T.J. Zizzo closed out his 2025 NHRA campaign Sunday in St. Louis with a red-light start that he didn’t even realize until Steve Torrence told him after the run. For the part-time Top Fuel driver, the disappointment capped a short schedule that produced no round wins but plenty of perspective on what constitutes a good season.
Zizzo admitted he was stunned when he discovered he had jumped the start against Torrence in the opening round of eliminations. He said he never saw the light, and his radio calls to his team for confirmation went unanswered.
“I am still in shock, Joe,” Zizzo told NHRA’s Joe Castello. “I didn’t go up there. I didn’t want to be a hero. Sure, I put it in deep, I understand that, but I had no idea I red-lighted, none.”
The veteran driver explained he only realized something was wrong when he pulled off the track and noticed he wasn’t parked in the lane normally used for the winner. Torrence confirmed what his own team hadn’t communicated.
“I go, ‘Steve, did I red-light?’ He goes, ‘Yeah man, you red-lit.’ I’m like, ‘Holy smokes,’” Zizzo said. “I had no idea.”
The mistake traced back to advice Zizzo had been following since losing on a holeshot at Norwalk several years earlier. Team consultant Rahn Tobler had suggested staging deeper during first-round eliminations, a tactic Zizzo said had served him until Sunday.
“Tobler’s like, ‘Hey, go in deeper during E1.’ So that’s what I’ve been doing,” Zizzo said. “Basically, I went in too deep and I red-lit. But I had 100 lights all weekend long. I don’t even know how to red-light. To do that was just astonishing.”
The frustration compounded what has been a recurring theme for Zizzo’s Rust-Oleum team in recent years: first-round exits in almost every possible fashion. He said the manner of Sunday’s defeat was just the latest example.
“We have lost first round, I think every which way you can in the past four or five years,” Zizzo said. “And the way we lost today just adds to the list.”
While fans and competitors often define success by wins and round victories, Zizzo has long operated under a different standard. His part-time schedule makes championship aspirations unrealistic, so his team’s focus shifts to safety and progress.
“When you run limited like this but you have a lot of good equipment, you just want to return everything at the end of the season into the shop in the same condition you got it,” Zizzo said. “So being safe and having everyone happy is a good season for us, truly.”
The Chicago-area driver said that while win lights bring joy, they are not the sole barometer of accomplishment. He emphasized that the volunteer nature of his crew makes safety and teamwork paramount.
“Win lights bring us happiness,” Zizzo said. “But at the end of the day, when you’re all volunteer and you have all these guys pouring a heart and soul into this deal, it’s going home safely.”
Zizzo admitted the limited number of races leaves little margin to improve. With only three or four events on the calendar each year, opportunities to test, adapt, and find consistency are scarce.
“When you only go to a season of Zizzo, a season of Zizzo is two or three, four races,” Zizzo said. “What would make that better is going to more events. We need to go to more events to have a better chance of winning.”
Looking ahead to 2026, Zizzo said his team will continue to refine its approach and build inventory in preparation for a larger schedule. Even without a victory this season, he said progress is measured in more than win-loss records.
“We’re always improving, we always talk about it,” Zizzo said. “We go to the next race better than the race before. We have better parts, we have better everything. We have inventory, all these things. We have people, all of us get better.”
He acknowledged that drag racing is as unforgiving as it is demanding, especially for part-time entrants. The combination of high costs, physical intensity, and competitive parity makes winning rare even for full-time teams.
“This sport is so doggone hard,” Zizzo said. “It’s hard. I mean, we used to say going to the racetrack was fun. It’s work. This is work. It’s a lot of work for everyone.”
The definition of fun for Zizzo and his crew, however, remains unchanged. Turning on a win light is the ultimate reward, even if it remains elusive.
“Fun to us is turning on win lights,” Zizzo said. “And if you break it down, we haven’t had any fun this year, right? Because we’re not winning. We haven’t won a round, but we’ve only gone to two events.”
Despite the challenges, Zizzo said his team continues to find meaning in their efforts. The foundation built in 2025, he added, sets the stage for better opportunities in 2026.
“For this season, like I said, putting this thing a home and away safe and working towards our next year would be all I could ask for,” Zizzo said. “A win is a win, right? Everyone here is here to win. Everyone in this pit area, not just our pit area, everyone, but we really want to make sure that we’re doing it well.”
And, for Zizzo, he’ll get all the confirmation he needs in the shutdown, without confirmation from another driver.
