It’s a familiar storyline – “we just need to be more consistent.” But what happens when consistency is within reach? That’s something J.R. Todd and his DHL GR Supra team are working on entering the season’s fifth race. The 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Season resumes April 26-28, 2024, at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.
Todd won the season’s opening race in Gainesville, Fla., and has three semifinal showings in the races since winning the Gatornationals when he “doubled up” with teammate Shawn Langdon who won the Top Fuel race the same day. Reaching at least the semifinals in each of the four races so far this season is consistent, but the 2018 Funny Car champ says now the goal is fine-tuning the consistency the team is achieving.
“Consistency comes with going down the track, and we are,” Todd said. “You have to make clean runs to learn from them and kind of pick away at it as we work to fine tune it. We still have room to be a little more aggressive, but we’ll get it. It’s hard to fine tune the consistency and be more aggressive when you’re not going down the track. You have to have the runs to pull data. That’s how you give yourself opportunities to fine tune the tune-up. We’re doing that. It’s a matter of making small adjustments here and there, and I think we’ll be in the hunt.”
Todd enters the season’s fifth race in second place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings after leaving the first three races as the points leader. The DHL team has been solid this year, and the second of two 2024 four-wide races this weekend would be a great time for him to get his first zMAX Dragway win.
“We get to go race four wide again this weekend, and hopefully we can have a good race – I’ve never really done that well in this event so it would be cool to turn that around this weekend,” Todd added. “It seems like, for whatever reason, we haven’t done as well in this four-wide event as we’ve done in Vegas so hopefully, this one is our year.
“I don’t really change my driving style (for four-wide racing); you have to pay a little more attention with three other drivers on the starting line as opposed to one. You just have to be focused on your lane and your light. There’s definitely a lot more going on, but at the end of the day, it’s just focus on the mission at hand. I don’t want to say it’s harder or you have to be more focused, but you have to remind yourself what lane you’re in because it can get confusing on the stage lights. You’re looking at a different side of the tree so you have to focus on the right stage lights depending on what lane you’re in. It’s still drag racing. The yellow light comes on – you have to hit the gas on time.”
When Todd advanced to the semifinals in Las Vegas, he earned a spot in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at this week’s race. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the semifinals in Las Vegas will re-run the semifinals in the 4-Wide format with the four winners advancing to the “finals” earning additional purse and championship bonus points.
This story was originally published on April 23, 2024. 
