{"id":43810,"date":"2020-09-30T13:09:19","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T17:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=43810"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:22:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:22:15","slug":"mopar-express-lane-nhra-midwest-nationals-presented-by-pennzoil-event-revs-up-this-weekend-in-st-louis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2020\/09\/mopar-express-lane-nhra-midwest-nationals-presented-by-pennzoil-event-revs-up-this-weekend-in-st-louis.html","title":{"rendered":"Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals Presented by Pennzoil\u201d Event Revs Up This Weekend in St. Louis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing Series teams in four\nprofessional classes and nine sportsman categories are all revved up and ready\nto drive into the Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Express Lane Midwest Nationals Presented by Pennzoil at\nthe World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis, Missouri, on Oct. 2-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a short drive\nfrom the famed Gateway Arch, the drag strip held its inaugural NHRA national\nevent in 1997, while this 2020 edition marks its first year under the Mopar\nExpress Lane sponsorship banner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The venue will\nfeature the familiar blue, white and yellow Mopar Express Lane signage\nassociated with speedy in-and-out quality, factory-backed service by the\ncertified technicians that keep customer vehicles in tip-top shape while\nproviding everything from convenient oil changes to complimentary multi-point\ncheck-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the\nnon-stop racing action on the drag strip, those attending will be able to watch\nteams at work in the pits and are also invited to visit the Mopar and\nDodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> displays in the midway where production vehicle offerings will be\nshowcased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This weekend\u2019s\nsupport of the Midwest Nationals marks the second of four title event\ncommitments by Mopar and Dodge\/\/SRT brands of NHRA national events on the\nreconstructed 2020 calendar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf       Aug. 6-9: Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals Presented by Pennzoil\n\u2013 Indianapolis, Indiana<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf       Oct. 2-4: Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals\nPresented by Pennzoil \u2013 Madison, Illinois<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf       Oct. 23-25: Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals\nPresented By Pennzoil \u2013 Houston, Texas (rescheduled from the spring date)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf      \nOct. 30-Nov. 1: Dodge NHRA Nationals \u2013 Las Vegas, Nevada<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mopar Express Lane Midwest Nationals Presented by Pennzoil is the first of the final four national events left to contest the 2020 season and could be the gateway to a championship run for one of the Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Cars. A four-way battle for the Funny Car world championship is being fought amongst the HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered teammates, with Jack Beckman leading the charge and Matt Hagan right on his bumper with a slim four-point deficit, while Tommy Johnson Jr. and Ron Capps remain within just a few car lengths out of the top spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they jostle\nfor position atop the leaderboard, the DSR Funny Car foursome will also be\nlooking to extend their team\u2019s current streak of consecutive national event\nwins to a record 11 victories. Each driver has contributed at least one Wally\ntrophy to the string of 10 wins that dates back to October 2019. The DSR team\npreviously set the win streak record at 10 races during the 2017 season with\nthe same driver lineup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capps has taken\nfour Wallys home from St. Louis (1997, 2005, 2007, 2017) and Beckman has two\n(2012, 2016), while both Hagan and Johnson will be looking to earn their first\nwins at the venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan will park the\nred, black and chrome Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye-themed Funny Car that he\nhas been running since July to return to the World Wide Technology Raceway drag\nstrip aboard his familiar Mopar HEMI-powered machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leah Pruett will also return to her blue and white Mopar Top Fuel Dragster as she looks for any opportunity to gain some traction in the Top Fuel championship, where she sits in third place within two rounds of points leader Steve Torrence and second-place contender Doug Kalitta. Pruett knows a breakthrough win is within sight after advancing to at least a semifinal appearance or better in her last four attempts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pruett is also looking to turn on some win lights in Factory Stock Showdown competition aboard her Mopar Drag Pak, along with teammate Mark Pawuk and his Empaco Equipment Mopar Drag Pak. This will be the third of six events on the revised season schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two NHRA nitro\nqualifying sessions are scheduled for 1:30 and 5 p.m. ET on Sat., Oct. 3, with\nhighlights to be aired on FS1 later that night from 10-11 p.m. ET and also on\nSun., Oct. 4 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. ET.\n\nElimination rounds for\nthe Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals Presented by Pennzoil are\nscheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on Sun., Oct. 4, with the television broadcast on\nFS1 beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET featuring live coverage of the final round.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing Series teams in four professional classes and nine sportsman categories are all revved up and ready to drive into the Mopar\u00ae Express Lane Midwest Nationals Presented by Pennzoil at the World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis, Missouri, on Oct. 2-4. Just a short drive from the famed Gateway Arch, the drag strip held its inaugural NHRA national event in 1997, while this 2020 edition marks its first year under the Mopar Express Lane sponsorship banner. The venue will feature the familiar blue, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":43812,"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-43810","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\/midwestnationalsfeature.png","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43810"}],"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=43810"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59057,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43810\/revisions\/59057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}