T.J. Zizzo knows his role.

The last few years the veteran Top Fuel driver has competed in a small number of NHRA national events.
However, when the Illinois native shows up – he swings for the fences.

That’s exactly what he did at the 20th annual NHRA Route 66 Nationals last weekend in Chicago, and he had and his team had an amazing performance.

In their 2017 season debut, Zizzo made it all the way to semifinals before losing to eventual race champion Steve Torrence.

Zizzo, who made his NHRA Top Fuel debut in September of 2003, matched his career-best effort as he also made it to the semis in Seattle in 2013.

“We stuck to a game plan is basically what it boils down to,” Zizzo said. “I read somewhere that we are unfunded and I think that’s wrong. We are not underfunded. The events we go to, we go there with all the right pieces to do it. We can choose to go to more events and not participate at a high level or go to less events and participate at a high level. This was a spectacular weekend and the cool thing was we just plain kicked ass.”

Things started well right off the trailer for Zizzo’s Rust-Oleum-sponsored dragster as he clocked a 3.839-second elapsed time at 275.90 on his first qualifying pass.

That was especially impressive, considering Zizzo’s team only competed in four races a year ago – Chicago, Sonoma, Seattle and Indianapolis – and had not made a pass since Indy in September. Mike Kern is Zizzo’s crew chief.

“We decided to go to 660-feet on the first pass because we felt comfortable with everything we did, and we went to 660 and I ran a 3.83 and the car was sweeter than it has ever been, but at the same time the sport is humbling,” Zizzo said. “On Q2, we broke an output shaft and blew the top half of the motor up. We learned a lot and we ran a (3.786) in Q4.”

That 3.786-second lap qualified Zizzo No. 9 and on Sunday, he defeated Pat Dakin when he had a red-light start.
Although Zizzo was handed the victory at the starting line, he still ran a solid 3.793-second run at 324.36 mph to advance to face No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force.

Zizzo shocked Force with an upset win. He ran a 3.787-second lap at 324.75 to Force’s 3.817-second pass at 322.88 mph.

“Against Dakin, our car just charged,” Zizzo said. “It was as smooth as it was on Q4. The car was happy. We went out there and I stood on the gas against Brittany and that was one of my career highlights. I’ve been doing this for 26 years and that was one of my career highlights. The car was running good and the team was clicking. We were gaining confidence.”

Zizzo’s quest for his first NHRA Top Fuel Wally came to an end when he fell to Torrence in the semis. Torrence clocked a 3.815-second lap to defeat Zizzo’s 3.983-second run.

“Against Torrence, we just dropped a hole,” Zizzo said. “We just have to be a little bit heavier on maintenance when we start going rounds and have a little bit better game plan, that’s all. We exceeded our expectations, there’s no doubt about that. I guess it was letdown because I really felt after E2, I absolutely believed it was our day.”

Exceling at his hometown track made the day even sweeter for Zizzo.

“I had friends in the stands who were telling me we were the people’s choice to win the race,” he said. “People were going nuts and our pit area was a happening place. It was super cool.”

Despite his superb Chicago run, Zizzo isn’t changing his season plans. His team doesn’t plan on racing again until the fall in September or October.

“We are going to still stick to our guns,” Zizzo said. “Did somebody mention going to Denver (the next race on the schedule, July 21-23) sure, but reality being what reality is we need to be smart. We still have a lot of homework to do.”