JR Todd's a little lighter in the wallet today. But the second-year Top Fuel driver doesn't seem to mind, not after scoring the fourth win of his young career with a victory in the 47th CARQUEST Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. "I had a deal with (crew chief Jimmy Walsh) that every time we ran a 4.50, I would pay him a dollar," Todd said. "I told him, if it runs a .40, I pay him a 100 bucks. It was expensive today."

JR Todd's a little lighter in the wallet today. But the second-year Top Fuel driver doesn't seem to mind, not after scoring the fourth win of his young career with a victory in the 47th CARQUEST Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. "I had a deal with (crew chief Jimmy Walsh) that every time we ran a 4.50, I would pay him a dollar," Todd said. "I told him, if it runs a .40, I pay him a 100 bucks. It was expensive today."

Todd accomplished the feat in style, running consecutive 4.4-second passes in the final three rounds of eliminations. After a sluggish 4.699 pass in a first-round win over teammate Melanie Troxel, he followed it up with a 4.479 over Doug Kalitta, a 4.473 over David Grubnic, and a 4.482 over Brandon Bernstein in the final. Bernstein smoked the tires early in the run and slowed to a mark of 11.397.

"It's pretty surprising to me," said Todd, whose fourth victory came in just his 20th start. "Jimmy Walsh and crew work really hard and all those long nights paid off today. I'm just lucky enough to drive that thing.

"I never expected for things to happen as suddenly as they have. I just try to take it race by race. Last year was a Cinderella year for us. It wasn't that surprising to us because the more laps I got in the car, the more comfortable I got and the more Jimmy and the guys were in getting a hold of the tune up. Now, we feel we're for real and we can contend for the championship. But we'll take it race by race and see what happens."