RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 6, 2007 -- Two solid, 4.5-second elapsed times by the SKULL Shine Top Fuel team enabled J.R. Todd to claim into the fifth starting position for Sunday's Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.  Todd's best, 4.577 seconds at 311.49 mph, came in Saturday's first session.

 

"The car is running like it should," said Todd.  "The car is back together and now I have to get my act together, too.  We can make up ground on the cars ahead of us Sunday.  We are on the good side of the ladder."

 

Todd opened qualifying Friday with a 4.592-second run.  He is 70 points behind fifth-place Bob Vandergriff in Countdown standings going into eliminations.  "We are here to do battle for fifth place," added Todd, "and we want to win our sponsor Evan Knoll's race, too.  Eliminations could be tricky because the weather is supposed to be hot Sunday."

 

Cory McClenathan (12th, 4.629 seconds) is his first-round foe.