NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Provisional Funny Car low qualifier J.R. Todd is already among the short and star-filled list of drivers to have won in both Top Fuel and Funny Car — he was the 16th of 19 drivers to do it when he won in Funny Car for the first time in Sonoma in 2017 after nine previous Top Fuel wins — and would love to add his name to an even shorter list: drivers who have doubled up at the Northwest Nationals.

Four drivers have won in both Top Fuel and Funny Car in the history of this race, and two of them — Austin Prock and Ron Capps — are in action today. Prock won his first ever in Top Fuel here in 2019 in the Montana Brands dragster and his first in Funny Car last year; Capps’ first career win also came here in Top Fuel in Roger Primm’s dragster, in 1995, but he’s added three Funny Car wins in the NAPA entry since (1998, 2016, and 2018).

The other two were Del Worsham (Funny Car in 1999 in the family’s Checker-Schuck’s-Kragen entry, and Top Fuel in 2011 in the Alan Johnson-tuned Al-Anabi dragster) and Tommy Johnson Jr. (Top Fuel in 1993 in the family-owned Mopar dragster and Funny Car in 2015 in the Make-A-Wish Dodge). 

Todd won in Top Fuel at Pacific Raceways an even 10 years ago in the Kalitta Motorsports Red Line Oil dragster, defeating his current Kalitta Top Fuel teammate Shawn Langdon, who back then was wheeling Alan Johnson’s Guy Fieri-backed Knuckle Sandwich dragster (he would finish the season with Don Schumacher Racing).

“I would love to do that,” Todd enthused Friday night. “We've been close here a few times with a Funny Car here [runner-ups in 2022 and ‘23] and, yeah, I definitely would like to check that off the list. It'd be even better if we could double up with one of our dragsters here this weekend. 

“I think we got some good notes to work off of, so that's definitely the goal to come here and try and check that off the list.”

Todd has pulled off nitro doubles at three other events — in Reading (2006 in Top Fuel, 2018 in Funny Car), in Houston (2007 Top Fuel and 2018 Funny Car),  and, most impressively, Sonoma in back-to-back seasons (2016 in Top Fuel, 2017 in his first year in Funny Car).

Interestingly, a Todd double would make the event the most prolific producer of nitro doubles. The U.S. Nationals also has four nitro doubles (Don Prudhomme, Ed McCulloch, Kenny Bernstein, and Jim Head), as does the FallNationals in Dallas (Prudhomme, McCulloch, Bernstein, and Mike Dunn).