{"id":53063,"date":"2021-07-19T07:58:57","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T11:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=53063"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:21:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:21:09","slug":"hagan-and-his-dodge-charger-srt-hellcat-funny-car-conquer-the-mountain-at-the-dodge-srt-mile-high-nhra-nationals-presented-by-pennzoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2021\/07\/hagan-and-his-dodge-charger-srt-hellcat-funny-car-conquer-the-mountain-at-the-dodge-srt-mile-high-nhra-nationals-presented-by-pennzoil.html","title":{"rendered":"Hagan and His Dodge Charger SRT®<\/sup> Hellcat Funny Car Conquer the Mountain at the Dodge\/\/SRT Mile-High NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After more than a decade of attempts to conquer the mountain, Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Funny Car pilot Matt Hagan finally hoisted the Wally trophy at his primary sponsor\u2019s longtime title event, the Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Mile-High NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil, at Bandimere Speedway near Denver. The No. 1 qualifier powered his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye through eliminations to break through for his first coveted victory at the picturesque dragstrip nestled in the Rocky Mountains. The win was his first of the 2021 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Camping World Drag Racing Series season and the 37th of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCongratulations to Matt Hagan for his first event title win at the Dodge\/\/SRT Mile High Nationals presented by Pennzoil,\u201d said Tim Kuniskis, Dodge Brand Chief Executive Officer – Stellantis. \u201cWe\u2019re proud of the defending Funny Car world champion and his Don Schumacher Racing team for bringing home the Wally trophy at an event that has meant so much to us for more than three decades.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hagan felt the importance and exhilaration of winning for\nDodge\/\/SRT and Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> brands at the Bandimere Speedway event at which they have\nheld title rights for more than 32 years, the longest consecutive and active\nsponsorship in all of motorsports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMan, I tell you, this mountain has chewed me up and spit me out\nseveral years in a row and I\u2019m just so glad to pull that win down for Dodge and\nSRT, and to do it behind the wheel of the Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat Funny Car in front\nof so many passionate Dodge and Mopar fans is just something you definitely put\nextra pressure on yourself to do so when it happens it\u2019s just that much more\nsatisfying,\u201d said Hagan, whose last win also came at another of his sponsor\u2019s\ntitle events, the 2020 Dodge NHRA Finals Presented by Pennzoil at The Strip at\nLas Vegas Motor Speedway, where he secured his third Funny Car NHRA world\nchampionship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hagan\u2019s triumph at \u201cthunder mountain\u201d was earned with an opening round win over Chris King, a second round Bye run and an exciting side-by-side semifinal battle won against his fellow DSR HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered teammate Ron Capps to face No.2 qualifier Alexis DeJoria in the final showdown. Hagan\u2019s quick 0.046-second reaction time gave him the starting line advantage and he never looked back on his 4.105 sec.\/ 305.70 mph ride to victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe finally got it done and I finally get to put this trophy up on\nthe shelf,\u201d added Hagan. \u201cI\u2019ve got to call out my guys and give them so much\nlove. To watch them up here in the altitude wrenching and sweating. Those guys\nlove doing what they do and they bust their ass for me. My heart was beating\nout of my chest up there during the finals and it felt like I was running for a\nchampionship. I had to remind myself to calm down, take a deep breath and just\ndo what I do. It\u2019s so cool when you do a burnout and see all of these fans in\nthe stands; it genuinely gives me chill bumps. It feels amazing being back in\nthe winner\u2019s circle like we\u2019re used to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With this win, Hagan will have his first career opportunity to\nattempt to sweep the \u201cwestern swing\u201d and now focuses his efforts to turning win\nlights on at the next two events in consecutive weeks at Sonoma and Pomona\ndragstrips in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019m not even thinking about \u2018sweeping the Swing\u2019 at this\npoint,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cI just want to take it one race at a time, qualify well\nand take it round by round. Fuel Funny Cars are so unpredictable and that\u2019s why\nthis sport is so humbling. Every win light and every race win, you\u2019re grateful\nfor and we\u2019re just going to keep moving forward.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

No. 4 qualifier Capps, who has personified consistency by\nqualifying his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat in the top-five at every national\nevent so far this season, began his day against Terry Haddock for a third\nconsecutive event. Capps defeated Haddock in the opening round for a second\ntime in as many races to advance to a quarterfinals meeting with No. 5 seed\nJohn Force. In that match-up, Capps turned on the win lights with a\n4.039-second run at 312.42 mph over his opponent, who lost traction\nearly.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That set up the mountainside showdown between the two DSR\nHEMI-powered teammates who had a stellar side-by-side run with the slight\nadvantage going to Hagan, who had an early lead that he maintained to the\nfinish to narrowly beat Capps\u2019 straight-down-the-groove pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"drag<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Cruz Pedregon Racing team came into the weekend with high\nhopes of following up their Norwalk win with a strong performance at the\nuniquely challenging mile-high venue. Cruz Pedregon\u2019s No. 9 qualifying position\nsaw the Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car line up against No. 6\nseed Paul Lee and his HEMI-powered machine. While Pedregon was quicker off the\nstart, he felt an issue begin to hamper his run and opted to click it off early\nto save efforts and equipment for the next two back-to-back events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Leah<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In Top Fuel action at the mile-high dragstrip, Leah Pruett qualified her DSR Dodge\/\/SRT Redeye dragster 11th quickest to face off in the opening round against No. 4 seed Doug Kalitta. Pruett took advantage of Kalitta\u2019s difficulties gaining traction off the start and, after wrangling her dragster slightly mid-track, crossed the finish with a 3.824-second pass at 316.45 mph to advance. As Pruett and her team prepared for their second round match up against No. 10 seed Joey Haas, a trail of oil following her burnout ended their hopes of going any further in Top Fuel eliminations. She did, however, have another opportunity to battle for a win as she pulled double duty by also getting behind the wheel of her 2021 Dodge Challenger Drag Pak this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown (FSS) series raced for the first time at the high altitude Denver dragstrip with both Pruett and teammate Mark Pawuk qualifying in the top half of the field with their Mopar Drag Paks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From her No. 4 starting position, Pruett made two clean passes to\ndefeat Waldemar Rodriguez and John Cerbone and advance to the semifinals. She\nthen faced off against and defeated reigning FSS champ and current point leader\nAaron Stanfield with an 8.259-second elapsed time run to take her 2021 Dodge\nChallenger Mopar Drag Pak to the final round for the first time this season. In\nthat final matchup, Pruett and Stephen Bell were even on the start and\ncontinued racing deadlocked to the stripe, with Bell claiming victory with a\nnarrow eight-thousandth of a second margin of victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mark<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pawuk and his 2015 Empaco Equipment Dodge Challenger Drag Pak\nstarted the day from the No. 8 spot against No. 9 seed Joseph Welch, also in a\n2015 Drag Pak. Pawuk took his Mopar machine for an 8.345-second run to beat his\nopponent\u2019s 8.348-second pass. The quarterfinals found Pawuk lining up next to\nreigning series champion Stanfield. “The Cowboy” gave it a ride,\nkeeping pace with his competitor until just ahead of the finish line when\nStanfield pulled ahead for the narrow victory.\n\nThe NHRA\u2019s three-race\nwestern swing continues next weekend at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California,\non July 23-25 before capping off the consecutive weeks of racing with a return\nto the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona, California, on July 20-Aug 1.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After more than a decade of attempts to conquer the mountain, Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Funny Car pilot Matt Hagan finally hoisted the Wally trophy at his primary sponsor\u2019s longtime title event, the Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae Mile-High NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil, at Bandimere Speedway near Denver. The No. 1 qualifier powered his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye through eliminations to break through for his first coveted victory at the picturesque dragstrip nestled in the Rocky Mountains. The win was his first of the 2021 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Camping World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":53065,"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-53063","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\/2021\/07\/HaganChamp_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\/53063"}],"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=53063"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59034,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53063\/revisions\/59034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}