Tuesday Top Fuel Rumor - JR Todd out, Shawn Langdon IN at Lucas Oil Racing.

The Agent's phone lines were on fire on Monday at the DRO World Headquarters as calls poured in regarding a rumored team meeting held over the holidays at Morgan Lucas Racing concerning the disposition of the second Lucas-sponsored Top Fueler. Reportedly the team was given a briefing about the possibility of parking the JR Todd team for 2009 or that a partial NHRA Full Throttle event schedule might be run depending on sponsor negotiations reportedly still on-going and funding was uncertain.

Then, a couple of the Agent’s reliable Indy operatives called to report that Morgan Lucas Racing had released JR Todd giving him two weeks notice which was confirmed by members of other teams who were contacted by Todd.

Later Monday evening, two more of the Agent’s operatives reported that multi-time NHRA winner Todd was being replaced by two-time (’07 & ’08) NHRA Super Comp Champion Shawn Langdon to run a limited NHRA schedule. Langdon, who competed at 25 national and divisional events and a number of high-dollar bracket events in ’08, at one point compiled a perfect 17-0 round victory record carrying Lucas Oil sponsorship on his Super Comp dragster. He’ll need to complete the Top Fuel licensing procedure before testing and competition.

JR Todd finished eleventh in the 2008 Countdown, one slot ahead of teammate Morgan Lucas providing the only team win of the NHRA season at Dallas. As of press time, there has been no official confirmation from Morgan Lucas Racing.

"Nitro Nick" Boninfante Announces Formation Of Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car Promotions

Over 35 years ago "Nitro Nick" Boninfante created the Fuel Funny Car Promotions Circuit, an organization that booked match races and Funny Car shows for drag strips all across the country.

Fast forward to 2009 and with the rapidly increasing interest from both fans and track operators in the Nostalgia Funny Cars, Boninfante will do it again as he's created a new venture, Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car Promotions (NNFCP), to promote and book match races for the dozens of nostalgia Funny Cars that are available.

Presently NNFCP has races scheduled at many tracks for 2009 including Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., Maple Grove Dragway near Reading, Pa., Atco Dragway in Atco, N.J., Virginia Motorsports Park near Richmond, Virginia and Cecil County Dragway in Maryland. He's also received inquiries from many other drag strips across the country who want to have true nitro Funny Cars run at their tracks.

Cars racing in the NNFCP include Nick's own U.S. Male Mustang which has run a best of 5.89 seconds at 246 mph, his new "Jungle Jim" tribute car, Jake Crimmins' "Crazzzzy Jake" Mustang, Steve Nichols driving the "Mill Road Boys" Camaro and many others.

All the NNFCP cars are guaranteed performers and run in the 5.8 to 6.2 second range and perform super-smokey burnouts and the popular "Dry-Hops" just like these cars did in the 70s.

IHRA Has some good news for a change, Elite Motorsports sponsoring Pro Stock Class

Elite Motorsports owner Richard Freeman who will as a team owner will have a three-car IHRA Pro Stock team for the 2009 season announced today that Elite Motorsports ( a transporter/motorcoach sales compnay with many IHRA customers) has entered into an agreement with the IHRA to beclass sponsor for Pro Stock at all 2009 Nitro Jam national events. The Elite Motorsports Pro Stock class sponsorship will also feature an 8-car Pro Stock "Shootout" contested during qualifying at the President’s Cup Nationals in Budds Creek Sept. 25-27.

“We’ve made this commitment to IHRA Pro Stock because we feel this class deserves this kind of excitement,” Freeman said. “When you look at the guys in this class, guys like John Montecalvo, Pete Berner, Elijah Morton, the Goforths and everyone else, you see a group of really good guys who love this sport. We wanted to make sure this class would be growing and would continue as strong as ever.”

Shootout points will begin to accumulate at the season-opening IHRA Mardi Gras Nationals at State Capitol Raceway in Baton Rouge and will finalize after the North American Nationals in Epping, N.H. The top eight points earners will run off for their share of a $40,000 purse at the President’s Cup Nationals. Points will be earned through final qualifying positions at the first eight Nitro Jam events of the 2009 season.