The Kalitta Motorsports mosh pit was alive and well Monday afternoon.

The team was in the midst of a wild celebration after its driver J.R. Todd captured the title in the nitro Funny Car class at the prestigious U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway.

Todd, who pilots the DHL Toyota Camry, edged reigning world champion Ron Capps in the finals. Todd clocked a 3.923-second time at 325.61 mph to defeat Capps’ 3.949-second lap at 325.53 mph.

“You win Indy, you know you have beaten the best in the sport and Ron Capps and those guys right now, they are the best in the sport,” Todd said.

The U.S. Nationals victory was extra special for Todd since he grew up in Lawrenceburg, Ind., just five minutes from the track.

“This is where it all started for me,” Todd said. “I grew up racing here when the Junior Drag Racing League got started. We got a Junior Dragster at the end of 1992 and 1993 was my first season. We would pit right behind the Top Eliminator stands and I grew up racing here weekly. To come here as a kid and watch these guys, I remember watching Capps as a kid and now I’m against him in the final round of Indy, it is too surreal.

Todd’s victory parade was comprised of wins over Brian Stewart, Cruz Pedregon, Tim Wilkerson and Capps.

This is Todd’s first Indy title and this is his second career nitro Funny Car win – his other one came at Sonoma, Calif. (July 30). Todd, who moved to the seat of a nitro Funny Car for the first time in his career this season, has nine national event wins in Top Fuel.

Todd is the third Kalitta Motorsports driver to win the U.S. Nationals. Connie Kalitta won the Top Fuel crown in 1994 and Alexis DeJoria was the Funny Car champ in 2014. The Toyota Camrys have won three of last four national events – Sonoma, Brainerd (DeJoria) and Indy.

“It’s awesome (to win for Kalitta Motorsports),” Todd said. “Connie tried so hard to win this race for years and years and years and he finally got it done. When Alexis won, that was my first year as part of the Kalitta group and that was a huge win for them. Everybody gets so tensed up for this race, it is like walking on egg shells in the entire pit area. You try and treat it like any other race, and it is not any other race. When it comes to race day, you have to be on your game on the starting line. I don’t know where some of those reaction times came from today, but we definitely had some luck on our side.”

Todd acknowledged the catalyst for his victory came last week.

“What helped us the most is the test session here (at Indy) last week,” Todd said. “We tried some things and we ran really well on the evening run Thursday and that helped produce that 3.86 in qualifying (Friday night) and that was huge for us because that got us in the top of qualifying, which is where we have been struggling all year is getting bad draws first round. I’m not saying there’s easy draws in Funny Car because there’s not by any means. It helped us get up there in the top half and get lane choice and kickstart our weekend.”

Todd heads into the six-race Countdown to the Championship eighth in the points standings. The Countdown begins Sept. 15-17 in Charlotte, N.C.

“We definitely have a shot in the Countdown,” Todd said. “These guys (Kalitta Motorsports) showed in 2015 that you just have to get hot at the right time. If we get on a tear like they did in 2015, I feel like we can beat these guys out here. I knew it was going to be hot (Monday) and I was excited about it and I thought it would play into our hands because you can’t throw out those 3.79s and 3.80s in conditions like this. If the Countdown is like this the rest of the year and I hope it is, I really think we can run with these guys.”

In 2015, Del Worsham won NHRA’s nitro Funny Car class driving for Kalitta Motorsports.