{"id":53687,"date":"2021-07-29T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=53687"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:21:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:21:08","slug":"postponed-season-opener-finally-happening-lucas-oil-nhra-winternationals-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2021\/07\/postponed-season-opener-finally-happening-lucas-oil-nhra-winternationals-preview.html","title":{"rendered":"Postponed Season Opener Finally Happening: Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The re-scheduled Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals will be taking place this weekend at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona to wrap up the three-race Western Swing. Looking forward, there are only four national events remaining before points reset for the NHRA\u2019s Countdown to the Championship (the seven-race playoff series) that begins September 9 at the Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Express Lane NHRA Nationals Presented By Pennzoil in Reading, Pennsylvania, and concludes with the NHRA finals in November in Pomona, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what the drivers had to say after the NHRA Sonoma Nationals in Sonoma, California, in preparation for the next race:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FUNNY CAR:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Matt Hagan, DSR Pennzoil Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat Redeye <\/sup><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"DSR<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur guys are doing just a phenomenal job. This is really the most confident I\u2019ve felt with a group of guys in a long time. They\u2019re killing it. They\u2019re making super quick turns in between rounds. We\u2019ve got some really good juju going on. The group is clicking so well, (Crew Chief) Dickie (Venables) is making great calls out there. I see us clicking off a few more wins real soon. This Hellcat is running great. We\u2019re qualifying well and going to the finals. It\u2019s there. The confidence is there. The team is there. My lights are good. Everything we need to win races and a championship are right there with this package. I\u2019m very excited and pumped up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that Pomona is going to be super hot and it could end up being a drivers race with pedaling the car. We have a great car and team and I\u2019m driving well and it should be fun under the lights for qualifying. Pomona has been great to us. We\u2019ve had some great memories at that track winning races and a championship. It has a special place in my heart and we\u2019re going to go out and finish the Swing strong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ron Capps, DSR NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"DSR<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMan, what a great weekend. Obviously, we wanted to leave with a Wally (trophy), but we qualified No. 1 again and had a quick and competitive racecar every single round, and you really can\u2019t ask for more. In the semifinals there, we were on a good run but it just wore a little more clutch than it should have against (Robert) Hight and that was that, it was a close race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said this before, but I\u2019ll say it again, we\u2019re a win waiting to happen and the Wallys are coming; I\u2019m not worried about that. Close races all day. (Crew Chiefs) \u2018Guido\u2019 (Dean Antonelli) and John Medlen made fantastic calls. It was great to have all of our NAPA fans, and have our big annual NAPA wine dinner Saturday night, it was just really an overall great weekend. I can\u2019t wait to get to Pomona after this fantastic weekend, We\u2019re headed southbound and down to Pomona, and it should be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cruz Pedregon, Pedregon Racing Snap-on\u00ae<\/sup> Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Pedregon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe race weekend was challenging. We had what was the beginning of two really spectacular runs in Q1 and Q2 with the Snap-on\u00ae<\/sup> Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, but unfortunately the track didn’t cooperate and we spun the tires down the track in those two (qualifying) passes. We dropped a cylinder in the first round, which was out of the blue. We had no warning that it was going to do that. We’ll regroup. It’s not the weekend we wanted, but overall we’re encouraged by the runs I was starting to make. Those runs were actually better than some of the runs that my team made last year, which would have put us in the mid-3.80s (second passes), so the potential is there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re going to go to Pomona now and it\u2019s going to be a home game for us. I love Pomona and always have but it’s going to be unusual to race there in late July (as a result of rescheduling due to pandemic restrictions) with the heat, but we’ll be ready for it. Our setup, our guys, our team loves the hotter conditions so we’re looking forward to that event. Once we get on a roll, we\u2019ll feel like we’ll be a lot better and more consistent. We’re still tweaking it a little bit and looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOP FUEL:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Leah Pruett, DSR Pennzoil Okuma Dodge\/\/SRT Dragster<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"DSR<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the most impressive thing about this weekend is our progression from last weekend at Denver. These Top Fuel cars don\u2019t necessarily have a full reset button, but that\u2019s what we did as a team this weekend. We dug deep and found some issues and, ultimately, we had great progress this weekend. To have such a consistent car from qualifying into eliminations and to put down what we needed to in the semifinals to get lane choice was great to see. We have a very conversational car that listens to us right now. The team is thriving. We didn\u2019t have the start to the season we wanted, but this is a marathon of a year and this is the momentum we\u2019ve been searching for. For Don (Schumacher) to give us the patience and resources to do what we needed to get here has allowed us to open possibilities and that\u2019s what Okuma does. It\u2019s great to win rounds and get to the finals. It was a very close race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPomona is going to be very challenging for all of us running the (rescheduled) Winternationals in July. I take it back to when I\u2019d run the nostalgia series there and it was in the triple digits out and it will be similar to that this year. For us to have momentum rolling into Southern California is exactly what we need to finish up the Western Swing. We have new life with this team and to have another fun, new livery is perfect, and to see friends and family and former racers will be great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NHRA Championship Points Standings:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

FUNNY CAR (season wins in parentheses)<\/strong>
1. Bob Tasca III \u2013 676 (2)
2. Matt Hagan (Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat) \u2013 558 (1)<\/strong><\/em>
3. Robert Hight \u2013 636 (2)
4. John Force \u2013 624 (2)
5. Ron Capps (Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat) \u2013 613<\/strong><\/em>
6. J.R. Todd \u2013 584 (1)
7. Alexis DeJoria \u2013 577
8. Tim Wilkerson \u2013 521
9. Cruz Pedregon (Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat) \u2013 481 (1)<\/strong><\/em>
10. Terry Haddock \u2013 306<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOP FUEL (season wins in parentheses)<\/strong>
1. Steve Torrence \u2013 978 (6)
2. Antron Brown \u2013 629 (1)
3. Brittany Force \u2013 564
4. Shawn Langdon \u2013 460
5. Leah Pruett (Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT) \u2013 457<\/strong><\/em>
6. Billy Torrence \u2013 448 (1)
7. Mike Salinas \u2013 432
8. Doug Kalitta \u2013 420
9. Justin Ashley \u2013 370
10. Clay Millican \u2013 351<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The re-scheduled Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals will be taking place this weekend at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona to wrap up the three-race Western Swing. Looking forward, there are only four national events remaining before points reset for the NHRA\u2019s Countdown to the Championship (the seven-race playoff series) that begins September 9 at the Mopar\u00ae Express Lane NHRA Nationals Presented By Pennzoil in Reading, Pennsylvania, and concludes with the NHRA finals in November in Pomona, California. Here\u2019s what the drivers had to say after the NHRA Sonoma Nationals in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":53711,"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-53687","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":false,"icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53687"}],"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=53687"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53717,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53687\/revisions\/53717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}