Back-to-back wins.

The list of drivers who have accomplished that feat at the U.S. Nationals is short, but impressive. Among them are names such as Don Prudhomme, Don Garlits and Ed McCulloch.

And now, J.R. Todd.

Todd earned his second-straight victory at the world’s biggest drag race on Monday, defeating Matt Hagan in the finals at the 64th annual Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway, further etching his name into the history books at the race known to many simply as the “Big Go.”

“This is a dream come true. You don’t know if you are ever going to win Indy, let alone go back-to-back. And, for whatever reason, this year has just felt different,” said Todd, who earned his 14th career win and fifth behind the wheel of a Funny Car. “It has just felt like we had a car that could come in here and win. Last year the confidence wasn’t there like it is this year. We tested really well here last week and that definitely carried over to this race. We came out of the gate swinging Friday night and then made some really good runs in the heat throughout the weekend which gave us good notes and data for today.”

Todd dominated the weekend from start to finish, earning his first-career Funny Car No. 1 qualifier on Friday and following that up with top-five runs in each successive qualifying round.

On Monday, Todd marched through a tough field before meeting up with Hagan in a matchup of the two most recent U.S. Nationals victors in Funny Car. On an extremely slick track that had proven tricky for both nitro classes throughout the weekend, Todd got the jump and held that lead throughout in earning back-to-back wins at Indy for the first time since Mike Neff in 2011 and 2012.

Todd crossed the stripe with a 4.062-second pass at 311.70 mph in the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car to earn his third win of the year while at the same time moving into the top five in the Countdown to the Championship standings with six races remaining. Hagan, in attempting to earn his second U.S. Nationals win, came up short with a 4.141 at 300.60 mph.

“We had a way better car this year than last year. We made some big runs throughout qualifying and had a car that was right there with the top contenders in the class,” Todd said. “Now we feel like we can run with those guys where, a month or so ago, we weren’t so sure. These Funny Cars, even on a super glued track, are a huge challenge. You throw in the track prep deal and they are a handful. There are times you cross the finish line completely sideways. We are talking about inches keeping that thing in the groove and if you get half a tire out one way or the other it is going to smoke the tires.

“We were fortunate enough today to keep that thing stuck down the middle. We had it dogged up a little bit, but in my mind we still went out there and threw down compared to the other guys. Hopefully that is a good sign of things to come for us going into the Countdown.”

With temperatures hovering in the high 80s and low 90s and a track that rarely dipped below triple digits, the event quickly turned into a driver’s race as many of the competitors were forced to get up on the wheel and work the throttle to advance.

Only a handful of drivers made good, clean runs throughout the day, with Todd being one of them. Todd had passes of 4.045, 4.160 and 3.996 in the rounds leading up to the final, eliminating Tommy Johnson Jr., Robert Hight and Jim Campbell along the way.

Hight and Johnson proved the toughest outs for Todd, as Hight hammered the tree, but went up in smoke just one run after making the quickest pass of the day - a 3.985 - in round one. In the semifinal both Todd and Johnson made full pulls - one of the few side-by-side runs under power on Monday - with Todd taking the win in a back-and-forth affair with a 4.045 to a 4.130.

Hagan eliminated Shawn Langdon, Courtney Force and Jonnie Lindberg in reaching his sixth final of the season.

“I don’t think we had a dominant car, but we were good,” Todd said. “TJ made some really good runs in the heat. Courtney made some good runs and in the back of my mind I knew there were other teams that could go out there and outrun us,” Todd said. “Robert Hight went out there and ran a 98 first round and I fully expected that to be a bigtime matchup second round, but the track really seemed to go away for everyone that round. I blew the tires off and was fully expecting him to drive by me any second and I look up and my win light is on. It surprised me.

“Then against TJ, those guys ran really well in testing and that team is turning a corner and you can never count out Matt Hagan and Dickie (Venables). They have won championships and this race before. I didn’t know what to think in the final round and when I saw the win light come on, I was like, ‘you have to be kidding me.’”

With the tuning prowess of Jon Oberhofer and Todd Smith, Todd put together a weekend to remember in earning a statement win, especially after the team struggled through much of the summer months.

“I am so happy to get this win. The Funny Car division is so tough to win. We came out really strong in the spring and really fell off in the summer and, before this race, we made some really big changes,” Todd said. “We are going back to the old ways of running the DHL Camry and it really has my confidence up as a driver. I was in a bad mood for like two months. We weren’t doing that well and I was snapping at the guys. My mood just wasn’t where it should have been.

“Then we come out here and perform the way we did. I don’t think I have been this happy throughout an entire weekend at a national event. I felt from day one we could come out here and win and here we are.”

With the win, Todd climbs from sixth up into the top five in the Countdown to the Championship, a personal goal he had set for himself entering the season. Courtney Force locked up the top seed in the Countdown, while Todd’s teammate Langdon and Tim Wilkerson locked up the final spots in the Countdown on Monday.

“Last year we started off eighth in the Countdown and this year I wanted to be in the top five,” Todd said. “We didn’t want to start off in a big hole like we were in last year and now we feel like we have a better shot going for a championship. Now we have to go out there and be smart and turn on as many win lights as we can on race day over the next three months and see what happens.”