{"id":19741,"date":"2018-09-24T10:54:04","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T14:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=19741"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:24:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:24:45","slug":"notes-quotes-nhra-midwest-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2018\/09\/notes-quotes-nhra-midwest-nationals.html","title":{"rendered":"Notes & Quotes: NHRA Midwest Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leah Pritchett, Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Dodge Top Fuel Dragster<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. 5 Qualifier \u2013 3.718 ET<\/strong><\/p>\n

On her Factory Stock Showdown win:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe carried that momentum from the U.S. Nationals really without a hiccup. We put it to it every single round and that\u2019s extremely impressive and a testament to the durability of the racecars, the powerplant and the people that Schumacher has put in place to run this program. We are in a fantastic spot heading in, second place in the points. It\u2019s like Christmas Eve going into the last races. I really wouldn\u2019t want a different perspective. We have a little bit of freshening up to do, but overall, this has been an incredible weekend of just straight teamwork all the way around and the Mopar power just continues to show through and we continue to want to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

On her Top Fuel semifinals appearance:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to the semifinals in the Countdown against some of the stiffest competition is definitely nothing to hang our heads about. We weren\u2019t the quickest or fastest this weekend, but we made great improvements. We made wholesale changes that we had to commit to, and there was no turning back. We nipped away at them, but it just wasn\u2019t quite enough. The points are still tight, we still have a shot and this team errs to the side of positivity. We\u2019ve got a couple of things in our back pocket that I can\u2019t wait to try out at our next race. Overall, it was a successful weekend and we\u2019re going to build on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy Johnson Jr., Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. 4 Qualifier \u2013 3.896 ET<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a really good car. We\u2019re doing really well in the Countdown, it\u2019s just that Robert Hight is becoming a real pain, but that\u2019s a good motivator. I feel the four best cars in the Countdown were in the semis and I\u2019m glad we\u2019re one of them. We just need to pick it up one more notch and I think we\u2019ll be the car to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Schumacher, U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster<\/strong>
\nNo. 6 Qualifier \u2013 3.731 ET<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been around for 500 races. I understand that you don\u2019t make it to the finals every time like I did in my first race. If you would have asked me after my first race, I would have said, \u2018Gee, this is easy. I always get to the final.\u2019 But after doing it for a long, long time, you realize this is a competitive sport with some incredible teams. Today was simply proof of that. Pat Dakin beat me today. He competes in about 10 events a year and has a quality team. He brings good stuff and knows how to race a car. When you get beat by him, you don\u2019t hang your head. We need to regroup. A car can\u2019t win the race smoking the tires. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve done four out of the last six elimination rounds. We can make some rounds, but can\u2019t get away with it that many times. We\u2019ve got to come up with a different plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Hagan, Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat Funny Car<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. 11 Qualifier \u2013 3.967 ET<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to test tomorrow and change some stuff up. We\u2019ve been up against it a little bit with what we\u2019ve been trying to do, so we\u2019re going to make some different changes and start moving forward with some things. At the end of the day, this is the same group of guys that I won a championship with, I runner-upped with, and we\u2019ve won a bunch of races with. It\u2019s a fuel car, stuff changes, things happen, you make adjustments and you bounce back from adversity. Like Dickie said, we\u2019re going to grab this thing by the horns and wrestle it to the ground and come out with the best opportunity and chance we can for the next four races to turn on win lights for our sponsors and obviously try to win some races and try to win this championship. It\u2019s not over. I\u2019ve seen crazy, crazy stuff happen, but I\u2019ve also seen stuff come together and click, and you\u2019re like, \u2018Wow! Where\u2019s that been all season!\u2019 I\u2019m really looking forward to tomorrow and making some runs here, making some test hits and hopefully get a handle on this racecar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. 8 Qualifier \u2013 3.929 ET<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBroken blower drive shaft. It\u2019s the shaft behind the upper pulley that spins the rotors in the supercharger, and it snapped. Wow. We\u2019re finding a lot of ways to lose right now and that\u2019s the problem with the Countdown, you can\u2019t have these stumbles. We had a wonderful first round car even when we were struggling in the middle part of the season, and now three first round losses in a row. Barring a miracle, we\u2019re not going to be running for a championship, we\u2019re going to be running for trophies at the next four races. We are going to stay and test tomorrow. This is devastating, there\u2019s no way to spin this and say, \u2018Gee, we\u2019re going to make the best of this.\u2019 We\u2019re going to do the best we can from here on out, but it\u2019s a gut punch to get two first round losses to open up the Countdown. We\u2019ll run our car tomorrow, we\u2019ll try some things that we think might give us a benefit and now we\u2019re in a situation where not only do we have to win the next couple of races, we have to rely on four or five other cars losing first or second round. It\u2019s not impossible, but we\u2019re going to just control our own destiny at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ron Capps, NAPA Dodge Charger R\/T Funny Car<\/strong>
\nNo. 2 Qualifier \u2013 3.873 ET<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about these non-Countdown cars being dangerous. They have a lot to prove and nothing to lose. Cruz (Pedregon) has won two championships. I didn\u2019t feel like I missed the light. Sometimes, as a driver, you feel like you didn\u2019t hit the light as good as you normally do. I try to be consistent. The worst part is that it hurts so bad because we had the best car on the ground. We were so consistent and good in qualifying with (crew chief Rahn) Tobler and this NAPA AutoCare team. We still have four races left and it seems like there will be first round losses by a lot of the Countdown hitters. I feel like I let down this entire team and everyone at DSR, and on top of that, we have to sit for almost two weeks. I can\u2019t wait to get into the car on Friday at Dallas (the next event). These guys are my brothers and they\u2019ll lift my spirits up.\u201d<\/p>\n

2018 NHRA Championship \u2013 Point Standings After Round 20 of 24\u00a0<\/strong>(Season Wins in Parentheses)<\/p>\n

NHRA Funny Car<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Robert Hight \u2013 2270<\/li>\n
  2. J.R. Todd \u2013 2240<\/li>\n
  3. Courtney Force \u2013 2200<\/li>\n
  4. Tim Wilkerson \u2013 2196<\/li>\n
  5. Ron Capps, Dodge Charger R\/T (2) \u2013 2182<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Tommy Johnson Jr., Dodge Charger R\/T \u2013 2166<\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Matt Hagan,<\/strong> Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat (3) \u2013 2144<\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. John Force \u2013 2116<\/li>\n
  9. Jack Beckman, Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat (2)<\/strong> \u2013 2113<\/strong><\/li>\n
  10. Shawn Langdon \u2013 2086<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    NHRA Top Fuel<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Steve Torrence \u2013 2346<\/li>\n
    2. Clay Millican \u2013 2276<\/li>\n
    3. Tony Schumacher, Mopar Dodge HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> (1) \u2013 2225<\/strong><\/li>\n
    4. Leah Pritchett, Mopar Dodge HEMI (2) \u2013 2192<\/strong><\/li>\n
    5. Antron Brown \u2013 2169<\/li>\n
    6. Doug Kalitta \u2013 2135<\/li>\n
    7. Mike Salinas \u2013 2119<\/li>\n
    8. Terry McMillen \u2013 2093<\/li>\n
    9. Scott Palmer \u2013 2085<\/li>\n
    10. Brittany Force \u2013 2085<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Leah Pritchett, Mopar\u00ae Dodge Top Fuel Dragster No. 5 Qualifier \u2013 3.718 ET On her Factory Stock Showdown win: \u201cWe carried that momentum from the U.S. Nationals really without a hiccup. We put it to it every single round and that\u2019s extremely impressive and a testament to the durability of the racecars, the powerplant and the people that Schumacher has put in place to run this program. We are in a fantastic spot heading in, second place in the points. It\u2019s like Christmas Eve going into the last races. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":19775,"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-19741","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\/2018\/09\/feature-13.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\/19741"}],"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=19741"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59104,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19741\/revisions\/59104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}