Throughout qualifying J.R. Todd and the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car knew they had a great race car. They came off the trailer and picked up qualifying bonus points in the first two sessions. Their second run was only bested by one driver and the team rolled into race day as the No. 2 qualifier.
Todd took full advantage of his position as the second best Funny Car on the property by making a solid run in the first round. He was first off the line against Jeff Diehl and kept the DHL Camry right in the middle of the groove.
In the second round Todd faced off with tough competitor veteran Ron Capps. Capps had a slight advantage off the line and was able to make a smooth clean run to take out tire smoking Todd. The quarterfinal finish was a tough loss for Todd but not one that will linger with the reigning Funny Car champion.
”The performance of our DHL Toyota came around in qualifying,” said Todd. “Then we made a really good run in the first round of eliminations. We just overpowered the track in the second round. It’s really unfortunate. It would have been a good time to at least make up some ground. The last few races we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole. At least the car showed some good signs heading into Brainerd and Indy. I’m excited about the upcoming races because both last year and the year before we’ve run well at these upcoming events, so we’ll just move forward.”
Quotable:
J.R. Todd on wrapping up Western Swing: “The Western Swing is over and now my attention is going to switch to the final two regular season races including the biggest race of the year Indy. We have two wins in a row there and we are going to work on getting ready for the Countdown.”
Statistics:
Qualified: No. 2 (3.886 sec., 325.85 mph)
Bonus points: +3 (3rd quickest of Q1 and 2nd quickest of Q2)
Race Details:
First Round
Driver Qual R/T ET MPH
J.R. Todd 2 .091 3.934 321.35 (W)
Jeff Diehl 15 .122 4.189 285.11
Second Round
Driver Qual R/T ET MPH
J.R. Todd 2 .070 5.277 153.40
Ron Capps 7 .066 3.992 322.58 (W)
Kalitta Motorsports PR
