{"id":55194,"date":"2021-09-06T15:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T19:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=55194"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:21:04","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:21:04","slug":"runner-up-finish-at-67th-annual-dodge-srt-u-s-nationals-puts-capps-and-dodge-charger-srt-hellcat-no-1-to-kick-off-nhra-countdown-to-the-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2021\/09\/runner-up-finish-at-67th-annual-dodge-srt-u-s-nationals-puts-capps-and-dodge-charger-srt-hellcat-no-1-to-kick-off-nhra-countdown-to-the-championship.html","title":{"rendered":"Runner-up Finish at 67th Annual Dodge\/\/SRT®<\/sup> U.S. Nationals Puts Capps and Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat No. 1 to Kick-off NHRA \u2018Countdown to the Championship\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The National Hot Rod Association\u2019s (NHRA) cornerstone event and world\u2019s\nbiggest drag-racing competition, held each year at Lucas Oil Raceway in\nIndianapolis and affectionately referred to as the \u201cBig Go,\u201d owes much of its\nprestige and earned renown to its history and reputation for offering up\nmemorable racing, cutthroat competition, formidable challenges and drama; the\n67th annual Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> U.S. Nationals did not disappoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car driver Ron Capps powered his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat from the No. 6 qualifier position, to a trio of 3.9-second passes to defeat Justin Schriefer, Robert Hight, and Alexis DeJoria, and advanced to only his second final elimination round appearance at the fabled event for the opportunity to vie for the elusive Dodge\/\/SRT U.S. Nationals Wally trophy he has chased for 27 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final set up a duel between Capps and fellow Funny Car veteran Tim Wilkerson in which the DSR HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered machine made the first move on its way to laying down another solid sub-four second pass. His opponent, however, was able to match the effort and pull ahead for the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Capps\u2019 runner-up finish at the \u201cBig Go\u201d wasn\u2019t the ending he had\nhoped for, as a consolation prize the result propelled him from a fifth place\nposition in the Funny Car points standings at the beginning weekend, to close\nout the NHRA\u2019s regular season in the top spot. The top ten qualifiers for the\nupcoming seven-event playoff series now see their points reset, and as the No.\n1 seed, Capps is rewarded with a 20-point lead to begin the \u201cCountdown to the\nChampionship\u201d at next weekend\u2019s Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Express Lane Nationals Presented by\nPennzoil at Maple Grove Raceway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another positive performance by the Cruz Pedregon Racing team began with\nthe Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat qualifying fourth on the strength\nof the sole qualifying run of the weekend after two Saturday sessions were\nrained out. Cruz Pedregon, a three-time winner at Indy, drove straight down the\nlane with a pair of 3.92-second runs to dispatch Terry Haddock and J.R. Todd,\nand then advanced to his third consecutive semifinal showdown to face-off\nagainst the eventual event winner, Wilkerson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third Dodge and Mopar brand-supported Funny Car of Matt Hagan was sidelined for this weekend\u2019s competition. After the defending NHRA world champion driver withdrew from competition after testing positive for COVID-19 and driving duties were entrusted to Tommy Johnson Jr., efforts to qualify the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye entry were thwarted by a mechanical issue and rain, resulting in a DNS (Did not start). As a result, no points were awarded and Hagan slipped from leading the category to starting the playoffs from sixth place in the Funny Car championship standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Top Fuel competition, last year\u2019s runner-up finisher Leah Pruett was looking to take her Dodge\/\/SRT Redeye dragster for another run for the prestigious Indy title. From the fifth spot on the eliminations ladder she began her drive with an opening round win over No. 13 seed Joe Morrison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the quarterfinals, Pruett knew she was up against tricky track\nconditions in the right lane and made sure she gave herself every advantage.\nShe launched with a near-perfect reaction time, clocking a 0.002-second light,\nbut the track showed no mercy and slowed Pruett\u2019s progress, enabling rival Josh\nHart to catch and pass her to score the win. With the result, Pruett clinched\nthe No. 4 spot to start her fourth \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d playoff run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While her participation in Top Fuel was done for the day, Pruett still had another\nchance to take home a Wally trophy, this time in the Sportsman category. A\ncompetitive field of 23 entries hit the staging lanes for the Constant Aviation\nFactory Stock Showdown (FSS) eliminations at the \u201cBig Go\u201d and among them, as\nthe top HEMI\u00ae-powered entry, was Pruett who qualified her 2021 Dodge Challenger\nMopar Drag Pak in the No. 12 spot on the basis of her single Friday evening\npass at 7.965 seconds\/ 166.70 mph after rain washed out any chance of getting\nin another run on Saturday. Despite the lack of track time, Pruett went into\nthe opening round with the confidence of having earned two runner-up finishes\nat the last two events at Denver and Topeka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her first pairing was with DSR stablemate and No. 13 qualifier David Davies\nwho was making his U.S. Nationals debut aboard his 20201 D H Davies Racing\nMopar Drag Pak. Pruett took the early lead with a quick 0.060-second reaction\ntime to her teammate\u2019s 0.095, and turned on the win lights with a 7.953 second\npass at 176.93 mph to edge Davies\u2019 equally solid 7.959 sec.\/175.89 mph effort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That set up a second round battle for Pruett against No. 1 qualifier Joseph\nWelsh, who had had the advantage of registering a second qualifying run to earn\nthe top seeding before rain ended everyone else\u2019s opportunity to fine tune\ntheir car. While Pruett powered her Mopar Drag Pak to another solid and\nconsistent 7.958 sec.\/176.07 mph run, her opponent took advantage of a quicker\nstart and a 7.831\/177.65 pass to end her hopes of advancing any further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third DSR FSS driver Mark Pawuk debuted his brand-new 2021 Empaco Equipment Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak by recording a blistering career-best 177.32 mph run in the opening round of eliminations with a quick 7.973-second pass. Unfortunately, Pawuk performance was overshadowed by that of No. 3 seed and eventual event title winner Jesse Alexander, who\u2019s 0.025-second reaction time paired with a 7.924 sec.\/170.36 mph pass ended his day. The NHRA\u2019s \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d seven-event playoff series begins with next weekend\u2019s Mopar Express Lane Nationals Presented by Pennzoil at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pennsylvania on Sept.12-14, 2021 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Hot Rod Association\u2019s (NHRA) cornerstone event and world\u2019s biggest drag-racing competition, held each year at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis and affectionately referred to as the \u201cBig Go,\u201d owes much of its prestige and earned renown to its history and reputation for offering up memorable racing, cutthroat competition, formidable challenges and drama; the 67th annual Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae U.S. Nationals did not disappoint. Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car driver Ron Capps powered his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat from the No. 6 qualifier position, to a trio of 3.9-second passes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":55193,"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-55194","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\/09\/USNatsCapps_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\/55194"}],"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=55194"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59030,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55194\/revisions\/59030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}