NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

“If you knew a weekend like this was coming, you’d rather stay home.”

Those were the parting words of 2018 NHRA Funny Car world champion J.R. Todd after a tough, tough weekend at the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals.

Todd, who was leading the Funny Car final at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals before his DHL Toyota GR Supra backfired the blower, lost two more bodies and damaged two chassis during the Winternationals, leaving the resurgent team behind the eight ball heading into the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas.

Todd was involved in an on-track incident Saturday during the second round of qualifying. After Todd crossed the finish line in the left lane, John Force, who was in the right lane, crossed the centerline, squeezed between Todd and the left-side guardwall, then crossed in front of Todd’s car, tangling Todd’s Toyota in his parachute lines. Force then made contact with the right wall before the cars came to rest near the center of the racetrack. Thanks to safety features created by Toyota, TRD, and Kalitta Motorsports, Todd was uninjured in the incident.

“It was just a normal run,” Todd reflected. “I was trucking down through there pretty good, get the chutes out before the finish line like normal – like you’re pretty much taught as a young driver – and I feel like I paid the price for doing it. At first, I thought maybe he just got into my chutes or something, but next thing I know, I see him on my left side and we’re in the left lane. You’re not supposed to be there. 

“After that, just sort of hanging on and steering away from him, steering away from the wall and trying to get on the brake to get the thing stopped. But when the chutes are tangled up like that, you’re just along for the ride. It’s a helpless feeling. You’re not really in control at that point when the other guy is wrapped in your chutes or his chutes are wrapped around your car. I haven’t seen any video, so I can’t really tell you exactly what happened. I just know he was dragging us along for the ride. It sucks. I don’t like tearing up stuff, especially when it’s out of my control.

"It’s really unfortunate because it was a brand-new car for us, beautiful car and worked really well. I hate creating extra work for the guys, especially something silly like that.”
 
The DHL team unloaded a backup car and backup Toyota Supra body, the car that Todd drove at the end of the 2022 season, but things only got rockier in Sunday’s first round. Todd had a solid lead on Alex Laughlin until the car lost traction. Todd pedaled the throttle, but a huge engine explosion followed. 

“The DHL Toyota Supra was running OK early, and I didn’t see Alex Laughlin next to me. The next thing I knew, after it got down the track quite a ways, it started spinning the tires. I learned in the Gainesville final that when it starts spinning like that, you gotta get out of the throttle as soon as possible. Sure enough, it happened in the first round, and we saw what can happen. Looking back on it, I wish I could go back and lift sooner; if you do that, you’ll lose the round, but we would have come back with a race car and body instead a lot of extra work for these guys.

 “More than anything, I just hate all the work that’s been created for all my guys – especially right before an off weekend. With all the work the DHL team’s been doing up to this point, my guys needed that off week badly. Now, they have a ton more work to get done before we go to Las Vegas.”