Championship Drag Racing

O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals
Memphis, TN
(August 18-20)

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Driver Profile

J.R. Todd Lucas Oil Octane Booster dragster

Memphis, prerace: Hot, humid weather? Slippery race track? Twilight racing?

J.R. Todd says bring them on. After winning two of three NHRA races in hot July conditions, Todd and Dexter Tuttle’s Skull Shine/Torco Racing Fuels Top Fuel team are understandably pleased with the prospects awaiting them this weekend at Memphis Motorsports Park.

The extremely sultry weather (read that quite hot and humid) tends to create difficult racing conditions. Some teams do well, others don’t, on the hot, slick racing surface.

“I think the weather in Memphis will play into our hands as far as having a good tune-up for those conditions,” said Todd, a rookie driver who shocked three-time reigning Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher by defeating him in the finals at Denver and Sonoma, Calif. “Jimmy Walsh (crew chief) has a tune-up that seems to work when it’s hot.”

Todd and Walsh had their first success in the heat at St. Louis in late June. That race also had a 3 p.m. start and Todd advanced to his first semifinal (before losing to Schumacher). And then came the win at Denver, followed by another semifinal at Seattle and the victory at Sonoma.

“The car is going down the track and Jimmy has been able to learn a lot more about what it wants in different conditions,” Todd said.

Sunday at the Lucas Oil Nationals, for example, Walsh made some tuning changes that produced Todd’s quickest run of the weekend in cooler weather at Brainerd, Minn. But Melanie Troxel ran quicker and beat Todd in the opening round.

“It’s good to know the car is responding to what Jimmy’s telling it to do,” added Todd. “So far it hasn’t thrown us any curve balls.”

Todd is 12th in POWERade Series points with 646 despite not attending four races earlier in the year. He is 60 points (three rounds) out of a coveted berth in the top 10 as the team heads into its final seven races.

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