J.R. Todd Shares the Dirty Truth About How to Make It to NHRA Pro Ranks

Veteran NHRA Funny Car driver J.R. Todd has been asked the question many times.

So, how do I (or how do I get my kid) on a path to one day drive in the nitro classes of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series? How do I get to race against you someday?

Todd, a 19-time NHRA national-event winner and current driver of the DHL Toyota GR Supra for one of the sport's legendary teams at Kalitta Motorsports, says he might be one of the last drivers to be asked to bring only a helmet and a firesuit to his first day on the job when he got the call from Connie Kalitta in 2014.

It usually takes a pile of money, as well.

"That's the tough part about our sport," Todd told Autoweek ahead of this weekend's Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio. "It's so sponsor-driven that if you're a young driver, it's hard to get a seat. First off, there's not enough seats available for all the drivers available. That's the one issue. And if you're not able to come with a boatload of money, that just makes it that much more tough to get that seat.

"Guys like (Kalitta teammate) Shawn Langdon and myself are lucky to where we got hired based on our ability to drive the race car. You just don't see that anymore in our sport, which is a shame because there's a lot of good Sportsman racers out there. Take for instance in Alcohol Funny Car and Top Alcohol Dragster where Tony Stewart is competing. I feel like that would be a good driver-development series to work them in to Top Fuel Dragster or Nitro Funny Car.

"If I were a billionaire team owner myself, that's something that I would look at getting started—a Sportsman team to train drivers and bring them up that way. But our sport isn't quite there yet."

No, the NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes have not proven to be a stepping stone to the Top Fuel and Funny Car nitro classes.

In fact, going back 15 years, not one champion from either the top Alcohol Dragster Class—Joey Severance (5 championships during that time period), Rachel Curl, Megan Meyer (2), Chris Demke (2), Jim Whiteley (2), Duane Shields, Bill Reichert (2)—or Top Alcohol Funny Car—Doug Gordon (2), Sean Bellemeur (4), Jonnie Lindberg (2), Steve Harker, Frank Manzo (6)—have been able to parlay that success into a full-time ride in the made-for-prime-time NHRA Nitro Funny Car and Top Fuel classes.

"Yeah, it's tough," Todd said. "There are some, very few, that you see move from the alcohol classes to the nitro categories based on their ability to drive. But like I said, it's tough if you don't have that sponsorship in your back pocket or come from a wealthy family. That's just the nature of the beast."

Todd calls himself one of the lucky ones.

"I 'm extremely lucky because all I had to do was bring my firesuit and helmet to Las Vegas in 2014 when Connie (Kalitta) called to offer me a ride at Kalitta Motorsports," Todd said. "I 'm very lucky, and I have to remind myself of that all the time. I 'm one of the few lucky ones that just gets to live out my dream based on my ability to drive a race car."

Todd points out that the NHRA isn't all that different from the other top rungs of the racing ladders, be it NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA, Formula 1 or your name it.