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Defending Houston Champ Todd Eyes Identical Texas Outcome
March 27, 2008
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Defending O’Reilly Spring Nationals Top Fuel champion, J.R. Todd is plenty proud about returning to Houston Raceway Park this weekend for the 21st annual running of the O’Reilly Spring Nationals.
This could be Todd’s turnaround race and with a recent realignment in the Morgan Lucas Racing operation has the Lawrenceburg, Indiana, native thinking win lights again.
“It’s always good to be going back to a racetrack where you’re the defending champion,” said the five-time nitro winner, Todd, who defeated Joe Hartley in last year’s finals. “Knowing you’re capable of going back and winning again is the way you always want to enter a race. There’s not a reason in the world for us not to come out of there with a victory at the end of the weekend. We’ve got one of the best teams out here. So far the results this year haven’t shown that yet, but we’ve had some bad luck in the first three races. We may be No. 11 in the points for now but we plan on being in the POWERade Top 10 by Sunday.”
Those changes include Todd’s crew chief, John Stewart now overseeing both his dragster but also teammate Morgan Lucas’ for the Texas NHRA event. Having all the data and feedback from the two drivers plus their performance on the track will provide a multitude of information.
“The cars are setup definitely the same now and pretty much identical,” said Todd. “With both cars being tuned the same way will also be so beneficial and we can now run close together. We’re doubling our information on our two runs down the racetrack and that should parlay into us going some rounds on Sunday.
“I think it will be a lot easier to find out what our tuning problems are and can predict what both cars should do before we head up to the starting line for either qualifying or the race. It shouldn’t be any reason why we can’t go out there and repeat the results. It should make things simpler for the crews and for John Stewart on his tune-up call.”
The start of the 21st annual O’Reilly Spring Nationals begins at the Houston Raceway Park on Friday, March 28 with two nitro qualifying sessions starting at 3:00 p.m. (CDT) and 6:00 p.m. Saturday's time trials start at 12:00 p.m. for the nitro classes followed by a second session at 3:00 p.m. The race starts promptly at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 30.
J.R. TODD -- LUCAS OIL RACING DRIVER NOTES:
J.R. Todd, of Lawrenceburg, Ind., has five NHRA POWERade Top Fuel wins out of seven final round appearances. He claimed his first win, the 2006 Mopar Mile-High Nationals in only his eighth start defeating Tony Schumacher in the finals. He finished eighth in the 2006 NHRA Top Fuel Point standings with 1,105 points after completing his first full season on the competitive 23-race NHRA circuit. He finished eighth with 2,273 points in 2007, making the cut of the first class for the Countdown to the Championship.
Todd’s' quickest elapsed time is 4.473 seconds, set on Feb. 11, 2007 at Pomona Raceway. He sped to his fastest top speed of 334.24 mph on Nov. 4 in the first round of eliminations at the 2007 Auto Club Final in Pomona, Calif. He has won two Low E.T. qualifier awards His first on July 21 at the Seattle International Raceway recording a time 4.577 seconds and Sept. 22 on the all-concrete surface of the Texas Motorplex setting the pace with his run of 4.541 seconds. J.R. Todd’s first NHRA Top Fuel event came behind the wheel of the Dexter Tuttle-owned dragster in the 2006 CarQuest Auto Parts Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona on February 12, 2006. He was awarded the 2006 “Road to the Future” award, which recognizes NHRA’s top performing rookie driver. DOB: December 16, 1981.
O’REILLY SPRING NATIONALS
TELEVISION ADVISORY
(ALL TIMES EASTERN – ALL PROGRAMS ON ESPN2 HD)
QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS
Saturday, March 29
4:30 P.M. – 5:00 P.M.
QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS II
Saturday, March 29
10:00 P.M. – 11:00 P.M.
NHRA RACE DAY
Sunday, March 30
11:00 P.M. – 11:30 P.M.
FINAL ROUND COVERAGE
Sunday, March 30
4:30 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.
Encore Performance
Wednesday, April 2
2:00 A.M. – 4:00 A.M
Jay Wells
(704) 662-3525 - Office
(704) 281-5678 - Cell
Lucas Oil Racing
jaywell1@ix.netcom.com
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