Kalitta Motorsports team owner Connie Kalitta caused quite a bit of commotion in the drag racing community on Saturday when he and his team announced that, in the midst of qualifying at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, popular driver David Grubnic was being replaced by journeyman driver J.R. Todd for the remainder of the event, with the future of the team, at least regarding who would be the driver, up in the air.

No reason was given for the sudden and shocking driver switch, and the team still isn’t speaking on the matter, but they did make their plans known today, officially, by revealing Todd as the new primary driver of the OPTIMA Batteries-sponsored, Kalitta Motorsports-owned dragster

The 32-year old from Lawrenceburg, Ind. hopped in the seat of the special-edition “Bounty Hunter” dragster in Las Vegas and proceeded to qualify the car No. 11 in the Top Fuel field and advanced to the quarterfinals with an opening round rout of Richie Crampton. He came up just a few ticks short of a semifinal berth, losing to Steve Torrence in round two on a holeshot. but now, as the newly-named full-time driver, he’ll get a chance to help put the Connie Kalitta-tuned ‘digger’ into victory lane.

Todd, who has driven at select national events for Bob Vanedergriff Racing, has accumulate six professionals wins in eight final round appearances. In 2006, the former Jr. Drag Racing League graduate became the first African-American driver to win an NHRA Top Fuel race when he won in Denver.

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

“To say I’m excited to be a part of Kalitta Motorsports is a huge understatement,” Todd, who most recently drove a Top Fueler for Bob Vandergriff Racing in Gainesville, Fla. last month, said. “Driving for Connie Kalitta is a great honor. Connie’s commitment to success is one of the big reasons he’s considered one of the best owners to work for. He’s been drag racing for over 50 years so I’m sure I will learn a lot from him, and hopefully drive his car to a lot of winner’s circles for Optima Batteries.”

The 51-year old Grubnic, a 19-year Top Fuel veteran and a native of Australia who now calls Bozeman, Mont. home, will remain with the team as a technical consultant.

“We knew we were eventually going to move Grubnic into a more technical role,” Jim Oberhofer, vice president of operations for Kalitta Motorsports, said. “It just so happened that the timing was right for Connie and the team to do that now. We are very confident that J.R. will represent our team, Optima Batteries, and all of our sponsors to the utmost of his ability. We’re extremely excited to see what he can do driving for Kalitta Motorsports.”

OPTIMA Batteries will continue as the primary sponsor of the J.R. Todd-driven dragster at 19 of the 20 renaming NHRA Mello Yello Series national events.