This was quite the emotional day that Top Fuel driver/owner T.J. Zizzo will likely never forget.
Zizzo, racing at his hometown track – Route 66 Raceway outside Chicago — captured the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot Friday at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by Peak Performance.
Zizzo had the quickest elapsed times in Q1 and Q2 and the second one – a 3.735-second elapsed time at 331.77 mph in his Rust-Oleum sponsored dragster — kept him in the No. 1 spot.
“What a sigh of relief,” Zizzo said when asked about his runs. “There was a lot of pent-up energy coming here. There are nights that I wake up with doubts, and there are nights in which I wake up with strengths, knowing that we can do this at a high level, and everywhere in between. This morning a fan was asking me if I was excited, and I told him, ‘I will let you know in a couple of hours after we run the car.’”
Zizzo, who had not raced since Oct. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas, rolled out of the hauler and clocked a 3.763-second elapsed time at 329.58 mph. He acknowledged feeling something special Friday.
“I will tell you, it felt like Don (Schumacher) was riding with me today, Schumacher was out there,” Zizzo said. “As the chutes came out, that was the first thought in my head. It was fantastic. Not being in the car for seven months or so you don’t know whether it was a great run or a fantastic run over a sh*tty run, I mean you know what a sh*tty run feels like. The first pass I was like, ‘Should I shut this thing off? It sounds like it is screaming at me,’ and it went right through there, and I clicked it off to a good run.
“To have all our core guys who have worked on this race car for decades now, this is good for them and a good morale boost for sure.”
Zizzo lives in Lincolnshire, Ill., 45 minutes from the track.
Schumacher was remembered Friday at the track.
Before qualifying for the NHRA Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 Nationals, racers and fans gathered at the dragstrip for a final salute to the late 2019 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee and Chicago native who lost his battle with cancer Dec. 20, 2023, in Florida.
As the head of DSR –- Don Schumacher Racing –- Schumacher won 19 world championships. Don was a legend in the sport of drag racing, and among the many things for which he was known was a penchant for giving career-boosting opportunities to racers — including Zizzo.
On Saturday, Zizzo is hopeful he will stay No. 1, which would be a first for him. Zizzo made his Top Fuel debut in September 2003.
“It is supposed to be warmer (Saturday),” Zizzo said. “But there are still really good cars that could run low 70s even in those conditions. We have the confidence to continue doing what we are doing. We knew our old car and we knew the potential of it, and we are still learning this new car. I really feel in my gut that’s no reason why we can’t leave this place as the No. 1 qualifier.”
Zizzo’s friendship with Schumacher started developing a little less than a decade ago.
“That man, probably around eight years ago, he asked ‘How can I help you guys out?’” Zizzo said. “I told him ‘Don, we got it. Our team does this, and we love it, and we don’t need help or assistance. We are doing it the way we want to do it,’ and I think that got the utmost respect from him because I’m sure there are plenty of people who would jump all over that. I said, ‘Nope, Don, we have this, we are going to do it our way.”
That mindset changed after the St. Louis race in 2021.
“He called me after that race and he goes, ‘I don’t care what you say T.J., I’m helping you out,’” Zizzo said. “He wanted to see us win. He allowed us to make these moves and do this, and without him I would still be driving a 1999 McKinney car, no doubt in my mind. That’s why this is very emotional for me. When I was going through the finish line, before this thing was even slowing there was a tear in my eye because of that, no doubt.
“It makes this all worthwhile. It is fun and enjoyable. The last time Don was smiling ear-to-ear was last year here (in Chicago)when we went out and ran a career-best (elapsed time) with his car. He was in our pit area extensively all weekend long.”
Zizzo took a moment to talk about what a No. 1 qualifier and a first national event win would mean to him if he could make those things happen this weekend. Zizzo’s career-best race was a runner-up finish to Justin Ashley during Indy 2 during the COVID-19 abbreviated season.
“All of our volunteer team members for the past like 20 years have said the second we win one they are going to quit,” Zizzo said laughing. “God help us. I will have to entice them with more pasta on Tuesdays and Sundays at the (Zizzo Auto Body Shop).”
As Zizzo told CompetitionPlus.com that, crew members in the background were yelling ‘No more pasta!’
“That’s great,” Zizzo said.
