{"id":27708,"date":"2019-08-29T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T10:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=27708"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:24:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:24:17","slug":"old-school-horsepower-will-thunder-at-nhra-u-s-nats-big-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/events\/2019\/08\/old-school-horsepower-will-thunder-at-nhra-u-s-nats-big-go.html","title":{"rendered":"Old-School Horsepower Will Thunder at NHRA U.S. Nats \u201cBig Go!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They might have been built during\nthe era of LBJ, psychedelic music and the Vietnam War, but they still pack a\nmighty punch some 50 years later. The 1968 Super Stock HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> engine-powered Dodge Dart and\nPlymouth Barracuda carried the flag for Chrysler on the drag strip battlefields\nfor five decades. These purpose-built drag machines, assembled off-line at a Hurst\nfacility in Ferndale, Michigan, have scorched the strip every time they get\nhammered by their drivers. Quite a testimony to the engineers, such as the late\nTom Hoover, Dick Maxwell and others in Chrysler\u2019s Performance and Product\nPlanning Groups. Neither of these dedicated and passionate folks could have\nimagined these cars would still be raced, and winning, a half century later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"dodge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Knowing the historical importance of these limited-production HEMI engine-powered Barracudas and Darts, Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Performance created a unique program\nfor these cars back in 2001. They knew how important these lightweight,\nhigh-horsepower machines were not only to their marque, but to NHRA drag\nracing. Thus, the Mopar HEMI Challenge was created and has been contested for almost\n20 years at the biggest drag race on the planet \u2013 the NHRA U.S. Nationals, held\nLabor Day weekend at Indianapolis Raceway Park. With Super Stock (and Stock\nEliminator) run-offs being part of the U.S. Nats tradition, the Mopar HEMI\nChallenge slots right into the SS\/AH class eliminations. It\u2019s a heads-up, first-man-to-the-stripe-wins battle. No breakout, no dial-in, just pure all-out\npedal-to-the-metal drag racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way it was meant to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dodge picked up the torch from Mopar as the primary\nsponsor of the HEMI Challenge in 2018 and has spread all that horsepower\ngoodness to many of the Sportsman racers. Today\u2019s Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag\nPak vehicles that compete in the Factory Stock Showdown and other classes can trace its\nroots back to the 1968 HEMI engine-powered Dart and its cousin, the HEMI engine-powered Barracuda. These ultimate\nturnkey, non-street-legal racecars that an enthusiast could purchase were a game-changer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been many winners over the past 19 years, but one\ndriver who stands out is Jimmy Daniels from Yardley, Pennsylvania. This young\nman is barely 23 years old and yet he\u2019s already won three consecutive Dodge\nHEMI Challenge events (2016, 2017, 2018). This second-generation Mopar racer has\na 14 round-win streak in the Dodge HEMI Challenge and is looking to take his HEMI\nDart, the same one his father raced to a win in 2010, to an unheard-of four-peat\nvictory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember the first year [2016] that I drove in Indy, and I had almost no experience,\u201d Daniels recalled. \u201cI was supposed to drive the car in Englishtown, and we had a chassis issue after going back to the automatic [transmission], so I think I might have had four laps under my belt when we got\nto Indy. I think my first full pass was in Q1. I really just wanted to qualify\nand maybe win a round or two. I never even thought about winning the race.\nThen, to go out and win a second and a third time is unbelievable, especially\nto win a race with so much prestige.\u201d\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For young Jimmy, he\u2019s extremely optimistic he can make\nthis happen as he has the best equipment the right people in place as he sets\nout to make HEMI history at NHRA\u2019s biggest event of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think our odds are actually pretty good,\u201d said\nDaniels. \u201cWe finished putting the car together last week, and it was ready to\ngo three weeks before the race. Ray and David [Barton] freshened the engine,\nand as long as the driver can do his job, I know the car and the engine will be\nthere. Of course, you always need some luck. I think I\u2019ve been coming to this\nrace for about 15 years when my dad was driving, and we\u2019ve seen some crazy\nstuff happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For any racer, winning the Dodge HEMI Challenge just once\nwould be a dream come true and the highlight of any driver\u2019s career. But to win\nthis hard-fought race three years in a row while in your early twenties is like\na fantasy dream. And unlike just any other race, the Dodge HEMI Challenge is\nthe highlight of the racing season for any Mopar Sportsman competitor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just incredible for Dodge and Mopar to put on such\na cool event during the biggest drag race of the year,\u201d said Daniels, who will\nbe one of seven competitors attempting to qualify for the field of 16, wheeling\na 1968 Dodge Dart. \u201cIt means a lot to my father and myself. We came out to watch\nthe race in 2003 before he started racing it in 2007. This will be my fourth\nyear competing in it, and our goals haven\u2019t changed. We\u2019re really happy to be\npart of it and excited to be competing for another trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first round of competition for this year\u2019s Dodge HEMI\nChallenge will take place on Friday, August 30, at 11:30 am during the running\nof the 65th<\/sup> annual NHRA U.S. Nationals, otherwise known as the \u201cBig\nGo\u201d to the diehards. If HEMI engine-powered, wheel-standing door-slammers are your\nthing, you\u2019ll want to get to Indianapolis Raceway Park early for the largest\ngathering of these iconic racecars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They might be old-school as they breathe through a pair\nof Holley carburetors and have the aerodynamics of a barndoor, but there\u2019s\nsomething fierce and even intimidating when these behemoths that are five decades\nold turn their tires in anger. You\u2019d think we\u2019d get used to it after 50 years,\nbut some things just never get old!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They might have been built during the era of LBJ, psychedelic music and the Vietnam War, but they still pack a mighty punch some 50 years later. The 1968 Super Stock HEMI\u00ae engine-powered Dodge Dart and Plymouth Barracuda carried the flag for Chrysler on the drag strip battlefields for five decades. These purpose-built drag machines, assembled off-line at a Hurst facility in Ferndale, Michigan, have scorched the strip every time they get hammered by their drivers. Quite a testimony to the engineers, such as the late Tom Hoover, Dick Maxwell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":27728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[497],"tags":[528,849,615],"class_list":["post-27708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-drag-racing","tag-dsr","tag-nhra"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/feature-34.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\/27708"}],"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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27708"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27739,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27708\/revisions\/27739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}