Pit Stop Radio News

 J.R. Todd ran a blistering 3.866-second pass at 334.40 mph in his DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car to qualify third in Top Fuel to lead Toyota into Sunday’s AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex.

Todd, who was the runner-up in last year’s FallNationals, earned bonus points for placing in the top three in three of the weekend’s four qualifying sessions.  He earned one bonus point for Friday’s run, then followed it up with three more today by placing second in the third qualifying session and then third in the final run with a 3.903-second pass as temperatures climbed into the mid-80s.  He will open eliminations against Jim Campbell.

“On Friday night you have to take advantage of the conditions and make the best of it because it’s going to be the run that sets most of the field,” said Todd, the reigning Funny Car world champion. “The entire DHL Toyota Camry team, along with the guys at TRD, did a great job of reading the track and we made a good run and qualified number three. Then we followed it up with good runs in Q3 and Q4, which should give us a good baseline for Sunday.”

Shawn Langdon placed tenth with a 3.921-second pass. He will face Tim Wilkerson in round one.  

In Top Fuel, three-time world champion Antron Brown led the way among the Toyota-sponsored cars with a 3.717-second pass at 327.82 mph, good for the eighth starting position. Brown will square off with fellow Toyota driver and ninth seed Richie Crampton (3.720) in the first round.

Right behind Brown and Crampton was Doug Kalitta in tenth with a 3.724-second run. He will race Austin Prock in Sunday’s eliminations. Kalitta earned three bonus points on the weekend after placing second in Friday’s first session and then third in Saturday’s opening run.

The total margin between the three Toyota Top Fuel drivers was .007 seconds.

Toyota Session-by-Session Qualifying

(#) – Bonus Points Earned 

Bold = Driver’s quickest pass during qualifying 
Toyota Racing PR