{"id":57223,"date":"2021-11-01T07:27:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T11:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=57223"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:20:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:20:49","slug":"pedregon-wins-all-dodge-funny-car-final-at-dodge-srt-nhra-nationals-presented-by-pennzoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2021\/11\/pedregon-wins-all-dodge-funny-car-final-at-dodge-srt-nhra-nationals-presented-by-pennzoil.html","title":{"rendered":"Pedregon Wins All-Dodge Funny Car Final at Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> NHRA Nationals featured an all-Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat final elimination round at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where Cruz Pedregon earned his second Wally trophy of the year with a victory over Funny Car championship points leader Ron Capps. The win moved the event winner into third place in the battle for the crown with one event remaining on the 2021 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Camping World series schedule to determine who\u2019ll earn the coveted Funny Car world championship title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cCongratulations to Cruz Pedregon on\nhis fourth career win at the Dodge\/\/SRT Nationals,\u201d said Tim Kuniskis, Dodge\nBrand Chief Executive Officer – Stellantis. \u201cIt\u2019s been great to watch Cruz and\nhis team demonstrate what Dodge\/\/SRT performance looks like by taking their\nDodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to the winner\u2019s circle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Pedregon\u2019s drive began from the No. 7 starting position from which he was able to wheel his Snap-on Tools HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered machine past Tony Jurado and Chris Morel to a semifinal match-up with No. 6 seed Bob Tasca. The Cruz Pedregon Racing team saw their driver hit the throttle with a 0.004-second reaction time against Tasca, and turn on win lights with a 3.924-second pass at 325.92 mph to advance to their fourth final round appearance of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As Pedregon and his team prepared for the Dodge\/\/SRT Nationals final showdown against Capps, they found themselves solidly back in the hunt of the Funny Car crown after fellow top-five contenders Matt Hagan, J.R. Todd and John Force were all upset in the opening round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

With both Pedregon and Capps looking\nto make valuable gains in \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d, their crew chiefs\nboth elected to push the performance of their Dodge racecars to the limit. The\nresult was a good launch by both competitors with the slight starting advantage\ngoing to Pedregon, but just as Capps began to move past him, too much\nhorsepower resulted in an explosion. Pedregon got a little bit further down the\ntrack before also losing power, but was able to coast his machine to the finish\nfor the victory, marking the first time since 2013 that he has recorded\nmultiple wins in a season.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a couple of good breaks with\nthree of the top-five contenders dropped out in the first round but to be in\nthis position (to be battling for a championship with one event remaining) is\ngreat,\u201d said Pedregon who moves into third place behind the Dodge Charger SRT\nHellcat Funny Cars of Capps and Hagan. \u201cComing into the race I think (our\nchampionship chances) were pretty dim because I just didn’t feel like the\nbreaks were coming our way. We were just losing some close races. And I\nthought, \u2018Man, well, if we could just finish in the top five, I felt that was\ngood. But after winning today, yeah, hey, we’re, back in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Capps, who is seeking a second Funny\nCar world championship after earning the 2016 title, arrived at the Dodge\/\/SRT\nNationals with a single point advantage over teammate Hagan.  From his\neighth place starting position, Capps collected round wins over Tim Wilkerson,\nAlexis DeJoria and Robert Hight on his way to the runner-up finish; a result\nthat extended his lead over No. 2 ranked Hagan by 58 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Hagan, who was looking to take over\nthe lead and defend his back-to-back 2019 and 2020 win at the Las Vegas\ndragstrip, qualified his Direct Connection Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat fourth on\nthe eliminations ladder for a first round meeting with No. 13-seed Chad Green.\nWhile Hagan had the quicker start, a dropped cylinder right at the hit of the\nthrottle resulted in a 4.087 second pass at 316.15 mph that wasn\u2019t quite enough\nto beat Green\u2019s 4.009 sec.\/321.12 mph winning run and meant a disappointing\nearly exit for the championship contender for a second consecutive event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Despite the setback, and thanks to\nother contenders failing to advance, Hagan maintained his second place standing\nwith less than two rounds separating him from Capps heading into the Auto Club\nNHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in two weeks for the conclusion of\nthe NHRA \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In Top fuel action, after qualifying her Direct Connection dragster ninth Leah Pruett began eliminations with a starting line advantage over No. 8 seed DSR teammate Antron Brown and went on to record her quickest and fastest pass of the weekend with a 3.752 seconds at 318.32 mph run for a first round win. Pruett was fired up for her next meeting against No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force and hoping to take her new Direct Connection livery through a few more rounds, but her anticipation got the best of her as she hit the throttle too early and the red light foul ended her race before it had even begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

While her nitro run was done for the\nday, Pruett still had some work to do; After four years of competing in both\nTop Fuel and Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown (FSS), Pruett continued\nher final \u201cdouble-duty\u201d race day with the 2021 Direct Connection Dodge\nChallenger Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Drag Pak. From the No. 4 spot on the eliminations ladder and\nworking to close-out the FSS season with a Wally, the 2018 FSS champion began\nher final day of competition aboard her DSR-prepared Drag Pak with a first\nround win over No. 13-seed Ryan Priddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In the quarterfinals against No. 5\nseed Mark Pawuk and his Empaco Equipment Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak,\nPruett had a quick start and recorded a 7.981-second run at 173.94 mph to beat\nher DSR teammate\u2019s 7.998 sec.\/177.44 mph pass. Pawuk quarterfinal finish\nbrought his 2021 FSS campaign to an end with an eight place ranking in the\nfinal standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Pruett continued on to a semifinal\nbattle against No. 8 qualifier Stephen Bell where she put in another stout\neffort at 7.934 sec.\/174.53 mph to turn on win lights and advance to her third\nfinal round appearance in eight FSS events this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Pruett readied herself for the final\nshowdown against the No. 2 qualifier and 2021 FSS Champion Aaron Stanfield in\nthe opposite lane, and used another quick launch (0.036 seconds to 0.045\nseconds) to give the Direct Connection Drag Pak an early lead. Despite a solid\nperformance at 7.944 seconds at 174.30 mph, her hard-charging opponent made the\npass at halftrack and edged her at the finish with a 7.903 sec.\/173.49 pass.\nWith the runner-up result, Pruett closes out her FSS career with a third place\nfinish in the category.\n\nThe NHRA Camping World\nDrag Racing Series now heads west to crown their world champions at the Auto\nClub NHRA Finals which will feature a unique points-and-a-half format, setting\nthe stage for an exciting conclusion to the 2021 season at Auto Club Raceway\nNovember 11-14 in Pomona, California.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae NHRA Nationals featured an all-Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat final elimination round at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where Cruz Pedregon earned his second Wally trophy of the year with a victory over Funny Car championship points leader Ron Capps. The win moved the event winner into third place in the battle for the crown with one event remaining on the 2021 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Camping World series schedule to determine who\u2019ll earn the coveted Funny Car world championship title. \u201cCongratulations to Cruz Pedregon on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":57225,"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-57223","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\/11\/NHRANationalsVegas_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\/57223"}],"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=57223"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59018,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57223\/revisions\/59018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}