{"id":42617,"date":"2020-09-06T10:37:16","date_gmt":"2020-09-06T14:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=42617"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:22:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:22:18","slug":"hagan-drives-redeye-funny-car-to-don-schumacher-racings-milestone-350th-win-in-q3-rescheduled-summernationals-final-johnson-jr-earns-top-spot-in-nhra-u-s-nationals-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2020\/09\/hagan-drives-redeye-funny-car-to-don-schumacher-racings-milestone-350th-win-in-q3-rescheduled-summernationals-final-johnson-jr-earns-top-spot-in-nhra-u-s-nationals-qualifying.html","title":{"rendered":"Hagan Drives Redeye Funny Car to Don Schumacher Racing\u2019s Milestone 350th Win in Q3 Rescheduled Summernationals Final; Johnson Jr. Earns Top Spot in NHRA U.S. Nationals Qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Funny Car drivers Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman waited more than a month to run the All-Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat final elimination round, rained out at the Summernationals on July 19, it was nonetheless an important race on multiple fronts. Run as their third and final qualifying pass for the 66th\u00a0annual National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Hagan drove straight down the left lane of Lucas Oil Raceway with a 3.919-second elapsed time run at 328.54-mph to defeat his DSR teammate Jack Beckman\u2019s 3.940-second run and take his team into the history books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2020 DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA U.S. Nationals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The win marked a milestone 350th national event\nvictory for the NHRA\u2019s winningest team, coming 50 years after team owner Don\nSchumacher won the first of his five national titles as a driver in his Funny\nCar debut at the 1970 NHRA U.S. Nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to even comprehend the team having that many\nwins,\u201d said Schumacher\nof the milestone victory that further cements DSR\u2019s\ndrag racing dynasty and positions them as one of the motorsports industry\u2019s\nmost elite teams. \u201cI\u2019m just amazed at the accomplishments that my teams and\nteam members have made over the last 22 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2020 DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA U.S. Nationals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat a huge milestone, what a legacy Don Schumacher has created\nhere,\u201d said Hagan of the team\u2019s collective achievement which also resulted in\nhis 35th career win with the team. \u201cI lost my brother a couple of\nyears back, and I switched helmets for this race. I know he\u2019s riding with me,\nbut God bless it. I tell you, I\u2019ve probably been as nervous as running for a\nchampionship just because you want to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan\u2019s second win of the season moves him up to second place in the Funny Car Championship standings behind his DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. with just five national events left on the reworked 2020 NHRA schedule. The win marks the eighth consecutive Funny Car victory for DSR, dating back to October 2019 at Dallas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It came as part of his qualifying\neffort at the iconic Labor Day weekend staple affectionately known as \u201cthe Big\nGo\u201d. The result put Hagan\u2019s Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye fifth on the\neliminations ladder for Sunday\u2019s first round where he will be paired with Paul\nLee. It also provides the DSR pilot with the rare opportunity to come away from\nthe weekend with two national event trophies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis Mopar Hellcat has been running extremely well,\u201d said Hagan who\nwon the 2016 edition of the prestigious race. \u201c(Crew chief) Dickie Venables has\nbeen putting a great race car underneath me. It\u2019s just running hard and I\u2019ve\nbeen trying to do my job on the starting line. To get 350 wins for DSR; it\u2019s a\nbig part of my career, a big part of Don Schumacher\u2019s career. To have a Wally\nalready on Saturday night at the U.S. Nationals, the Big Go, it can only get\nbetter from here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2020 DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA U.S. Nationals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Also hoping to compete for the win is current Funny Car points leader, Tommy Johnson Jr., who secured the No. 1 qualifier position with his Riley Kids Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat running a 3.878-second E.T. at 326.40 mph. For his qualifying efforts, he received a total of six valuable bonus points to add to his tally. His final drive was an improvement on two previous qualifying passes and pairs him up with Dale Creasy Jr. for the first round of eliminations action at the world\u2019s most famous drag race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe missed it by just a little bit on Friday night,\u201d said Johnson\nwho earned his 21st career No. 1 qualifier position, his third in the last four\nevents this season, and hopes to vie for his first U.S. Nationals title. \u201cWe\nknew it was going to run a good lap and our car has the performance. I was glad\nto see a bit of a delay. The sun went behind the grandstands and the guys made\na huge change in the clutch and I knew they were going for it. It was evident a\nfew hundred feet into the run that it was on a good one. I knew by how hard it\nwas pushing me back in the seat. The performance is solid. We have three No. 1s\nand a No. 2 at the four races here at Indy. Now it\u2019s time to turn those into a\nwin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2020 DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA U.S. Nationals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fresh off his HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered win at the previous Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals event, Ron Capps came out firing on all cylinders in Friday night qualifying to take the provisional No.1 spot. Capps tried to regain the top spot from Johnson, but ended up No. 2 with a 3.881 sec.\/327.19 mph effort to earn a total of five bonus points and an appointment with 15th\u00a0seed Jim Campbell for the first round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seventh-seed Beckman will see Cruz Pedregon in the lane beside him\nfor the first round as he tries to work his way to a second win this season and\na second U.S. Nationals title to add to his 2015 victory. Third in points, the\nInfinite Hero Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat driver hopes to further close the\npoints gap in the battle for the NHRA Championship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2020 DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA U.S. Nationals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Top Fuel action, after two difficult attempts Leah Pruett rocketed her DSR Mopar Dodge SRT Hellcat Redeye Top Fuel Dragster to the third quickest pass of the final session with a 3.742 sec\/ 326.24 mph run to earn one bonus point and put her previously non-qualified machine in the show. She will line up next to Terry McMillen on Sunday in her quest to advance to her first final round appearance to battle for the coveted U.S. Nationals Wally Trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pruett, who is pulling double\nduty by running in both Top Fuel and Factory Stock Showdown (FSS) categories\nthis weekend, will also have the chance to double-up on trophy hardware by\nbattling through a 32-car field of qualified factory- built vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pruett qualified sixth for\neliminations contested on Saturday evening while her teammate, Mark Pawuk, put\nhis Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak in the No. 2 spot on the ladder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first round, Pawuk defeated Kim Shirley handily with 0.108\nreaction time and 7.965 sec. pass at 173.49 mph. Meanwhile, from her sixth place spot\non the ladder, Pruett ran down her opponent, James Jeshke Jr. with a (0.067\nreaction time) 7.969 sec\/171.64 mph run to beat his (0.012 reaction time)\n8.207\/161.98 drive. FSS elimination rounds will continue on Sunday\n\nThe DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA\nU.S. Nationals will be broadcast on Sunday, September 6 on FS1 from 11 a.m. to\n1 p.m. (EDT), then moves to the FOX national network from 1-4 p.m. (EDT), which\nwill include LIVE final round action.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Funny Car drivers Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman waited more than a month to run the All-Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae Hellcat final elimination round, rained out at the Summernationals on July 19, it was nonetheless an important race on multiple fronts. Run as their third and final qualifying pass for the 66th\u00a0annual National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Hagan drove straight down the left lane of Lucas Oil Raceway with a 3.919-second elapsed time run at 328.54-mph to defeat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":42622,"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-42617","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\/09\/2035-10049pp55o8qst5hh5vv7ukejqsvtf-e1599402739551.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\/42617"}],"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=42617"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59062,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42617\/revisions\/59062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}