{"id":13582,"date":"2017-05-03T16:20:09","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T20:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drivesrt.com\/news\/?p=13582"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:25:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:25:38","slug":"mopardodge-notes-quotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2017\/05\/mopardodge-notes-quotes.html","title":{"rendered":"Mopar\u00ae<\/sub>\/Dodge Notes & Quotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 1, 2017 (Concord, N.C.)<\/strong> \u2013 Here is a summary of the 2017 NHRA Four-Wide Nationals held this weekend, featuring comments from Mopar-sponsored drivers and officials. Mopar and Dodge celebrated another Funny Car win, the fifth win this year.
\n
\nPietro Gorlier, Head of Parts and Service (Mopar) FCA – Global<\/strong>
\n\u201cCongratulations to Ron Capps on winning the Four-Wide Nationals in his Dodge Challenger R\/T. The 2017 season has been an amazing one thus far for the Mopar brand. Seeing Mopar HEMI power in the winner\u2019s circle never gets old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ron Capps, NAPA Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car
\n(No. 6 Qualifier – 3.904 seconds at 324.12 mph)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a fun event, it changes everything. Your mentality, the way you approach the track, the way you approach each round. There\u2019s not very many times you see that many drivers pop out of their car at the other end of the track and they all are smiling, win or lose. It\u2019s just an exciting race. It\u2019s a great facility; I can\u2019t tell you how many people fly in from all over the world and pick this one race to fly to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so fun to be up there listening to what the team\u2019s approach is round to round. I try just to rise to the occasion and not be the weak link.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leah Pritchett, Papa John\u2019s Pizza\/Mopar Pennzoil Top Fuel Dragster
\n(No. 9 Qualifier – 3.770 seconds at 322.73 mph. Lost in the final round to Steve Torrence)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of my guys that give me the fastest, most consistent car. I\u2019m for sure disappointed in myself, I about jumped the gun there, knowing that in the final round everyone turns it up a notch. I knew instantly that there was no chance that we were winning in that run. Once I got to like 50-foot I could see Steve out front. So congratulations to them. Going to Atlanta, it\u2019s going to be muggy; it\u2019s going to be hot. We\u2019ve got a cold tune-up; we\u2019ve got a hot tune-up, so it feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Hagan, Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car
\n(No. 4 Qualifier – 3.898 seconds at 31.28 mph. Lost in the final round)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it was a crazy deal. You take this race and you kind of throw it up in the air and see where it lands. But all in all, we went some rounds, just kind of trying to wing it through there. We made some changes in the bellhousing and are still trying to get this deal back under our feet with the heat. Obviously, we know how to run really good in the cool, but we\u2019re still figuring the heat out. We\u2019ve got a lot more hot races coming up so we\u2019re going to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car
\n(No. 10 Qualifier – 3.970 seconds at 323.12 mph. Lost in the final round, finished runner-up)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s one less round here at Charlotte but we were in the final round and we\u2019ll go down in the history books as a runner-up. You know what, we dug ourselves a hole in qualifying; we only made it down track one run. Nobody hung their heads. (We) had a little bit of luck first round when it dropped a cylinder but the guys went and looked at data, they plugged away at it. And here we are with the runner-up. So listen, we got a lot of points. The big deal right now for us, let\u2019s get back near the top of the point standings, let\u2019s get ourselves a couple of trophies and we\u2019ll go fight it out in the Countdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy Johnson Jr., Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car
\n(No. 7 Qualifier – 3.922 seconds at 319.52 mph. Lost in round one)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing we expected was to go out there and shake (the tires) first round. We felt pretty confident going into race day. We had a really consistent car, so that was the last thing on our mind that was going to happen. It\u2019s just unfortunate in the Four-Wide to come up short because two (cars) go on. I pedaled it and tried to catch them, but we\u2019ll just try to figure out what\u2019s wrong with the car. We\u2019re going to test tomorrow and that way we\u2019re ready for Atlanta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Schumacher, U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster
\n(No. 6 Qualifier – 3.740 seconds at 323.81 mph. Lost in the final round, finished runner-up)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an incredible event, and at the end of the day, you have to be a machine. I couldn\u2019t be prouder of the U.S. Army team led by (crew chief) Mike Green, (assistant crew chief) Phil Shuler. They worked hard all weekend to give us a chance and that\u2019s what we had today. This Four-Wide race is just a different way to do the same thing we do every weekend. You have to block out all the other stuff and just hit the throttle and you do your job. We all wanted to win this thing, but it didn\u2019t work out. We have a great team that is learning every weekend and continuing to make progress. So now, it\u2019s about heading to Atlanta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mopar\/Dodge NHRA Sportsman Spotlight<\/strong>
\nMopar-powered cars also turned in several strong efforts in the Sportsman ranks during the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. Jack Zimmerman of Clemmons, North Carolina, advanced to the fourth round of Stock Eliminator driving his B\/SA \u201971 Dodge Challenger R\/T, where he was defeated by just four inches after running a 10.52-second elapsed time at 123.38 mph on a 10.50 dial-in. His reaction time was 0.066 seconds. Zimmerman\u2019s Challenger R\/T has a 440 Six Pack V8 under the hood featuring numerous Mopar performance parts.<\/p>\n

In the Super Stock class, Ed Longhany Sr. of Wade, North Carolina, drove his SS\/KA \u201974 Plymouth Duster 360 to the fourth round, where he turned in a pass of 10.513 seconds at 120.89 mph, breaking out by a mere .007 after a .038-second reaction time.
\nZimmerman and Longhany earned the Dodge Top Finisher award for their efforts. The program awards $500 to the top-finishing Dodge or Plymouth vehicle competing in Stock and Super Stock at each of this year\u2019s 24 NHRA national events.<\/p>\n