J.R. Todd, DHL GR Supra Funny Car ​


2025 NHRA Great Lakes Nationals Recap: Inaugural event

J.R. Todd Career Stats: 351 events, 23 wins, 28 runners-up, 385 round wins, 17 No. 1 qualifiers.

Current Points Position: 5

Pre-Race Notes:

  • J.R. Todd enters the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals as the fifth seed in the Countdown to the Championship NHRA Playoffs which begin this weekend. Todd finished the regular season in fifth place in points, and after all points from the Mission Foods Challenge races throughout the regular season were applied to the standings, Todd trails fourth-place Jordan Vandergriff by 14 points and leads sixth place Austin Prock by five points with six races remaining in the season.
  • Todd’s driving career actually began at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park. He drove a Top Fuel car at the suburban Michigan racetrack in IHRA competition for the entire 2000 season and then two additional races in 2006; he raced in Martin twice.
  • Todd advanced to at least the semifinals eight times this season. He has one win, one runner-up finish and six semifinal showings in addition to three No. 1 qualifiers this season.
  • Todd is the 2018 NHRA Funny Car Champion and has 23 race wins in his career.

Pre-Race Quotes:

“I always say we want to start the Countdown in the top five in points; now, we have to execute. We definitely stumbled in Indianapolis, and that cost us some positions in the in the Countdown. We need to qualify well every race and go to the later rounds.

“We have to qualify better than we did in Indy, and we’ve already made those changes. We put different parts and pieces on the car between qualifying and the first round in Indy. Then, we tested some things on Tuesday after Indy so we know the car is capable of running really well with the parts that we’ve added into the combination. Now, it’s just a matter of running hard, pretty much running as hard as we can, for the last six races.

“The Countdown is different because pretty much every run matters. You just can’t afford any mistakes like you could earlier in the year; those mistakes will bite you during the Countdown. Other than that, outside the car, you’d like to not have as many outside distractions for those last six races so you can just focus on doing the best you can inside the car.

“I haven’t been to Martin in maybe 10 or 15 years so it’s been a while, but I remember it was a really nice facility. Anytime we go to a new track, that’s a new fan base we can touch so that’s always good, and it’s another home race for the Kalitta gang since it’s the only race in Michigan.”

Todd Photo Courtesy: Kalitta Motorsports

For J.R. Todd’s 2026 race-by-race results, please click here.

TV Schedule (All times eastern):

  • Qualifying Show 1: Noon-2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20 on FS1
  • Finals No. 1: 2-5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20 on FS1

The post J.R. Todd Ready to Run Hard, Race in Later Rounds first appeared on Team Kalitta Motorsports.

Continue reading...