Less than a week after winning the New England NHRA Nationals, J.R. Todd and his DHL GR Supra team enjoyed another positive race weekend in the Tennessee mountains. The 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series continues June 21-22 at the American Rebel Light Virginia NHRA Nationals near Richmond, Va.
The DHL team added four-time NHRA Funny Car championship Crew Chief Dickie Venables in the off season and began remaking the team with wholesale changes. The team struggled at times but remained positive, understanding the process would take time. Everyone, including the driver, had to be patient. Two weeks ago in Bristol, Tenn., the DHL team won its first Mission Foods Challenge of the season, celebrating its second win in six days. Todd would qualify sixth for the Thunder Valley Nationals but lose to Ron Capps in the second round, but the team added its most recent blocks in the rebuilding process.
“With completely changing what we had on the DHL car in the past, we knew it was going to take some time,” Todd said. “But you also don’t want to dig yourself a big hole where you’re battling just to make the top 10 in the Countdown (NHRA Playoffs). Realistically, you need to start the Countdown in the top five to have a shot at the championship. We’re building some good momentum and racking up some qualifying points where we can. It’s nice that NHRA is doing the regular season championship bonus; I’m not saying we’re out of that, but that’s really not our focus. We just want to go out there and win races and kind of let the points fall where they may. Then once Indy comes and then the countdown, that’s when you got to get serious and turn it up.
“With Dickie coming on board, we all had high hopes before the season knowing his track record and what the possibilities were, but we also knew it was going to be work in progress; team morale was never down. We knew to stay patient and not get frustrated, which is hard to do when you’re a drag racer. I knew it might take half a season, might take all season, and I’m not saying we’re there yet. We still probably need to find a few hundredths to contend with the JFR (John Force Racing) cars, but at least we know we have a car that can go out there and make good runs and contend for wins. And as a driver, that’s all you can ask for.”
“We made it down the track in some tricky conditions at Bristol,” Todd said. “We definitely took some positives out of that race weekend with the Mission Foods win and some good qualifying runs, but like I said before that weekend, we still have work to do for DHL, PJH, SealMaster and Revchem. We’re looking forward to getting to Richmond to keep working on it.”
This story was originally published on June 18, 2025. 
