It’s been a while since J.R. Todd was reminded what it felt like to stand in the NHRA’s winner’s circle.
To be exact, it was 52 races, nearly two full seasons and 869 days between Todd’s national event victory at the Gatornationals on March 14, 2021, and his latest win at the Sonoma Nationals on July 31.
“When you go two-plus years without winning a race, you start questioning yourself, asking, ‘Is there something I’m doing wrong? Is the team cursed, or jinxed? Are we ever going to win again?’” Todd said. “There’s so many things that go through your mind.”
For the 2018 Funny Car champion, there’s been a long tide of lows to wade through since his title run. In the last four years, he has yet to finish better than sixth in the standings.
Other than his final-round appearance at the season-opening Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., this year hasn’t looked much different in terms of results. In the seven-race stretch after Gainesville, Todd tallied one semifinal finish, five first-round losses and one DNQ with his Kalitta Motorsports team.
To add another layer of difficulty, Todd was dealt an extraordinary set of circumstances at the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. — the third race of the season — where he tore up both his primary and backup cars over the event weekend.
“We had an incident where it spun the tires and next thing I know, I’m driving a convertible, which you don’t want to do in a nitro Funny Car,” Todd recalled, explaining the motor explosion that wrecked his backup car.
J.R. Todd celebrates his victory at the top end in Sonoma. (NHRA photo)
The damage to his primary car was the result of a qualifying crash with John Force.
In less than a week’s time, the crew drove from California to the team’s headquarters in Ypsilanti, Mich., to the chassis shop in Brownsburg, Ind., back to Michigan to finish the car and then out to Las Vegas for the next race.
“For the most part, we have quite a few new guys on the team, and they haven’t really experienced winning races and being in the championship battle,” Todd said.
“To go through everything that we did at the beginning of the year … the only way I could try and them pay back for all their hard work was to go out there and try to win a race.”
Luckily, the score sheet finally began to lengthen for Kalitta Motorsports when the series commenced its famous Western Swing.
The pendulum picked up momentum when Todd reached the semifinals at the Mile-High Nationals in Colorado and continued to quicken after the DHL Funny Car appeared in the finals at the Northwest Nationals in Seattle, Wash.
“In Seattle, it felt like we could do no wrong,” Todd said. “The team felt like we had a car good enough to win Sonoma.”
Sure enough, that next Sunday in Sonoma, Todd defeated Blake Alexander, Bob Tasca III, Matt Hagan and Chad Green en route to scoring his first victory of the season.
“When that win light came on, it was like instant relief. I was on the radio, yelling and screaming at the guys and couldn’t wait to get out of the car at the top end, celebrate and grab that trophy,” Todd said. “I think I said when I got out of the car, ‘I forgot what this feels like.’”
After starting the season with a new combination and brand-new chassis, Todd believes Kalitta Motorsports has finally found the competition advantage they’ve been searching for. And with his Sonoma win pushing him to eighth in points, the former Funny Car champion has his sights set on something more than a Wally as the Countdown to the Championship nears.
“Now I feel we’re in a position to make a run at the championship and I feel like that’s something we wouldn’t be talking about a couple months ago,” Todd said.
Keyword: J.R. Todd: Remembering That Winning Feeling