{"id":63717,"date":"2022-08-14T21:14:55","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T01:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=63717"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:20:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:20:20","slug":"hagan-takes-mopar-85th-anniversary-funny-car-to-semifinals-at-heartland-motorsports-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2022\/08\/hagan-takes-mopar-85th-anniversary-funny-car-to-semifinals-at-heartland-motorsports-park.html","title":{"rendered":"Hagan Takes Mopar®<\/sub> 85th Anniversary Funny Car to Semifinals at Heartland Motorsports Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To celebrate Mopar\u00ae<\/sub>\u2019s 85th anniversary, Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Top Fuel and Funny Car HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered racecars donned new paint schemes to honor the legendary performance brand at this weekend\u2019s 33rd edition of the Menards National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nationals presented by PetArmor at Heartland Motorsports Park near Topeka, Kansas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt\nHagan took his Mopar 85th Anniversary Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat for a best\nqualifying run of 3.943 seconds at 320.58 mph at the track known as the \u201cHouse\nof Speed,\u201d where he holds both ends of the track record for time (3.802\nseconds) and speed (338.85 mph) set in May 2017. While this year\u2019s August heat\nkept the track temperatures between 110 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit throughout\nthe weekend and his career best speed safe from any challenge, Hagan\u2019s\nqualifying effort was good enough to put him fourth on the eliminations ladder.\nHe also clinched his spot in the NHRA\u2019s \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d with\ntwo more regular season events left after this weekend\u2019s contest, including the\nDodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan,\nwho took home the Wally trophy from Heartland Motorsports Park in 2017, began\nhis race day against No. 11 seed Chad Green with a quicker start and\n3.944-second elapsed time run at 316.52 mph to turn on the win light and\nadvance to the next round, ending a drought that occurred on a difficult\nthree-event NHRA Western Swing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan\nhad another good performance in his quarterfinal matchup against No. 10 seed\nPaul Lee with the Mopar 85th Anniversary Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat once again\nrecording a solid lap at 3.999 sec.\/312.71 mph. That sent Hagan\u2019s Mopar to the\nsemifinals to meet up with No. 1 qualifier Bob Tasca III, where both launched\nwith nearly identical reaction times but as cylinders began to drop and his\nride began to push toward the wall, Hagan opted to click it off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan\u2019s\nsemifinal appearance, along with his three wins and three runner-up finishes\nthis season, keeps him solidly second in the Funny Car championship standings\nbehind points leader Robert Hight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nTop Fuel competition, TSR pilot Leah Pruett was seeking a good result aboard\nher Mopar 85th Anniversary dragster to follow up a string of solid performances\non the Western Swing that included a win at the Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High\nNationals in Denver, a No. 1 Qualifier award in Sonoma, and a semifinal\nappearance in Seattle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pruett\u2019s\nbest qualifying lap of 3.804 seconds at 316.97 mph put her seventh on the\neliminations ladder and next to No. 10 seed Doug Foley for the opening round.\nPruett took the lead early in the run while her opponent began to smoke his\ntires. Then she had to pedal her dragster at half-track but was able to regain\ncontrol and get the round win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe quarterfinals, Pruett\u2019s Mopar had the starting line advantage over No. 2\nqualifier Justin Ashley but when her dragster began to lose traction Pruett\nceded the round win to her opponent. Pruett, who sits sixth in the Top Fuel\nchampionship with two regular season events remaining, is now eyeing a position\nin the top-five ahead of the upcoming Countdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four-time\nTopeka Funny Car winner Cruz Pedregon qualified his Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger\nSRT Hellcat 12th for eliminations with a best lap of 4.043 seconds at 284.62\nmph to set up a first round pairing with No. 3 seed John Force. The longtime\nrivals both deep-staged their racecars, with Force going in so far that he\nflickered the bottom bulb of the tree. That flicker prompted a reaction from\nPedregon who hit the throttle prematurely and turned on the red light. Despite\nthe abrupt end to their race day, the Cruz Pedregon Racing team remains seventh\nin the Funny Car category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nnext stop on the NHRA circuit is the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd\nInternational Raceway, the penultimate event of the regular season, set for\nAug. 18-21 in Brainerd, Minnesota.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To celebrate Mopar\u00ae\u2019s 85th anniversary, Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Top Fuel and Funny Car HEMI\u00ae-powered racecars donned new paint schemes to honor the legendary performance brand at this weekend\u2019s 33rd edition of the Menards National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nationals presented by PetArmor at Heartland Motorsports Park near Topeka, Kansas. Matt Hagan took his Mopar 85th Anniversary Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae Hellcat for a best qualifying run of 3.943 seconds at 320.58 mph at the track known as the \u201cHouse of Speed,\u201d where he holds both ends of the track record […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":63720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[528,615,2992],"class_list":["post-63717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-drag-racing","tag-nhra","tag-tony-stewart-racing"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/HaganTopeka_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\/63717"}],"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=63717"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63722,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63717\/revisions\/63722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}