In 2015, the DHL team won the NHRA Funny Car championship despite not winning a race until the Countdown.

While J.R. Todd has already taken home the Wally twice this season, he enters the Countdown to the Championship eighth in the points, giving he and the DHL team a lot of work to do if it wants to take home the title.

“To me it didn’t start off that well, at least not as well as I wanted it to,” recalls Todd, reflecting back on the start of his rookie season in Funny Car. “I was still new to the car, really didn’t know what to expect in the car as far as where I needed to be comfort-wise.”

Fortunately for Todd, as he made more passes he started to become more comfortable behind the wheel of the DHL machine.

“I think it all kind of fell into place there on the Western swing and I feel that we’re definitely going in the right direction on the up at the right time of the year.”

Indeed Todd and his Kalitta Motorsports teammate Alexis DeJoria have now won three out of the last four races in Funny Car. Unfortunately, DeJoria just missed the Countdown having not been able to make all of the races this season.

It hasn’t just been Todd’s comfort level that helped him out during the summer months though, as the 35-year-old Indiana native also credits the warmer weather to his success.

“I feel like if the conditions are right, and when I say right for us I mean hot like it is right now, I feel like we can run with anybody in the category and that gives me confidence as a driver.

“Here in the past few races when it’s cooler out, especially in Friday night qualifying, a couple of the John Force cars and DSR cars just have a performance level that the rest of the field hasn’t caught up to.

“We usually don’t race in those cool conditions that you have in Friday night qualifying, so it played in our hands I think there on Monday at the U.S. Nationals, it was the hottest it had been all weekend and that’s the great equalizer for us and I like it when it’s like that.”

Despite his recent success, Todd doesn’t believe the target is on his back heading into the Countdown.

“I still think everybody is more focused on Ron Capps, Robert Hight and Matt Hagan,” says Todd. “Hight and Hagan, they threw out those big times and big speeds in qualifying, and Capps, he’s the points leader, he’s the reigning champion, so he’s the one with the target on his back for sure.

“We just prefer they not talk about us, and we go out and win and hold that trophy in Pomona, and then they will talk about us.”