{"id":13613,"date":"2017-05-09T14:53:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T18:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drivesrt.com\/news\/?p=13613"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:25:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:25:37","slug":"mopardodge-notes-quotes-southern-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2017\/05\/mopardodge-notes-quotes-southern-nationals.html","title":{"rendered":"Mopar\u00ae<\/sub>\/Dodge Notes & Quotes: Southern Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ron Capps won his third Funny Car title in a row at the NHRA Southern Nationals in May. Here is what the Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> racers and officials had to say.<\/p>\n

Ron Capps, NAPA Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car
\n(No. 4 Qualifier – 3.955 seconds at 323.97 mph)<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a pinch-me moment. I mean I\u2019ve got such a great team right now. It\u2019s clich\u00e9 to hear that, clich\u00e9 to say it \u2014 a lot of people say it \u2014 but I think our fans understand. The car speaks for itself here lately. (Crew chief) Rahn Tobler and Eric (Lane), our assistant crew chief, those two together are the dynamic duo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was probably one of the more difficult racetracks to navigate. There are some bumps that are still at this racetrack now. I\u2019m not ripping on the track, it gives it character, but it was very, very hard to navigate this track and you really had to be ready for two or three different sets of bumps. As a driver, with the front ends the way they are and the laid-back headers, it\u2019s lifting the front end and carrying it half a football field at a time and bouncing it. It makes for an exciting run, but at the same time, you\u2019re just hoping the car stays in the middle of the groove, which ours did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Hagan, Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car
\n(No. 2 Qualifier – 3.930 seconds at 325.45 mph)<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt was a very unfortunate semifinal round loss against Wilkerson. We had a piece on the canon that was not tight so it was bleeding fluid back and it had some oil in the belly pan when we rolled up there and, unfortunately, we didn\u2019t know about it. You know, just one of those things. We should have caught it but didn\u2019t, so we\u2019ll learn from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll go to Topeka knowing what happened. Unfortunately, we should have been in the finals against Capps. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, but we just didn\u2019t. We had a good racecar today. It was running great first and second round and it ran great yesterday. But, things happen and you move forward. I think we\u2019ll be just fine in Topeka. It was just a little painful because the car would have gone down the racetrack. That\u2019s racing and that\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pietro Gorlier, Head of Parts and Service (Mopar) FCA – Global<\/strong>
\n\u201cCongratulations to Mopar Dodge Charger R\/T driver Ron Capps on winning the NHRA Southern Nationals. We couldn\u2019t be more proud of Ron and everyone involved with our motorsports program. The success the Mopar and Dodge brands have had on the track this year is a direct result not only of our great drivers, but also hard work behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leah Pritchett, Papa John\u2019s Pizza\/Mopar Pennzoil Top Fuel Dragster
\n(No. 11 Qualifier – 3.862 seconds at 304.05 mph)<\/strong>
\n\u201cWe showed we can get to the semifinals whether it\u2019s from the No. 1 qualifying spot or the 11th, like this weekend. That was our worst qualifying effort all year. We didn\u2019t get to run Friday and had troubles on Saturday, but my great team got the gremlins out after that and we started today by winning and setting a new track elapsed-time record.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the (semifinal) round against (Steve) Torrence, I nailed him on the starting line but that lane had a bump that we were able to get around in the first round without upsetting the (car). There isn\u2019t anything my guys could have done about that. That bump ruined our day because we had the quickest car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car
\n(No. 14 Qualifier – 5.584 seconds at 124.27 mph)<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating. Our short-term goal is to hold a trophy up at the end of race day. It was tough in qualifying, where we only had two runs and never made it past two hundred feet. To come back first round and not only run well but take out our teammate in the Make-A-Wish car, I thought we were on the right track.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went out there and didn\u2019t have lane choice second round. It was a little warmer track and it hits that bump. It\u2019s really hard to get the car over that bump without slowing so much that you\u2019re not going to outrun the other car. We were playing a little bit of Russian roulette and it just caught up with us that run. We\u2019ll probably stay here and test tomorrow. We\u2019ll take a week off and the guys will have some time to look at the data. We\u2019ll get everything fresh and serviced. We\u2019ll go to Topeka with some great attitudes and a great outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy Johnson Jr., Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car
\n(No. 3 Qualifier – 3.937 seconds at 319.29 mph)<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the best three-race swing we\u2019ve had in a while but it\u2019s showing signs of encouragement. (The car) hit the bump out there and came loose. We\u2019re confident that we\u2019re close to running really well again. It\u2019s just a matter of a few more runs and we\u2019ll be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll come out to Topeka with the right calls and, hopefully, go right down through there. I think the car is right on the verge of performing where it has been, and we weren\u2019t that bad off to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Schumacher, U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster
\n(No. 1 Qualifier – 3.736 seconds at 325.45 mph)<\/strong>
\n\u201c(Steve Torrence) made a great run. He made a good light and he made a good run, and he won the race. It\u2019s all good and the big picture looks great. We\u2019re going rounds and we\u2019ve got a good car. There are a handful of good cars out there and we\u2019re getting around some big boys and we\u2019re gaining back the ground we lost in the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next Event<\/strong>
\nIn two weeks, the NHRA national event calendar shifts from the Southeast to the center of America for the 29th annual NHRA Heartland Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka on May 19 \u2013 21.<\/p>\n

Mopar driver Matt Hagan set the national record for Funny Car speed on his way to the win last year at Topeka with a pass of 335.57 mph, then matched that speed during this year\u2019s season-opening Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. Ron Capps also has three wins in Funny Car in Topeka, while Tony Schumacher has claimed one Top Fuel victory.<\/p>\n

The NHRA Heartland Nationals will be broadcast throughout the weekend on FOX Sports 1, with Sunday\u2019s elimination rounds LIVE on the network at 2 p.m. ET on May 21.<\/p>\n

For more information on Mopar and Dodge in NHRA, check out the Mopar brand’s official blog, http:\/\/blog.mopar.com.<\/p>\n

2017 NHRA Championship – Point Standings After Round 7 of 24<\/strong>
\n(Season Wins in Parentheses)<\/p>\n

NHRA Funny Car<\/strong>
\n1. Ron Capps, Dodge Charger R\/T (3) – 633
\n2. Matt Hagan, Dodge Charger R\/T (2) – 539 <\/strong>
\n3. John Force (1) – 490
\n4. Robert Hight – 437
\n5. Tommy Johnson Jr., Dodge Charger R\/T (1) – 427
\n6. Jack Beckman, Dodge Charger R\/T – 426 <\/strong>
\n7. Courtney Force – 405
\n8. Tim Wilkerson – 329
\n9. J.R. Todd – 326
\n10. Jonnie Lindberg – 318<\/p>\n

NHRA Top Fuel<\/strong>
\n1. Leah Pritchett, Mopar Hemi\u00ae<\/sup> (3) – 641
\n2. Tony Schumacher, Mopar HEMI (1) – 627<\/strong>
\n3. Steve Torrence (2) – 592
\n4. Antron Brown (1) – 560
\n5. Doug Kalitta – 486
\n6. Clay Millican – 385
\n7. Brittany Force – 347
\n8. Terry McMillen – 301
\n9. Troy Coughlin Jr. – 295
\n10. Scott Palmer – 244<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ron Capps won his third Funny Car title in a row at the NHRA Southern Nationals in May. Here is what the Mopar\u00ae racers and officials had to say. Ron Capps, NAPA Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car (No. 4 Qualifier – 3.955 seconds at 323.97 mph) \u201cIt\u2019s a pinch-me moment. I mean I\u2019ve got such a great team right now. It\u2019s clich\u00e9 to hear that, clich\u00e9 to say it \u2014 a lot of people say it \u2014 but I think our fans understand. The car speaks for itself here lately. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":13615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[528,849,615],"class_list":["post-13613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-drag-racing","tag-dsr","tag-nhra"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/southern-nationals-thumb.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13613"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59221,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613\/revisions\/59221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}