First off, I’d like to wish everyone a happy belated Easter. We had a great Easter. This Easter we got together with my family and some of our crew members at the house. Many of the crew members aren’t from Indy, and we’re all family, so we had some of my guys over on Easter Sunday like “Lil John,” Brad, and TY.
The kids had a blast looking for all the eggs in the backyard. They were filled with everything from nickels to candy. We hid 65 eggs in the yard, and they found all 65 of them but not little Adler. He was chillin’ in the crib, sleeping away. My momma and wife Billie Jo cooked up a fabulous Easter meal from a big roast to a ham to homemade cornbread to mac and cheese. We ate enough for two days. It was great to spend time with our extended family in Indy.
We loaded up and shipped off to the Houston race Wednesday. I went to the airport to jump on my Southwest flight into Hobby. That same day, the family loaded up in the minivan and caravanned all the way to Louisiana, a 13-hour trip, to visit the family in Louisiana with newborn Adler. It was his first time out of Indiana.
It was cool to do the Fan Fest with NHRA at the San Jacinto Mall in Baytown on Wednesday night. We had our Matco Tools show car on display for the fans. It was cool to see all of our Cajun friends. That evening, we made a trip to Baytown Seafood with our crew guys for some really styling seafood from shrimp to red snapper. That’s one thing that I really miss about Louisiana: all the great seafood.
Thursday morning, I got up early to make the trip through downtown Houston during rush hour traffic. While I was bobbing and weaving through traffic, I finally caught up with Shannon Crippen, the Matco Tools distributor, on the northwest side of Houston. When he stepped out of his truck, I thought I was looking up at the Jolly Green Giant. Shannon stands about 6’4,” 260 pounds. My first words were, “I bet you don’t have a problem getting paid.” He said, “You’re sure enough right.” It was a cool ride as we went to various shops. As always, there were many NHRA fans, and we surprised them with a smile and a hand shake. They asked if I was Antron Brown. I said jokingly, “Nope, I’m J.R. Todd.” It still surprises me how many people really do follow our sport.
As the ride ended, I jumped in my rental car to head back to the east side of Houston and Houston Raceway Park to meet up with the crew and get our Matco dragster weighed in. We chilled for a bit, then went back to the hotel and got cleaned up and went to dinner at Pappa Bros. Seafood, where we met up with one of Lee’s longtime buddies, Stevie Ray, the famed WCW wrestler and brother of Booker T. I thought Shannon, our Matco distributor was big, but when I saw Stevie Ray, I said, “That’s a big brother.”
The next morning, we headed out for Houston Raceway Park. Qualifying was a little iffy because we were worried about rain again. Our first pass was a nice, easy pass; we went 4.64 to get in the show. We came back Friday night, and we were going for it, but we got bit by the right lane with the bumps in the transitions. We fell off to a 4.70 and ended up No. 12 after we dropped a few holes. We were looking for two consistent passes on Saturday with the hotter temperatures. We did a decent job, but still ended up 12th overall.
On race day, there was cloud cover in the air and the track temperatures were really cool, which worked to our advantage. In the first round, we raced Doug Foley again. He’s a great competitor and from my home state of New Jersey, a hometown homie. He’s quick on the Tree, and his car runs consistent all the time. With that being said, we snuck around Doug by a narrow margin. The next round was another heavy match-up with Cory Mac. Mike Green, his crew chief, is close friends with Lee. I think we had the quickest side-by-side race of the weekend, and Lee had it hopped up to run low e.t. of the round at 4.54. Then, we had none other than Doug Kalitta in the semi’s. He’s one of the baddest Top Fuel drivers on the planet. We got passed Doug, and it felt good to put the Matco Tools car by the other tool car to make it to the money round against L.D. As everyone knows, Larry Dixon is pound-for-pound, in my eyes, with Doug and “Hot Rod” and Tony Shoe as the best drivers in Top Fuel. You can’t deny that. I know that our Matco team was up for the challenge, and we had to rise to the occasion. Lee Beard gave me just what we needed to win, and our crew guys made sure every little detail was carried out. Dixon, like usual, was killer on the Tree, and I gave it all I had and wasn’t too far behind. To say the least, to win my first Top Fuel drag race against Larry Dixon will never be forgotten. I will hold that win dear to my heart. This victory is a true testament to the entire DPM organization. I owe a special thanks to Lee, and not cause he’s my crew chief, but because he believed in me a long time ago that I could drive a Top Fuel car.
At the end of the race track, when everyone saw me jump out of the car going hysterical, I literally didn’t know who won the race. I hit the chute and didn’t see the win light come on in my lane, and when I went on around the end of the track, they were flagging me over and telling me we won. I couldn’t believe our team won our first Top Fuel drag race. To this point today, it still feels unbelievable to me that we won the O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston. I still can’t sleep at night. I toss and turn, and I’m still wearing my driver’s award medallion. My wife tried to take it off my neck, and I had to pop her hand out of the way. LOL
The day after the race, I went back to the track and walked the dragstrip and stared at the finish line for 15 minutes to let it sink in that I won a drag race at more than 320 mph at a mere few inches. It finally sunk in when John Force came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder and said, “How bout that kid.” That there is the first time I realized that I won my first Top Fuel drag race.
With that being said, I’m relaxing with my wife’s family down in Louisiana, getting some R&R for a few days before we head back to Indy on Friday. We’re off to Vegas next Wednesday. Check us out on
Wind Tunnel on Speed Channel on Sunday evening at 9 p.m. (Eastern). I want to thank everyone out there from family to friends to fans for all the support and all the fans in Houston who celebrated with us and all the sponsors that believed in me enough to get me here. I’m so excited to win for Matco!
I’m gonna leave you with my key words of the day: Love, peace and hair grease. I’m out like shout with the Wally medallion around my neck.