{"id":34516,"date":"2020-02-09T10:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T15:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=34516"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:08","slug":"mopar-dodge-srt-funny-cars-seeded-1-2-for-first-race-day-of-2020-nhra-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2020\/02\/mopar-dodge-srt-funny-cars-seeded-1-2-for-first-race-day-of-2020-nhra-season.html","title":{"rendered":"Mopar®<\/sub> Dodge\/\/SRT®<\/sup> Funny Cars Seeded 1-2 for First Race Day of 2020 NHRA Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was a strong and fast start for\nDon Schumacher Racing (DSR) veteran pilots Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman as they\ndrove their Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat Funny Cars to the No.1 and No.2 qualifier\npositions, respectively, in anticipation of Sunday\u2019s first race day of the 2020\nNational Hot Rod Association Mello Yello Drag Racing season at the 60th annual\nWinternationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan kept his Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT\nCharger Hellcat Funny Car atop the timesheets at the historic Auto Club Raceway\nin Pomona, Calif., through four qualifying sessions to earn his first No.1\nqualifier position of the new year after running low E.T. on his first and last\nruns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis Mopar Funny Car is just flying out there,\u201d said Hagan who improved on Friday\u2019s provisional top spot pass of 3.867 second \/331.20 mph with a 3.841 second elapsed time qualifying run a top speed of 333.25 mph. on his final run. \u201cWhen your team puts a hot rod underneath you like that, it\u2019s always fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cGoing into race day tomorrow, my\nlights are good, the car is running great, the guys are doing a phenomenal job,\nand we came off of a really strong season last year, so we\u2019re just focused on\nkeeping the ball rolling,\u201d added Hagan who collected eight qualifying points\nfor his efforts and will face off against Alex Miladinovich in the first round\nof eliminations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following up his win at Pomona to\ncap off the 2019 season, Beckman showed that he is looking to keep that\nmomentum going into a new season. After driving the Infinite Hero Foundation\nDodge Charger SRT Hellcat to a provisional second spot on Friday with a 3.868\nsecond \/ 326.95 mph, he earned the second place starting position on Sunday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Other than this head cold,\nit’s been a perfect weekend so far,\u201d said Beckman who collected a category best\ntotal of nine qualifying points, with his qualifying performance. \u201cWe’ve gotten\nbonus points every single session. I’ll drive with a plugged up head all year\nlong if it means I get a hotrod like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cWe might have to throw out all the\ndata that we’ve accumulated so far,\u201d added Beckman who will face Steven Densham\nin first elimination round action. \u201cIt’s going to be interesting. That’s why\nyou want to qualify high. You get a better first round draw so that if you get\na hiccup, you still have to get that first win light and data.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT\nHellcat of Tommy Johnson Jr. also had solid qualifying runs, saw improvement\nthrough each session, and, after posting a 3.881 sec.\/321.50 mph final pass,\nearned a fourth seed starting matchup against Cruz Pedregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve got a really good solid car\nthat’s been really consistent,\u201d said Johnson Jr. \u201cWe just missed it a little\nbit in Q3. but the other three were really good solid runs, nice and consistent\nto be able to tune it and adjust it. I think that will be important tomorrow\nbecause the weather change will be so drastic that you need a tunable and\nadjustable racecar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DSR teammate Ron Capps made big strides\nthis weekend, even winning the \u201cNHRA Never Rest\u201d award after using all four\nsessions to mount a comeback from the trailer fire that cost the team a car and\nvaluable testing time in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously, it was a check-out run\nthe first lap, and then to go out and get qualified that second lap, I was so\nemotional,\u201d Capps who improved steadily through qualifying to earn a seventh\nplace seed for eliminations with a 3.911 sec. E.T at 328.38 mph. \u201cI just wanted\nto make sure these guys, as hard as they\u2019ve worked, to get the car down the\ntrack and get qualified, that\u2019s always the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Cinderella story would be for\nus to win the race, but right now, it\u2019s one step at a time,\u201d added Capps who\nwill line-up his HEMI\u00ae-powered Charger Hellcat against Bob Tasca III in the\nfirst round.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In Top Fuel action, Leah Pruett\nmoved her DSR Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT Dragster up a step from a provisional fourth\nplace on Friday to secure the third spot on the eliminations ladder with a best\nqualifying run of 3.687 sec. at 328.06 mph. She\u2019ll face opponent Jim Maroney\nfor a first round match up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elimination rounds at the 60th\nannual NHRA Winternationals will be televised beginning at 5 p.m. (ET) on\nSunday, Feb. 9, on FOX Sports 1 (FS1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sportsman Spotlight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry Gilley and Mike Loge were\nwinners of the Dodge Top Finisher honors in Stock Eliminator and Super Stock,\nrespectively in NHRA Sportsman competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilley, who hails from Hilmar,\nCalifornia, drove his E\/SA 1969 Dodge Dart GTS to a round-four finish in Stock\nEliminator at the 60th annual NHRA Winternationals. Powered by a Mopar 340\nsmall-block, Gilley ran a string of consistent high 10-second elapsed-times\nduring competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During round four, both he and his\nopponent had the same reaction times, but unfortunately Gilley lost by a mere\n0.0193 seconds. For his great driving and tuning efforts, Gilley will receive\n$500 dollars from Dodge for advancing the furthest in his class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Super Stock, Loge, a lifelong Mopar racer and resident of Antioch, California, raced his SS\/MA 1972 Plymouth \u2018Cuda 340 to a round-four finish and looked strong throughout the race weekend, losing by only 0.0318 seconds to his competitor. He will also receive a $500 dollar bonus from Dodge for going the furthest in his class during the NHRA Winternationals The Dodge Top Finisher award, now in its fourth year, awards $500 to Stock Eliminator and Super Stock drivers who advance the furthest behind the wheel of a Mopar-powered Dodge, Chrysler or Plymouth race car at all 24 NHRA national events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned to DodgeGarage for updates on our DSR team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a strong and fast start for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) veteran pilots Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman as they drove their Mopar\u00ae Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae Hellcat Funny Cars to the No.1 and No.2 qualifier positions, respectively, in anticipation of Sunday\u2019s first race day of the 2020 National Hot Rod Association Mello Yello Drag Racing season at the 60th annual Winternationals. Hagan kept his Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT Charger Hellcat Funny Car atop the timesheets at the historic Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif., through four qualifying sessions to earn his first No.1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":34518,"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-34516","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\/2020\/02\/NHRA-Winternationals-Qualifying_Feature.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\/34516"}],"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=34516"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34528,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34516\/revisions\/34528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}