{"id":56820,"date":"2021-10-18T07:10:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T11:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=56820"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:21:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:21:01","slug":"single-point-separates-capps-and-hagan-dodge-charger-srt-hellcat-funny-cars-in-nhra-world-championship-battle-following-thunder-valley-nationals-performances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2021\/10\/single-point-separates-capps-and-hagan-dodge-charger-srt-hellcat-funny-cars-in-nhra-world-championship-battle-following-thunder-valley-nationals-performances.html","title":{"rendered":"Single Point Separates Capps and Hagan Dodge Charger SRT®<\/sup> Hellcat Funny Cars in NHRA World Championship Battle Following Thunder Valley Nationals Performances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A single point separates two Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat Funny Cars in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d playoff battle after Ron Capps took the lead from stablemate Matt Hagan by qualifying No. 2 at Bristol Dragway, scoring his 800th<\/sup> career round win and then driving to a semifinal appearance at the Thunder Valley Nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Fresh off a winning performance last weekend at Texas Motorplex, Capps arrived at Bristol Dragway second in the championship battle with a 33-point deficit and as the winningest Funny Car driver at the venue with five career wins (2001, 2006, 2012, 2017, 2018). He proceeded to qualify his HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered machine second on the timing sheets with a 3.945-second run at 325.61 mph and earn two valuable bonus points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening round of eliminations saw the 2016 Funny Car\nchamp dispose of No. 13 seed Blake Alexander while No. 3 qualifier and points\nleader Hagan was upset by No. 12 seed J.R. Todd, signaling the start of a shift\natop the championship standings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ron<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Capps\u2019 quarterfinal match-up was with fellow HEMI-powered\ndriver and third place championship contender, Cruz Pedregon. The two\ncompetitors battled closely the entire length of the track with a solid\n3.919-second run at 329.83 mph by Capps to beat Pedregon\u2019s 3.920 sec.\/326.63\nmph pass, collect his 800th<\/sup> career elimination round victory and,\nfor a tenth time this season, advance to the semifinals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ron<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With championship implications in play among the top-five\ncontenders, Capps lined up his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat against Todd, who was\nlooking to improve on his fifth place standing and tighten up the points race.\nAs he did against his previous two adversaries, Capps was quicker off the\nstarting line but found himself fighting to keep his racecar in the lane. By\nmid-track it drifted to the centerline where it made contact with a timing\nblock and nullified his run. An automatic five-point penalty was deducted from\nthe DSR driver\u2019s total and the win awarded to his opponent, but despite the\nsetback Capps moved past Hagan to take the lead in the Funny Car championship\nby a single point with just two playoff series events remaining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cruz<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Cruz Pedregon Racing Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT\nHellcat began its race day from the No. 7 spot after a 3.975 sec.\/ 320.13 mph\nqualifying effort to pair up with No. 8 seed Dave Richards for the opening\nround. Pedregon lead early, never trailed and recorded his quickest pass of the\nweekend, 3.964 seconds at 294.11 mph, en route to his 12th<\/sup> first\nround win of the year, the most for him since 2015 (15). Following the solid\nside-by-side battle against Capps that resulted in a quarterfinal loss,\nPedregon, who is chasing his third Funny Car championship title, drop a spot\nand into a tie for fourth place in the standings with John Force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Defending NHRA world champ Matt Hagan began his drive at\nthe Thunder Valley Nationals with the Funny Car points lead and qualified his\nDSR Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat No. 3 for\neliminations with a best run of 3.958 seconds at 330.31 mph to reset Bristol\nDragway\u2019s speed record with its first 330 mph Funny Car pass. Hagan collected a\ntotal of four important bonus points for setting the quickest run of the second\nqualifying session and putting himself third on the timing sheets in the final\nsession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

With two playoff wins and a runner-up finish last weekend\nat Texas Motorplex, Hagan\u2019s DSR HEMI-powered machine was lined up for the\nopening round with lane choice over Todd and its driver looking to turn on win\nlights and maintain the lead in the points battle. The three-time Funny Car\nchamp drove it straight down the lane for a quick 3.958-second elapsed time\nrun, the exact same as his best qualifying effort, but unfortunately his\nopponent\u2019s winning 3.924-second pass ended any hopes of advancing further on\nthis race day. Hagan sits in second place behind Capps in the \u201cCountdown to the\nChampionship\u201d and all top-five contenders (Todd, Pedregon and Force) within 100\npoints of each other heading to the Dodge\/\/SRT Nationals presented by Pennzoil\nat The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the penultimate race of the 2021\nNHRA season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

DSR Top Fuel pilot Leah Pruett powered her Sparkling Ice Spiked Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT dragster to the second-quickest run of the second qualifying session to collect two bonus points and secured a spot in the top half of the eliminations ladder. Her No. 6 seeded position paired her up for an opening round contest against No. 9 seed Spencer Massey. With the move to holding the Thunder Valley Nationals in autumn came cooler track conditions that made race day setups more of a challenge than usual for all competitors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As the DSR 11-thousand HEMI horsepower dragster launched,\nPruett immediately worked to find traction and keep her ride off the wall while\nher opponent headed for the finish and, despite a fiery explosion in the\nclosing feet, turned on the win light. While the first round loss effectively\neliminated the team\u2019s Top Fuel championship hopes, Pruett remains sixth in the\nrankings and expects to close out the season with strong results in the final\ntwo playoff events beginning with the Dodge\/\/SRT NHRA Nationals Presented by\nPennzoil October 29-31 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A single point separates two Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae Hellcat Funny Cars in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d playoff battle after Ron Capps took the lead from stablemate Matt Hagan by qualifying No. 2 at Bristol Dragway, scoring his 800th career round win and then driving to a semifinal appearance at the Thunder Valley Nationals. Fresh off a winning performance last weekend at Texas Motorplex, Capps arrived at Bristol Dragway second in the championship battle with a 33-point deficit and as the winningest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":56822,"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-56820","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\/10\/ThunderValleyNationals_Feature.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\/56820"}],"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=56820"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59020,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56820\/revisions\/59020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}