May 27, 2025 • 11 mins
You know it's a good time when you're scheduled to talk for 5 minutes and you go darn near 20 ... Have a listen and THEN go see the man rip it up in Epping N.H. this weekend at the New England Nationals
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, Hey, good morning. This
is JR. Todd.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
See I always tell people, I say, listen, man. A
lot of people will call late, but not race card
drivers because it's all about time. Best time wins, that's right,
So listen. First of all, thanks for taking the time.
I appreciate it, got no problem. And secondly, I was
just creeping on your Instagram and I see that you
just set a course record at a race. Three hundred
(00:27):
and thirty six miles per hour.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, three thirty six. We set the track record. I
would definitely trade that track record for winning the race,
but it's definitely cool to set top speed at the event,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Dude, I can't even imagine, I mean, what that is like.
I mean, obviously it's said and done in about four
seconds flat. But do you ever get used to it? Like, oh, yeah,
I know, didn't work.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It's definitely not boring. I mean, if it gets boring,
then you need to go find something else to do.
But but yeah, I mean it's been it's been a
while I'd been anywhere near that fast. I mean, you
go three hundred plus pretty much every run down the track.
But uh, when it's going uh over three hundred and thirty.
It's definitely an extra kick in the ass for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So what honestly, I mean, like you're let's say, you know,
you're you're doing a weekend in Amarillo, Texas or something,
and you're in your rental camera sitting in traffic. Do
you go, are you shitting me? Do you know what
idea is it? Or is it just kind of nice
to go? You know what's nice? I had to have
to go down the track so fast I can't feel
my legs now.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I tell you when I'm home on an off weekend
or I'm getting home from a race. I live in
South Florida now, so off of my my tundra and
I'm going down and you know, I ninety five. I
definitely get impatient with people that are hanging out in
the left lane doing about sixty five seventy when everybody
else is doing like eighty or ninety, you know, in
(01:53):
the other lane. So that that's where I get impatient.
But uh, I definitely know that I can't be going
three hundred plus miles an hour down the interstate.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I would have a picture of me standing beside that
DHL car here is going you know what You're lucky.
I don't have my work car.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Sometimes I wish I did. Man, I definitely get impatient
when I'm driving out there on the highway, for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's funny because I was sitting here reading up on you,
and I thought you were in Illinois this weekend, and
I know that you grew up in Indiana. So I
calculated that what normally would be a four and a
half hour drive, if you were to have left from
Route sixty six speedway and driven to your hometown, a
four and a half hour drive would have taken fifty
(02:36):
three minutes at your top speed.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Man, you're all over this. I never would have figured
that out. But yeah, that's about like taking a private
jet or something like that from Lawrenceburg to Julia. That's
pretty pretty haressing stat there.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
My partner was talking about jets. I said, you know what,
they're a little bit faster, but you're I mean you're
in the range. You know, you aren't breaking supersonic, but
I mean they're about what about five hundred I think
maybe I mean three twenty six. Ain't nothing to laugh at, man.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Now, not at all. Yeah, I mean what people don't understand, like,
you know, you see a car on TV it's going
three point eight seconds three hundred and thirty six miles
and they're like, yeah, that looks fast, but to be
able to feel it and see it and smell it
in person. And the coolest stat that I like, you know,
you're a street car, you know, foy or whatever, it
(03:25):
goes zero to sixty and in two point whatever three seconds. Well,
these things will go zero to three hundred excuse me,
zero to one hundred and eight tenths of a second.
They're the quickest and fast accellering cars in the planet.
So every time you get in it, like it's over,
it's a huge adrine rush. You ask me if it's
a if it ever gets boring, there's never anything boring
(03:48):
about driving that nitro funny car.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, it's just it can't be by. I mean, it's
like saying that you ever tired of getting a billion
dollars to a billionaire. They're like, no, yeah, a billion
dollars is amazing. The same thing with you, man, you
hit that suckering, it's like.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Who yeah, that exactly. I mean, they definitely keep you
on your toes and like you're driving by the seat
of your page and sometimes I mean, you get done
with the run, You're like, what the hell just happening?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
These things?
Speaker 1 (04:13):
They want to go any which way but straight. So
at three hundred and thirty plus miles an hour, like
you're working the steering wheel, you know, quite a bit
to keep that twelve thousand horsepower going in a straight line.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Twelve thousand That just honestly just blows my mind. So
I'm going to guess probably about nineteen, I don't know,
I say eighty five, there might have been a little
four year old on a four wheeler terrorizing Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Was up.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
When did you start first getting the itch?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah, it was it was around that time. I'd say,
I don't know, maybe nineteen eighty two or three. I
probably had my first three wheeler and I was out
there ripping and tearing in the fields and things like that.
And as I got older, you know, got a four wheeler,
got a dirt bike, and I grew up around flat
track motorcycle, racing dirt track motorcycles. That's what my dad did,
(05:05):
and due to injuries that he had, my mom she
was never fond of me riding motorcycles. So by the
time I got ten years old, it was time to
start racing something, and got started racing junior drags ers.
That's right when NHRA came out with the Junior Drag
Racing League, which is a half scale dragster designed for kids.
(05:26):
At that time, it was eight to seventeen years old,
and go hit the track going like, you know, forty
five miles an hour with my Brigs and Stratton, which
didn't take much power at all. And then you know,
as time went on, you get a modified engine, You're
going quicker and faster, and you know, the next thing
you know, you're moving up to the different sportsman classes
(05:47):
and she a time flies by. I mean the week
after I graduated high school, I was in a top
field drags or so. Yeah, it seems like my racing career,
my early days kind of progressed really pretty fast to
get to where I am now.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, I couldn't believe that right out of high school
you get a top fuel license of like, holy crap,
your driver's instructure must have been out of his mind.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, that's it's pretty wild to look back and think about,
for sure. I mean, you don't see too many eighteen
year old kids out there racing these days. But yeah,
back now, I was just a punk kid, thinking, man,
this is a this is awesome. I'm gonna do this
the rest of my life. But there's definitely some bumps
along the road to get there.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I don't know why. I think I just read something
a while back that that I know it's not your
your genre, but like F one, like they've got two
or three kids that are literally like seventeen or I'm like,
that's insane. I mean it's great, but wow, to get
to that level by that age, I mean there must
have been some devoted driving in their past, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, for sure. I mean you see a lot of
young kids in F one now, and I think they
must be putting them in go karts as soon as
they come out of the womb because they're they're good
to be out there hanging with the best in F one.
I mean, I'm not a die hard F one fan,
but I follow it when I can. But I know
that for those young kids to make it to that
(07:13):
level that early in life, I mean, they've been driving
the rass off since they were born.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's funny that you say that because I live in
West Harford, Connecticut, which is you know, kind of your
typical progressive you know, the battery powered scooter for timmy
kind of thing. Oh yeah, and my son, if you
if you swing our garage door open, there's the go
karts sitting there, gas powered.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
There's the fifty c seed dirt bike gas powered and
a very big assortment of BB guns. So he is
he's that kid in the neighborhood brother.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
My kind of family. I love it.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
So tell me, like, when you're coming here to the
nhr A New England Nationals that would be May theorieth
through June first, Is this a big one because I
assume when you say the New England Nationals that's probably
a pretty big race.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, it's to me, I don't know how to explain it. Really,
it's like it's almost like going back in time. It's
a track that's been around forever. It's kind of a
throwback race. And the fans they love it there. I
mean they're die hard drag racing fans. There was a
you know, a time when when NA trade didn't go there.
You know, for years we heard how we need to
(08:22):
go to the New England area and I had actually
raced there back in two thousand. That was the first
place that I went three hundred miles an hour, and
it's cool to see the track from back then to
what it is now. It kind of still has that
nostalgic feel from back when I was there in the
early two thousands. But like I said, the fans love it.
They come out and pack the place. And if the
(08:45):
weather conditions are right, when it's nice and cool, I
mean you can you can really run quick and fast
there because you're you're closer to sea level make a
lot of horsepower. So us drivers we love going quick
and fast, Like I said, going you know, three hundred
and thirty six miles an hour this past weekend in Chicago.
I don't see any reason why we can't get close
to that there and epping on on Friday night qualifying.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I'm just curious. I mean, what's surprise tag on the
car you drive? I mean, I know they cost a
fortune to maintain and operate, but if you if I
was just to go, hey, I'm a multi billionaire and
I want this exact car that Todd's driving, what mind
is to plunk down?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Man? I don't know if you could put a price
tag on just a race ready, turnkey funny car ready
to go. I would say, I don't know, somewhere in
the range half million dollars maybe, but I don't know.
There's just so many different parts and pieces that that
are so valuable and expensive. I mean, I've never sat
down and calculated what what it would be just to
(09:47):
uh to sell it as is. I know, in order
to uh to go race these things for a twenty
race season, I mean, we need several million dollars in
our our team budget to go out there and and
compete at a high level. So you break that down
race by race, run by run, it's almost I'd stay
around ten thousand dollars per run down the track and
(10:09):
that's it. Wow wow, Wow. That's if you don't go
out there and blow the thing up. And they tend
to blow up from time to time.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Dang man, that's gotta be the worst sound of the world.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Go yeah, it sounds expensive. When you hear that that
eerie connecting rod sound, you know, and it breaks or
the worst vibration inside the car, You're like, oh man,
that's that's expensive, right there.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So May thirtieth June, first New England Dragway and beautiful
Epping New Hampshire. It really is a cool area. It's
the twenty twenty five nhr A New England Nationals and
you along with your buddies are going to have some fun,
I guess.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah. Absolutely. It's been a while since we've put that
DHL Twyota gr Super in the winter Circle and I
can't think of a better place to do it than
than Epping New Ham Sure next weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I do love the fact that even though you're you're
running a car that sounds like you got a truck
sitting in your garage at home. That kind of makes
me happy.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah. I've been a truck guy since I got my
driver's license when I was sixteen. But yeah, I had
a toy of Super there for a while and got
a speeding ticket and I don't know, I just like
I like the comfort of sitting in a truck more.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Brother, you are as delightful as I thought you would be.
Thank you for taking the time. And don't be surprised
if you don't see me up there. Well you're not
gonna see me because you go by so fast. But
I'll be up there watching you, all right, man.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Make sure you wave and I'll be sure and talk
the horror.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, roll your window down, see you later. Brother. Was delightful. Man,
I'm glad you didn't take your mom and dad's advice.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Thanks me and I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
See ya,
Good morning, good morning, good morning, Hey, good morning. This
is JR. Todd.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
See I always tell people, I say, listen, man. A
lot of people will call late, but not race card
drivers because it's all about time. Best time wins, that's right,
So listen. First of all, thanks for taking the time.
I appreciate it, got no problem. And secondly, I was
just creeping on your Instagram and I see that you
just set a course record at a race. Three hundred
(00:27):
and thirty six miles per hour.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, three thirty six. We set the track record. I
would definitely trade that track record for winning the race,
but it's definitely cool to set top speed at the event,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Dude, I can't even imagine, I mean, what that is like.
I mean, obviously it's said and done in about four
seconds flat. But do you ever get used to it? Like, oh, yeah,
I know, didn't work.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It's definitely not boring. I mean, if it gets boring,
then you need to go find something else to do.
But but yeah, I mean it's been it's been a
while I'd been anywhere near that fast. I mean, you
go three hundred plus pretty much every run down the track.
But uh, when it's going uh over three hundred and thirty.
It's definitely an extra kick in the ass for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
So what honestly, I mean, like you're let's say, you know,
you're you're doing a weekend in Amarillo, Texas or something,
and you're in your rental camera sitting in traffic. Do
you go, are you shitting me? Do you know what
idea is it? Or is it just kind of nice
to go? You know what's nice? I had to have
to go down the track so fast I can't feel
my legs now.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I tell you when I'm home on an off weekend
or I'm getting home from a race. I live in
South Florida now, so off of my my tundra and
I'm going down and you know, I ninety five. I
definitely get impatient with people that are hanging out in
the left lane doing about sixty five seventy when everybody
else is doing like eighty or ninety, you know, in
(01:53):
the other lane. So that that's where I get impatient.
But uh, I definitely know that I can't be going
three hundred plus miles an hour down the interstate.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I would have a picture of me standing beside that
DHL car here is going you know what You're lucky.
I don't have my work car.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Sometimes I wish I did. Man, I definitely get impatient
when I'm driving out there on the highway, for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's funny because I was sitting here reading up on you,
and I thought you were in Illinois this weekend, and
I know that you grew up in Indiana. So I
calculated that what normally would be a four and a
half hour drive, if you were to have left from
Route sixty six speedway and driven to your hometown, a
four and a half hour drive would have taken fifty
(02:36):
three minutes at your top speed.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Man, you're all over this. I never would have figured
that out. But yeah, that's about like taking a private
jet or something like that from Lawrenceburg to Julia. That's
pretty pretty haressing stat there.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
My partner was talking about jets. I said, you know what,
they're a little bit faster, but you're I mean you're
in the range. You know, you aren't breaking supersonic, but
I mean they're about what about five hundred I think
maybe I mean three twenty six. Ain't nothing to laugh at, man.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Now, not at all. Yeah, I mean what people don't understand, like,
you know, you see a car on TV it's going
three point eight seconds three hundred and thirty six miles
and they're like, yeah, that looks fast, but to be
able to feel it and see it and smell it
in person. And the coolest stat that I like, you know,
you're a street car, you know, foy or whatever, it
(03:25):
goes zero to sixty and in two point whatever three seconds. Well,
these things will go zero to three hundred excuse me,
zero to one hundred and eight tenths of a second.
They're the quickest and fast accellering cars in the planet.
So every time you get in it, like it's over,
it's a huge adrine rush. You ask me if it's
a if it ever gets boring, there's never anything boring
(03:48):
about driving that nitro funny car.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, it's just it can't be by. I mean, it's
like saying that you ever tired of getting a billion
dollars to a billionaire. They're like, no, yeah, a billion
dollars is amazing. The same thing with you, man, you
hit that suckering, it's like.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Who yeah, that exactly. I mean, they definitely keep you
on your toes and like you're driving by the seat
of your page and sometimes I mean, you get done
with the run, You're like, what the hell just happening?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
These things?
Speaker 1 (04:13):
They want to go any which way but straight. So
at three hundred and thirty plus miles an hour, like
you're working the steering wheel, you know, quite a bit
to keep that twelve thousand horsepower going in a straight line.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Twelve thousand That just honestly just blows my mind. So
I'm going to guess probably about nineteen, I don't know,
I say eighty five, there might have been a little
four year old on a four wheeler terrorizing Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Was up.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
When did you start first getting the itch?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah, it was it was around that time. I'd say,
I don't know, maybe nineteen eighty two or three. I
probably had my first three wheeler and I was out
there ripping and tearing in the fields and things like that.
And as I got older, you know, got a four wheeler,
got a dirt bike, and I grew up around flat
track motorcycle, racing dirt track motorcycles. That's what my dad did,
(05:05):
and due to injuries that he had, my mom she
was never fond of me riding motorcycles. So by the
time I got ten years old, it was time to
start racing something, and got started racing junior drags ers.
That's right when NHRA came out with the Junior Drag
Racing League, which is a half scale dragster designed for kids.
(05:26):
At that time, it was eight to seventeen years old,
and go hit the track going like, you know, forty
five miles an hour with my Brigs and Stratton, which
didn't take much power at all. And then you know,
as time went on, you get a modified engine, You're
going quicker and faster, and you know, the next thing
you know, you're moving up to the different sportsman classes
(05:47):
and she a time flies by. I mean the week
after I graduated high school, I was in a top
field drags or so. Yeah, it seems like my racing career,
my early days kind of progressed really pretty fast to
get to where I am now.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, I couldn't believe that right out of high school
you get a top fuel license of like, holy crap,
your driver's instructure must have been out of his mind.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, that's it's pretty wild to look back and think about,
for sure. I mean, you don't see too many eighteen
year old kids out there racing these days. But yeah,
back now, I was just a punk kid, thinking, man,
this is a this is awesome. I'm gonna do this
the rest of my life. But there's definitely some bumps
along the road to get there.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I don't know why. I think I just read something
a while back that that I know it's not your
your genre, but like F one, like they've got two
or three kids that are literally like seventeen or I'm like,
that's insane. I mean it's great, but wow, to get
to that level by that age, I mean there must
have been some devoted driving in their past, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, for sure. I mean you see a lot of
young kids in F one now, and I think they
must be putting them in go karts as soon as
they come out of the womb because they're they're good
to be out there hanging with the best in F one.
I mean, I'm not a die hard F one fan,
but I follow it when I can. But I know
that for those young kids to make it to that
(07:13):
level that early in life, I mean, they've been driving
the rass off since they were born.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's funny that you say that because I live in
West Harford, Connecticut, which is you know, kind of your
typical progressive you know, the battery powered scooter for timmy
kind of thing. Oh yeah, and my son, if you
if you swing our garage door open, there's the go
karts sitting there, gas powered.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
There's the fifty c seed dirt bike gas powered and
a very big assortment of BB guns. So he is
he's that kid in the neighborhood brother.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
My kind of family. I love it.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
So tell me, like, when you're coming here to the
nhr A New England Nationals that would be May theorieth
through June first, Is this a big one because I
assume when you say the New England Nationals that's probably
a pretty big race.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, it's to me, I don't know how to explain it. Really,
it's like it's almost like going back in time. It's
a track that's been around forever. It's kind of a
throwback race. And the fans they love it there. I
mean they're die hard drag racing fans. There was a
you know, a time when when NA trade didn't go there.
You know, for years we heard how we need to
(08:22):
go to the New England area and I had actually
raced there back in two thousand. That was the first
place that I went three hundred miles an hour, and
it's cool to see the track from back then to
what it is now. It kind of still has that
nostalgic feel from back when I was there in the
early two thousands. But like I said, the fans love it.
They come out and pack the place. And if the
(08:45):
weather conditions are right, when it's nice and cool, I
mean you can you can really run quick and fast
there because you're you're closer to sea level make a
lot of horsepower. So us drivers we love going quick
and fast, Like I said, going you know, three hundred
and thirty six miles an hour this past weekend in Chicago.
I don't see any reason why we can't get close
to that there and epping on on Friday night qualifying.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I'm just curious. I mean, what's surprise tag on the
car you drive? I mean, I know they cost a
fortune to maintain and operate, but if you if I
was just to go, hey, I'm a multi billionaire and
I want this exact car that Todd's driving, what mind
is to plunk down?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Man? I don't know if you could put a price
tag on just a race ready, turnkey funny car ready
to go. I would say, I don't know, somewhere in
the range half million dollars maybe, but I don't know.
There's just so many different parts and pieces that that
are so valuable and expensive. I mean, I've never sat
down and calculated what what it would be just to
(09:47):
uh to sell it as is. I know, in order
to uh to go race these things for a twenty
race season, I mean, we need several million dollars in
our our team budget to go out there and and
compete at a high level. So you break that down
race by race, run by run, it's almost I'd stay
around ten thousand dollars per run down the track and
(10:09):
that's it. Wow wow, Wow. That's if you don't go
out there and blow the thing up. And they tend
to blow up from time to time.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Dang man, that's gotta be the worst sound of the world.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Go yeah, it sounds expensive. When you hear that that
eerie connecting rod sound, you know, and it breaks or
the worst vibration inside the car, You're like, oh man,
that's that's expensive, right there.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So May thirtieth June, first New England Dragway and beautiful
Epping New Hampshire. It really is a cool area. It's
the twenty twenty five nhr A New England Nationals and
you along with your buddies are going to have some fun,
I guess.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah. Absolutely. It's been a while since we've put that
DHL Twyota gr Super in the winter Circle and I
can't think of a better place to do it than
than Epping New Ham Sure next weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I do love the fact that even though you're you're
running a car that sounds like you got a truck
sitting in your garage at home. That kind of makes
me happy.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah. I've been a truck guy since I got my
driver's license when I was sixteen. But yeah, I had
a toy of Super there for a while and got
a speeding ticket and I don't know, I just like
I like the comfort of sitting in a truck more.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Brother, you are as delightful as I thought you would be.
Thank you for taking the time. And don't be surprised
if you don't see me up there. Well you're not
gonna see me because you go by so fast. But
I'll be up there watching you, all right, man.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Make sure you wave and I'll be sure and talk
the horror.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, roll your window down, see you later. Brother. Was delightful. Man,
I'm glad you didn't take your mom and dad's advice.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Thanks me and I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
See ya,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.