{"id":44804,"date":"2020-10-21T18:24:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T22:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=44804"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:22:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:22:13","slug":"championship-battles-heat-up-in-houston-at-mopar-express-lane-nhra-springnationals-presented-by-pennzoil-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2020\/10\/championship-battles-heat-up-in-houston-at-mopar-express-lane-nhra-springnationals-presented-by-pennzoil-this-weekend.html","title":{"rendered":"Championship Battles Heat Up in Houston at \u201cMopar®<\/sub> Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil\u201d this Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The contingent of Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Dodge\/\/SRT race cars from Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) is staging for the penultimate event of the 2020 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing Series season this weekend at the Mopar Express Lane SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil near Houston, Texas. While much of the attention is focused on the team\u2019s season-long four-way battle for the Funny Car crown, championship hopes for Leah Pruett and her Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Top Fuel dragster are still very much alive, and Mark Pawuk\u2019s Mopar Drag Pak sits No.2 in Factory Stock Showdown championship rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rescheduled from its original spring date due to the pandemic, Houston Raceway Park Powered by Pennzoil will be dressed up in the familiar blue, white and yellow Mopar Express Lane and Pennzoil signage associated with speedy in-and-out quality, factory-backed service by the certified technicians that keep customer vehicles in tip-top shape while providing everything from convenient oil changes to complimentary multi-point check-ups. Also geared-up for the occasion, Matt Hagan and Ron Capps\u2019 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Cars along with Pruett\u2019s Mopar Top Fuel dragster will all prominently feature Pennzoil as part of their paint schemes in honor of the Houston-headquartered brand\u2019s home race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anticipation\nfor this weekend\u2019s Mopar Express Lane SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil is\npalpable for numerous reasons, primarily that it sets the stage for an exciting\nchampionship showdown the following weekend in Las Vegas at the Dodge NHRA\nFinals Presented by Dodge, in which a \u201cpoints-and-a-half\u201d format will likely\nkeep fans guessing who will win the crown in each category until the final\nround of the final race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expectations for record\nruns at the Texas venue are higher than usual this weekend as the beneficial\natmospheric conditions, due to cool air that normally filters in from coastal\nwaters, are enhanced by the date change to a late October national event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe excitement when\nyou\u2019re racing at your sponsor\u2019s event is huge,\u201d says Hagan, who finished\nrunner-up last year and won his first career race at the Houston venue in 2010.\n\u201cThere\u2019s always pressure at any race, but when it\u2019s your sponsor\u2019s race you\nhave extra motivation to win it. The conditions at Houston will likely be\nsimilar to what we had in Gainesville and we ran really well there, so we feel\nconfident that we have a great opportunity to win at our sponsor\u2019s event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DSR\u2019s foursome of Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car continues to jostle for position atop the championship standings this weekend as Hagan leads the fray by just four markers over teammate Jack Beckman, with Tommy Johnson Jr.\u00a0 and Capps in third and fourth place, respectively, still in contention with two national events left in the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing able to\nbattle it out for a championship is something I\u2019m very prepared to do,\u201d says\nHagan. \u201cI think there\u2019s only been one time in my entire career that I wasn\u2019t in\nthe hunt. It always comes down to the wire and you never know what\u2019s going to\nhappen, but that\u2019s what makes it so exciting. Every race is very important, and\nevery run counts. We\u2019re going to go out there, do what we do, and that\u2019s turn\non win lights for Mopar and Pennzoil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DSR Funny Car\nstable has combined to win every national event this season and is working to\nextend their record streak of 12 consecutive victories that began in October\n2019. While each driver has at least a pair of Wally trophies this season, last\nweek’s victor, Beckman, has a category-leading three wins in nine events. \nHe is also hoping to take his Infinite Hero Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to the\nwinner\u2019s circle at this event for the first time after three runner-up finishes\nin 2009, 2014 and 2015.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting third in\nstandings, Johnson is looking to inch closer to his teammates in the points by\nseeking his first win at the venue and deliver a Wally to the MD Anderson\nCancer Center, headquartered in Houston, for which the paint scheme on his\nDodge Charger SRT Hellcat has been representing this season. Capps, meanwhile,\nis looking to shed his championship underdog status by adding another Houston\ntrophy to the four he previously earned in 2006, 2007, 2015 and 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Top Fuel action,\nPruett and her Pennzoil-schemed Mopar Top Fuel dragster is adopting a \u201cnow or\nnever\u201d attitude to stay in championship contention and move up from her third\nplace position where she is 148 points from leader Steve Torrance and 97 behind\nDoug Kalitta. Pruett is also chasing her first win of the season and has plenty\nof motivation to go for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHouston! Home of\nour Pennzoil proving grounds,\u201d says Pruett. \u201cVery much looking forward to\nproving our way up into the points. Incredible to think the season is ending as\nwe are getting back in the travel and racing groove. Looking forward to our\nBaytown Pennzoil hometown crowd. We have had a good amount of success here, and\nthe fans remember that, and we will undoubtedly be feeling that vibe. Our\nchampionship pursuit is hotter than ever, with lessons learned in Dallas that\nwill only make us stronger for this event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pruett will also be racing in Factory Stock Showdown competition aboard her Mopar Drag Pak along with teammate Mark Pawuk and his Empaco Equipment Mopar Drag Pak this weekend as a carry-over of the unfinished St. Louis event with two qualifying sessions to take place on Saturday and eliminations on Sunday. Pawuk currently sits second in the Factory Stock Showdown championship. NHRA nitro qualifying sessions are scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24, while elimination rounds for the Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil will begin at 10 a.m. local time on Sunday, Oct. 25, with the television broadcast on FS1 beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern featuring live coverage of the final rounds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The contingent of Mopar\u00ae Dodge\/\/SRT race cars from Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) is staging for the penultimate event of the 2020 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing Series season this weekend at the Mopar Express Lane SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil near Houston, Texas. While much of the attention is focused on the team\u2019s season-long four-way battle for the Funny Car crown, championship hopes for Leah Pruett and her Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae Top Fuel dragster are still very much alive, and Mark Pawuk\u2019s Mopar Drag Pak sits No.2 in Factory Stock […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":44806,"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-44804","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\/10\/Hagan_FallNationals_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\/44804"}],"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=44804"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59051,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44804\/revisions\/59051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}