the DHL GR Supra broke a connecting rod and suffered a large explosion causing the team to go to the backup car and body for the rest of the weekend.

Eliminations: Todd and the DHL team defeated Paul Lee in the first round and faced points leader Austin Prock in the second round. Todd left the starting line first and won the round, but just after winning the race, the DHL car suffered an explosion damaging the DHL GR Supra body, which was the team’s backup. With both bodies damaged, Todd did not expect to make the semifinal race against Matt Hagan. Toyota team owner Ron Capps had other ideas and loaned the team his backup NAPA GR Supra body.

In a miraculous hour and 15 minutes, the DHL “Yella Fellas” crew along with crew members from the DC Motorsports Toyota GR Supra team, of which Del Worsham is the crew chief, the Capps NAPA team and the Team Kalitta Mac Tools team all worked together to fit the NAPA body onto the DHL chassis in a strong display of Toyota teamwork. Todd made the call for the semifinals, but Hagan got the round win and advanced to the final round.

Unofficial Point Standings: Todd leaves Brainerd in fourth place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails third-place Matt Hagan by 64 points and leads fifth-place John Force/Jack Beckman by 147 points.

Todd on Brainerd: “I can’t thank everybody involved enough; first off, Ron Capps. It’s great being part of Toyota – one big family. These GR Supras are not interchangeable between the two chassis so they had to hustle with that NAPA body to make it fit on our chassis. Del Worsham and his guys were over there helping us out, and there were some other teams in there, too. The Yella Fellas: I always give them props for busting their ‘butt,’ but they had one hell of a weekend, and they definitely deserve to go out in the zoo (Brainerd International Raceway campground) and ‘have some fun’ tonight, but after that, we have a lot of work to do to get ready for Indy.

“I thought we were dead after that semifinal – that’s why I was throwing my gloves. I was upset because I saw the win light come on but thought we were screwed losing two bodies this weekend and didn’t know if there was any chassis damage. Those (DHL crew) guys don’t quit till it’s over with, and it was awesome to drag it back up there (to the starting line). That’s almost like a victory in itself. Once I saw Hagan out there driving away from us, I just shut it off. Don’t want to blow up another body. Hopefully we can go to Indy, redeem ourselves and start making a move when it counts.”

Ron Capps on Loaning Team Kalitta a GR Supra Body: “It wasn’t even a decision; we’re all Toyotas. We were looking to see, if they had a damaged chassis, could we bring our backup from the trailer. Del Worsham helped us so much, the Kalittas helped us so much as we were becoming part of Team Toyota. Del said it best: we all got into the thrash, and he said, ‘This is like old school “stuff” – this is like Kenny Bernstein, the Blue Max, taping it all together to get up to the final round type of stuff.’ Great job by those guys. We were just happy to help. It (the NAPA body) didn’t fit real well. It was so much fun to watch the guys – the Kalittas, Worshams and our guys jump in there. We just wanted to get up there and put a show on for the fans. J.R., man, he’s the consummate professional. He ran it down there, and I felt like a proud owner watching that car go down there. That was for the fans.”