Finally, a Ride for JR Todd & Larry Dixon

 Bob Vandergriff, Jr. has done anything but stand still this off season.

Vandergriff, who won his first career NHRA Top Fuel national event last season, has been feverishly working to expand his Top Fuel team to a three-car operation with J.R. Todd and Larry Dixon as his other drivers.

"J.R. is a very good friend of mine and Larry Dixon and I have been very good friends, we kind of started our careers about the same time and we have known each other for a long time," Vandergriff said. "What we want to do is build a team that is capable of competing with the DSRs (Don Schumacher Racing) and the Alan Johnsons (Al-Anabi Racing) and to do that you have to have the right people in place as well as the funding."

Vandergriff felt especially fortunate that Todd and Dixon were looking for rides.

"For me, I think it is a blessing to have those two guys (Todd, Dixon) available out there to help market and to go to sponsors with," Vandergriff said. "With Larry Dixon, you have a three-time world champion and a guy who has won 60-something national events. That is a pretty impressive resume to present to potential companies that might want to get involved. For us, it just gives credibility to our program to have somebody like that involved with it. As far as J.R. Todd, he gives us another marketing angle. He gives us a younger demographic and he gives us a diversity angle that we can push to potential companies to get them involved in our sport. Best of all between those two guys, they are just both really good people. I think you have to have that to make it all work."

According to Vandergriff, Todd is for sure going to race at Houston (April 27-29), Atlanta (May 4-6) and Topeka, Kan. (May 18-20) for Vandergriff Motorsports. The NHRA season begins Thursday through Sunday at the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. "We are working on expanding that into the 10 or 12 race scenario," Vandergriff said. 

"We have talked to a lot of companies and we are still knocking on doors. We are just waiting on some of these people to make commitments on behalf of that to make that happen. Things kind of got started late with Larry and that is the downside of where we are at right now because our season is getting ready to start and putting together something for 2012 is a longshot, but you never know. There may be something we can get started for some races, partial schedules, something to build towards may be getting somebody involved full time in 2013, and that is what we are using the season for, for him."

In Vandergriff's ideal world, he, Todd and Dixon would form a team at Vandergriff Motorsports and all three drivers would be competing in full seasons in 2013.

"That's obviously the goal, that is what we are trying to build towards," Vandergriff said. 

"That gives us the resources and the information and the people to compete against those other super teams. We saw the advantage last year of having a second car from an information standpoint. The amount of runs you get to make down a race track doubles, which is always nice, and it is just a huge help as far as learning and advancing your program."