J.R. Todd’s NHRA Winternationals top-end guard-wall mishap may have been set in motion before the car even turned a tire under power for the burnout. A source close to the situation reports the NHRA’s Dan Olson recently notified chassis builder Brad Hadman of the results obtained in an independent study conducted by a well-known welding industry figure. The report was conclusive the cause of the A-arm failure was not in the stress associated with that particular run.

The report concluded shock to the A-arm prior to the run was the culprit, and had nothing to do with the design, material or weld either. A source within Hadman’s shop confirmed they redesigned their A-arm for dragsters six years ago and the Todd mishap was the first known issue since the revision.

Not saying this was the case with the Todd car, a prominent chassis builder confirmed with Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com that some teams cycle the A-arms through from old to new car and there are some that are as old as five year in circulation.

A source within the Morgan Lucas Racing team, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, disagrees with the assessment. They added, "If there was something wrong with the car, we would have caught it before we ran. We cannot tell you conclusively what happened."

What J.R. Todd has stated on the record immediately after the Pomona mishap is that, "Things do fail and things do break.  I'm not blaming anybody.  Brad Hadman, in my opinion, builds one of the best cars out here so I've got to thank him."