The plan for T.J. Zizzo for the 2018 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season was to compete in one event in Chicago, May 31-June 3.

That changed as the result of Zizzo running so well at his hometown event. He qualified No. 5 with a stout 3.771-second time at 326.48 mph lap, but he was upset in the first round by Scott Palmer.

Zizzo clocked a 3.807-second lap but was ousted by Palmer’s 3.781-second lap.

“Chicago was going to be our only event,” Zizzo said. “We qualified so well there and really had a top four car every single run down the race track, even including first round, but Scott Palmer stepped up and kicked our butt even though we ran well. I went back and asked all our team members individually if they wanted to go to another race. They asked what I was thinking, and I said Brainerd (Minn.), and they said how about Indianapolis? It cost extra money to go to that event because you have a lot of things going on. It’s a big event and a challenge and they all wanted to go to Indy.”

And, Zizzo’s team will be at the Big Go at Lucas Oil Raceway Aug. 30-Sept. 3.

“It was my job to find money to be able to go to Indy and every single one of our marketing partners stepped up and said, ‘yep you guys are running too good to set idle.’ We never really stopped after Chicago, we have been working ever since. Now, we are definitely in better shape than any event we have ever gone to. We keep on building inventory and building up and it has absolutely been wonderful. I’m so excited to go to Indy and if you’re going to put a win on a resume, it better be this one.

“The past four years we have been accumulating parts and making the right choices and not going to extra events and getting paid well at the events we are going to, and that builds inventory. That’s the reason we have been able to come out swinging for the past three or four years, and now I see with the track prep being the way it is, really, we have even a better chance now. Things are really falling into place. This is a good situation for us and we might as well pounce on when we can.”

Zizzo’s knows the Q1 at Indy Aug. 31 is going to set the tone for his team.

“It is the most important,” Zizzo said of Q1. “Not that it is going to set the field, I don’t want to say that, but that will put in a good position for the rest of the weekend. It’s vital we go out there and run a 3.782, that’s we have to do off the trailer, and if we miss it, we will keep on swinging.”